So I installed Arch Linux... Is this it?

Welcome to realizing the Memes are all bullshit and its just a solid distro that's worth using for the simpleness. Just go use your computer like the average user is and roll with it
- Yep, all this «how do I learn linux» stuff is weird. You don't learn your OS, you use it. Did you need to «learn» Windows? You just launch it and click your browser / file manager / media player and browse, manage files and watch or listen to your media files.
  You can just use your PC as you would regularly use your PC and find solutions once you face some issues. Yes, Linux issues are different from Windows issues.
  
  You got downvoted but as a Systems Engineer when I get home from work, I want my OS to get out of my way. All these other people are crazy.
  
  Modern operating systems have made it take very little knowledge to connect to WiFi and browse the internet. If you want to use your computer for more than that, it can still take a longer learning process. I download 3D models for printing, and wanted an image for each model so I could find things more easily. In Linux, I can make such images with only about a hundred characters in the terminal. In Windows, I would either need to learn powershell, or make an image from each file by hand.
  The way I understand "learning Linux" these days is reimagining what a computer can do for you to include the rich powers of open source software, so that when you have a problem that computers are very good at, you recognize that there's an obvious solution on Linux that Windows doesn't have.
  
  You joke, but I was there, 3000 years ago… and DOS, Windows and Lotus 1-2-3 courses sold like hot cakes. Yeah, people had to learn Windows until a critical mass of people knew it so knowledge would self propagate.

Didn't bother going through the hoops and installed EndeavourOS which is arch-based with some additional default applications.
For me, the best thing of Arch isn't the distribution but the Arch wiki. An impressive piece of documentation.
- Arch wiki is superb, couldn't have installed or configured Arch without it.
  
  Which btw is the reason many people ended up with Archlinux... after the x-th time looking up some configuration issues on another distro and landing there.
- And the Arch User Repository is really handy when you need some more users.
  
  That's not a typo but a jest to the security implications, isn't it?
- The Arch build system is just as impressive IMO. I've written Debian and redhat packages for at least two decades and Arch packaging is just so much easier to handle. The associated tooling for creating and managing build chroots is excellent as well.
  
  That's the main reason my software is in the AUR but nowhere else. I tried to make a deb package and failed so many times so I just gave up.
- EndeavorOS is essentially Arch with a gui installer and a few optional pre-installed packages.
- Yes, wiki and community are top notch!

You already announced you use Arch... So you're doing good

Most distros are very similar - it's mostly the same software just using a different package manager.
This is why "which distro should I use" is the most annoying question in this community.
- It is definitely annoying but I think it's understandable from people that are coming in from the outside.
- There is a pretty big difference in terms of usability between Arch and everything else because of the rolling release model and the AUR. Lots of things you would have to manually install from a git repo or track down a PPA for can be installed like a normal package.
  
  So what you're saying is that the package manager is very different?
  My point stands - once things are installed your "Linux Experience" is pretty similar.
  NOTE: I've used words like "most" and "similar" and "pretty". Do not ignore these words. They have meaning.

Now actually use it for a couple of years. Then you'll see whats special about it.
For me personally, Ubuntu was breaking on every dist upgrade, the software was always out of date or not available in the repos. Been running arch for 5 years, same install, even transplanted it over to newer computers without issues. When some package is missing, I can throw together a PKGBUILD with chatgpt and put it on the AUR for others to use. It fucking rocks and is extremely sturdy while allowing me to do with it whatever I want.
But yeah, besides that, it's just a linux. The individual things it does well are not even exclusive to arch. Ideally, you should not think about your OS at all and it should be out of your way, while you do something on it.
- Yup, Arch is by far the distro I have had the fewest amounts of technical issues with. Yes, you need to know what you are doing or be willing to read docs, but there’s no magical bullshit, maintainer capriciousness and lack of planning happening like I have unfortunately witnessed all too often while using other distros.
- Makes sense. Do you find that by having the same install for so long (including transplanting it) that you have accumulated a lot of bloat? One of the things I really enjoyed about a fresh install was that I knew there wasn't a build-up of digital junk files, but with Arch fresh installing every once in a while just seems impractical.
  
  I've been using Arch for about 15 years or so, and yes, I build up cruft... in my home directory ;-). The system itself is remarkably good at keeping tidy. The one spot to keep an eye on is /var/cache/pacman, as that's where it stores every package you download before installation and it won't delete it without you asking it to.
  Any new config file will be saved with a .pacsave extension, so you'll want to keep an eye out for those, but that's basically it
  
  Not in any bothersome way. But if you really want to reinstall often that is valid as well. You can very easily script the arch install process to get you back to the same state far easier than other distros as well. Or you can just mass install everything except base and some core packages and reinstall the things you care about again which almost gives you a fresh install minus any unmanaged files (which are mostly in home and likely want to keep anyway).
  
  The main trash you accumulate are config files in you home directory because they stay after the package is uninstalled. And they just sit there not hurting anybody.
  
  Most of the junk accumulates in /home and I did a cleaning once, where I got rid of a couple hundred GB there, from stuff that was either already uninstalled or still installed but unused for years.
  In the other root directories, I didn't find much tbh. My / (excluding home) takes up 40GB and I don't think it was significantly lower years ago as the bulk of it comes from necessary program files.
- Any major Linux distribution has a system for building packages, it's not something special to Arch. In fact, Arch's great advantage of the aur repository actually becomes a disadvantage by introducing instability and insecurity into your system when you add programs from that repository. It's amazing that people criticize Windows security with .exe's and then install packages from external repositories with the security of "trust in the repository". How can you trust code with root access to the system just because it's in the aur repository? That's the main question I would ask Arch users.
  
  It's a choice. We know that it's riskier to use stuff from AUR. Which is why it's highly recommended to read the PKGBUILD before installing the package. The basic Arch install doesn't even include an AUR helper. That said, AUR is typically very reliable for packages with a decent userbase. It's mostly due to the community aspect. Bad actors are caught relatively easily as the PKGBUILD is available to look at.
  
  Any major Linux distribution has a system for building packages
  I have built packages for all the major ones. Non arch packages are a pain to build and I never want to do it again. In contrast arch PKGBUILDs are quite simple and straight forward.
  How can you trust code with root access to the system just because it’s in the aur repository?
  Because you can view the source that builds the packages before building them. A quick check to not see any weird commands in the builds script and that it is going to an upstream repo is normally good enough. Though I bet most people work on the if others trust it then so do I mentality. Overall due to its relative popularity it is not a big target for threats when compared to things like NPM - which loads of people trust blindly as well and typically on vastly more important machines and servers.
  
  It's amazing that people criticize Windows security with .exe's and then install packages from external repositories with the security of "trust in the repository".
  As with almost every case of these sorts of comparisons, these are likely separate groups of people holding separate groups of opinions.
  I don't use Arch anymore, but when I did I found that the AUR was really useful to quickly install niche applications that would take ages to be approved on to an official repository. Often those would be made by the application developers themselves or members of the community. I would personally vet the packaging script myself, but I'm sure many wouldn't - and that's fine. As with most software, there's some trust involved and often you assume that if you're installing from a reputable repository it's going to be fine. If people aren't vetting the installation scripts and are installing from random repositories, that's really their problem. I'm glad the possibility existed and it's the one thing I've missed in distros I've used since then.
  
  Not sure if sarcasm or actual disinformation. You're not supposed to trust the aur, that's kinda the whole point of it. The build scripts are transparent enough to allow users to manage their own risk, and at no point does building a package require root access.
  
  Well there is far less malware on Linux tbf so comparison is not completely accurate. But same caution applies, try to vet and understand what you install. That part is also easier with the AUR as it's transparent in the packagebuild what it does unlike random exes with closed source. It's also a large community with many eyes on the code so unless it's a package with few users then it's gonna get caught pretty quickly.
- Ubuntu is plastic
- Linux distros are made for using, not teaching. That's what LFS is for: https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/
  
  How is this relevant? They were talking about how Arch has a great user experience
- Been running arch for 5 years, same install, even transplanted it over to newer computers without issues.
  To be fair, I pretty much do that with Windows 10...

Most of the time it is achieved with the phrase: "I use Arch, btw". 😉
- Also wearing unix socks might help
  EDIT: A more complete guide.
  
  Also, Blåhajar for better pics
- In a way this post is just long-form "I use Arch, btw" 🤯
- Don't forget shitting on Arch-derived distros.
  
  We save that for Manjaro, endeavor and the others are pretty cool

You fell for the meme lol.
Arch is great if you want very high levels of customization without having to get into compiling and coding, like with Gentoo or NixOS.
I think of it as the distro equivalent to custom keyboard kit, you get all the parts and can swap them out as much as you want. But you're not designing and fabricating your own circuit board and microcontroller, writing your own custom firmware, getting a custom case modeled and fabricated, etc.
There's a reason "I use Arch, BTW" Is a meme.
- Tbh I only use arch because I still love openbox too much
  
  Can't you just install openbox on any other distro? Looks like it's available for all the major ones at least.

Check your neck for extra beard hairs, or your legs for knee high socks
- Knee high socks are for any Linux flavour 💖
  
  Damn right 💙
- I have both
  
  Ooh, a Gentoo user!

Come for the memes, stay for the wiki and AUR.

OP forgot the socks. Classic mistake.
- there's arch socks?
  
  https://lemmy.world/c/unixsocks@lemmy.blahaj.zone
  
  I think they're referring to the socks you're supposed to wear when programming :3

The meme is mostly a relic from the days when installing Arch was a very involved and mostly manual process -- it wasn't to the level of LFS, but you had to configure most of the base system, and it would leave you with a pretty bare-bones setup (no GUI by default, etc). So it was a pretty big hurdle and successfully installing it did give you a bit of nerd cred, though even then the "arch BTW" meme was tongue in cheek.
These days it's just one of the most well-supported rolling release distros, and it's got automated installers and GUI spins just like any popular distro. The two biggest assets are the AUR and the wiki.
NixOS does kind of feel like the spiritual successor in terms of effort to set up, and in that immutable OSes are kind of the next big thing, like rolling release was fairly unconventional when Arch was taking off.
- I use Ubuntu but the Arch wiki is top notch and has helped me solved a lot of problems, especially technical issues like VFIO. I think you’re right that Arch love largely started as a meme to celebrate getting it installed, kind of like the jokes about being unable to exit VIM.

How can I make using Arch Linux my personality when once it’s set up it’s just like any other computer?
Well, do you already have a personality that isn't based on Arch? If you do, get rid of it.

What exactly is it that people obsess over? The desktop environment and terminal customisation? Setting up NetworkManager with nmcli? Using Vim to edit a .conf file?
Welcome to the crowd! Eventually, you realize that an operating system is just an operating system: something you use to get work done, and the less you notice it, the better it's doing its job. The pride of setting it all up mostly ends very shortly after you're done. At that point, you realize that pretty much all distros are the same, give or take.
That said, there are always moments that make you realize that your OS is amazing. When you're faced with a new and difficult task that you don't know how to achieve, then you look at your distro's documentation and solve it in a few elegant steps. And I'm not an Arch user, but that's when the Arch wiki will really be your friend, as well as all the other resources that Arch has for its users. I can't think of examples of these kinds of moments because they're so rare, but those are the moments that feel great and really make you appreciate your OS.

I think you might be missing the part where memes are not real. aur is useful. arch wiki is useful.

- I've done it.
  Don't.
- This amuses me, since I literally went from Gentoo to Arch because it felt like the same bleeding edge distro without having to wait for the compile time for half of the packages.
  That said, I generally don't recommend Arch (or Gentoo) to newbies. It's great when it works, but the number of times I've had to troubleshoot some random dependency issue because I took more than a week to update my system would scare any newbie away. It's a bit like the parable of the cobbler's kids having the worst shoes, or the mechanic always driving a project car - when you have the skills to fix something, you're willing to put up with a lot of bullshit that a normal person wouldn't.
  
  I think it's not a newbie but a general user issue. I have learned to recognize the linux newbies for whom Arch is a good fit over time... just by watching which people distro hop until landing with Archlinux.
  PS: And among the typical distro hoppers is really a big chunk of them... because for a lot of them distro hopping is just a symptom of wanting to make the mandatory big system upgrades every few years at best worth it by trying something new. Those should actually get a rolling distro as a recommendation much earlier.
- The graduation from Linux from Scratch is to be able to make your own mini-distro. I reckon anybody who gets that far is above petty feuds about the install process or packaging in this or that distro.

The AUR is pretty awesome. If a piece of software exists on Linux, it's in the AUR. Even software that doesn't have a native Linux version can sometimes be found these, e.g. repackaged versions of Electron apps for Windows.
And once you start really customizing your system, you'll see the value of the Arch Wiki. If there's something you can do on Arch, the Wiki probably has a well-written guide for it.
- 100% its the Wiki and AUR!
  On every other distro, once you want a program not in the package manager, it will likely be broken by the next update. On arch 99.995% of the time it will be in AUR and you can just make a simple PKGBUILD when its not, so your updates will automatically recompile all of your personal projects!
  
  Well these days we have flatpak to solve the "not in the repo" (or 'old version in the repo') problem.
- I used the Arch wiki to get gamescope working on Pop OS. It's a great resource regardless of your distro. In many cases the info on there is not even Arch-specific.

Use it as your daily driver and get really comfortable with it. After this, complain loudly when you see someone doing anything in a different way. Then say "I use Arch btw"

Do people really make Arch their personality? Ive been using Arch-based distros since forever and never really met someone like that. I thought it was just a meme.
I like the minimalism and ability to control more parts of your system as opposed to an automated install process doing everything for you. But you don't have to do that much manually. The main pacstrap step basically sets up your whole system anyway. It's not that different to other mainstream distros. I have always just used it like any other distro.
Edit: Forgot to mention that the bleeding-edge packages and AUR are nice features too. And being rolling release to a lesser extent, just my preference.
- I thought it was just a meme.
  I see way more complaints about 'elitist Arch users' than I ever do comments from actual elitist Arch users.
  
  Also, I never saw anyone saying anything about a "year of the Linux Desktop". It's just a meme.
  
  It's become a meme now. And I certainly don't take it seriously myself. It's more in fun to me as anything serious. (I don't use Arch by the way).
  If you can't joke about yourself about something you do, then you may have a problem and should perhaps consider some therapy perhaps.
- FOSS is my personality and Arch is my distro
  
  Funnily enough one of the points where Arch distinguishes themselves from other distros is that they're not strict about only including free software in their repos and are completely fine with including proprietary software alongside foss. There's Parabola if you want Arch but with a strong political line on free software
- I worked with a guy who had a flag with the Arch logo and his Arch forums username on it hanging above his desk.

The thrilling thing about arch is you get to put together your own user land applications, especially things that could form your desktop environment, audio stuff, etc.
I agree it is not that complicated. If you want more thrill, here is what I recommend:
gentoo Linux
has the option to compile everything from source. This isn't just for bragging rights. This resolves a whole class of software breakages that can happen on other distros (especially when using old or less common applications).
It gives you the option (emphasis on optional) to use openRC, an alternative to systemd.
patch any software super easily, working nicely with the system
customize compile flags on a global level
have package manager manage software that isn't available in repos, or easily write a package script for it (technically AUR can do this, but gentoo more powerful)
works like a charm with heavily customized setups, such as musl, or less common architectures like arm or risc-V
NixOS
Takes it a step beyond gentoo and uses a functional, lazy approach in package management. Every package is fully reproducible, has a kind of isolated environment. Your entire setup is reproducible and declared with a single file.
---- below this line is torture. Not recommended
slackware
Idk how it works exactly, but package management looks like a manual pain
Linux from scratch
A book where you create your Linux installation from scratch, compiling every single component until you reach a working system
Notable mentions
Alpine Linux: uses musl and busybox by default. Extremely lightweight. Some things will not work, but you get the thrill of running a couple MB distro
void Linux: ok I'm tired of writing so I will not explain that one
- Slackware avoids the issue of package management completely.
  You just install the entire repository up front, which resolves all dependencies.
  If you need software that isn't in the repo, you can install it any way you like from wherever you like, there's no real package manager that gets in the way. Usually you compile it with Sbopkg, a helper script very similar to Arch's AUR helpers. It comes with rudimentary dependency resolution in the form of queue files, which just list what needs to be installed in the correct order for any given source package, and then does it for you.
  A more modern approach I follow is to use Flatpaks.
- nix sounds cool but it also sounds like a PAIN to use until it gets proper support
  
  It has a lot more support than you think. As a gentoo user, I am jealous of nixos often seeing more support than gentoo, when gentoo is older and seemingly easier to support. But nix seems to have a bigger hype nowadays.
- For some reason I really love how you ran out of steam on this post. Take my upvote, and may you make many whole-enough-assed posts in the future.
- Alpine Linux: uses musl and busybox by default. Extremely lightweight. Some things will not work
  I use it daily, which things won't work? Honestly it's "just a distribution", you'll have the same experience with it as OP has with Arch.
  
  Bunch of random small things gave me issues. Sdkman (kinda like a Java version manager) and transmission on arm64 on wireguard would not work either.
- Void is far from torture. It is just as easy to set up as Arch, if not more so.
  
  I agree, I organized the post wrong. Void should've been up, but it's also a notable mention that I can't write a lot about since I did not do too much with it.

Arch isn't cool anymore you should switch to gentoo
- You misspelled Linux from Scratch.
- Meanwhile: NixOS
- The cool kids are going back to Slackware.
  When you've set that up correctly on modern hardware and got Gnome to run, it's a real achievement.
- Gentoo isn't cool anymore. You should switch to funtoo, so you can have fun too!
  
  How do you like it? I've been trying to get people's opinions on it but haven't found any users yet.
  
  Isn't it deprecated?

You've just made your first post regarding Arch. The cycle is complete.

People like Arch because to many it feels more truly like your system than other distributions.
It isn't that Arch is in some way more customizable than other distros, rather it's that if there is a package on your Arch system, its probably there because it was your choice to put it there in the first place, and so the system can feel more representative of you given it only contains the things you want or need and nothing more from the get go.

Ha ha, you fool, you fell for the classic blunder!
It’s just a meme, dude.
- Not the only meme I fell for... Anyone know the best way to unload 5 thinkpads that originally shipped with Windows 7??
- Everybody gangsta, until someone says I use Arch, BTW.

Great, isn't it? You just set up a system you like for you to use, without any bullshit.

Outside of the meme, the only people who make it their personality are generally younger and less experienced users who feel extremely empowered and proud by doing anything useful on the command line. Not like those users on Ubuntu (which they just switched from) who install stuff from a store like losers, nuh uh.
Before Arch you had the same type of people on Gentoo feeling superior because of use flags and watching hours of compiler output, after switching from Mandrake.

Yes, and that's the point of Archlinux. It's nothing special, at least in the way it is configured. You make it special. You build your distribution more or less. You are the opinionated one, not the distribution. I think what people are "obsessed with Arch" is, that you have to manage it yourself and you build it yourself. It is the philosophy that is appealing I guess. In example not much is automated. Stuff is described in the wiki and community and it is expected that you learn the stuff and understand and then do it yourself, instead relying on automated and preconfigured stuff from a regular distro.
On my main system I use EndeavourOS, which is basically Arch, but with some pre-configs and opinions, and comes with some automation tools.

Good now wipe it and install NixOS. You're ready.
- Not too familiar with it, in what way would you consider it better?
  
  It is better in all the ways. Newer packages, no imperative config, reproducible.
- After that guix
  
  After nix there is only sadness
- But I have nvidia hardware :(
  
  nVidia drivers on NixOS are easier and more pain free that on any other distro I've used.

Arch is for the most part comparable to Debian unstable/sid, but instead of a normal repository, it instead depends largely on a massive 3rd party repository (the AUR), and for some reason people think that's a feature.
- Oof, hit them where it hurts 🤕
- In my experience the AUR is useful but almost unnecessary, and if you want to use flatpak you can get away from using the AUR entirely

Arch is too easy to set up nowadays for it to be a "thing".
Maybe 15 years ago when the process was slightly more complicated but even then it's always been paint by numbers.
Even Gentoo isn't that difficult, just time consuming.

Yes, you are missing the fact that it's mostly not people making Archlinux their personality, but people making meme'ing about "Archlinux users" their personality. For the vast majority it's just an OS.

I'm gonna comment and say that's the point.
You start out with bare minimum and install what you need. As you go you generally have an idea of what is and isn't on your system. It's not as annoying as Gentoo with all source compiling, not as anal as nix.
If something breaks, you go to ArchLinux.org and 95% of the time it's mentioned on the front page so you follow the instructions and move on. It's a very transparent distro, little drama to follow unlike Ubuntu/canonical or fedora/redhat.
It used to be harder to install and which gave some street cred, but they simplified it a bit which is nice.
The Stans give an unbalanced look at arch. I use arch because I want the latest packages, I don't want to segment my packages between my repos and tarballs when there's a game stopping missing feature on a package pinned to a 2yo version. I don't want to learn a whole scripting language to carefully craft my OS like nix either. I want a current OS that's easy to fix and easy to install packages so I can go back to what I was doing.

You're forgetting the finest feature - you have to tell everyone in the real world and online that you use arch btw.
- I like to do this to irritate people because I have a steam deck.
  "I got a steam deck for Christmas. It runs arch, btw"
  
  That must be fun, when you're not busy doing crossfit or planning your vegan meals.
- oh, he didnt forget

What exactly is it that people obsess over? The ricing?
Please refrain from using racist terms. Here's a good thread about it.
- Thanks for pointing this out.
  
  Of course! Thanks for being cool. It always sucks to learn a term you've been using has a shitty meaning you didn't intend, and some people react to that realization quite poorly as we can see below lol
- It comes from racist car customization slang, yes.
- Please enjoy your ban whenever a mod sees this.

I like operating systems as boring as possible. Let it manage the underlying system while I focus on work. I think you just convinced me to try Arch now.

That's basically it. Some Arch users are genuinely just picky about what they want on their system and desire to make their setup as minimal as possible. However, a lot of people who make it their personality just get a superiority complex over having something that's less accessible to the average user.

Arch offers a combination of rolling software updates, a simple but easily customized base, pacman for the package manager, the AUR, a barebones installation process by default, good documentation, and active development. That may or may not be a good combination based on your goals.
Other distros offer a different combination of characteristics. Those characteristics are a starting point and you can get to the same destination no matter what you use. The trick is figuring out what starting point is closest to your destination or which starting point makes the journey fun for you. For some people, Arch is that. For plenty of people, Arch isn't that.

How can I make using Arch Linux my personality
That cracked me up x)
Anyway, I'd say it's good that the OS is out of your way once set it up. Even though I don't use Arch directly, I like how comprehensive the AUR is (even though there may be repositories more packages, like nix and whatnot), think the ArchWiki (like the GentooWiki) is a very useful resource, even if you use a completely different system.

Let me ask you... Why would you do something like that? I mean, Arch is just a piece of software, why would you wanna be obsessed with or turn it your personality?
Don't you have anything more meaninful to worry about?

a lot of people base there personality off it because they installed it from scratch and customize it exactly how it fits them. ofcorse that's not going to be everyone because everyone is different.

This is probably true of most distros.
- This is why I still don't know more about computers. Lol. Switched to using Linux as my primary years ago, thinking "I'll learn more about how computers work, and become better at this by forcing myself to use Linux." Found Ubuntu, it worked well, then found mint, it worked so well I never needed to actually do anything, and switched to fedora when I realized how much I like Gnome, and still never needed to actually do anything, because shit just works. Once you've made the switch, Linux is super unobtrusive. It's just sorta there, in the background, doing everything for you while you play YouTube videos or watch porn. Lol. I still don't know much about computers, but I now recommend every switch, because seriously, almost no one is computer illiterate enough not to be able to use mint or Fedora.
  
  If you want to learn more about computers by using Linux, I suggest something like Gentoo. Don't know if it's still the case, but I started with Gentoo back in 2003 and it took me 3 days until I even had a GUI. Learned a ton in the process about Linux under the hood and how it all works together. Thanks to Gentoo I have a well paid career as a Senior Linux System Administrator.
  That being said, i should mention that I grew up with DOS, so I didn't have the same apprehension as some people, when it comes to the command line and editing config files.

You'll know it when you feel the satisfaction of getting to enter pacman -Syu in the terminal several times a day and a new update or two. lol

Arch constantly breaks on me. Maybe give it a while.
- Skill issue
  
  It's bleeding-edge, so bugs and regressions are going to be there first.
  Case in point: there is a bug/issue with the Nvidia drivers now (555) that messes up hibernation/suspend and cause a kernel panic for some.

Am I missing something?
Yep. You got meme'd -- Arch is a distro like any other.

Fresh packages all the time without any hassle or snaps/flatpak/appimages, and theoretically never needs to be reinstalled. What's not to love.
OP was pretty fucking snarky though, ngl. Some of us enjoy using arch based distros without being walking memes, and far more people complain about people talking about arch than actually talk about arch these days.

Linux distros differ only in their package managers, really.
- And init systems, and C libraries, and the few that use something other than GNU.

😂

Nobody's raving about the install, that's just useful for people who don't know what makes a Linux distro.
It becomes your personality after a few years because every update might break anything, and you need to regularly maintain random shit. Also if you forget to update regularly, the chance of everything crapping out rises exponentially.
I hope you're using something like btrfs, because rollbacks are a must.
- Sorry you've had such a rough go, just remember your experience isn't everyone's experience.
  
  Sure, and not every arch user ends their comments with btw.
  But that was consistent across multiple years, devices, and derivatives. It's usually a 5 min fix/workaround, but it's still annoying.

No longer using Arch, but I can tell you what I liked about it:
it basically only does what you explicitly tell it to, making the setup very flexible. There's no stuff the OS hides behind its own tools really (resulting in little to none "DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE" situations).
It is very up to date and the rolling release generally works well, there's no pain with changing releases or anything.
The package manager, including creating your own packages, is dead easy and fast. Caveat is that once you look deeper into it, it gets more complex as you need to keep a container for clean building around. Still, with the right tooling, it's very manageable.
As already mentioned, the documentation is very good.
Packages are very close to upstream, in most cases just being something like "./configure; make; make install".
Generally very unopinionated.

It's like owning a screw driver, a really nice professional grade, well forged screw driver, with a molded grip handle.
Does it do anything that the $1 cheap knock off screw drivers can do? No, its just a screw driver.
If you use it every day, you may grow to like all the tiny features and comforts and customizations, or maybe not.
ArchLinux is a tool just like embedded linux systems, does basically the same thing as every other OS, its not life changing, but if you may grow to like its little details just like a custom screwdriver.
- Does it do anything that the $1 cheap knock off screw drivers can do? No, its just a screw driver.
  I got a chuckle out of that

troll detector noisy

Arch is perfect, it's like THE Linux. It's not really opinionated about anything, it just helps you do it. Hell you can "pacman -S apt" and slowly become a debian
That's the magic of it: latest software, rolling release, edit some config files, do anything you want, spend half your time tweakin'

It's a linux distro, just like all other linux distros... Idk what to tell ya

Before the install script, i setup arch manually and added the gnome package that bringd DE and all the good Gnome stuff with it. it was then just the same as any other Gnome DE really. People taut the AUR, but OpenSUSE has same with their software.opensuse.org where packages maintained as experimental or community can be accessed (or by adding OPI). Since OpenSUSE had built in snapshotting, rollback and GUI admin (plus curation to do cleanups and maintemamce already OOTB) I uninstalled Arch. The ArchWiki though, that thing is a masterpiece

I mean if you want to be blasé about the fact not everyone has the same technical skills as you, sure…

I'm trying out Arch on my laptop atm, and tbh the only real advantage (at least for me) is that the packages tend to be a lot fresher than on Debian-based distros. The question is how many of your packages you really need to be that fresh.
I think a lot of Arch users feel like wizards because they connected to the home wifi using the command line, but if you've tinkered with (/broken then had to fix lol) other distros, you will have done all this stuff before
- I find OpenSUSE Tumbleweed a good solution for up-to-date packages without slow install times or hours spent compiling and configuring things. It's straightforward but current.

gentoo Linux

NixOS

slackware

Linux from scratch

Notable mentions