My Experience with Arch Linux

Why I started using Arch Linux back in 2016 and why I still use it.

Spoiler alert: I do not currently use Arch at work. More on that later.

TL;DR

This is one of a handful of early posts of mine, which are likely to be read by very few people. In an effort to capture the “essence” of this particular explanation (and as an excuse to gather my thoughts coherently/succinctly), for the reader’s benefit, here is the short version of why I continue to use Arch Linux as my main (non-work) OS.

1. WYSIWYG

   Since a typical Arch install requires setting up everything yourself [1], you hand-pick, install, and configure pretty much all the software on your system to whatever degree you desire.

2. Documentation

   The Arch Linux wiki is one of the best resources on Linux that I have come across so far. It is extremely detailed and has topics on many applications as well.

3. Rolling releases and the AUR

   I have almost never wanted for a program (or a specific version of the same) and been limited by its availability in Arch’s official packages or the AUR.

How I Got Started

Back in 2016 I had only used Linux Mint and similar Ubuntu-based distros via VirtualBox on my college laptop running Windows. I briefly installed Linux on an old family desktop computer but never really did anything with it.

Aside from running simple toy programs written in C and Python (some of which written to solve project Euler problems), I had not used Linux as a day-to-day OS. I wanted to use it more on a dedicated machine, so I bought a Chromebook in order to wipe ChromeOS and install another Linux distro. One of my classmates (a CS major) suggested checking out Manjaro Linux and tiling window managers (since I was interested in taking CS classes at that point and was also using Vim to write code).

That was my first exposure to Arch Linux (Manjaro is an Arch-based distro). After about a year of using that machine to do most of my programming I wiped Manjaro and installed Arch from scratch. Since then, I have installed Arch on every machine that I have (albeit, that was only around three other machines).

What Hooked Me

I think the thing I like the most about using Arch as an OS is my familiarity with the system. I installed all the software, I setup everything to my liking, and any time I have an issue I dig in to see what the problem is. I don’t always have a good grasp on how things work or where to look for certain information, however, it has been a wonderful learning experience and my skill with system admin and programming has improved because of it.

It has truly been the one thing that keeps me excited about working with computers. It can be just as satisfying to fix an issue on an Arch install as it is to cook a nice meal. It is rewarding and special because of the do-it-yourself experience that comes from learning all the ins and outs of a system.

It wasn’t always easy and I can admit that there are times when I breeze past details to copy and paste something from the forums into my terminal to fix a broken package or roll-back a config change. However, the environment that is cultivated by getting to know the system that you use every day so well is one that I have very much come to appreciate.

And hey, maybe I am basic user that doesn’t run into many problems, and all my hardware is pretty standard. I have never had a driver issue to deal with. Never had a kernel panic aside from troubleshooting a fresh install. So maybe I just haven’t had a bad enough experience to drive me towards a system with less day-to-day maintenance like you always hear about. Either way, life is good with Arch (knock on wood) so far.

Why Not at Work?

I have had several different web development jobs since those early days of toying with Linux for CS class and pet-projects. Most of them have been with organizations that required Windows at work. It was always something I put up with. I could deal with the annoyance of cmd instead of bash. I had switched to a proper IDE and I never really had anything to complain about.

My most recent job allowed me to install Ubuntu when I started and it has been like a breath of fresh air for day-to-day development. I never asked if I could choose the distro to install and I wonder if I would have been willing to give Arch a shot while simultaneously trying to learn the new codebase and domain knowledge at my new position.

I can say this however: I have had just as many system issues with Ubuntu (18.04 LTS) as I have had with Arch in a comparable amount of time. Snap doesn’t hold a candle to the AUR, customizing your window manager and desktop environment is not as friendly, and I have had more than a couple memory issues with VSCode.

It honestly might be time to make the switch to Arch after all… if they let me.

References

[1] Well… not literally everything. I mean, it isn’t Gentoo.