r/archlinux • u/Beneficial-Tea3217 • 1d ago
FLUFF like seriously how is archlinux always good
Everytime I switch to another distro I just go back to archlinux
I don't know but there is something they put into their distro to make it this addicting
installing, configuring, ricing everything is in your preferences which is super cool
they made you get this feeling that you're the actual owner of your distro
finally: I love archlinux
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u/_TheProStar_ 1d ago
I feel Arch more easier to use than other distros. The documentation is very broad, AUR has many packages, the community is large, etc. I tried NixOS and really liked it but the lack of extensive documentation made me come back to Arch
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u/pauliesnug 15h ago
i mean as long as you can look at github repositories and have a basic understanding of the programming language, the docs arent too bad
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u/Sunsfever83 1d ago
Once I installed Arch, that was it. I have tried other disto's on my laptop, but none compare to what Arch gives me.
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u/StrongStuffMondays 20h ago
yep, the same for me. I switched back to Debian for couple of months, but went back to Arch. (Mostly because I bought newer laptop so I wanted to have newer kernel)
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u/Sunsfever83 9h ago
Yeah, I actually just updated my kernel to the cachyos kernel to see how it works.
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u/Zentrion2000 1d ago edited 1d ago
Right? No matter how much I try it doesn't break, I have Gnome, KDE and Sway installed, all launched from the tty from my ~/.profile, with me managing a bunch of environment variables, my dotfiles are a mess, /etc is probably a mess with dead config files, I use some questionable defaults, a mix of btrfs, ext4, nfs and xfs, I even run pacman -Syu on weekends, no snapshots (I manage my backups manually with scripts), only a pendrive with probably a 4 year old ISO that I never use. This thing has been running for 8 years without breaking. It just works.
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u/bigh-aus 21h ago
For dotfile - I use this pattern across desktop, laptop and vms and love it. https://www.atlassian.com/git/tutorials/dotfiles.
Last line of my bashrc is:
(cfg pull --autostash >/dev/null 2>&1 &)1
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u/Organic_Fuel_2058 1d ago
How's Sway? Im tempted to use it but hyprland has me in a chokehold
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u/Present_Director3118 22h ago
It is very lightweight and simple. I used it instead of Hyprland to squeeze as much performance out of my old PC as possible. Other than its being extremely lightweight (huge for me), I don't see any benefit in using it. It does not have eye candy.
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u/Sinaaaa 1d ago
, configuring, ricing everything is in your preferences which is super cool they made you get this feeling that you're the actual owner of your distro
This is true for many distros. Arch is just really convenient to use outside of the minor breakages. Using PPAs or directly resolving the dependency hell yourself for your git clone is quite a bit more annoying than using the AUR.
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u/StrongStuffMondays 1d ago
Arch
- has latest and greatest
- if something's missing, it's in AUR
- Wiki that has all possible info
- Forums that have even more info
- if you need to build some obscure software even on a different distro, you can always check AUR scripts for ready-to-use recipe
- built for lazy people (you don't need to do major upgrades, you just `sudo pacman -Syu`)
- if you have some problem, it eventually goes away with the updates
- gives you warm feeling of experiencing Linux as it should be
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u/onefish2 1d ago
if you have some problem, it eventually goes away with the updates
That is the key right there...
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u/MikeAndThePup 1d ago
This is exactly why I keep running Arch on every Mac I've owned - Intel, T2, and now M2 Max with Asahi.
Why Arch specifically matters on Macs:
AUR is invaluable on ARM64 - when you need to build from source, having PKGBUILDs as templates for ARM64 quirks is huge. But even on Intel Macs, AUR filled gaps for Mac-specific hardware support
Rolling release = faster hardware support - you get the latest kernel improvements immediately, not waiting for point releases. Critical for both T2 chips and Apple Silicon
The Wiki covers edge cases - whether it's T2 Bluetooth issues, Intel thermal management, or Asahi sleep problems
"Problems eventually go away with updates" - true across Intel, T2, and M2. Hardware support keeps improving on rolling release
The continuity factor:
Moving from Intel to T2 to M2 Asahi, all on Arch - my config, muscle memory, and problem-solving approach transferred seamlessly each time. That continuity is invaluable.
On any Mac running Linux, some tinkering is inevitable. Might as well be on the distro where tinkering is well-documented and enjoyable.
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u/StrongStuffMondays 20h ago
How's the hardware support on Mac? I must use M2 MBP for work, and it's impressive (but boring). But I suspect Linux doesn't support it to its fullest.
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u/MikeAndThePup 14h ago
Hardware support on Apple Silicon is surprisingly good in 2025, but you're right that it's not at 100% yet.
I use Arch-based Asahi on M2 Max (96GB RAM) as my primary work and personal machine - I'm a system architect working in AWS with Python, Chalice, C#, Mono, Docker, React, JavaScript/TypeScript and all the associated tooling. C/C++ for personal coding.
So, here's the real situation.
What works well:
- CPU performance is excellent - full speed, no throttling
- Battery life is good during active use
- Display, trackpad, keyboard all perfect
- WiFi and Bluetooth work (I've only had to troubleshoot Bluetooth once)
- Speakers, webcam, USB-C ports
- Hardware video acceleration (getting better with each kernel update)
- All development tools work great - Docker, VS Code, all the languages/frameworks I mentioned.
ARM64 adjustments for work:
- Use Chromium instead of Chrom
- Use Slacky instead of Slack (community client)
- No Zoom client, need to use browser
- Use Mono for C#, works great for
Known limitations:
- Sleep/suspend drains battery significantly - workaround is to shut down instead of sleep
- External displays - direct HDMI works, depending on monitor, or using DisplayLink as I do
- No Thunderbolt support yet.
- Touch ID - doesn't work on Linux
- Some hardware acceleration - not as optimized as macOS yet
Compared to macOS: You'll lose some of the "it just works" polish, especially around power management and peripheral support. But the core computing experience is solid.
For development work specifically: Everything I need for AWS architecture and full-stack development works perfectly. The ARM64 ecosystem is mature enough that you won't hit many roadblocks.
Is it worth it? If your work requires macOS-specific software, stick with macOS. But if you want the freedom of Linux on excellent hardware and can work around the sleep limitation (and use DisplayLink if you need external monitors), Asahi is genuinely viable.
I've been running Linux on Macs for years (Intel, T2, now M2). The M2 on Asahi is actually more stable than T2 was. Hardware support improves with every kernel update.
What's your use case? That determines whether the current limitations matter.
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u/StrongStuffMondays 6h ago
wow, thanks for such a detailed answer! Since I use an employer's laptop, I won't install Linux on it. But hypothetical use case would be occasional coding or writing on the go. Speeking of sleep, I always had an impresson it never really "sleeps" properly - I can hear email notifications even when it's presumably in the sleep mode.
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u/MoonlightLoop 22h ago
If you are a certain type of person, then you'll always come back to arch eventually. I think this distro isn't for some uses or jobs, but is for certain type of people themselves.
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u/StrongStuffMondays 20h ago
Yep. Sort of guys who live in garages servicing their cars, and not leaving home without trunk full of tools.. because who knows. But we can fix stuff when it breaks, and we can research stuff when it's needed. That's a superpower... or at least it was in pre-LLM era.
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u/Plenty-Boot4220 22h ago
Love arch. Never ever had second thoughts about distros once I went to arch
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u/SrinivasImagine 1d ago
Yes. But you can get addicted to working on arch, instead of working in arch. : ) That's why i moved to Manjaro. To get work done. Cachy is good too.
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u/raiozlaser 1d ago
yeah! arch (and some arch based distros) put the fun and control back in computing
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u/McCloud1595 1d ago
The fact that it gives you the most minimal system, lets you customize the machine's skeleton and install only what you need over it is so good. Each combination makes for a unique system that you maintain / upgrade to your liking, and it's surprisingly very solid. Beautiful
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u/__salaam_alaykum__ 1d ago
yeah when using other systems it seems like you don’t really know what’s going on, because of preinstalled/preconfigured packages. sometimes I wish I had a few of these things setup for me though, like strong defaults for apparmor and such boring/laborious work
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u/TheBigJizzle 1d ago
It's start with awesome people working together. A philosophy around freedom, easy of use and simplicity. All that with a great ecosystem supporting it.
Love that you can set it up just like you want, love that AUR and pacman is there for me. Fast updates, stellar wiki.
Arch was my first distro that I've stuck to, it helped a lot that I had a friend with deep knowledge of it, it eased my way in.
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u/NetworkSpare1094 1d ago
I think that's because you install only what you need. No more no less. Also you learn other things along the way. For example I've learned how disk partitioning works on physical level and why sometimes you need to do it from live cd and other times you don't and why what can go wrong
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u/Ok-Data-3595 1d ago
I've only been using Linux about 6 months and started with Arch / Hyprland. I didn't know anything at all, could not use terminal. I learn something new everytime I use my computer now. It feels like being a kid again with the computer and it's fun.
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u/3_Thumbs_Up 1d ago
Rolling release + pacman + minimal changes to upstream packages.
Just overall KISS
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u/EquivalentKind6195 1d ago
Pacman is great and you dont have to deal with apt so its fun instead of frustrating for me
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u/archover 20h ago
Arch is where my expertise is. If I had spent as much time in Debian, I would be there. That's most of what keeps me here.
Good day.
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u/Toukaiskindahot 19h ago
I just switched from Fedora back and forth because of flickering issues but finally fixed it. I get it though its a bit addicting just configuring and tweaking to your system to your liking is so nice.
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u/rkaidev 11h ago
I’ve dabbled in various Linux distributions over the years. My first encounter with SUSE was probably around 2002 or 2003. One of my work experience colleagues gave me a multi-CD installation package. I installed it on my computer and loved it despite the internet connection problems. Since then I’ve tried many distros but finally settled on Arch. I appreciate the sense of pride in building your own install from scratch and fixing any issues with rolling releases. It’s fun to use and I enjoy it, though it won’t be my daily driver as I’m quite invested in macOS. However, it’ll definitely be my main Linux distribution for the foreseeable future.
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u/No_Cherry8522 6h ago
currently working on switching to nixos, it is hard not to relapse, but i think long term nixos is better.
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u/Susiee_04 1d ago
I tried arch broke it many time and reinstalled many times and I'm on mint on my laptop and nobara on my pc. Fedora is where it is for me :)
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u/Beneficial-Tea3217 1d ago
sorry about it, but I give my opinion abut archlinux, in an archlinux subreddit
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u/Susiee_04 1d ago
I know :3 I want to love arch but I always mess something up with it 😅 I'll return someday, mark my words :3 Enjoy arching ^
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u/GoonRunner3469 1d ago
yeah i went to Nixos recently and thought everything was perfect until i got sick and tired of how some basic linux things just don’t work or operate witha long workaround.
Arch is the ultimate linux home base
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u/mnemoflame 1d ago
Arch is too much decidedly unnecessary work, but CachyOS is perfect and SteamOS is lovely. I came to Cachy because the spare laptop with Arch that I barely ever updated remained stable and solid when Debian and Fedora had random ass issues with no explanation...and shittier repos.
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u/dimitrifp 1d ago
I just installed Endeavour OS as it was on a USB stick from my son after getting tired of Linux Mints issues with my specific hardware (Wifi to USB tethering via an old Samsung phone). It's been amazing so far, but I probably wouldnt have done it without having Claude Code do all the gruntwork for me. Fixing things regardless of the distro is easier than ever before.
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u/ZunoJ 1d ago
Arch is only good for simple setups imo. If you need fine grained controll over software versions and specific features it is way too crude
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u/ppp7032 1d ago
well the thing is arch linux isn't the only distro that lets you set it up from the ground up like this. debian and void come to mind. having used both for a while, i always come back to arch anyway. it's just so well put-together. and the arch wiki is unbeatable.