cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/40063668
As a Linux newbie, all I know about Arch Linux is that it is a DIY distro where you assemble the entirely of the OS by scratch. Somehow it feels like it is too easy than it needs to be, even if it is primarily meant for experienced users. I imagine it to be less like building your PC from parts bought from the market and more like building each and every component of the PC by scratch along with building the PC, which I assume to be much harder for the average consumer. It seems absurd how it is possible for a single person to incorporate the innumerable components required for functionality in a personal system that does not crash 100% of the time due to countless incompatibility errors that come with doing something like this.
I would like someone to elaborate on how it feels to ‘build’ a system software by yourself with Arch and how it is reasonable to actually do so in a simple language. I do have some experience in programming, mainly in webdev, so it’s not like I need a baby-like explanation in how this works but it would be nice to get to know about this from someone who could understand where this confusion/curiosity is coming from.
Oh it’s not quite as “from scratch” as some people make it out to be. It definitely can be more work than most distros, but mostly it’s pretty straightforward and you generally just follow some wiki guide or another when picking “components” to install and I think nowadays you can use prebuilt binaries too (I haven’t used Arch in a good while.) There’s really not all that many moving parts, most of them are sort of a package deal – if you want to use X, you have to install Y and Z. It really is more like building a PC from parts.
Now, if you actually want to build a Linux system from scratch, there’s the very surprisingly named Linux From Scratch project
The archinstall script has a list of “profiles” that you can select from (custom, desktop, minimal, server, tailored, xorg)… And if you select “desktop” it will prompt you which DE or WM you want to install. (awesome, bspwm, budgie, cinnamon, cosmic, cutiefish, deepin, enlightment, gnome, hyprland, i3, lxqt, mate, plasma, qtile, sway, xfce4).
By the time you’re done with the archinstall script, you basically have a fully functioning arch (ive never used the script seriously, so I have no idea what all remains not set up doing this).
The main difference between Arch and Ubuntu in this regard, is that if you want to run KDE Plasma, you download the common Arch ISO, and select Plasma at installation time. Compared to Ubuntu where you would download the “Kubuntu” spin, so you are selecting Plasma when you acquire the ISO in the first place.
There is no “default” arch DE, so when you install Arch, there is a lot of decisions to make (and you may not know how to make those decisions if its your first distro), whereas Ubuntu makes a lot of decisions for you, so you have to answer no questions to get set up (but you may be set up in a way you weren’t expecting). In this regard, Arch really does just feel like building a PC from parts, you just have to pick all the parts. Ubuntu is more like buying a pre-built.
I’ve done an Arch install the “manual” way a handful of times (mainly to say that I did it), but whenever I do an install now, it’s with the script. It’s probably the fastest I have ever installed a workable OS, ever! It works really well at getting what you need without too much fluff.
I’ve only done it the “manual” way but I don’t think the script was even a thing the last time I installed Arch, which must have been close to 15 years ago now.