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I Use Arch, BTW

Introduction

“I use Arch, btw” is half joke, half identity. This note is the journey behind mine: since 2024 I have been hopping distros on my ThinkPad, looking for the one that fits. Three years later I can finally say what each stop taught me.

The hopping years

  • Ubuntu (2024) — the first Linux I ever installed. It worked, which is exactly what a first distro should do.
  • Linux Mint — Ubuntu without the rough edges. The first time a desktop felt like mine.
  • Fedora — newer software on a faster treadmill. I learned how much I notice when things move under me.
  • Debian — the opposite lesson: nothing moves, and that is a feature.
  • Arch — where the meme comes from. Installing it taught me more in one weekend than the previous year combined: partitions, bootloaders, and reading the wiki before asking.
  • Deepin OS — the prettiest detour. Beautiful, unfamiliar, and a reminder that a desktop is a matter of taste.
  • Pop!_OS — the pragmatic stop: gaming, NVIDIA, tiling, no drama.
  • EndeavourOS — Arch without the installation exam. Comfortable enough that I almost stayed.
  • Linux Mint, again — the loop closed. After chasing the newest and the hardest, I picked the one that stays out of my way.

What Linux taught me

Before Linux I had never partitioned a disk, repaired a broken bootloader, read a system log to solve my own problem, or lived in a terminal. Three years of breaking things — usually my own system, on purpose or otherwise — taught me all of it. The distro was never the point; the repairs were.

References

  • DistroWatch — rankings and release news for every distro above
  • ArchWiki — the documentation that made Arch possible for me