Arch Linux why is it so popular today. We are going to cover the top five reasons to choose Arch Linux. So let’s go ahead and get into the top five reasons.
You can also read: Best 6 Linux distros – 2020 Edition
One: You build your system yourself
The number one reason of the top five reasons to choose Arch Linux is you build your system yourself. Arch Linux installation isn’t as simple as most other Linux distributions’ install process. Arch Linux does not have a graphical installer. It does not click okay three or four times and you’re done in ten minutes kind of installs. It’s all done in the command line. You do actually have to read the Arch wiki and go through a step-by-step process of your entering things in the command line.
But at the end of the day, all of the components that are installed on your system are exactly what you have chosen. There isn’t any extra software on your system that you don’t need. There are no services running in the background that you don’t know anything about. If it’s running on your system you have definitely put it there.
Two: Pacman is awesome
Pacman is the package manager in Arch Linux like Apt in Debian and Ubuntu or DNF in Fedora etc. They have a very easy-to-use graphical front-end to their package manager. You never have to go in the command line and install packages in Ubuntu unless you choose to do so.
It’s a little different in Arch Linux. There’s no GUI front-end to Pacman. Basically, they expect you to do all your package management stuff in a terminal or at a command line. So you’re going to learn all the commands with Pacman but they’re easy to learn. In addition to that, there’s also less typing using Pacman than a lot of other command-line package managers. For example: To update an Arch-based Linux system Pacman -Syu command syncs the repositories and updates your system. Pacman package manager is a very powerful tool and the commands are very short and to the point.
Three: Arch has unrivaled software
The availability of the Arch User Repository the AUR is amazing. There’s no need to go out on the Internet to GitHub or GitLab or some third-party site to download a program source file. You can find all the dependencies to make this thing build on your system. Arch User Repository(AUR) is building stuff from source and actually compiling on your system with the help of AUR helpers. Installing packages from AUR is a breeze.
Four: Arch Wiki
If you have a problem running Arch the solution is probably in the Arch Wiki. So, 95% of the time the solution is somewhere in the Arch Wiki. Read the manual carefully. Do your research first if you’re running Arch before you ask questions. Support channels will again refer you to search out the problem in the Arch Wiki.
No matter the distro you run, even if you choose not to run Arch or Arch-based systems, it is a very good idea to have the Arch Wiki bookmarked. As a result, I always have the Arch Wiki and the Gentoo Wiki bookmarked. Above all, these two Wikis are very good.
Five: Rolling Release
Last but not least of the top five reasons to choose Arch Linux is the rolling release. Rolling release means no upgrade from version to version. There are no system upgrades meaning there’s no need to upgrade from one version of the Arch to the next. For example, people had to go through an upgrade process to upgrade from Ubuntu 1910 to the next version of Ubuntu 2004. Arch doesn’t have any of that. There are no point releases, there’s no Arch version 1, and a few months down the road you have Arch version 2 come out and you need to do a complete system-wide upgrade.
In other words, if your machine is updated, you are always on the latest version of the Arch Linux. You always have access to the very latest software with Arch because it is a rolling release model. On the other hand, rolling release can be considered as a negative for some depending on their use case. Of course, rolling releases are less stable than static releases, it’s just the nature of it. The more packages that are being updated on your system the better the chance for something to break on you.
Most importantly, you don’t have to upgrade from one version to the next. You don’t have to wipe out your hard drive every six months or nine months or a year to upgrade to the next version. A big plus for why I run Arch Linux and why you might consider running Arch Linux too.
Arch Based Distro
If you’re a newer user to Linux, you are probably not ready to make that kind of commitment as far as living in something like Arch.
If you want to use Arch-based Linux then I’ll suggest you go for Manjaro. Manjaro is fantastic. It’s easy to install, easy to use, and very quick. Manjaro comes with an inbuilt desktop environment. When you download Manjaro you should choose any of these XFCE, KDE-Plasma, GNOME. My personal choice is KDE-Plasma. KDE-Plasma desktop environment is really good. It’s highly customizable. Moreover, you can give an impressive look to your pc.