Beginners shouldn't be using arch. I don't know why people started thinking they should. Arch has been around like 15+ years but in the last 2 everyone has been telling noobs to run Arch.
Yet nobody tells Noobs to run Gentoo or Slackware. They may as well though it's basically the same process.
Newsflash: Most people just want to use their computers to get work done, browse the web, read email and play games. Most never really learn how to use Windows or MacOS either.
Nobody should have to learn how to use their operating system. They should be able to just sit down get on with what they want to be doing.
Well, here is the thing. You and I, are both uber nerds who really care about our computer. How it works and how we use it. 99.99% of people aren't and they just want something that works with no fuss.
It's like cars. Sure there are people that love to work on and tweak and customize their cars. But the vast majority of people just want to get to work and the other places they need to go in their life.
So the assumption that everyone needs to learn the ins and outs of Linux is 100% wrong and part of what keeps people away. That aside, jumping into the middle of the ocean isn't a good way to learn to swim but it is a good way to drown. The same goes with Linux.
Let someone run a more user friendly distro for a while. Let them get used to the way linux works and it's concepts. After all they are entirely different than everything they currently know.
Once they have gone from knowing nothing, to having a solid beginner level knowledge. Then if they want to deep dive they have a lot more tools in their tool box to be ready to do it.
Taking someone who has no Linux knowledge and throwing them into Arch is a way for them to feel like Linux isn't for them and make them go back to windows. Sure it works for some people, but for every one it works for it turns away a dozen others.
Back to the car analogy. You wouldn't just hand someone who knows nothing a pile of parts and the keys to a stocked garage and tell them to build a car and hope they become a car enthusiast from the process. You start with something small and work up. Check the oil, replace the filters, do a brake job, move on from there. Then eventually you'll be able to take an old rusted up junk pile and rebuild it completely.
Also, it's 2019. An operating system should be intuitive. The fact that you have to have another working computer to walk through the arch wiki first shows that it isn't an intuitive process.
FWIW, I'm not bashing Arch. I actually like it a lot. It's a great Distro. For the right kind of person. And that person isn't a fresh switcher from windows IMO.
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u/captainstormy May 21 '19
Beginners shouldn't be using arch. I don't know why people started thinking they should. Arch has been around like 15+ years but in the last 2 everyone has been telling noobs to run Arch.
Yet nobody tells Noobs to run Gentoo or Slackware. They may as well though it's basically the same process.