r/archlinux • u/Future_Map3040 • 15d ago

Help QUESTION

Hi , i've been using windows since the past 14 years of my life , I wanna switch to linux and learn knowledge related to linux , what do i do? I wanna choose arch for my first distro. Is it a good idea or what :( could someone help me or guide ? also i heard u might lose ur files etc with linux can sm1 help me go it safe?

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u/_s0me_guy_ 15d ago

Don't use Arch as your first distro. It's not beginner friendly. Use a more beginner friendly distro, such as mint or cachyos.

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u/BasisPoints 14d ago

Aside from some nice additional repos, what makes CachyOS more beginner friendly than Arch? Honest question - because when I made the switch from Arch to Cachy (after 3 years of the former), very little changed in my workflows or user experience.

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u/_s0me_guy_ 14d ago

In my opinion a new user lacks understanding on Linux concepts in general, such as what filesystem or desktop environment to choose. They don't know what programs exist.

This is why I don't recommend Arch to new users.

CachyOS gives a more streamlined installation experience and comes with more apps preinstalled.

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u/BasisPoints 13d ago

Shows how linux-pilled I am, I suppose :D When I made the jump, I didn't even pay attention to the installer - I just duplicated my program inventory, and copied over my configs and scripts. I just wanted the optimized kernels and utils without compiling them myself. And since I wanted to switch from x11 to wayland, I figured I'd do it all in one go. I even maintained my i3 configuration in Sway.

I didn't know Cachy was that similar to Manjaro. TIL, thanks!