Often, when I read about Arch Linux online, there is an odd sense of gatekeeping in comment threads and articles. Arch Linux is seen as a hardcore OS to use. In fact, a common post on /r/archlinux is a proud post describing how somebody spent several hours, trying multiple times to install Arch until they finally managed to make it work. Hardcore fans disparage users of Manjaro as though using Manjaro is a display of weakness. It’s gotten to the point where “btw I use Arch” has become an Internet meme. And yet, I would really recommend Arch.
It’s easy to think that Arch Linux is for programmers; many of the posters online are, or at the least work in IT or have studied Computer Science, or something similar. I am no such thing. In fact, Linux use has taught me some basic programming skills. A common point of praise for Arch is the ability to tweak the system completely to your liking. For some, that means squeezing the absolute most out of their machines: I once read a post where people almost competed to have the quickest boot-up times, arguing over miliseconds as though it was a speedskating event. For me, it’s more about knowing what’s on my laptop. I enjoy the experience of wanting to do something, then just immediately installing a program to do it, and then to go and do that thing. What’s on my laptop is what I put on there, because I wanted it to be.
Doing things this way has taught me about computers, however. Having to learn to program taught me a little about how computers work. Having to understand the Linux filesystems has taught me about the implicit choices in filesystem hierarchies. Having to learn about user and group permissions have made me consider sharing options in Windows as well. Basically, using Linux has made me think about things that I never bothered to think about, even though it’s good to have done so.
I find I reap the benefits of this at work. Now, when we have to switch to a new system, such as when we had to make full use of Office365 when the COVID-19 lockdowns hit last March, I found it easy to adjust to new systems, because I was used to analysing how they interacted. When we needed to set up new interactions between these (such as, let’s say, Microsoft Planner and Microsoft Lists), I could see some analogues to Linux systems, and I could recognize a type of WYSIWYG-interface that tried to abstract code in the background. Despite not working in an IT environment, understanding just a little more of how these systems work has helped me bridge gaps there that I couldn’t have before.
And, on top of that, using Linux is just fun. When I’m back to using Windows 10 on my day-to-day work laptop, it surprises me how clunky Windows is as a system, and how I never noticed that before I really started optimizing my workflow on Linux using i3WM. Let alone that I never bothered to think about workflow before doing that. So, even for us non-programmer, non-IT, non-computery people, I really recommend using Linux.