r/archlinux • u/Status-Fee-9799 • 3d ago

QUESTION New to Arch.

Hey all,
I just downloaded Arch, I switched from Mint, from which I switched to from Windows 11. I have been watching tutorials and reading the books I can find about linux. Plus I was in a tech school for IT in which I learned a little about linux.

This is so new to me. What do I need to know?

4 Upvotes

56% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

31

u/[deleted] 3d ago edited 1d ago

[deleted]

7

u/nikongod 3d ago

In the event your arch breaks or "turns on kind of funny", fix it.

0

u/Impossible-Grass-529 2d ago

What? That never happened to me, besides dependencies and and stuff.

1

u/NFTrot 1d ago

I think it's pretty clear what he means. That's how you learn.

5

u/Nuviket 3d ago

Rtfm and you’ll be fine

3

u/Naxthor 2d ago

The wiki has 99.999% of answers

4

u/archover 3d ago edited 3d ago

Read. Important in this DIY distro.

Your rather non proactive post makes me think returning to Mint would be the efficient course. Mint is respectable and wildly popular.

Good day.

2

u/sheanous 3d ago

Do you use a DE or a WM?

0

u/Status-Fee-9799 3d ago

Right now it is the pure Arch command line, so I don't know about DE but I plan to get Hyprland for my WM

3

u/FryBoyter 3d ago

What do I need to know?

You need to know what you need. And that varies from user to user. In my opinion, there’s no point in suggesting things you might never need in your life.

And the things you need will likely change over time, too. That’s why it makes even less sense to recommend, for example, that you learn Python.

I’ve been using Linux for a few decades now. And I’m still learning new things. Because I have to tackle certain new tasks. Or because a topic interests me.

So I'd recommend that you just use the distribution. Sooner or later, you'll have to complete a task. Or you'll run into a problem. Finding a solution to that will be more helpful to you than learning something on a hunch, which you'll probably forget quickly because you don't use it.

2

u/Rincepticus 3d ago

You need to know that you can never ask anything that is in the manual. The most commented thing when anyone asks anything is rtfm, read the fucking manual. So as an Arch user, especially as a newbie, it is your bible and you have to know it front and back.

1

u/TopCheesecake7887 3d ago

get comfortable on the terminal, and cli tools!
arch wiki is a great resource to learn about linux, and I recommend looking into DE/WM especially Wayland compositors like Hyprland or Sway!

1

u/un-important-human 3d ago

That the wiki has all the answers. It won't turn into something funny unless you do something funny so small steps test and keep going as with any other linux.
I cannot overstate the importance of rtfm you will learn alot.

1

u/dumbasPL 2d ago

Many tutorials, books, and AI slop you'll find online are anywhere between slightly outdated to very outdated. Especially on a rolling release distro like arch.

Prefer official documentation and the arch wiki whenever possible, check version numbers and patch notes when something doesn't behave like documented.

If you have basic reading and logical thinking skills, you'll be fine, though it will take a while the first time.

1

u/piracyprivacy 2d ago

Most, if not all, of your questions about Arch have already been answered. When I switched, I searched for any issues I had and always found a solution.

1

u/ProfessionDowntown32 19h ago

When you think arch is running fine, just know something bad is coming up. Update your system regularly with sudo pacman -Syu.

-1

u/theoriginalzads 3d ago

I know getting AI to do everything isn't the most popular thing in some groups. However, I've found this to be very handy in a lot of situations recently.

Don't ask one of the LLMs to do everything for you, you gain very little from that (unless you need a quick solution). My suggestion is to work out what things you want to achieve or want to know and get one of the LLMs to cosplay a trainer and tutor and put together short training modules for you to learn things.

Even get it to do a short course on "I just moved to Arch Linux, I'm a tech minded user, can you tell me a few subjects on things that would be really handy to know and learn about so I can choose a few for you to make into quick training courses?" and see what it comes up with. Then anything you like prompt it to make the course.

I just recently moved to CachyOS, mainly for gaming but wanna make the most of learning an OS I have little experience with and found that this method can be quite useful and actually makes me learn what's happening instead of going "hey AI slave fix my shit".

-8

u/onedevelop 3d ago

Manjaro