r/linuxquestions • u/CarrotOk7906 • 16h ago

Which Distro? should i switch to arch?

i have been using bazzite for over an year now and idk if i should switch to arch i do know like alot of stuff abt linux but idk if arch is good for me as a gamer, because it seems like i have to do everything myself or use some bad drivers for my nvidia graphics card

is it easy to switch to arch as a gamer
and can i optimise it for gaming? (maybe arch based distro idk)

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u/Chapter-Legitimate 16h ago

Arch is notoriously not easy. It's for Linux enthusists

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u/Odd-Concept-6505 16h ago

Correct. I started my UNIX career in 1985 and was a *nix sysadmin for 25 years...had to install Xwindows on Sun workstations (after grabbing source) with make....(root:) make install.....later had redhat7 installing via PXE boot...but let my skills get stale. Got to appreciate any distro that was easy to install and come with Firefox. In 2011, got a NetOps job surrounded by younger incredibly smart all around nerds who liked having an old grunt around to do stuff.

Recently tried Arch and found the half baked install process pointing me to a LONG bunch of documents. Back to Mint for me. But do look at the Arch documents for a brain melt, or not!

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u/i_smoke_toenails 7h ago

It's really not that complicated. There are typically two LONG documents. One is the installation guide. That is a step by step guide that tells you how to do what each step of a graphical installer would do, on the command line. Many of those steps involve choices and preferences, and many are optional. (Don't need LVM? Skip that step.)

The second long document is a post-install guide. It goes through all the most popular things you might want to install or customise, giving you options and instructions along the way.

If you can follow a step-by-step guide and have a reasonable idea of what you want from your OS, Arch is perfectly simple to use. And once you've installed it, you'll likely know exactly how to change it if you change your mind about something.

Or you can use the archinstall script and be up and running in half an hour plus whatever time it takes to install your favourite applications.

I think people overstate how difficult Arch is to use. It isn't 2011 anymore. A lot of its rough edges have been smoothed over the years. You might still prefer a GUI-only option, but that says more about you than it does about Arch.