Windows 7 to Arch: My Journey & Personal thoughts.

Hello, so you may have known that I have switched to Arch Linux, and as a (never using) distro hopper myself, I chose to stay in Arch Linux.

The Journey to Arch Linux

My interest in Arch Linux caused me to nuke my HDD, and start new in my new OS, and I do not regret that choice. It all started with my profile post (http://gbatemp.net/members/thekingy34.383904/?page=5#profile-post-58805) in which I have publicly said I am using Arch for the first time, this was just before me nuking my Windows partition and starting new. I regreted it at first, and wanted to go back.

I done some digging, and what interested me more is the customisable, well... Everything! It was looks-paradise to me, and I wanted to have a great performing, and great looking OS that I'd use on a daily basis, I started with XFCE then MATE (Same opinion, but Xfce slightly worse.). Loved every second of it, it looked great, it worked great, and it was great, and I have even taken screenshots of it. (http://i.imgur.com/Oq6IWXy.png) But I wanted more, I wanted to dig deep into the Linux mine of great looking and performing software, and see what I could get. I asked others of what DE they are using and why they use it.

Next up, LXDE. I did not like it, it didn't really work out as well as I thought, and wasn't as good as I hoped. I hated it, but now looking back at it, I could've gave it a fair chance and use it to my furthest abilities.

I started creating 'my own DE' by mixing panels and stuff to create a unique one, I kinda liked it. It was better than LXDE for me, but again, that one wasn't fair. However, I rebooted it. SO MUCH PROBLEMS! (which I was too lazy to fix)

At this point, I was out of ideas. I quit Arch Linux, and started going back to Windows. About a day-or-so later, I decided to fix my old Linux PC. Ding! Cinnamon, that's it! I am used to it, I know how to customise it, I-- well, it was perfect! I jumped back onto the Arch ship, and sailed ahead to get some of that fresh cinnamon. Here I am, it was Linux Mint all over again, but better. I installed my programs, and that's it. I did no change in looks until late yesterday.

Thoughts

I love Arch Linux. I love how free it is, and how perfect it is. It is lightweight, simple and elegant. If you require an image of it right now, here you go: (http://i.imgur.com/u9BlJrG.png).

I want to thank you for reading this, and you may suggest other DEs/distros for me to try. Goodbye, and I'll see you in the next post or blog or something, I guess.
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Comments

Xanthe
And apparently I need to repeat myself, the comment was made as a playful nod to a long history and only slightly involved your comment. It wasn't suppose to be a personal attack, disagreement, even go this far. I am sorry I am troubling you so much with this.
 
VinsCool
Arch is completely worth using! I've been Arch for 2 weeks now and I have no desire to stop using it.
I seriously suggest using Antergos. It's no different from normal Arch, just does all of the work for you.
 
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They grow up so fast :')
I still remember when you used to defend Windows 7 like there was no tomorrow.

Welcome to the dark side.
 
I had Ubuntu on my laptop, gonna try arch. I just hope I don't fuck the installation up like I did with ubuntu. Had a run some certain commands on terminal every boot to enable my wifi card detect PEAP wifi sources :/
 
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...I'm still on Ubuntu. I personally don't feel a reason to switch. Ubuntu is as far as I'm aware more stable and won't potentially break your system with each update. But if you want to use Arch... eh... whatever. Your choice. I personally have no reason to switch.
 
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@Ev1l0rd Ubuntu is for n00b1es who can't change to something better, it is loaded with crapware that spy you(though not as hard as windows 10), and cannot even boot on older machines, where Arch runs...
 
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I needed a lighter distro anyway, even though I have an i5 6200u with 8gb ram, Ubuntu seems to slow down a lot for me. It's probably to do with my HDD not ageing well
 
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@VinsCool
I would highly recommend you make a switch to Arch. Surprised you didn't before. How long have you been a mint user?
 
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@EthanAddict - fixubuntu helps to disable the spyware and iirc its disabled by default nowadays. From personal experience in VMs Arch breaks quickly if you don't keep it up-to-date. Ubuntu hasn't broken for me in the three years I ran it as my main OS.
 
Why would anyone want to go trough all the trouble learning 91564672398671376017067105 codes only to mount an external drive or install some programm or whatever ?

I was kind of foreced to learn some Linux as I was supposed to set up a Linux server with Samba and damn this was so annoying -.-V
Gave me the worst headache in my life to figure out why anyone would use this over Windows and still got no answer.

Even if there are some minor benefits most of the stuff the linux fanboys tell you as a benefit can be turned around (well same goes for Windows ... )

I believe Linux is only interesting for script kiddys or professionals who don't want to use Microsux products.
If I had to work with linux at Work I would have probably already resigned
 
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@Youkai
Aw man, it would be a shame if there like pre-build Linux distros that do all the hard work you.
Seriously, there are like literal hundreds of Linux distros out there. And I have no issues mounting any USB device nor installing a program through a package manager. Even Arch Linux you can install a package manager and just search for the programs you want to install.
I have no idea when the last time you used Linux was, but apparently you are using one old ass system because you really don't need to know that much code to run Linux anymore.
I'm sorry, but it just seems like you crawled out of an old era and or are currently using an extremely old setup. If the current setup at your job is actually that hard to work with, it's time they updated because they are clearly using an extremely outdated Linux distro.
I've been using Linux for close to 12 years now as my main and only OS. I see no reason to go back to Windows when I don't like Windows. I find the closed off source to be extremely limiting. I quite enjoy being able to actually tweak my entire desktop to the fullest or simply choose a new one. I also like being able to completely configure all the way down to the kernel.
I can understand why people use Windows, but Windows just isn't for me.
 
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I like Windows because it runs every single game I want without having to run wine or similar things. I also know it very well and know how to navigate through the menus. Linux feels foreign, and like it'd be fun to mess around with for a while, but not as something I'd want to use every day. Another thing, Windows has always immediately worked for me. Linux always has a problem that needs to be fixed. On my old laptop, I tried out Linux and I couldn't get on wifi no matter what. My options were ethernet or nothing. When I got a desktop, I figured I wouldn't have that problem. I started up my newly linux'd computer (forgot which one) and the resolution was messed up and wouldn't let me change it to the proper one. The speakers on the TV I used wouldn't play sound either. If I can't run the OS itself without a problem, it's not worth using. I get why people like Linux, but it's just not for me. I'll still probably keep trying to use it though, because it looks like so much fun to be able to customize everything.
 

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