 In this video at the request of subscribers I have finally decided to throw in my hat as to what the best Linux distribution is I've thought about it for quite a while, and I am going to tell you what I think the best Linux distribution is all things considered but also the easiest Linux distribution all things considered Well, the answer might surprise you. I should put that in the video title or something Now you may know that I did a video a couple years ago In fact, it's one of my most popular videos on Linux distributions generally and my narrative on Linux distributions for anyone who is new to Linux Your the narrative should be distros don't matter They are social constructs once you gain a certain level of confidence in Linux It is very easy to change the desktop environment and all this kind of stuff that people fixate on when they usually talk about distributions Okay, so that is my general stance on distributions, but all things considered I think there is one and I wouldn't have said this a year ago I probably wouldn't have even said this a month ago But there's one distribution that I think is a little special that distribution is Arch Linux Okay, now that might be a weird answer because Arch Linux you hear about it all the time You would think I'd choose something more special, right? But Arch Linux again, I think it's the best Linux distribution. I also think that it is the easiest Now me saying that might sound like a cat kind of zen koan You might think I'm playing a trick on you. It's like what what did he mean by this? Well, what I mean by that Well, I'll say two things two general topics the one thing about Arch Linux is that it Despite the fact that there are some initial hurdles like the manual installation process Which actually does you a good favor? I will talk about that later But despite those initial hurdles in Arch Linux Arch Linux does better than any other distribution I've used at avoiding the pain that you might have to put up with in Managing any kind of system be that Linux or Windows or anything else, okay? that is people often think about the hardness of Arch Linux being installed. I am thinking about life-long hardness say it with me life-long hardness That is what I'm thinking about and I'll talk about that in a second The other thing that I think makes Arch Linux an extremely good distribution Ironically enough is something that I guess is in in the heart of those who use it that is Arch Linux more than any other distribution has the most potential to change the way that people think about Linux distributions because Partially because it is one of those distributions that you install manually and you go through the process Compared to other distributions like for example gintu when you're making your own kernel and compiling and stuff like that Arch is easier, but it also gives you a nut it gives you exactly what you need to really understand how your system works Let's talk about those two points briefly. Okay, so life-long hardness now. Here's the thing about Arch Linux Let's ignore the installation process. Okay, let's talk about managing a system now one nice thing in Arch Linux is the fact that Every program in the world is basically available to you if it runs on Linux you can easily get it on Arch Linux now That sounds like something that's a little trivial and you might say okay That's true of other distributions as well, but but I'll think about it this way You know I take this for granted as an arch user, but when someone comes with me, you know comes to me with a problem it often is of the format of You know there's one there's a there's either a program that has a dependency that their distribution You know since it's not rolling release it isn't keeping up with or there's something they really want to install But it's you know They have to figure out how to get it off get and do all this custom compiling or and stuff like that the thing about Arch Linux Because it has its repositories and because it has the AUR It is very easy for even an introductory user to use Arch Linux and be able to get so much out of it That is you can pretty much you can if you watch my channel for example I go over a lot of different programs and if you like one of those on Arch Linux you can install it basically in Centaneously, it's probably gonna be in the AUR or the main repos play around with it and get rid of it That's not necessarily the case on other distributions as I've actually recently found out If you want to compile some program on program on Debian Debian has lots of you know it it has a great repository It has some great stuff in it, but there's a lot of this this minor stuff that it doesn't have and Installing that can sometimes be a big pain not just you can't do it on the command line easily with you know An AUR manager or something like that, but it you know the or you know Ubuntu having the PPA's all the equivalents of the AUR are a much much more difficult to use and Additionally and now I've said before I don't actually care about Arch Linux being a rolling release distro meaning Updates come out all the time But now that I think about it that is actually a really good thing if you're installing programs or playing around with new programs Because a lot of the time the development on these programs You know if you're some guy on github who's making some program you want to play around with a lot of times He is using the most recent version of I I don't know Pearl or Python Well, they don't really I don't think have that many updates But some kind of program or some kind of programming language or library and they're using the most recent version but if you're using some staggered release distribution if you're using Ubuntu and That thing is not automatically updated in the Ubuntu repositories You have to go through a big rigmarole of just getting something basic done So Arch Linux again ignoring the install process. We'll talk about that in a second But in terms of system management, it is so there are so many headaches. You just avoid in Arch Linux Let me throw in another zen koan actually because I didn't say this before I meant to but Arch Linux in addition to being The best distribution I will say that it also has nothing particularly good about it The good thing about Arch Linux is that it avoids pains like this not I mean, I don't think it's all by design I think it just happens to be how Arch has evolved and I think it works extremely well And I'll go ahead and tell you well, let's let's get into the second point Okay, as I said the second point is using Arch Linux or going through the install process Changes the way that people look at computers or changes the way they look at Unix or Linux or whatever Because what happens it might strike you when you are first thinking about using Arch Linux that? Installing it manually is just stupid. Why can't you have an automatic installer? There are lots of oh, I'll just use manjarra Oh, I'll use whatever you know that that's fine if you want to do that That's fine, but there's a big difference in how that makes you think about the system huge difference first off When you let's just talk about narrowly your system for your system alone if you Install everything from you know the desktop manager or what it or the you know what? I mean the display manager the desktop environment window manager if you install that kind of stuff if you install You know what kind of graphical settings or your network manager all that you read up on it in the process of installing it But once you do that, you know what's on your system. You know how it works. You know how it interacts It's not a difficult process It's not a difficult process to do and once you do that, you know where the pieces are going together So what ends up happening is if hypothetically something breaks on your system, which frankly on Arch things don't really spontaneously break But if something acts in a way, you don't expect it if you if you have gone through that minimal install process You know what's going wrong. Yeah, you don't have to you look it up on stack overflow or something You generally know exactly what's going on and it's not a big problem If something reacts in a way that you don't expect it that so that it changes the way you look at distributions where a lot of times I mean as an example a lot of times if you if you Google search for something if you're a Linux newbie and you want to learn How do I change this audio setting on Ubuntu? You look that up on the internet or something and you will get a guide that tells you how to click on the graphical Environment in Ubuntu and change something but of course the graphical environment is not Linux it's a graphical environment that interacts with your actual system indirectly and But when you install a system minimally you actually have an idea of what's going on underneath and that Because if you're using Arch you have to go through this process, which again is not that difficult But once you do that it gets rid of so many of the headaches that you would otherwise run into if you're using Some kind of Linux distribution or even if you're I mean even worse if you're using you know Mac OS or Windows or something where you you can't really do if something goes goes wrong You just sort of have to grin and bear it if it's you know some system vital thing that you don't you can't really change So there is that thing and the other irony of this that comes from this is the fact that I have had so many subscribers Tell me this exact same story. They're using Fedora. They're using Ubuntu They're using even Manjaro or another Arch based distro. They're using Trisk will they're using whatever and They have a problem and they look all over the place and it's not there But where do they eventually find the solution? They either find it on the Arch wiki or they just ask on an Arch Linux form and they will be able to tell you Now it's not because Arch Linux users are just like the greatest things in the universe That's not what it's all about. You can be just like that It's just that all of them have gone through that process that sort of I mean it's like hazing You know the installation of Arch Linux is a hazing process and once you've gone through that hazing process you know what you're doing and Even though again, there are distributions that are more difficult to install than Arch Linux if you install Jintu Wow, that's an even bigger badge But Arch Linux at least at least gets you to that point where you understand what's going on on your system So I know I said before years ago that Linux distributions, they're all pretty much the same and I still agree with that I I still hold by that I'm not telling you in this video to switch the Arch Linux doesn't matter to me what you use doesn't I mean, I don't think it makes a lick of difference if you're used to whatever system you are That's that's fantastic but I do think and mind you I've had many people who watch my channel and are windows users and See my stuff and directly switch to Arch Linux some of them even using my dot files I think that's crazy but if they can do it you can do it too and It's it's not just don't fall for the memes It is not a difficult to use distro the amount of thinking the reason in fact I am only having this revelation now that I actually think that Arch Linux is a fantastic Distribution the only reason I'm saying it now is because on Arch Linux you have to think about your distribution So little you just don't think it doesn't hit hit you in the head, you know You know, I was talking about how in that video, you know How how much I used the distro hop and then I eventually just stopped Maybe I just stopped because I found a distro where you don't have to think about the distro You're running you have to think about what you've installed on your computer and you can easily change that So again to the re to repeat the points Arch Linux I think it's probably the best and easiest to use distro Despite the fact that it might have a little hump at the beginning and the install process But I think over the long term the long-term hardness is very very low of Arch Linux That is if you have if you have hardness for more than eight hours on Arch Linux consult your doctor Consult the arch wiki. It shouldn't be like that. But on other distributions Sometimes you have to go with you get a little frustrated because everything isn't quite long arch Linux again It's not a good distribution. It just avoids a lot of pain and the second part is This distro structure you know ignoring that all of that the process of installing a system From the bottom up is a very educational experience. It's not a difficult experience. Remember I did if you go search up Install Arch Linux on YouTube right now and click on the first one with a spongebob me minute That is my video and that video where I Explained the Arch Linux installation process in excruciating detail. I think that was around 50 minutes That is me explaining everything. So the process is not difficult. You can do it. So I encourage you Since it's I don't know. It's almost New Year's you can make it new your New Year's resolution to try Arch But once I once I used it I never really look back and I I've been using it for like years now But I'd never really thought that oh, maybe it's actually just a good distribution Maybe that's why I stopped thinking about distributions in general. So that is my top one Linux distribution Will it always be the top one Linux distribution? I don't know. Maybe there'll be another one Maybe they'll be we never know what's gonna happen, but I'm gonna give my vote to Arch for the time being so Anyway, that's about it. I will see you guys next time. Hope this inspires you to do something or another and Yeah, Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. I'll probably do another video before Christmas, but we'll we'll see you guys next time