 If you've watched my channel for any amount of time, you'll know that I'm a big fan of the AUR. I'm pretty sure that's an understatement. I love the AUR. It's really good. And I think that all Arch Linux users out there, if you ask them why they use Arch, one of the reasons at least, maybe the top reason, but definitely one of the reasons that they use it, probably everyone, is the AUR. And that's because the AUR is awesome. I mean, if you need something to install, or you have to install something, the AUR has it. It's almost guaranteed. But what I wanted to do today was make a video about a few reasons why you should use Arch Linux. They have nothing to do with AUR. And the reason why is because I feel like oftentimes my zealotry for the AUR overshadows my opinion of why I think Arch is so good. And there are reasons why Arch is so good. And none of them have anything to do really with the AUR. So that's what we're going to talk about today. Let's go ahead and jump in. So the first reason why I think Arch is amazing is because it's a rolling release. Now, being a rolling release isn't special in and of itself because there are many other distributions out there that have rolling release versions. So we really can't point to being a rolling release as being Arch specific. But because it is a rolling release, it means you get access to all of the latest software as its release. You don't have to wait for like you would if you're using like an LTS version of Ubuntu. It's just there. And that's great because a lot of times you don't want to have to wait for the latest version of KDE to come out or the latest version of GNOME to come out or whatever. You want that stuff available to you immediately. And if you wanted to do that on Ubuntu, you'd have to go search that stuff out and come up with some kind of PPA system in order to get it to work or you'd have to wait for Ubuntu to release it or whatever. I mean, I'm picking on Ubuntu, but it's the same for Linux, Mint and other distributions as well. And you don't have to do that on Arch. You just, you get the software as it's released. And that's great. The next reason is that when you work on Arch, solving problems and tinkering and stuff like that, it feels like you're truly maintaining your distro. And that feeling of ownership that you get for doing that, I think is really important because it just makes you feel like you're interacting with Linux in ways that you don't really feel when you're doing something with Ubuntu. Because when you install the Ubuntu LTS, you're just using it because it's the most stable system you can have and you want it to get out of your way. You just want to be able to do your work in whatever. You don't want to have to focus on maintaining your system. Or you don't want to have to always focus on maintaining your system. And that definitely has its place. But that feeling that you get on Arch because you've actually gone through and put in the work of installing it, doing the maintenance once or twice a week, figuring out problems, getting help, joining the community and all that stuff is definitely not something that you really get on other distributions unless you do something outside the norm. Because I think most people just install Ubuntu and then do whatever they have to do on Linux and they're not actually interacting with the distribution itself. So for me, that sense of ownership is just truly important and it's not really something that you can put a price on or even really put a value on, I guess. The next one is going to make a few people laugh. The community. I'm saying the community, the Arch community is one of the best communities out there. Now, they're not the friendliest community, that's for sure. If you want to friend the community, a community that's always going to help you, even if you ask the dumbest, most documented question ever, you want the Ubuntu community because they're all very friendly. You're always going to get an answer. Even if the answer to your question has been very well documented, they're likely just to answer it because they're friendly people. They're like Canadians. I mean, stereotype, but whatever. The Arch community, on the other hand, is prickly and that doesn't mean they're unhelpful in any way because they are helpful. If the answer to your question has been documented, they're just going to point you towards the documentation and expect you to kind of figure it out yourself. There's not as much hand-holding in the Arch Linux community as there is in Ubuntu or Linux Mint. That's okay because chances are you're not going to need that hand-holding because you've already installed Arch Linux and you at least have some idea of what you're doing. You're not necessarily a new user. So I think the community is very good as long as you've read the Effing Manning. So the next one on the list is Pac-Man and Pimac. Now, Arch Linux does not do an app store and I think that that's a good thing. I mean, if you install KDE, you might get discovered. I'm not exactly sure which, if you do or not. But the official Arch quote-unquote app store is called Pimac and it's not an app store at all. It's basically just a list of software that is given to an Agui container, you know, as a front end to Pac-Man, which is the package manager on Arch Linux. And both of these things are top tier in my opinion. I think that Pac-Man is just miles and away better than apt. My argument falls down a lot because I can't exactly explain why I prefer Pac-Man over apt. A lot of people find Pac-Man harder to use because it's not as user readable. When you're using apt, when you're using apt, you do sudo apt install, right? Except for you spell it right. And that is basically user readable. You know what you're doing. You're installing something with Pac-Man. You do sudo pac-man-capitalS. Now, what does that stand for? No one knows. I mean, I'm sure someone knows. I don't know. The vast majority of Arch users don't know what capital S stands for. We just know that when you do pac-man-capitalS and type in pizza, you get pizza. That's not actually how it works, but that's how it should work. But when you do capital S and install something like, I don't know, VIM, you're going to install VIM. So the same thing is when you're uninstalling stuff. If you're on Ubuntu, you do apt remove and then the name of the package, right? So that is very user readable. For Arch, you do pac-man-srns, right? And nobody knows what that means. I mean, you could use the man page for pac-man and find out, but I'm not going to do that because I don't need to do it. I already know what this does. So I can't really explain why I prefer this method over the more readable apt thing, but I do. And I think maybe because it feels more nerdy, I guess, is one way of putting it. That's not really a good reason, but it's definitely the reason why I think that pac-man is better. I also think that apt gets a bad name because of PPAs and stuff like that on Ubuntu and Debian. They're not really the same thing, but it's part of the whole system of package manager on Debian-based distributions. And it's not as good as what you get with pac-man because with pac-man, you have access to everything that's in the repositories for Arch, right? You don't have access to the AUR, but you do have access to all the Arch standard repositories. With Ubuntu, you have to go through, and yes, you get access to the Ubuntu repositories, but you also, if you want something that's not in those repositories, you have to go through and add PPAs, and that has always turned me away. So I'm doing a really poor job of explaining why I prefer pac-man over apt, but I just do. And I think whether or not you yourself prefer pac-man over apt is probably a more personal decision because the next reason on my list is probably the most important one. Well, the second most important one. I'll talk about the most important one in a minute. When you install Arch Linux, you get 100% control over what's on your system. You install every package from xorg on up or Wayland on up or whatever. You have complete control over what is installed, and that's not the case on pretty much any other distribution. Now, if you're installing a headless version of Debian or Ubuntu, you get the same amount of control, same thing with Gentoo or whatever. You get a lot of control there as well. But with Arch, you've installed the system and all you get when you get to the screen after you've installed it is a TTY. And that means you get to log in and install everything directly from scratch. Now, a lot of people wouldn't see this as a good thing because you don't really have a useful system after install. You have to do extra work. But that level of control not only gives you complete knowledge of what's on your system, but it also gives you a feeling that you've done something. You've built your system from the ground up, including all the packages set on top of the Linux kernel or whatever. And you've gone through and made something. And that sense of accomplishment is the reason why Arch has become a meme because it's definitely something that you should be proud of because you've done the work. You didn't just go through and download the latest LTS Ubuntu, stick it on a USB key and throw it on your computer and then move on with your life. You've gone through and done real work that will allow you to not only use your computer efficiently, but also have an idea if something goes wrong what might be causing the problems that you're having. So I think that's a really big deal and it's not something you see on a ton of other distributions. Most of the other distributions are just set and forget and you've done nothing to build that. So if something goes wrong with Ubuntu, you're going to have to do extra research because you don't necessarily know everything that's been installed on your system. So like I said, that's a huge deal. So the next reason, and I'm calling this reason number zero because I originally started with five points and this is the sixth one. And I think this is the most important reason to use Arch. And that is the ArchWiki. So this is the ArchWiki, specifically this is the NPD page in the ArchWiki. I just chose one at random for, you know, an example. The ArchWiki is the single best piece of Linux documentation on the planet. And I would fight anyone who argues that because it is so good and it's so good that other distributions often link to the ArchWiki because it's so good. It's not only extensive, but it's also very well written and it doesn't just cover stuff for Arch. It also covers stuff like the NPD thing. It covers music players and desktop environments. And I mean, you name it, it's on ArchWiki and it's going to go through and it's going to show you tons of information on how to install it, configure it, all these things. And you just don't get that with any other Linux distribution. You just don't. Now Ubuntu has its own wiki, but even the maintainers of Ubuntu will tell you that Ubuntu wiki is inferior to the ArchWiki. They're in awe of it and they should be because this is really, really good. And if you have a question about Arch or even just about Linux in general, come to the ArchWiki because it is so extensive and if you had to ask me what my favorite part of Arch is, I'd probably still say that you are, but ArchWiki would be very, very close to being right there with it because anytime I have a question or anytime I need to figure out how to configure something like MPD, this is where I come. I don't go to the MPD documentation because chances are the MPD documentation is not nearly as good or as extensive as what's on the ArchWiki. So just check out the ArchWiki. Even if you're not going to use Arch, you should definitely check it out because it's really, really good. I love the AUR. I do. And it pained me not to put that on the list. I was just going to put that as like the reason negative one or something like used it because the AUR is so good. The AUR, AUR, AUR, right? It is a good reason to use Arch Linux but those ones that I talked about are still excellent reasons why even if you have no interest in AUR, even if you think that SNAPs are perfectly fine or the PPA system in Ubuntu is perfectly fine or you use flat packs or app images or whatever. Even if you think all those things are perfectly fine and you actually prefer those things, I think that the reasons why I've listed today are a good reason why you should definitely check Arch out. Now, most of the things I talked about today will apply to Arch-based distributions as well except for the whole control over what you install in your system because if you're installing Endeavor OS, you're not going to get nearly as much control over what's installed out of the box as you would if you've installed Arch by yourself. The only exception really to that is ARCO which gives you a ton of control over what's installed but even ARCO is going to install some things by default whether you want it to or not. It's a level of control that is taken away from you just a little bit by using a derivative but it gets you past the hurdle of actually having to install Arch Linux which can be a pain in the ass. In the comments below let me know what your favorite reasons for using Arch Linux are or if you never want to use Arch Linux let me know why because chances are there's probably some Debian fanboys out there I know there definitely are so I want to hear from those people and let them school me on why they think Debian or whatever is the best Linux distro so just let me know in the comments below. Make sure you follow us on Twitter or at the Linuxcast. 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