 Well this year has been strange as far as weather down here in Louisiana. We've had some severe weather during the spring, during the summer, during the fall, and it's getting kind of crazy here in the winter, too. I don't know. It's like the world is coming to an end, right? All this climate change or whatever. It's for real, I guess. But anyway, today I wanted to talk to you guys about evolving as a Linux user. Because sometimes people ask me how I ended up on things like Arch Linux, or Vim, or Emacs, or how did I get into the terminal and things like that. And now one of the things with Linux, there's typically two types of users. There's those that they just want to install something quick and easy and use it as is. They never want to look under the hood and figure out how it works. And then there's the other group of Linux users that is the Tinkers. They do want to know how everything works. They want to take things apart and put it back together again. And because, you know, Linux is full of these nerds that like to tear things down and build it again. And that's why so many of us gravitate toward, I guess, not user-friendly distributions like Arch Linux and the hundreds of distros based on Arch Linux or Gen2 and the various distributions based on Gen2 and things like that Slackware. And, you know, that's okay if you're not there yet. I think a lot of people, when they first come to Linux, they install Ubuntu or Linux Mint. And then, you know, they, I guess, feel intimidated by those that have gotten past the point of needing to use something like Ubuntu or Linux Mint. And it's not, it's really not about elitism or arrogance or anything like that. Many of us use Arch Linux. It's because for what we do, using Arch or an Arch based Linux distribution is much, much easier for us than using something like Ubuntu or Linux Mint or Open Sousa. Why is that? Well, when you're new, you're not going to be doing a lot of crazy things, right? Like compiling your own software, doing extreme customizations of your desktop or window manager and things like that. Typically, you just want something that's really easy and quick to install and looks good out of the box. And then you're not going to touch it, you know, when you're a brand new user. And that's okay. Once you get more advanced, though, you really want to build your own system, right? And it becomes very limiting when you use something like Ubuntu or Mint, you know, as opposed to something like Arch Linux, because let's take Ubuntu, for example. Ubuntu comes with its own very customized GNOME desktop environment. And if you want to hack on it a little bit and change things, it's tough. Ubuntu makes it really tough. Also, their desktop and the suite of applications, everything is really tightly integrated together. And sometimes you can't separate those pieces, because like the Ubuntu desktop is really almost like a meta package, a collection of things. And sometimes it's really hard to separate some of the stuff you don't want on the system from the stuff you do, because just the way these user friendly distributions are built. They package things in such a way. It's really, again, it's designed for the brand new user. But for those of us that want to do more than just the real basics, Ubuntu is hard. It's frustrating to use. I mean, I save so much time using Arch-based distributions compared to Ubuntu. Because unlike Ubuntu and Mint and Sousa, Arch Linux has no, they don't have a dog in the fight as far as what they do with their desktop environments. If you want a desktop environment or a window manager, you install the one you choose. It's not going to be themed or customized in any way unless you do it. And a lot of new users think, well, that's crazy. I've got to put in all this work once I install this window manager desktop environment. Yeah, but you know, that's, that's what some of us signed up for. Plus, you only really have to do it one time. You set up your window manager the way you want, save the configs. And you always have your own configs after that. It's always your desktop environment, if you will, that you always reinstall. There's no reason to go to something like Ubuntu and have to fight Ubuntu trying to take things apart and put it back together the way you want. And that's one of the real things about Arch Linux. That's why the Arch Philosophy, they talk about Arch Linux being simple, right? Arch Linux, the Arch Philosophy is all about simplicity. And a lot of people think, well, that's Arch is not simple because it's not user friendly. Well, simple doesn't mean user friendly. Simple means everything is simple by design, right? All the pieces have been separated, you know, until they're smallest components, basically, and you pick and choose the parts you want. And you build that thing the way you want to make it look. I think another reason that Arch Linux is great is because it's rolling release, right? Rolling release has really caught on. When I started in Linux, you know, 12, 13 years ago, as far as desktop use, rolling releases were seen as kind of a niche. Nobody took them seriously. Nobody thought they were quote stable. You didn't see people running them on a server ever like that was unheard of. And really, people are starting to come around to the idea of rolling releases being the better model as opposed to static release distributions. I think Arch Linux has really changed the game there. I think, I think there's a reason why you're seeing Ubuntu. Ubuntu's popularity is starting to seriously decline. People don't talk about it as much. I don't talk about it that often. Really, unless Ubuntu has a big release, I don't talk about it much on the YouTube channel. Why? There's really not much to say about it. That's not, that's not where all the innovation is happening these days. That's not where the action is. The action is really these days, Arch, right? Arch dominates the desktop Linux world, all the Arch based distributions. Manjaro is exploding in popularity. Arco Linux is exploding in popularity. Mainstream Arch, even though it's a command line, incidental, you know, is exploding in popularity. There is a ton of people giving Arch Linux a serious try that otherwise wouldn't have, say, five and definitely ten years ago. Some of the other benefits of Arch Linux, you know, why it has gained ground over things like Ubuntu and Debian and Mint is their pragmatic stance as far as the repository of software. You know, Arch Linux does not mind putting proprietary software in its repositories. They are not free software only purists. Now, I'm a free software zealot, but even I as a free software zealot don't mind them having proprietary software available for their users in their repositories. What I hate is Linux distributions that install proprietary software out of the box on those distributions, you know, and basically they're trying to force proprietary software on their users. I don't like that, but I don't mind proprietary software being in the repos available for those that need it and want to use it because not everybody cares about the free software movement. I get that. So I actually like the pragmatic stance that Arch Linux takes in that regard. And again, I think that helps with Arch Linux becoming so popular is the fact that there's so much software available on Arch Linux that is tougher to get, you know, even on things like Ubuntu. There's there's stuff that I install that, you know, I have no problems installing on Arch Linux because I know I can find it in the Arch repositories or in the AUR, the Arch user repository, or with Arch Linux, you also have flat packs, snaps, app images available if you want to use them. And that's the other thing. They're not forced on you either with Ubuntu snap is pre installed, you're expected to use snaps with Linux Mint. They have flat pack installed and you're expected to use flat packs. Well, with Arch Linux, nothing is installed. If you want to use snaps, install it and set it up, you're free to do so. Same thing with flat pack. If you want to use flat pack, install it, use it, you're free to do so. But they don't care if you use it. They don't care if you don't use it. And I think that's the better model. I think again, I think we're starting to see this real shift in desktop Linux where really what used to be in a Ubuntu dominated game is really now dominated by Arch Linux. And I love it. I love it because Arch Linux, of course, is a community distribution too. It's not corporate backed. There's no company really calling the shots. It's all about us, the community, building something great. And I think it's a model that works. Anyway, that's enough of me rambling and walking around here in the snow. I don't even know what in the hell I was going to talk about when I turned on the camera. I just started walking around and talking. I hope some of this incoherent mess that I said makes sense at least when I put it on YouTube. If it doesn't, I do apologize, but you got to understand. It's about 20 degrees right now and I am freezing my balls off. Alright guys, peace.