NOBODY wants to have to sit through a multi-hour YouTube video just to install something.
I’m a Linux user with 20+ years of experience who has done LFS, compiled kernels for fun and put together their own mini-distro and I don’t want to install Arch.
That’s not how you teach people Linux. That’s not how you teach people anything, let alone difficult stuff.
Beginners being told to use Arch is like telling a person “you might like some fresh air” and then taking them deep into the mountains, putting them in front of a vertical cliff face and telling them “start climbing”.
Any unsuspecting person bring tricked into installing Arch would be well within their rights to say “fuck you all with a rusty spoon” and then refuse to hear the word “Linux” for another decade.
The worst part is that the install would be the least of their problems. Assuming they have a saint’s patience and make it through, then what? They’re now a complete beginner stuck on a distro for advanced users. Did a 3 hour install make them an advanced Linux user? No, it didn’t. So what’s the point?
As people said above, depends on the purpose that drove person to Linux, really.
If it’s about getting a user-friendly everyday system that just isn’t powered by corporations, certainly terrible pick.
If motivation is to learn more about computers, the way they work, to tinker a lot, then why not.
But by default we should assume the former indeed.
NOBODY wants to have to sit through a multi-hour YouTube video just to install something.
I’m a Linux user with 20+ years of experience who has done LFS, compiled kernels for fun and put together their own mini-distro and I don’t want to install Arch.
That’s not how you teach people Linux. That’s not how you teach people anything, let alone difficult stuff.
Beginners being told to use Arch is like telling a person “you might like some fresh air” and then taking them deep into the mountains, putting them in front of a vertical cliff face and telling them “start climbing”.
Any unsuspecting person bring tricked into installing Arch would be well within their rights to say “fuck you all with a rusty spoon” and then refuse to hear the word “Linux” for another decade.
The worst part is that the install would be the least of their problems. Assuming they have a saint’s patience and make it through, then what? They’re now a complete beginner stuck on a distro for advanced users. Did a 3 hour install make them an advanced Linux user? No, it didn’t. So what’s the point?