this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2024
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Arch Linux

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The beloved lightweight distro

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Had to install Arch recently because it would help pad word count. Normally I wouldn't pick it because it takes so long to install for an experience that doesn't feel different enough to warrant that time. But I had to for uni so I thought people here might appreciate my attempt at making a pretty desktop. If anyone has tips with Gnome on here feel free to fire away aswell.

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Arch needed for Uni? Mate, how do I transfer to wherever you study at?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

This actually reminded me that planes don't fly over my country...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Ok, you got me. What is your country?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

I mean, planes do fly over it, but uhhh...

[–] [email protected] 18 points 6 months ago (3 children)

If you don't want to go through the regular install, why not to just use archinstall or EndeavourOS?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I need to pad word count so I needed things to talk about relating to the setup.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

😄installing Linux on a macbookpro5,3 and get the grafic driver working would definitely have enough pad word count 🫣 well at least in the way how I did it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

They study at a based uni that made them go through the manual install, frfr

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

I guess learning may be part of the objective.

frankly I'd probably use one of those easy options in a new install.
But i'm personally glad to have gone through the process manually at least a couple of times on a few different systems, just to learn about various bits and pieces that may or may not be needed in different circumstances.

So yeah give that to students as a learning task - more useful than lots of the crap i was told to read.
I'd be surprised if it was a pre-requisite to do other coursework though

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago (2 children)

What do you mean "help pad word count"?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 months ago (2 children)

We have a word limit and the assignment I'm currently doing assumed you can get a work placement. Which I can't because no local companies are taking this year (The place I love has maybe 6 tech companies if you are generous). So I'm having to find other ways to display "A knowledge of best practices for tech in a workplace.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I didn't know Arch linux is a good skill to display. It's listed in a small portion of my resume but nothing huge.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

It's not Arch itself that's the skill. It's how it's configured and used for specific purposes that counts to the marks.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

I definitely think that putting Arch or any Linux distro for that matter shows technical know-how and troubleshooting skills. Being familiar in bash and shell is a big bonus in a lot of roles as well.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago

I respect the reach.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

It's probably part of some homework and he has to describe the install process? Could have picked Gentoo for a higher word count IMO

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I wanted to do Gentoo but compile times didn't count towards hours. And you can't really get a lot of words from "I waited 8 hours for Firefox to build."

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago (1 children)

And you can’t really get a lot of words from “I waited 8 hours for Firefox to build.”

You actually can if you describe the build process and how emerge works, how you can customize the packages with Gentoo's USE flags etc...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

Yea but Arch has all of that already. I can't write about Portage outside of "It builds for your cpu. Which is great but everything is built for am64 anyways so it isn't worth the wait time" which I did. Sure you could write about use flags but it's university work and I atleast value some of my free time.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

does arch take a long time to install? maybe its just experienced linux user talk, but getting a working arch install is maybe like, 5 minutes with somewhat decently fast internet. 10min maybe if you want a fancy desktop, or 30-40min if your DE comes from the AUR and you need to compile a lot

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

If you're not using an installer and you've never set up an OS via CLI, installing arch takes a very long time. The installation wiki isn't short, and it's fairly complex.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

I still wouldn't say its a very long time, my nephew was able to run through it himself in around 25 minutes via the wiki.