Install once and enjoy a reliable, up-to-date platform

May 24, 2015 04:56 GMT  ·  By

I don't know why, but I always had this desire of installing new operating systems and discover by myself how they work, how software packages are installed, removed, updated, and how they differ from other OSes.

I remember spending hours in front of a computer carefully watching the entire installation process of an operating system, no matter if it was Windows or Linux. Sometimes I even fall asleep on a sofa waiting for the installation of an OS to finish.

Fifteen years ago I bought my very first personal computer, at the age of 22. It was a low-end PC with barely minimum of hardware components installed (e.g. floppy and CD-ROM drives were missing). I knew almost nothing about computer hardware, nor installing operating systems, but I was always fascinated about both.

Soon, I had to discover that I needed both floppy and CD-ROM drivers to install a Windows 98 operating system, but that's another bedtime story. A few months later, after spending all day long installing and reinstalling Windows OSes, I wanted more, and I discovered Linux.

Linux was first introduced to me in a form of multiple CDs (Compact Discs) distributed with a magazine at a local newsstand. I have to admit that I was attracted by the beautiful artwork (themes, icons, wallpapers) presented on the respective CDs and their exotic names (e.g. Mandriva or Red Hat or Slackware).

The Internet at that point in time was not so accessible to me, so downloading ISO images was out of the question on a very slow dial-up connection that would disconnect quite often. The fact of the matter is that I don't even know if there were any ISO images available for download on the Internet for a respective distribution, and a CD Writer was too expensive.

Arch Linux's installation process is not easy

Since then, I've installed countless operating systems, and when you start installing a few of them, you will notice that the installation process is quite similar. For example, Red Hat and Fedora use the same installer, all Ubuntu-based OSes use the same installer, Slackware-based distributions also have the same text-mode installer.

Arch Linux, on the other hand, has a different installation process, which is not user-friendly and involves reading a tutorial and writing commands in a terminal. I have to admit that every time a friend is asking me to install Arch Linux on his computer, I always have to read some of the steps from my "A Beginners' Guide to Installing Arch Linux" tutorial.

During the installation of an Arch Linux operating system you have to type all sorts of commands that you cannot remember all the time, even if you install it two-three times a week and you have some knowledge of Linux/UNIX commands, so it's a good idea to bookmark an installation guide and use it whenever you need it, and that's not something that should scare you away.

Once you go Arch Linux, you'll never go back

The best part of installing an Arch Linux operating system is that you will only have to install it once per computer, as it uses a rolling-release development model that keeps the distribution up-to-date at all times. There are no new releases of Arch Linux. That's it! Install it today, and enjoy many years of excellent Linux software and technologies that are being implemented in the OS on a regular basis.

Many users, when they hear about Arch Linux, get instantly scared and tend to no longer want to install the distribution on their computers. I think that if you want to install Arch Linux, you should not be afraid of what other people say. Follow my tutorial or any other Arch Linux installation guide that you think it's good for you, and if you don't succeed once, try again until you get it right.

Once you go through with the basic installation process, everything else will be a breeze, and I promise that if you are a bleeding-edge person you will love Arch Linux. All the latest versions of the most popular applications and programs, including entire desktop environments (e.g. GNOME or KDE) and Linux kernels, arrive in the main software repositories of the distribution after only a few days from their release.

In addition, if you love to become a package maintainer, you should know that Arch Linux uses one of the most simplest methods of creating binary packages, based on the source code of a software or even binaries from other Linux distributions. This way, you can contribute to its ever growing Arch User Repository (AUR), from where you can install almost anything you want.

For me, Arch Linux is the last distribution I've installed. I use it for more than three years now and I love everything about it, especially the fact that I have access to all the latest versions of the applications I use and that I can contributed to the operating system with software packages that are not yet available in the main repositories.

Update: The Arch Linux Wiki provides you with everything you need to know about the distribution. It offers detailed installation instructions, for both beginners and advanced users, as well as all sorts of instructions and tutorials about setting up anything you want!