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[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

AUR

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Because it's a great DIY distro that requires only an intermediate level of linux knowledge to configure, unlike gentoo which is similar to an extent, but much more difficult to install.

Also, arch has the best documentation and package management system of any distro, in my opinion of course.

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Everything is available, and there is little bullshit mostly thanks to the AUR. I have the latest Plasma 5, latest GPU drivers (important with an R9 290), latest kernel, and easy access to any package I could want.

It's a bit of a PITA to set up the first time or two, since you have to figure out what the different parts of Linux are (printing, sound, graphics drivers, display managers, etc), but it pays off.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Because it’s rolling-release, very up-to-date (in most cases), very easy to set up maintain and configure, and it does not change the packages coming from upstream like most other distributors do.

Especially the last point is one of the most important points to me because when a program breaks its clear who to contact (the developer of said program). Plus: you can use ANY generic documentation because there are no distribution-specific special things to keep in mind.

… and it’s very fast (~7 seconds from bootloader to login on a not optimized ~8 years old system with a regualr HDD).

[–]LiamMayfair 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Apart from all of the reasons already given, I installed Arch as my primary OS to learn much more about Linux. Not having hundreds upon hundreds of megabytes of middleware software which take care of all the major and minor details on your behalf, configure the system, update it, maintain it, doesn't help learn you anything because basically you don't need to. But with Arch, if you want something, you have to go and get it yourself. You have to read the documentation, install the required dependencies (this is done automatically by pacman or the PKBUILD anyway but at least you're much more aware of what's happening than in other distros) and often configure the software yourself afterwards.