Post #2385355

2026-02-24 16:51 UTC

I’m a newbie, just put Mint on an old laptop and I’m blown away; it really does just work! I have been thinking about trying Arch next because it’s so well documented. I don’t know maybe put together a little home server or something. Do you think it’s appropriate for a relative newcomer? I’m excited by the documentation but also a little intimidated by it! I suspect I’ll need to ask for help but would worry about not having read everything there is to read first.

Replies (2)

@bertof@lemmy.world 2026-02-24 19:47

Try it on something that you're not relying on for your daily activities. It takes some time to learn and you'll make mistakes. But it's a great exercise for learning and as a hobby.

Open ##2385356
@HelloRoot@lemy.lol 2026-02-24 19:48

Arch was definitely tricky to get right for me at yhe beginning. You often have a choise between multiple similar tools for each job and you only know the pros and cons or what works and what doesn't after trying. I did 3-4 fresh installs before getting it right for my needs and hardware. (for example, btrfs with buttermanager requires a completely different fs layout than btrfs with snapper, I picked buttermanager first, didn't like it after 2 weeks and had to do a fresh install) For that it's handy to have a good backup of your important data, ideally outside of your pc, just so there is no risk of fucking it up somehow. I definitely recommend using btrfs and using it's snapsotting feature through snapper or timeshift or something else, again, multiple tools for the same job, different pros and cons. That way you can roll back after fucking something up. But make sure to try it out a couple of times before the case comes where you have to rely on it, so you're sure that it does work and you know how to properly do it. I prefer arch cause I was able to customize it more and I love the up to date packages and the AUR. But there is some additional maintenance you have to do like once or twice a year and you have to pay attention to news for manual interventions when there is a breaking update. So it is way more involved than other distros. Yet it has been rock solid for me and should be very reliable once you know your way around. But tbh. as long as you are completely happy with mint, there is no reason to change anything.

Open ##2385357