(04-01-2020, 07:38 AM)tranquil Wrote: Getting into Arch is a terrific way to get into learning more about how - as a whole - UNIX systems operate.
For those interested, I highly recommend having a look at this guy's YouTube channel: 'lukesmithxyz'
Additionally, he has a Github profile (github.com/LukeSmithxyz) where he uploads all of his configurations etc.
This project (github.com/LukeSmithxyz/LARBS) of his is made specifically for new Arch users getting into the whole idea of configuring your environments. It essentially sets up a window manager, installs a bunch of [essential?] applications and deploys the config files available in his 'voidrice' (dotfiles) repository on his Github profile. This may at first glance seem counter-productive to new users trying to learn more. He is aware that people may think that and highly encourages in many places that those using his scripts play around with them and read them thoroughly themselves.
1:i tried to hyperlink the urls but i was accused of trying to spam 
((
2:i can't even post the url links themselves....... sry
I'm a fan of Luke Smith's stuff, he was a big inspiration for me to just stop looking up other people's stuff and to actually go in and just learn what I could about Linux, programs, and technical issues on my own and learn rather than copying or parroting. He's got good insight into a lot of facets of the Linux realm without taking himself too seriously or projecting his own biases onto the audience, which is a huge plus if you're looking to genuinely learn and not be induced into some bubble or thought cult (which is sadly a lot of what "learning" becomes when people become too fixated on personalities, and not so much with the raw material or data that they are supposed to be absorbing).
As for the insight on Arch Linux, the one thing I can say is that you learn a lot about "what's under the hood" as a necessity to installing the distribution. How
much you will have to learn is dependent upon what type of installation you plan on doing from the ground up. A minimal installation, obviously is the most straight forward, least intensive, but also the least gratifying (which isn't to take anything away from those who go this route, if you're new to the command line simply getting the distro up and running via the series of commands you need to learn and execute properly will have you feeling like a God and very proud of yourself - something that is heavily romanticized by Linux natives). If you're someone like me, with concerns for security, such as encryption of your hard drives, this forces a much steeper learning curve for you. Fortunately, whatever route you take, it is worth noting that Arch Linux has easily the
best documentation/wiki out of any Linux distribution that exists. Even those, like myself, who do not use Arch Linux primarily, will use Arch Linux's wiki as a great reference source online for everything from troubleshooting to general learning purposes (some, but not all information on Arch Linux's wiki can be applied to other distributions as is, but all information on the wiki can be taken, modified, and applied to any distribution if you understand the difference between things like package managers, the distro's native repositories, etc).
That being said, I want to emphasize (without deterring those interested in Arch Linux) that any and all things done on Arch Linux can and are also done on every other distribution of Linux and BSD as well. I think a common misconception is that Arch Linux is more modular and customizable than any other distribution out there, because there's a tremendous emphasis placed on the DIY nature of Arch Linux from the ground up, rather than a "tinkerer" mentality with regards to other distributions that come user-ready out of the box like Ubuntu, Debian, Mint, etc. This is not so. The only difference is how and when you customize your OS. Arch Linux offers a lot of customization before you ever even fully install that OS, whereas a lot of the customization on other distros is done after the fact. What is the benefit of the former against the latter? You could argue that it's less of a hassle to do the work and research of customizing your environment from the ground up, rather than dealing with package/dependency conflicts (what you will come to know as "dependency hell"), which tends to happen. Never expect anything to go 100% smoothly when doing major changes to your environment, especially if you're new to Linux. The more research and learning you do, however, the smoother things will go for you. Linux rewards effort, not imagination. If you really want to do something like create a really cool environment, you're going to have to learn about all the different pieces and programs that allow for this to function.
But whatever distribution you choose, the payoffs and capabilities are the same. Some distributions just have a different emphasis. Some have more security out of the box, some more customization, others are extremely user-friendly in an effort to lure more people from Windows with an easy transition, and some are extremely light on resources and can run on laptops that are like 20 years old if you wanted. Don't get baited into the whole "distribution hunt" mentality that a lot of newbies find themselves in with Linux. No matter what you choose, you can always take your knowledge with you and go to another distribution down the road, especially if it's a derivative or fork of another similar distro (if you use Debian, but are thinking you wanna go to Ubuntu, they are basically the same, and if you think "maybe I'll try Manjaro instead of Arch, Manjaro is based on Arch, so again, basically the same).
TLDR: You can learn a lot about Linux in general from the way Arch Linux requires you to to do the work from the get-go rather than learning about things later on. However, Arch's customization isn't unique to Arch. Anything you do on Arch can be done on any distribution of Linux, that's why Linux is Linux. Don't feel obligated to choose Arch by the rhetoric alone, anything will do.
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