I love the rolling release model, and the AUR. (I even maintain some applications ok AUR.) I have installer and used pure Arch in the past, if only for the rite of passage.

But nowadays I mostly use EndeavourOS. It’s basically Arch once it’s installed, but has a nice and fast installer, with great defaults. Also, the community is awesome. I rarely need any help anymore, but I still like hanging out in their forums helping others, and generally chatting about non-Linux stuff.

SO I CAN FEEL SUPREME!!!

And so I can configure EVERYTHING

But I dont use Arch right now.

Fedora has a nice “ecosystem” or more like unixsystem", too and its ready out of the box and has copr similar to aur which is integrated in the official dnf package manager and super-frequent updates including kernel ones AND last 1-2 kernels for backup… it seems much better than Arch, right off the bat thought.

Gentoo, on the other hand… yes okay maybe a decent PC required… but… it feels good

I use both CachyOS (on my steam deck) and pure Arch on my Desktop, and Laptop.

I like both. But I just don’t feel like reinstalling my OS, though I was investigating using the CachyOS kernel and Repos within my current Arch install; and ultimately decided I would go CachyOS if I really wanted those optimizations. Not sure what performance gain from that switch I would realistically see.

I am not opposed to either route. Whatever tool fits the job. CachyOS on my Steam Deck because I didn’t want an atomic distro, even if I do see the benfits. I have had good experience with CachyOS on my Steam Deck.

Your reasons and mileage may vary.

I did a pure Arch setup in a VM before I made the ultimate switch to CachyOS. I did not use the installer script but followed the guide on the wiki to get the basics running, and then I customized from there.

And while I’m glad I got that experience, because it taught me how much is really going on under the hood, I discovered that I simply don’t enjoy that level of tinkering. It’s not laziness, it’s a lack of enjoyment towards the process.

I guess, same reason why we use Debian or Arch and not just LFS

I needed a fresh install and didn’t want a lot of downtime. Cachyos basically worked without much effort so I didn’t have a reason to change it.

Because pure Arch does not give me a choice of init system (Artix)

I chose EndeavourOS initially because I was relatively new to Linux (I tinkered with Ubuntu in grade school) and wanted out of Microsoft’s environment. The support community is amazing and newbie-friendly. They’ve helped me through a few bricked systems.

Now I’m at a crux because I own a 1080 and am tired of mistakenly breaking my installation because NVIDIA stopped supporting open source drivers for old cards. I felt uncomfortable building my own driver packages and was relying on AUR, but the recent security breach has me skittish.

Rather than switch to another distro (Mint being the top contender), I decided to replace my graphics card and stay with Endeavour because it seems the Arch distros are the only ones staunchly against age verification laws. I’m fortunate enough to be in a position to update and stick with Endeavour. Maybe when I actually get good at Linux I’ll switch to pure Arch.

I haven’t run Arch in a few months, but I used to use CachyOS and Artix.

In the case of CachyOS, the repos have a few packages from the AUR pre-compiled, and linux-cachyos-hardened is a fantastic kernel flavour.

Artix, meanwhile, lets me use runit instead of systemd.

I also like the idea of Linux-libre, for which I would probably use Hyperbola (if not Guix). However, the only machine I own with a compatible WiFi chipset is a 32-bit MacBook from the 2000s, which I haven’t seen since 2024.

The preconfigured desktop and software is irrelevant to me. I have my own DE recipes and workflows that I can replicate across most Linux distros and BSDs.

I use the Calam Arch Installer ISO to install Arch. It’s the same GUI installer that most downstream Arch derivatives use, but configured to install base Arch. No dealing with messy terminal install process and you end up with pure Arch install at the end. If all the downstream distros give you is an easy installer, this exists for base Arch as well even if it is a third party thing.

I taught myself how to properly configure things on Linux using EndeavourOS but ended up sticking with it because there is no real reason for me to switch to pure arch. On my laptop I have NixOS and occasionally notice some of the disadvantages of having not having things pre-installed.

I like endeavour cause of the pretty wallpapers

I have no reason to use a raw distro that requires customization when there’s a better version that already comes preconfigured.

I don’t use Arch anymore but I can imagine that the install process turned a lot of people off it or pivoted them to stuff like Manjaro, CachyOS, Endeavour etc. It isn’t until recently that ArchInstall has become VERY good and simple.

Primary factor even with Archinstall is if you’re trying to install Arch via Wifi. you have to do iwd and all that and for someone who isn’t quite as comfortable on the command line yet that can be daunting. Even now for myself if I were installing Arch I still have to pull up the Arch Wiki during install cause I can never remember the iwd commands for wifi. I’ve also borked the install a couple times because I either forgot to include the networkmanager or selected the wrong video drivers.

I use CachyOS because I don’t feel like going through the hassle of installing drivers for my 1070ti. The kernel optimizations are nice, tho.