Hi, sorry if this isn’t the right place for this question. I’ve been using Linux Mint Cinnamon for about 9 months now and have also been experimenting with an Ubuntu GNOME Wayland session for the past month or so. I don’t really like distro-hopping, but using X11 isn’t cutting it for me. After giving GNOME an honest shot, I don’t think it’s for me. However, Wayland has been stellar. I would prefer to keep using LM Cinnamon, but I have a dual monitor setup that use different refresh rates which has been causing issues.
I’m interested in Arch, but I’m slightly concerned about the frequent comments regarding things breaking during updates. Also, is maintaining an Arch install heavy on time consumption? I’m not opposed to reading the wiki and spending time here and there to keep things working. However, I’m a bit hesitant if I were to run into an issue that may be more complicated than I may be prepared for. That said, generally I do like the higher skill ceiling options, if that makes sense in this context.
Tumbleweed seems more beginner friendly from what I’ve read so far. While I do generally enjoy challenges, having a smoother day-to-day experience does certainly have it’s own appeal.
I would primarily be doing some gaming (this would be a mix of more recent AAA titles along with less demanding ones) and programming, along with the usual stuff you’d expect on a desktop setup. I have a Ryzen 5 3600 processor, an AMD 6650 XT GPU, and 16 gb RAM if that information helps. Thanks in advance; if this isn’t the right place, I’ll delete the post.
Update: I have installed EndeavourOS and things have been smooth so far. The installer was very straightforward, and setup was extremely quick. I have started reinstalling various programs which were part of my original workflow with very minimal issues. The issues primarily came from adjusting to pacman syntax. I also have a series of notes regarding what I have installed and how. Cheers, and thanks for your input, everyone. I will be sticking with Gnome for the time being.
Don’t run arch if you need your computer to be stable and low maintenance. It usually is both those things. But there will be hickups sooner or later.
If you are used to mint and want something different. Why not try Debian ? It’s very similar. Maybe try Debian+KDE.
If hiccups are a once in awhile thing, that doesn’t sound too bad, I suppose. I’ve been enjoying learning about Linux, and I could see troubleshooting Arch being fun. Though that’s probably because I haven’t experienced what a bad break could be like. However, I’ll look into Debian+KDE, thanks for the recommendation.
Different people have different opinions, but trust me - if you keep your setup simple (and it’s possible to have all the goods you need without much complexity), it can be really robust. In fact, I had much worse time trying to debug Debian-based distros, as they’re much more complex and hard to understand. If you need additional security for your install if it’s critical, consider setting up snapshots.
I would prefer this. 😊
That’s interesting. This thread has piqued my interest wrt Debian, so this will be a useful bit of information to consider moving forward.
I am a bit familiar with snapshots–I have them set up on my current setup and have used them to recover from mistakes in the past. I’ll be looking into them more as there’s probably some good stuff out there that I don’t know about yet. Thanks.
I run Arch for 10+ years, currently on both of my computers that are fairly different and the maintenance for me is minimal if any. The opinion thay aRcH iS uNStaBLe comes from people who can’t read Wiki carefully enough to set it up properly. Updates that broke something on its own and not as a result of users’ mistake are really a rare thing. I heard of something like that maybe twice during the years and even then it didn’t affect me.