Windows 7 to Arch: My Journey & Personal thoughts.

Hello, so you may have known that I have switched to Arch Linux, and as a (never using) distro hopper myself, I chose to stay in Arch Linux.

The Journey to Arch Linux

My interest in Arch Linux caused me to nuke my HDD, and start new in my new OS, and I do not regret that choice. It all started with my profile post (http://gbatemp.net/members/thekingy34.383904/?page=5#profile-post-58805) in which I have publicly said I am using Arch for the first time, this was just before me nuking my Windows partition and starting new. I regreted it at first, and wanted to go back.

I done some digging, and what interested me more is the customisable, well... Everything! It was looks-paradise to me, and I wanted to have a great performing, and great looking OS that I'd use on a daily basis, I started with XFCE then MATE (Same opinion, but Xfce slightly worse.). Loved every second of it, it looked great, it worked great, and it was great, and I have even taken screenshots of it. (http://i.imgur.com/Oq6IWXy.png) But I wanted more, I wanted to dig deep into the Linux mine of great looking and performing software, and see what I could get. I asked others of what DE they are using and why they use it.

Next up, LXDE. I did not like it, it didn't really work out as well as I thought, and wasn't as good as I hoped. I hated it, but now looking back at it, I could've gave it a fair chance and use it to my furthest abilities.

I started creating 'my own DE' by mixing panels and stuff to create a unique one, I kinda liked it. It was better than LXDE for me, but again, that one wasn't fair. However, I rebooted it. SO MUCH PROBLEMS! (which I was too lazy to fix)

At this point, I was out of ideas. I quit Arch Linux, and started going back to Windows. About a day-or-so later, I decided to fix my old Linux PC. Ding! Cinnamon, that's it! I am used to it, I know how to customise it, I-- well, it was perfect! I jumped back onto the Arch ship, and sailed ahead to get some of that fresh cinnamon. Here I am, it was Linux Mint all over again, but better. I installed my programs, and that's it. I did no change in looks until late yesterday.

Thoughts

I love Arch Linux. I love how free it is, and how perfect it is. It is lightweight, simple and elegant. If you require an image of it right now, here you go: (http://i.imgur.com/u9BlJrG.png).

I want to thank you for reading this, and you may suggest other DEs/distros for me to try. Goodbye, and I'll see you in the next post or blog or something, I guess.
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Comments

I love arch, you should try something like manjaro and get an idea of what DE and setup you want. Then you could try to setup arch again or to ease the process you could use a graphical installer like arch anywhere.

@Seriel nah gentoo/LFS is create your os
 
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@hii915 I tried Manjaro, loved it, until I started to grow hate on it, and decided to try Arch.
And, Manual > GUI :^)
 
Manual install is more customizable.
If you want a working system as fast as possible, go Antergos.
 
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B
Well, it's kinda odd to hear you talk seriously about any Linux Distro, after all that Windows 7 Master Race stuff, but I'm glad it's working out for you.

TBH, though, I don't really care about that much about the OS I use. I'd much rather be working on other projects than having to learn how to use my OS. To me, an Operating System is a means to an end, and when hearing the Operating System wars, I feel people are all getting caught up in the means, as opposed to the end result.

Myself, I have an unholy purgatory of Ubuntu running LXDE on my laptop. It's not really Lubuntu, but that's what the computer says each time a boot it up. I can already feel the number of people cringing at my setup, but I've learned to not care. Linux is a better OS for development, so I used... that. It's a means to an end.

I totally understand people who use Arch Linux, though. You feel as if it's your computer, and it's set up exactly you want. It's a liberating feeling, however, and I might throw an Arch Linux partition onto a new laptop if I ever get one.

TL;DR if it works for you, good. Don't let others put you down unless the alternative presented really is better for you (I hear there are still people with MenuHax + rxTools. This is an example of when you might want to upgrade, as rxTools literally breaks some features in Animal Crossing, from what I've heard).
 
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KevinX8
Tell that to Windows
https://itsfoss.com/windows-10-inspired-linux/
Windows has been slowly adding Linux features for years now and even straight up uses Linux Bash! It seems even Windows is going to Linux :P
So why use some half-ass version of Linux when Linux is right there and free.

On topic: I've done the manual install of Arch before and enjoyed it, but I don't enjoy doing it on AMD machines. Mostly because driver handling for AMD is just horrible. So I just Antergos for anything AMD based.
 
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Well glad to hear that you left Wondowzwde Seven for Arch Linux

Gotta change back to Arch, I had over 10 times BSOD in 5 days...
 
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Would love to make the transition, however, I own a gaming PC. My gaming PC is designed to have great performance with video games. In my experience with linux and video games...well...

no good.

Otherwise I might make the switch.
 
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Ehehehe. Congrats. You chose quite a hard distro to start with! I'm still here with Ubuntu (shut up it works and is good enough 4 me), but I've tried Arch in the past. Never got past a cmd tho.

@Crystal the Glaceon
I'm assuming you're joking? Windows has indeed been trying to implement Linux features, but there's a lot more wrong with Win10 than Linux. Adware, Spyware and the like.
 
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@Ev1l0rd
My post is both sarcasm and honest.
Honest reality, Windows has been adding features from Linux. Personally, even the theme looks more like a KDE5 theme than actual Windows shell (to me at least.)
But obviously they are only taking the best parts and still keeping the same "Windows experience." You know, spyware, adware, ect.
The sarcasm was my approach.
 
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