Just install an LTS kernel instead of the latest one. Unless your hardware was made literally yesterday you'll be alright, and the number and frequency of updates isn't far from, say, Ubuntu at all.
Also use archfi. It's a super easy and reliable way to get an Arch install going.
Arch used to be a lot scarier. I used to only use antergos because I did the manual install once and was content with not doing it again.
But antergos went away so when my 2014 chromebook stopped getting updates, I did a manual install on there. I had to switch to an LTS kernel to get anything to work but the manual install feels like 1/2 the steps the process used to be and really streamlined.
Also don't be afraid of arch breaking. 90% of the time when something breaks on arch, just go to the arch front page and there's a post about a change that needs a small intervention and exactly how to fix it. These days, ubuntu breaks way more often and harder than arch for me. I still cant get audio to play right on my work laptop after upgrading to 20.04.
I typically do a timeshift snapshot before doing a $ pacman -Syu, just to be on the safe side. Im on arch since ~3 months now and so far it's been rock solid
Been too lazy to timeshift but I have backups of stuff I need if my system is bricked.
Arch hasn't broken on me in well over a year but my system is pretty lean anyway
I dunno about doing a scripted install for anything but a moderately experienced Linux user. Going through the process teaches you a lot of important foundational stuff that you'll regret not having a good grip on later when you break something or want to go off-script. Mounting/formatting an fs and chrooting are things you should at least be cognizant of.
Eh, I don't know. On some level I agree but going off the present state of the installation notes on the wiki I can't help but feel like the importance is overstated since it's basically a list of instructions with little to no explanation of what does what. Eg. Chrooting. The notes just say change root into new system_ which means fuckall unless you then go read the entry about chroot and so on. Most people just treat it as one command after another, which imo makes it very replaceable with an install script. Of course, there's a right way to go through the wiki that is rewarding and genuinely gives you an understanding of your system but I don't know how many would go for it. I sure didn't on my first few installs.
I like Arch, but I always feel like I have to update every second of using it. If you're not experienced with Linux/bash, I wouldn't recommend using an install script for Arch.
That's the thing, depending on what packages you use, my experience has been that the majority of the updates are kernel adjacent. Going to an LTS kernel has dramatically reduced the frequency for me, but YMMV.
I just use Fedora with dnf-automatic now so I don't have to update manually. Bleeding edge enough for me.
Do they have a minimal iso? I'd love to try it but I'm not using GNOME.
The Fedora minimal install is kinda bad in my opinion, but if you want to try it, it should be available from the netinstall iso.
And once you install it you can backup your install with Timeshift so that if you break anything you can easily go back to before you broke it.
I've never actually had to restore myself, is it more difficult than I'd imagine?
Of course the fkn state didn't give me execute permissions on myself
