I've been using PopOS for a few months now, and I'm interested in Arch, but I'm worried about whether or not I have enough experience to do that successfully. Also, I have an Nvidia GPU until I start a new build in the next year or so. I don't know if that'll be a problem in Arch. It was a major issue with Fedora for me.
I'm willing to learn the terminal, but right now I'm still pretty dependent on tutorials to do more than basic things, like installing software. Most of those are catered to Ubuntu-based distros, so I'm concerned I won't have the luxury of guides to more complex terminal stuff.
Am I overthinking this? Or should I wait longer (maybe even until I build a new PC)?
How difficult is the transition from Ubuntu-based to Arch?
I'm a chronic distro hopper and here is my advice. If you want to try out new OSs make sure to backup your data as the probability of screwing everything up is relatively high. I use syncthing to ensure all documents I have exist outside my laptop so there is no cost to me breaking everything, but you can also just use an external hard drive and not be fancy. Whatever works for you.
Arch really isn't hugely different especially through the Endeavoros route which gives you sane defaults and packages without grinding through documentation. Just be prepared to be the car enthusiast of computing. Car people love understanding internals, messing with stuff, fixing issues that bother them, looking under the hood, asking for help, etc. That is the best analogy for the more, let's just say, enthusiast Linux environments.
Don't let that scare you though. Be prepared to learn a thing or two, backup your data, and make sure you have a backup stick with another OS on it to undo whatever you break and you'll be fine. I think I have literally gone through 100 reinstalls on the low end and everything is fine. Unlike a car your computer is fairly cheap to fix if it is just software.
I can only recommend EndeavourOS, it's a fantastic way of getting into Arch
Pacman is the most braindead straight to the point package manager of them all, it won't take you very long to memorize the 3 letters you need to use it.
Linux newbie who also started with PopOS here. I'd definitely recommend Endeavour, It's been my daily for 2 months now and what finally let me ignore my Windows drive completely.
Only thing I'd add is grab timeshift, it's saved my bacon more than once already.
EndeavourOS is cake to install and maintain. NVIDIA drivers will install out of the box.
No need to wait.
To use the AUR, use yay instead of pacman ( same syntax ). Or use eos-update —yay to update as it takes care of a couple common Arch upgrade pitfalls ( infrequent ).
The Arch wiki is great so documentation should not be an issue.
Go for it, I say. YMMV, but Pop!_OS for me was a headache, just didn't play nice with my rig. I'd go with Endeavor over vanilla Arch, just to make the install process simpiler.
For the terminal, you can learn how to use it at a basic level, I believe someone here already posted some commands. Write those down and what they do, or use Endeavor's Welcome Screen, and you'll be alright...or you can just install Pamac (yay pamac on the terminal. Go with pamac-all or the one that says no snaps) or Octopi, or re-enable the Discover Store if you wanna go with KDE or Gnome software and have a GUI menu for all that. If you feel lost, Google, the Arch wiki, and the Endeavor forums are your friends. The Arch wiki especially is super detailed, and can be applied to Linux in general.
Transitioning, i feel, YMMV. Again, i had a pretty bad time with Pop!Os and I wasn't a big fan of adding PPAs in general. It's nice not having to deal with any of that, personally. And up-to-date packages means my stuff isn't behaving oddly for the most part (there's breakages, small and big, but that's with all distros. Something is bound to screw up sooner or latter) Only thing I mind is constantly having to babysit the system...but that's the nature of rolling releases (by babysit, i mean updating is a daily thing. i know i can leave it for a week or two without upgrading and it'll be fine, but outta habit, I do a system wide update (yay in the terminal, or through pamac if ya got it) before shutting down for the day.) but I haven't found a stable release I vibe with, so I put up with it
Yeah, I was thinking about changing over, because while I like PopOS, it has some issues on my rig. It wasn't as troublesome as Fedora, but laggy animations, Pop Shop crashing, and its very outdated version of GNOME were starting to frustrate me.
I'm actually testing EndeavorOS in a live environment right now to get a feel for it! I've always been hesitant to try Arch in any form because my main Linux buddy warned me it was a quick way to ruin your system.
I use this PC a lot, so I have no problem updating it several times a week or more. So fingers crossed I don't screw it up lol.
Listen, if an idiot like me hasn't blown up his PC in the two years I've been on Linucx (1 yr and change with Arch), you'll be alright lol
I'm gonna assume the reason Arch is "scary" for some folks is because it's a rolling release, which yeah, it can cause problems, but IDK, I've had much less problems with Arch vs any stable release I've tried not named Linux Mint (and even there, the volume and mic on my laptop failed to get picked up. An easy fix, but again, never had that happen on Arch). Sure, fixing a problem might seem daunting, but like...the internet and forums are right there. You can look up and ask for help. Then again, YMMV. I had to basically learn to ask for help and hunt down answers because of my time with Windows (geez, that was a headache. I'm convinced there was something wrong with my install, because I fought with Windows so much until i just couldn't anymore), so when I switched to Linux, the whole "it doesn't always work" argument fell off my back.
Installation is a breeze with archinstall and the wiki makes most tinkering/ problem solving fairly easy. Having used mint and Ubuntu for a short time previously, I personally find it easier to tinker in arch than either of them.
Archinstall should offer installing the proprietary drivers once it detects your gpu. Other nvidia gpu problems depend on your de/wm choice. I use Wayland on kde with an Nvidia gpu and the biggest problem I have is some xwayland windows flickering, other than that it's just small nuisances.
For installing and updating packages get yourself an aur wrapper and enable the optional repos.
With EndeavourOS, I would just use yay. It is pre-installed, uses the same syntax, and includes packages from the AUR.
If you ever have trouble, try eos-update as it builds in a few tricks that Arch users will eventually run into ( like having deal with outdated keyrings or pacman lock files ).
Pacseek can be a nice addition as well when you are searching repositories for something or trying to understand what a package is. Not essential but nice.
I've also switched from Debian-based disrtos (Ubuntu) to Arch about two year ago. I installed EndeavourOS and to be honest, it's simpler in some parts and I understand it better. But in using Arch, you should have a look at wiki too for things you do, since you should do some little things by your own (In my case, it was enabling Bluetooth, Fstrim, Hardware Acceleration, ...).
Here's a good place to start: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/General_recommendations
Also AUR is a really great way to install any package that it's not in repos. It actually turn anything into a Pacman package.
