The best part about Arch Linux is that you can put your operating system together, piece by piece. The worst part about Arch Linux is that you have to put your operating system together, piece by piece. It's a system that feels amazing once you've gotten everything set up and working, but getting to that point can be really difficult.

Fortunately, if you want to give Arch Linux a try but you're not excited about the prospect of watching a distro setup guide on YouTube on your phone while your PC shows a blank command line, you're in luck. There's a distro that's based on Arch Linux called EndeavourOS, and it allows you to skip all the setup and get right into the good stuff.

EndeavourOS removes the setup that Arch Linux demands

It feels more like a regular setup than anything

As much as I rank Arch Linux highly in my internal tier list of distros, it may not be the ideal first pick for a newcomer to Linux. It's not impossible for a novice to get it set up, by any means. After all, there are plenty of good guides on YouTube, and the Arch Linux Wiki has everything you ever wanted to know about the system, plus stuff you didn't think you needed to know.

However, if you want to use an Arch-based system but the idea of manually setting up partitions via command line, establishing your Wi-Fi connection, and tweaking your Linux distro down to what core it uses, then EndeavourOS skips all that. It sacrifices a lot of the customization you get when installing Arch Linux from scratch, with the tradeoff that it comes with everything you'll need ready to go out of the box.

Here's a quick question for you: do you prefer GNOME or KDE Plasma? If your response to that question is wondering why I'm comparing garden ornaments to a state of matter, then you're likely better off using EndeavourOS. Picking out your desktop environment of choice is part of the Arch Linux experience, but EndeavourOS comes with KDE Plasma pre-installed, which is my personal favorite environment that I recommend to people moving from Windows. So you'll be in good hands from the get-go.

EndeavourOS attracts like-minded people to its community

Asking for help doesn't feel so bad

Okay, so I'm going to take a brief dip into the world of anecdotal evidence here. As someone who has tried both EndeavourOS and Arch Linux, I noticed that the community hubs for both distros attract people who resonate with each OS's core design.

If you pick EndeavourOS because you're new to Linux, you feel that setting up a distro sounds scary, and you want to check out everything Arch can do from a safe distance, you'll find that the people you talk to in the EndeavourOS community feel the same way. They'll understand where you're coming from and will take the time to offer help. If you pick Arch Linux because you think nano is bloat, well, you'll find yourself among people who are also die-hard vets.

As such, if you want to ask questions and get help with basic elements of your OS, EndeavourOS will give you a community of people who are in the same boat as you. The helpers are accustomed to newbies migrating to EndeavourOS to see what Linux is like, so they'll be ready and willing to answer your simple questions. There's even a newbie category on the EndeavourOS forums for stuff like that. That's not to say the Arch Linux community is openly hostile or anything, but you'll likely feel more at home among a community that expects total newcomers and their queries.

However, I do recommend setting up Arch Linux once in your life

Make it a bucket list thing

As a beginner distro, I think EndeavourOS is really good. It's easy to set up, comes with some excellent user-friendly features by default, and lets you get started with Linux in just a few minutes. However, if you ever get the itch to give the full-blown Arch Linux distro a try, I do highly recommend it. Yes, it is scary, so you may want to try setting it up on a secondary device. Failing that, you can back up your primary and set it up on that instead. And you'll want the aforementioned wiki on hand and a YouTube guide that fits what you need.

However, despite all of that, getting Arch Linux installed and running is a really cool experience that I think everyone should try once. It taught me a lot about Linux distros tick, and while I have since retreated to my cozy home at Fedora Kinoite, I'm still glad I did it. If you want to see what setting up Arch Linux is like, you can check out when I took the rite of passage or when one of our editors did it. You can also check out what our resident Arch Linux fan, Rich Edmonds, thinks about the distro. Finally, you can see why our other resident Linux fan, Jeff Butts, can't be bothered with Arch Linux as a daily driver.

EndeavourOS is a great start, but don't count out Arch Linux forever

If you're new to Linux and you're not fond of the idea of setting up Arch Linux, EndeavourOS gives you everything you need. It has a nice GUI installation process, it comes with the best defaults already set up, and it has a welcoming community. But, while it's perfectly suitable to stick with EndeavourOS forever, don't let Arch Linux intimidate you too much. Once you've got your Linux chops, give installing Arch Linux a try. It's more fun than it looks.