Until a year ago, I had only ever used Windows as my desktop operating system, and for the seven or so months after that, my primary platform became macOS. It wasn't until May that I decided (nudged by work) to dive into Linux, making my first experience as intimidating as possible by going all-in on Arch Linux.

At the time, I had a lot of grievances with it as a first-timer. Setup seemed unnecessarily complicated, and I can definitely see how it would deter a newcomer from making the switch. But after just a few months, Arch Linux quickly became my favorite distro, and while it may come with some hurdles, I still find it the best option as a Windows convert. It may not be for everyone, but if you're willing to learn a little bit, it quickly becomes less intimidating.

Archinstall is a blessing

It makes setting up much easier

A typical Arch setup process can be very off-putting. Everything is done in the terminal and there's no clear guidance to get you started unless you look it up online. However, if you do search online for a bit (or read the next few words), you'll quickly learn about archinstall. This is a command that launches an installation setup that's more like a GUI. It's still very much like the Terminal in terms of looks, but it makes all the available options readily visible so you can jump into what you need to configure.

Even then, it can still be intimidating, I understand. Archinstall needs to be downloaded, so you still need to connect to the internet using the iwctl command if you're using Wi-Fi (a wired connection makes things easier). Plus, archinstall shows so many options that it can still feel overwhelming. But it does give you a place to start, and you can much more easily get a little bit of help from an online guide. Or, what I personally recommend, have a friend help you through the initial setup. Yes, it's a little cumbersome, but frankly, the average Joe would also not be that comfortable installing Windows from scratch, either, so this isn't completely new territory.

If you have any inkling of familiarity with a command line interface and you're willing to put in just a bit of work to learn the process, installing Arch is nowhere near as frustrating as you might think.

Flatpak makes it easier to get apps

It's not that hard to set up, either

Recently, my colleague Ty Sherback wrote about why Flatpak is such a great tool to have for Linux newcomers, and I absolutely agree. Flatpak is a package management system used for installing, updating, or removing apps, and it's designed with a big focus on ease of use. Unlike most Linux package managers, Flatpak often comes with a GUI for installing your apps, or has apps designed to work with it, such as Bazaar or Discover.

Combining Flatpak with these two apps gives you a clean, effective interface for installing apps that anyone can use. Bazaar, particularly, has a very modern-feeling and clean UI that has the visual flair you'd like in a modern storefront, with a Discover page making it easy to find new apps, easy search, and so on. It's a very nice storefront for a beginner.

Flatpak has been growing pretty quickly in popularity, so a lot of apps you might want are already available on the primary Flathub source, so you can find things like web browser, office suites, image editors like GIMP, and much more through Flatpak. What that means is you shouldn't need to spend that much time using the terminal to get the apps you need.

Frequent (but optional) updates

Arch is on the bleeding edge

The Linux kernel is the heart of any Linux distribution, and it gets updated fairly frequently to improve compatibility with a wide range of hardware. However, a lot of the more popular distros can ship with older versions of the Linux kernel, which can mean worse compatibility for newer hardware. For example, when I set up Linux Mint for the first time, Wi-Fi didn't work on my laptop, and I had to use a wired connection to install a newer Linux kernel, which was optional. As a more extreme example, when I tested Tails, it simply wouldn't boot on the last two generations of Intel processors.

Arch usually ships with the latest version of the Linux kernel from the main branch, and updates come out frequently, meaning you're always on the bleeding edge in terms of features, hardware compatibility, and so on. Of course, you could always install an optional kernel update on any other distribution, but Arch usually comes with a very recent version out of the box, so you don't need to worry as much.

And while updates for Arch are frequent — not just for the Linux kernel but for other system packages — they're always optional and easy to manage. A simple command like sudo pacman -Syu will update all your system packages in one go, without requiring a reboot. You can restart to apply the updates whenever you're ready.

Choose your desktop

Configurable from the get-go

Any Linux distro will allow you to install different desktop environments, but most of them will have a default that you then need to switch from, which means you likely end up choosing a distro that comes with the desktop envirnment you're most likely to like. But by doing so, you may run into the issue above, where said distro has an older Linux kernel, or maybe another downside that makes it less palatable.

With Arch, you choose the desktop environment you want during setup, so you still get the latest Linux kernel, and you can then pair it with any of the desktop environments you prefer. Want something more like Windows? Cinnamon or KDE Plasma may be for you. Looking for something new and heavily customizable? Maybe GNOME is what you need. You can choose any (or all) of these during setup so you get the experience you need without being tied to a distro that may have a lot of other downsides.

You can always try CachyOS

Making things even easier

Even if you find the base Arch release a little too cumbersome, you can get most of the benefits of Arch with a more user-friendly setup by using one of the many Arch-based distros, with one of the best being CachyOS. This distro keeps the same lightweight experience Arch offers, but it comes with a setup UI that makes it even easier to get started so you can choose all the important settings easily. This UI is based on KDE Plasma, but you still get the same freedom of choice for your actual desktop environment, so there's nothing being lost there.

In fact, CachyOS has other benefits, including its own GUI for installing apps out of the box, so you don't even need to install Flatpak (though Bazaar is still a much nicer UI), and more optimizations for specific hardware. But at its core, it still gets all the benefits of Arch, and it works great.

It's not for everyone, but it's still great

I'm not deluding myself into believing that the vast majority of Windows users can switch to Arch just like that, but I also don't think that same majority would consider switching to Linux at all. If you're seriously considering Linux to begin with, there's no reason Arch or one of its variants shouldn't be one of your top considerations. Personally, base Arch or CachyOS come highly recommended, and whenver I end up setting up a new laptop in the future, that's probably what I'm aiming for. I recommend others do the same.