wltr

Hey, I solved the issue with the media by writing a custom app (it’s a bit more advanced than just a script) that copies the media to my server and inserts the links right into my posts. I’m at the stage of testing it, but so far it works. That allows me to host my blog on Cloudflare, plus have all my media on my own bare metal server, with as much storage as I need. Which is incredibly cheap. So far, I pay only for the domain name, and electricity to run my servers. But since they’re very energy efficient, that’s negligible.

Yeah, you’re right. Still, I think the more complex distros teach you wrong things, and you never arrive to the point of proper understanding what’s up. So delving into some complex things for a while may be much simpler than a novice expects, and faster get them to the point of somewhat understanding what they need.

Hey, sorry, I did not mean to argue with your very comment, but rather in general. Your comment is a nice addition to mine, by elaborating what the complexities are.

It’s just that it may be beginner friendly if the beginner is able to learn and explore (having time and headspace to learn those things). With Arch you have to know what you need, but apart from setting up the system, there’s nothing to learn. Say, I have never used KDE or Gnome on Arch, but I think I’d manage, if I’d need to. (I used them on Debian and Fedora, and on Arch I use only Sway, which I’m comfortable with.)

So, to someone, Arch may be the same thing as the Arch-based distro, considering that the person running it accepts they have to set their resources for learning this new system.

I started using Linux with Ubuntu (about 20 years ago), and I regret it. Wasted time. It was shite even back then. I’m not even interested in where they’re now. If I’d started Arch about that time (not sure it was around, maybe it was), or Gentoo as the friend recommended (in such a tone I got it that it’s too difficult for me to start with), I’d be in a much better place today. Instead, I used Debian and distro-hopped here and there. I’m mostly happy with Arch. I don’t run Gentoo because I don’t know it, and these days, in contrast to 20 years ago, I’m too packed with running errands that it rather sounds as a fun hobby project once nobody wants anything from me at least for a weekend, or better for a week or two.

I am pretty sure you can replace most Arch-based distros with a good manual (assuming it’s updated). Unfortunately, the Arch Wiki is nowhere near, but it’s something at least.

And probably a few scripts that automate typical setup and make it pretty can help too. You can even get many million dollars support from other rich guys, if you do that.

I think everyone needs to stop positioning Arch as something complicated. It’s not. Every Linux distro has nasty moments, and you’re better equipped to deal with them when you understand what’s happening. Perhaps that’s difficult concept for a newcomer (the idea that you need to understand what you’re doing, at least to some degree). But apart from the will to learn, there’s nothing really difficult and complicated in there. I had so many weird little moments with Fedora (which I assume should just mostly work out of the box), that if I had no knowledge Arch helped me to gain, I don’t know what would I do. I’ve consider migrating home shared computer from Fedora to Arch, and not doing it simply because it’s still mostly works on its own, and the Arch magic for me is in the customisations I have made. Fedora gave me unbootable system more times (with me doing nothing! Just updating) than Arch with me tinkering with basically everything all the time, that I won’t even say Arch is some complex mess. Rather the opposite, I think. That’s why I think scaring the newcomers away may be the wrong thing. It’s not too difficult if you’ve arrived to this point already. All you need is to accept you would learn along the way, and Arch (and the community!) would help.

I wrote you a long comment from my mobile, and it looks like it was lost.

Can you elaborate on that topic? I use ydotool for this, I’m on Sway.

‘Oh come on!’ was my initial reaction, but I’ve read your website, and thought: ‘hey, that sounds nice!’

I’m not going to migrate all my Arch boxes (basically all my x86/64 boxes), but I may use it somewhere else, just to test the idea.

I loved the idea of Atomic Fedora, but it did not work seamlessly, and to my experience, it did the opposite: worse than a regular Fedora. I needed to babysit it, and also it didn’t auto switch the previous working system for me. Perhaps it’s me who missed something. As an idea, though, I think that’s what should click to a normie: you tell them to install this distro, get your handful of apps as Flatpaks and forget about the system, as it manages itself.

To keep this topic alive, let me ask you a question: how would you know what’s a working state, so you need to return to the previous one? Does it mean it didn’t boot, or anything else? Just yesterday, I had faced a weird issue: my old trusty MacBook Pro serving as a server now, had no WiFi (it has Ethernet port, but temporarily I cannot use it, so it’s wireless). The broadcom-wl driver switched to linux-headers, which I didn’t have installed. I don’t remember me changing anything, and fortunately that was an easy fix (with an external USB WiFi card): just install Linux headers, and it would rebuild itself. So I’m just curious whether it’s even possible to find out a stupid issue a normie user may face.

On the other hand, perhaps the distros like this are meant to be installed by someone skilled to then be used mostly unattended by a regular user.