Arch isn't normally something I'd use but uni needed it. - eviltoast

Had to install Arch recently because it would help pad word count. Normally I wouldn’t pick it because it takes so long to install for an experience that doesn’t feel different enough to warrant that time. But I had to for uni so I thought people here might appreciate my attempt at making a pretty desktop. If anyone has tips with Gnome on here feel free to fire away aswell.

  • chi-chan~@lemmy.world
    181·
    9 months ago

    If you don’t want to go through the regular install, why not to just use archinstall or EndeavourOS?

      • Petter1@lemm.ee
        5·
        9 months ago

        😄installing Linux on a macbookpro5,3 and get the grafic driver working would definitely have enough pad word count 🫣 well at least in the way how I did it.

    • moreeni@lemm.ee
      4·
      9 months ago

      They study at a based uni that made them go through the manual install, frfr

    • oo1@kbin.social
      1·
      9 months ago

      I guess learning may be part of the objective.

      frankly I’d probably use one of those easy options in a new install.
      But i’m personally glad to have gone through the process manually at least a couple of times on a few different systems, just to learn about various bits and pieces that may or may not be needed in different circumstances.

      So yeah give that to students as a learning task - more useful than lots of the crap i was told to read.
      I’d be surprised if it was a pre-requisite to do other coursework though

    • SakuraCosmos@programming.devOP
      182·
      9 months ago

      We have a word limit and the assignment I’m currently doing assumed you can get a work placement. Which I can’t because no local companies are taking this year (The place I love has maybe 6 tech companies if you are generous). So I’m having to find other ways to display "A knowledge of best practices for tech in a workplace.

        • SakuraCosmos@programming.devOP
          41·
          9 months ago

          It’s not Arch itself that’s the skill. It’s how it’s configured and used for specific purposes that counts to the marks.

          • /home/pineapplelover@lemm.ee
            3·
            9 months ago

            I definitely think that putting Arch or any Linux distro for that matter shows technical know-how and troubleshooting skills. Being familiar in bash and shell is a big bonus in a lot of roles as well.

      • SakuraCosmos@programming.devOP
        51·
        9 months ago

        I wanted to do Gentoo but compile times didn’t count towards hours. And you can’t really get a lot of words from “I waited 8 hours for Firefox to build.”

        • AlmightySnoo 🐢🇮🇱🇺🇦@lemmy.world
          11·
          9 months ago

          And you can’t really get a lot of words from “I waited 8 hours for Firefox to build.”

          You actually can if you describe the build process and how emerge works, how you can customize the packages with Gentoo’s USE flags etc…

          • SakuraCosmos@programming.devOP
            4·
            9 months ago

            Yea but Arch has all of that already. I can’t write about Portage outside of “It builds for your cpu. Which is great but everything is built for am64 anyways so it isn’t worth the wait time” which I did. Sure you could write about use flags but it’s university work and I atleast value some of my free time.

  • drwankingstein@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    31·
    9 months ago

    does arch take a long time to install? maybe its just experienced linux user talk, but getting a working arch install is maybe like, 5 minutes with somewhat decently fast internet. 10min maybe if you want a fancy desktop, or 30-40min if your DE comes from the AUR and you need to compile a lot

    • datavoid@lemmy.mlEnglish
      4·
      9 months ago

      If you’re not using an installer and you’ve never set up an OS via CLI, installing arch takes a very long time. The installation wiki isn’t short, and it’s fairly complex.