We dont know each other; but I am in that camp. Been using Arch for years. I enjoy it very much so.

Oh there are absolutely benefits to using an Atomi distro. However, for someone such as myself where I am constantly modifying my systems it doesn’t make a lot of sense. For an end user that I would deploy an OS for it would make for easier support of their system. Like, if I were to get my mother to use Linux, I would choose an Atomic distro. And make it painless for me to support. She wouldn’t do much customization that would require the same level of flexibility I would need for myself.

By trade I am a sys admin. So it’s an easy thing for me to do for myself. I do sys admin work by day, and by night. The difference between the two is that for work I am shackled to the likes of Microsoft products. And by night, I am admin over a system that I love. So it’s easily separatable for me. But I get it, you do something all day, you may not want to do it all night too.

Which, all this discussion brings to me one of my favorite thing about Linux. It can be built and used for such a wide variety of use cases, wants and needs. Not being locked into one way of using it is beautiful.

I have learned of Linux from Scratch. I love the idea of it. I have sunk my teeth into learning a bit about it. I have dabbled; but never made huge progress on it.

Oh absolutely, Arch was my entry way to a deeper understanding. While I can and do compile packages myself, and pick and choose different parts of my system; it isn’t the same as doing it from scratch.

I have tried a few Atomic Distros, and they just aren’t my thing. Even my steam deck I switched to cachyos because I didn’t want to change my behavior in how I interact with my OS.

Luckily as far as something just working; my Arch install is set and forget. I just update regularly and everything continues to work. I have not had to troubleshoot really anything.

For my usecase, I am running Arch with Limine on a luks encrypted btrfs drive with snapper and tools to sync snapshots to limine. Add in a few other tweaks, probably more I have forgotten about. And I have my perfect system.

But eventually I will delve further into LFS.

And that is just my desktop. I also have a separate arch install for my laptop. Then I have multiple servers I run various distros on. Fedora Server, Raspberry Pi OS. And I even have a test machine I use to test drive other distros and use to install packages I want to test before implementing into my current system.

As someone that was already in the IT realm professionally, and had previously dabbled with Linux on old hardware I decided that I would take the plunge. Trial by fire if you will.

Every distribution I had tried up to Arch didn’t sit well with me. At least not to replace my Windows install. On the same note; I hated that I could only delve so deep into understanding my Windows system. And I absolutely despise the data greed from Microsoft as well.

It was time to take matters into my own hands. What better way for me to learn than to “build it myself.”

The Arch Wiki was a huge help. First install I ever did I neglected to use archinstall. Just so that I could grasp some of the concepts of what archinstall was doinig.

The more and more I used Arch, the more and more I learned.

Arch has been the distribution for me. It has offered me everything that I need, and everything that I want. It has become mine to a degree that I am comfortable. It has taught me so much that it makes using other Linux distributions natural. The only real difference is that other distributions I use I just have to learn what underlying services and such are on it, and even then, the Arch Wiki has me covered.

I talk about Linux with a lot of people. Anywhere from non-technical users, to technical users.

I have gotten a few people to try it. But ultimately in my real life circle I am the only competent Linux user. And I can’t get non tech people to try it.