Finally... something I can embrace. I thank you all.

azemute · 2008-04-22 03:53:21

I will preface this by saying that this deviates from my normal forum activities in almost every way:
-normally I don't post opinions
-normally I don't praise people
-normally I wait weeks or months to get the feel for a community before I get involved in it
-normally I lurk in the shadows and help people with really obscure questions they can't find answers to...

but that all said and done, this is not a normal situation.

Oh no. This is a highly unique situation infact. A cause for celebration even.

This is the first time in the last 5-7 years I've actually ENJOYED installing linux on one of my machines.

Alright, I've definitely enjoyed setting up different things over the years, but this is far more widespread. Without going into detail about RHL4 or compiling my gentoo kernel for the eighth consecutive time that afternoon or years of debian support or ubuntu or suse or... well, you get the picture. I've tried things over the years, things that would make people laugh or cry... but nothing quite like Arch.

I'm... awestruck, literally. I have no better words for it. This is, in every shape and form the distribution I've been looking for. Every step of the way I've been pleased with the results I get. Guided by a KISS principle is a joy, things are exactly setup the way I could not have come up better with myself... the list goes on.

I guess, simply put, that I've found a place I can call my own. I had been "just barely putting up with" other distributions, generally... none were quite what I wanted. Too much, too little, too many options, too few. Yet my little saturday afternoon project turned out to be the biggest windfall of the month; nay, year, possibly decade.

Sigh, now I just feel like I'm a ranting zealot, converted almost overnight. I must watch myself, or I'll be a stuttering fool. However, I will applaude everyone who has contributed in any way to this wonderful distribution: be it forum, wiki or general contributor. You've made me very happy.

With any luck, I'll be able to return the favour in due time, until then I return to this astounding distro... so perfectly suited to my tastes.

-Zac

rson451 · 2008-04-22 04:40:44

welcome to arch. please enjoy your stay! hop on over to #archlinux on freenode if you get bored, there's always something going on there.

Sigi · 2008-04-22 05:02:09

Hi azemute, welcome to arch!

I know exactly how you feel right now. I experienced the same when I installed Arch for the first time. Have a lot of fun, looking forward to see you around!

ramoneur · 2008-04-22 06:43:34

yo azemute welcome!
I too experienced the joy and happines you are feeeling right now when i for the first time tried out arch after trying alot of other distros. and those feelings have never gone away, cause the community here is unbelivable. whatever nooby question it may be, theres always someone there to help you, i know it has been like that for me

dolby · 2008-04-22 06:52:14

as ive said before many times, simply put, Archlinux spoils you

welcome

Last edited by dolby (2008-04-22 06:53:31)

hrikkengaa · 2008-04-22 09:40:42

I am also a newcomer to arch..love at first sight...Azemute I know how you feel..

Finally home...

funkyou · 2008-04-22 09:47:15

Welcome to Arch, and dont forget to fasten your seat belts

bgc1954 · 2008-04-22 14:08:54

I too floated around many linux distros--kind of a distro junky for quite awhile. I still like to see what the others have to offer once in a while but my main distro on three machines is Arch. Now all I have to decide on is openbox, E17, KDEmod, etc. Oh yeah...welcome to Arch, enjoy your stay.

Misfit138 · 2008-04-22 14:25:32

Welcome to Arch! We always appreciate users who embrace this fine distro!
Did you use the Beginner's Guide? What are your impressions of the wiki?

phrakture · 2008-04-22 15:50:57

azemute wrote:

I'm... awestruck, literally. I have no better words for it. This is, in every shape and form the distribution I've been looking for. Every step of the way I've been pleased with the results I get. Guided by a KISS principle is a joy, things are exactly setup the way I could not have come up better with myself... the list goes on.

Welcome aboard azemute,
It's great to see posts like this every once in a while, so thank you. The community here can be really helpful, so feel free to ask questions or help out.

I hope you stick with Arch for a long time. 8)

azemute · 2008-04-22 17:30:48

Misfit138 wrote:

Welcome to Arch! We always appreciate users who embrace this fine distro!
Did you use the Beginner's Guide? What are your impressions of the wiki?

In the end, I came back to the Wiki. I did so, infact, time and time again.

Initially it was my intention to "just try things out", using what previous knowledge I had applied countless times before; but every time I googled a topic, it returned me to the arch wiki. It was at that point I decided it would be more efficient to just read the damned thing and follow the exceptionally good advice it contained.

I must say, it was a refreshing experience. Articles were generally well laid out, with a variety of methods of accomplishing each task [suspend2, I'm thinking of specifically as I write this]. And there were not an excessive number of hoops to jump through; infact, I'd say, that there were just the right number.

A little bit of detail:
In the past, I've found that a good sign of how much of a chore setting up a distro will be becomes very much apparent based on how well the Xorg.conf file gets laid out. Don't get me wrong, it's certainly not a "sure indicator", but generally you get this eerie feeling of foreshadowing when your X session will not start no matter what you do.

So you can guess that when X refused to start completely I wasn't feeling too encouraged. I, of course, had encountered this before, so I had a few places to start, but the issues could take some serious reading to get by. This was, at first, the case with Arch, and I won't go into the details, but I will point out that it was the wiki that solved my problems and that they were not at all difficult to solve in the end.

But that's not the point... the point was that... for the first time I've ever, in the years of X implementations and configurations had a sense of accomplishment and enjoyment from setting up X. It worried me.

"One does not *enjoy* configuring X." I thought

When I turned around and it took less than 10 minutes to get splashy, acpi, alsa, kdemod and NetworkManager running flawlessly, the way I had envisioned when I started out, I knew that something was horribly amiss.

Obviously the fates had been playing with me, making things go so well just to take it all away in a blink of an eye, right? But apparently not.

This side of Linux is not supposed to be "fun". Yet my laptop at home stands as a testament to deny this fact.

For now, there will still be an exploration phase. There are a few applications that I intend to port over, even if just for personal use, or properly to AUR; but I need to get my bearings on "the right way to do things". I hate sub-optimal implementations, so I hesitate to attempt to commit anything I'm not proud of, so I'm just going to bide my time while I continue work on some of my personal projects while I learn what I can.

Finally, thanks for the warm welcome. A good community is a hard thing to find, but certainly worth the effort. It's easy to justify contributing back to something that works well together.

Sigi · 2008-04-22 20:02:51

azemute wrote:

For now, there will still be an exploration phase. There are a few applications that I intend to port over, even if just for personal use, or properly to AUR; but I need to get my bearings on "the right way to do things". I hate sub-optimal implementations, so I hesitate to attempt to commit anything I'm not proud of, so I'm just going to bide my time while I continue work on some of my personal projects while I learn what I can.

If you don't feel comfortable in uploading you first PKGBUILDs to the AUR feel free to post them in here.
Have fun by further exploring Arch!

finferflu · 2008-04-22 22:42:16

Welcome to the last stop
I, too enjoyed Arch from the moment I started installing it. It felt fresh and new, and everything fell into place. Neat and polished, the real state-of-the-art of a Linux distribution.

Arch Linux

#1 2008-04-22 03:53:21

Finally... something I can embrace. I thank you all.

#2 2008-04-22 04:40:44

Re: Finally... something I can embrace. I thank you all.

#3 2008-04-22 05:02:09

Re: Finally... something I can embrace. I thank you all.

#4 2008-04-22 06:43:34

Re: Finally... something I can embrace. I thank you all.

#5 2008-04-22 06:52:14

Re: Finally... something I can embrace. I thank you all.

#6 2008-04-22 09:40:42

Re: Finally... something I can embrace. I thank you all.

#7 2008-04-22 09:47:15

Re: Finally... something I can embrace. I thank you all.

#8 2008-04-22 14:08:54

Re: Finally... something I can embrace. I thank you all.

#9 2008-04-22 14:25:32

Re: Finally... something I can embrace. I thank you all.

#10 2008-04-22 15:50:57

Re: Finally... something I can embrace. I thank you all.

#11 2008-04-22 17:30:48

Re: Finally... something I can embrace. I thank you all.

#12 2008-04-22 20:02:51

Re: Finally... something I can embrace. I thank you all.

#13 2008-04-22 22:42:16

Re: Finally... something I can embrace. I thank you all.

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