“I have been using Arch Linux for the longest time, and it has been a great system—or at least, that’s what I would say in a perfect world.”

Arch Linux is like LFS (Linux From Scratch) but simpler. Since the introduction of archinstall, it has become more… let’s just say “dumber,” though it’s still quite a good system.

If you want to learn about a Linux system but don’t want to waste 60+ hours of your life on Gentoo before binaries, it’s quite a good distro. However, I wouldn’t recommend using the archinstall system. What’s the point if you do? I’d only recommend Arch if you know what you’re doing or if you’ve manually installed it at least twice with custom settings, like using BTRFS, custom repositories, or even Artix instead of Arch.

Arch is a rolling release, which means it doesn’t have defined versions like most software. It just keeps updating—and will do so as long as it’s maintained.

That said, it comes with its own set of challenges. If you want to do something unique, like running Linux from Google Drive (source), Arch Linux can handle it. Though, I would argue Alpine Linux is better for such cases.

All in all, Arch is a flexible, minimal, and community-driven Linux distro. People love it, and so do I. It has its challenges, but there’s a reason why I keep switching back to it.