For a while, I was known pretty well exclusively as “that ubuntu geek”. I would make my facebook pictures the most recent ubuntu animal, and whenever someone would ask me for computer help… I’d install Ubuntu along side their Windows (for the next time that their winblows inevitably broke down).
And things were great, for a while. I liked Ubuntu, and Ubuntu seemed to like me.
And then, Ubuntu netbook remix came out - a dire sign of things to come. This would be the basis for their new UI using Unity desktop… an OS-X clone. The reasons why I left OS-X came flooding back to me. Also, I got tired of all the bloat that Ubuntu was throwing. Startup times were getting longer and longer, and an install/configure job would be a half day affair.
Enter Arch. Nice and light-weight, designed for developers. No package you don’t want - no package you don’t need. Want it? Install it. No package? Find a package build from the AUR, and just built it yourself.
Arch forces you to build your system from the ground up (providing you the necessary scaffolding and support as you do it - they also have an unbeatable wiki), rather than trimming off all the fat that Ubuntu crams down your throat. Now my system does exactly what I want, installs take no time at all, and boot-up is lightning fast. Not to mention arch’s rolling release system, which means you can simply upgrade an existing system, rather than basically being forced to re-install a huge chunk of packages with Ubuntus iteration based released system.
With Ubuntu, I was a Linux user. With Arch, I’m a Linux developer.