I’m of the opinion that if you’re a newbie to Linux and want to use a more GUI-centric distro, then be my guest, telling someone to jump straight into something like Arch when they’re just ditching Windows for the first time is more likely to just turn them off Linux forever.
That said, as said newbie gets more comfortable with the terminal, Arch is there if they want more of a challenge, and even then with archinstall, the main difficult part is effectively nullified, although for more advanced, long-term users, fully manual installation is still there on the Arch ISO as an option, but I’d be more likely to point them to something like Debian or OpenSUSE Tumbleweed to start with as those are generally more beginner-friendly than Arch is.
It’s not either-or. You can install KDE on Arch with one button in the archinstall you mentioned, and it will be a GUI based distro, you can happily live moving your mouse around the coloured buttons if that’s your fancy.
The general point I’m trying at is just sending a newbie straight off the deep end instead of letting them in easy to start off with and letting them move on to greater challenges on their own when they feel like they’re ready for it, is going to hurt the cause of presenting Linux as a viable Windows or Mac alternative, way more than it’ll help it.
Just pointing someone just ditching Windows or Mac for the first time with no terminal experience at all, straight to Arch, Gentoo, or even Slackware, is only going to fluster them and maybe even piss them off, which the last thing you want to do when introducing someone to a new platform, is alienate them in any way as opposed to welcoming them in, which pointing them straight to a more challenging distro instead of letting them on easy with a more beginner-friendly one and letting them move on to a more challenging one when they’re ready for it, will definitely alienate potential new users.
Think of introducing someone to a new OS platform for the first time, as if you’re teaching someone how to draw for the first time, for example, ideally you’d pick fun and simple exercises to teach them the basics before going into the deeper intricacies of the subject matter at a later date if they continue to be interested in the subject matter, pointing a new Linux user to something like Debian or OpenSUSE, or even Mint so they can learn the basics of the OS platform before moving on to a more advanced distro like Arch or Slackware, is the IT equivalent of that.
In my latest experience, pointing someone coming from Windows or Mac towards Ubuntu or whatever Ubuntu-derrivative is the most popular now, brings worse experience than giving them Arch. All the problems with Ubuntu that will eventually arise will not be fun and basic. Have you ever tried to teach a noobie to install the correct NVidia drivers? Or teach someone how to upgrade their system-wide python version so their third-party ppa repo will correctly update (one that you just taught them how to add)?
I don’t know, maybe like 15 years ago that was different, but right now I can tell you from numerous experiences, Arch with KDE goes down way more smoothly than any Ubuntu or even Debian.
Unless there are zero problems and everything just works, and the user just uses the computer as an interface for Chrome, in which case it kind of doesn’t matter.
Also, Endeavour is a thing if someone is a true newbie to the platform and is looking for a prebuilt distro, and archinstall nullifies a lot of the ‘difficulty’ in airquotes of installing Arch.
I’m of the opinion that if you’re a newbie to Linux and want to use a more GUI-centric distro, then be my guest, telling someone to jump straight into something like Arch when they’re just ditching Windows for the first time is more likely to just turn them off Linux forever.
That said, as said newbie gets more comfortable with the terminal, Arch is there if they want more of a challenge, and even then with archinstall, the main difficult part is effectively nullified, although for more advanced, long-term users, fully manual installation is still there on the Arch ISO as an option, but I’d be more likely to point them to something like Debian or OpenSUSE Tumbleweed to start with as those are generally more beginner-friendly than Arch is.
It’s not either-or. You can install KDE on Arch with one button in the archinstall you mentioned, and it will be a GUI based distro, you can happily live moving your mouse around the coloured buttons if that’s your fancy.
The general point I’m trying at is just sending a newbie straight off the deep end instead of letting them in easy to start off with and letting them move on to greater challenges on their own when they feel like they’re ready for it, is going to hurt the cause of presenting Linux as a viable Windows or Mac alternative, way more than it’ll help it.
Just pointing someone just ditching Windows or Mac for the first time with no terminal experience at all, straight to Arch, Gentoo, or even Slackware, is only going to fluster them and maybe even piss them off, which the last thing you want to do when introducing someone to a new platform, is alienate them in any way as opposed to welcoming them in, which pointing them straight to a more challenging distro instead of letting them on easy with a more beginner-friendly one and letting them move on to a more challenging one when they’re ready for it, will definitely alienate potential new users.
Think of introducing someone to a new OS platform for the first time, as if you’re teaching someone how to draw for the first time, for example, ideally you’d pick fun and simple exercises to teach them the basics before going into the deeper intricacies of the subject matter at a later date if they continue to be interested in the subject matter, pointing a new Linux user to something like Debian or OpenSUSE, or even Mint so they can learn the basics of the OS platform before moving on to a more advanced distro like Arch or Slackware, is the IT equivalent of that.
In my latest experience, pointing someone coming from Windows or Mac towards Ubuntu or whatever Ubuntu-derrivative is the most popular now, brings worse experience than giving them Arch. All the problems with Ubuntu that will eventually arise will not be fun and basic. Have you ever tried to teach a noobie to install the correct NVidia drivers? Or teach someone how to upgrade their system-wide python version so their third-party ppa repo will correctly update (one that you just taught them how to add)?
I don’t know, maybe like 15 years ago that was different, but right now I can tell you from numerous experiences, Arch with KDE goes down way more smoothly than any Ubuntu or even Debian.
Unless there are zero problems and everything just works, and the user just uses the computer as an interface for Chrome, in which case it kind of doesn’t matter.
Also, Endeavour is a thing if someone is a true newbie to the platform and is looking for a prebuilt distro, and archinstall nullifies a lot of the ‘difficulty’ in airquotes of installing Arch.