Linux

If you have reading comprehension of, at least, an 8th-grader, you'll do just fine. The instructions are all there

As a very long time Arch user I wouldn't say "easy" like everyone else seems to. I absolutely would not suggest it for a first distro for someone, which is what I would classify as the "easy" level.

But if you're comfortable with using Linux, the terminal, and being able to follow written documentation you'll be able to do it just fine maybe with a little frustration the first time. If you're installing to a laptop, make sure to look up your model on the wiki first.

There is no such thing as easy or hard.

Give it a try, fuck it up, and give it a try again. Try not to fuck it up in the same way as the first time. Repeat until it works - it will work eventually.

It took me about 6 hours and 3 disk re-formats my first time. I was particularly bad at it. I barely knew what a disk was, nevermind a partition.

Actually I’m still not sure what a partition is.

You’ll do fine :)

It’s not to bad as others are saying. Real question is to why you don’t want to use the installer?

They are quite good. I just used one for a Gentoo install because I have better things to do with my time. Can I do it for the millionth time sure by hand sure but what’s the point? End result is more consistent than me as a human doing it by hand

Endeavour os done.

Easy or not depends vary wildly. But the usual task is

• partition the drive
• format the drive
• mount the drive
• install the base system

That is the bare minimum, but we need to do more configuration to be able to boot. Hence the next task is configuring the following

• fstab
• timezone, hostname, and networking
• boot loader (I just use the EFI directly nowadays)

That is it. Everything else is usually work specific. Like, if you wanted arch to be a server, you usually didn't install a GUI. For workstation and gaming, you need more steps but it will vary depending on hardware. The archwiki covers a good deal of hardware from laptop to desktop and their quirks.

The wiki holds your hand through it so it's pretty easy.

In general, I would say it’s not hard, but it’s not easy.

When I did it, I had some moderate Linux experience but I was by no means an expert. I did a few practice runs on a VM and made myself a runbook before I completed the install on my real computer. This allowed me to get a real sense for what I was doing and what each step did, exactly. When I ran into differences on my actual computer, the time I spent researching and doing it on the VM helped me to overcome any confusion and complete the install successfully. The wiki has all the information you need.

So, from beginning to end, I spent a weekend on it, including the few dry runs I did on the VM and configuring my system after the actual install was complete. If you’re not already quite familiar with Linux, I think it’s wise to do it this way because you build in time to learn, as opposed to just getting a working system as quickly as possible.

Easy if you go step by step and don't accidentally skip anything. Archinstall will get you to the same result with lower risk of failure, in a tenth of the amount of time spent. And unless you install operating systems for a living, it doesn't matter how you get there. Source: Installed Arch on about a dozen different devices, twice without Archinstall.

If you're looking to learn something, do Linux from Scratch instead. The process is way more granular, way more documented, and way more educational than parroting the steps of installing Arch from the wiki.

Practice in a VM and see for yourself! I did that, set everything up, and ultimately decided it was more system admin detail than I wanted to take on. But as far as ease goes, it's not especially hard, there's just not much in the way of hand-holding or preset configs, and you'll likely find there's a lot of preinstalled drivers and things you take for granted.

It’s easy if you have a second computer or phone or something and can read and plan first.

It’s hard if you want to just click click click through.

It'll depend a lot on your experience. I can just install Arch without reading the wiki at all in about 5 minutes for something fairly vanilla. If you're comfortable with Linux then following the wiki won't be too hard, took me maybe 2-3 hours on my first install before I had my DE and everything all set up (12 years ago). If you've never used Linux before and take the deep dive then it could take hours and days depending on how fast you can absorb all that information.

"Easy" is very subjective, there's stuff that's so dumbed down for the sake of "easy" that it makes my life harder when I need to do more complex stuff. I know people for whom linear algebra in 11 dimensions is easy for them to do and solve. Easy is relative to your own personal experience level and what you're trying to accomplish.

Install it in a VM as a test run, you'll see by yourself.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Installation_guide

archinstall is easy. The hard part about arch is maintaining it and keeping up to date with linux innovation. As long as you keep reading forum posts and news about linux and browse the arch wiki, there's nothing wrong with it. If you do not ever read about advances on linux, then don't use arch.

Just follow the wiki and you'll be fine. I did it when I was in highschool. My friend showed me Ubuntu and I used it for about a month then jumped straight to arch

if you know your way around a Linux system, it's really quite easy.

A lot easier than Gentoo

Now I'm kind of wanting to go mess with Gentoo again...

It's easy if you can follow directions, hard if you don't have directions, impossible if you don't have directions and don't know what you're doing; archinstall is effortless.

It's as easy as following any set of instructions. Whether or not you actually understand what the instructions are doing is an entirely different story. If you actually want to learn how to operate a posix system, doing a bunch of command line installs of Linux isn't going to help you with that. What will help is living in something with excellent documentation like OpenBSD, with minimal reliance on external tooling. Once you have the skills, they'll transfer anywhere.

i can do it on about 15 minutes without the wiki for a fairly basic install

and then about 30 minutes to set up sway how i want, install common software i like, etc

but for a more complex setup it will take longer and i will need to check the wiki

If you can put together Lego with the instructions or IKEA furniture, you'll be fine. It took me three tries, and I learnt stuff from each mistake, so the worst that can happen is you learn.

It's better than it used to be. It might still require some basic cli skills. Especially formatting disks and mount points. And file system types. Etc.

I know manjaro makes it even easier.

The reason to follow the archwiki install instructions is because it teaches you how to do a lot more than just install the OS. This will help you a lot down the line and not just with arch.

Pretty easy. It's not so much using intuition as it is reading step-by-step instructions. If you can use a cook book, you can install arch.

Source: I ~~use~~ once installed arch, btw

Its easy, follow the steps in the wiki and you'll be fine.

I had done a few easier Linux installs on Raspberry Pis and VMs in the past, but when I decided I wanted to try using Linux as my daily driver on my desktop (dual-booted with Windows at the time) I decided to go with a manual Arch install using a guide and I would 100% recommend it if you're trying to pick up Linux knowledge. It's really not a difficult process to just follow step-by-step, but I looked up each command as they came up in the guide so I could try to understand what I was doing and why.

I don't know what packages archinstall includes because I've never used it, but really the biggest thing for me learning was booting into a barebones Arch install. Looking into the different options for components and getting everything I needed setup and configured how I wanted was invaluable.

That being said, now that I know how, is that how I would choose to install it? Nah, I use the CachyOS installer now, but if I wanted stock Arch I'd probably use archinstall.

Takes just over a minute... How hard can it be

Since nobody else said it: make sure you have backups of any data you don't want to lose. It's really easy to accidentally partition any connected drive and wipe your data on it. (Learned it the hard way, but at least I had backups.)

I'll respond when I'm done doing it. I plan on firing up my 15+ year laptop and install it the Arch way for the hell of it.

Why no arch install?

It's not rocket science. You might need a wired connection to begin with though

Cant do if you never try