Why Are Arch Linux Users So TOXIC?

I've heard a lot about how toxic the Arch Linux Community is and I've even been accused myself of being a toxic Arc Linux elitist and if you spend any time around the web you can definitely see some snarky answers being directed to newbies by Arch veterans and you might even have been told to rtfm or read the friendly manual after asking a question that has a simple answer online basically instead of just telling them the answer they tell them to go do their own research and there's this General sentiment online that Arch Linux users are so elitist and condescending and that they think they're so much smarter than Ubuntu users so why can't Arch Linux users just be chill and be nice to people are they really as toxic as people say let's find out in this video now let's take a look at the arcs Linux user in the wild here's a common sight on the Arch Linux forum an innocent newbie is asking a question this might not be the brightest question because the solution can easily be found with a web search but this time let's just give them a break oh no someone has very rudely told him to read the manual and fix the problem himself look at that he just dropped a link to the Arts Linux Wiki and left why couldn't he have been nicer but first off we have to talk about Arch Linux and what it is so Arts Linux is notoriously a distribution for more technical users after all there is the infamous Arch Linux installation to deter newbies but for all his reputation I wouldn't really say that Arch Linux is a distribution just for the elite I think that newbies can use Arch Linux but the issue is if you want to use RX Linux you have to know that it is a do-it-yourself distro so on Arch Linux you are expected to do almost everything yourself after all the installation is very minimal whenever you install Arch Linux you'll basically get a terminal and that's it the only thing you'll see after you install it is just a TTY and the design philosophy behind RX Linux is to give the user the most control possible so the philosophy is not to be user friendly there's lots of other distributions that are user friendly and that's great but Arch is about being user-centric so what does that mean it means that you have the control to do everything that you want on your system is not like you're on Windows or something and something breaks and it's just a black box that you have no idea how to fix you can go into the system files and fix everything yourself and you are expected to and of course Arch Linux is not for everyone so on the Arch Linux Wiki they make it pretty clear that it is only for those who have the ability and the time and the desire for a do-it-yourself Linux distribution and a lot of people don't want that from Linux and it's totally fine a lot of people just want to click through an installer they don't want to spend the entire weekend tinkering on your computer in order to make it look a little bit nicer some people do like me and that's also totally fine if that is you then Arc Linux is probably for you but because of Arc linux's philosophy you're kind of expected to have a basic understanding of what you're doing on Arch Linux and let's not forget that ARS Linux has one of the most extensive resources in all of Linux the arch Wiki yes the fabled wiki where you can find answers to almost everything because just about any question that you have about Arch Linux can be answered from taking a few minutes and reading the wiki and resources for finding out about things are all over the place not just the wiki if you want to learn how to use a tiling Window Manager you read through the documentation you can run man in your terminal you can search up old Forum posts and to be honest 99 of the questions that I have when using my computer can be solved like this and thousands and thousands of hours have gone into the archwiki and all these resources so use them and if you ask a question online maybe let's say for example on the Arts Linux subreddit or the art Linux forums you do have to keep in mind that people here are volunteering their time for free so be respectful of their time and when somebody does ask a stupid question because like it or not some questions are kind of stupid like somebody asking a question on the Forum when all they could do is paste that question into a web search and immediately get the answer then you can understand why somebody might be a little bit frustrated to find a question that can be answered easily with just a few minutes of research overall Arch Linux is really not that hard I've done videos in the past explaining how it's really not as bad as a lot of people imagine and know on RX Linux things aren't constantly breaking all the time you aren't having to constantly fix things and arts Linux isn't that hard it just requires patience reading and a lot of manual configuration now is probably too complicated for someone who just wants a drop-in operating system on their computer but if you don't mind learning new things and tinkering around with your system then you'll probably really enjoy using Arch Linux now if that doesn't sound appealing to you at all if the thought of spending a few hours trying to fix grub because you broke it sounds completely unappealing then Arch Linux probably isn't for you and that's fine some people get really offended when people tell them you probably shouldn't be using Arch because they think maybe they're saying they're too stupid for Arch but I wouldn't really say you're too stupid for Arch it just means that you don't want to spend all day tinkering with your system like I said in the past there's plenty of other great distributions besides Arch that would probably fit your needs better if that's not you now of course you're not Elite just because you managed to install arcs Linux it doesn't make you an expert and in fact it's getting even more accessible these days with things like the arch install script but using Arch Linux for a long period of time kind of gets you more into the do-it-yourself mindset that you need to enjoy Arch Linux things will break you're going to have to go into system files and fix them and if you never read the wiki or the documentation or the Man pages and try to figure things out yourself if you just rely on everyone else to answer questions for you then you probably won't get very far on Arch Linux I think that using Arch Linux does make you more independent in a way and so people using Arch Linux will expect you to do the same now of course if you do want to ask a question if you just can't figure something out on Arch Linux it happens every once in a while but you want to ask smart questions if you do then you're not going to get the negativity from posting a question that wastes people's time because there are some questions out there that definitely waste people's time and can annoy them like if you ask why isn't my Arch Linux booting without providing any other information then nobody's really going to be able to help you and people don't want to go back and forth with you asking for your system specs the version of Linux you're using the error messages you're receiving so if you do want your question answered just provide as much information as you can up front what you've already done to try to fix the problem and just try to make it as easy as possible for someone to answer your question and if you just ask better questions then you're going to get a lot less dismissive replies and more actually helpful advice so that's one spectrum of the toxic Arch Linux users another thing a lot of people complain about is how Superior Arch Linux users think they are but you do have to remember that a lot of what you see about ARS Linux online is ironic including in my videos in my videos whenever I say I use Arch by the way it's not me dunking on Ubuntu users it's literally just a meme I know I'm not supposed to explain the joke because it makes it less funny but that's what it is most of the time so if you get offended by somebody on 4chan saying that if you don't use Arch Linux then you're the small brain wool Jack and I'm the Chad well you probably just got trolled epic style because I really don't think that there are that many people that unironically view themselves as so much smarter and so much more Superior just overusing some Linux distribution I think a lot of it is actually people like Ubuntu users that take memes too seriously and get kind of an inferiority complex and I know that because it was kind of myself whenever I used Ubuntu before I knew that it wasn't the cool distro I knew it was like the newbies distribution and I kind of felt dumb just because I didn't use a more advanced distro but of course nothing is wrong with using Ubuntu or gnome or Nano instead of Vim or anything else it's more of people just poking fun at you but sometimes the memes are there just because the person who made it thinks that is better like for example I shall Arch Linux a lot just because I think it's the best tool for the job at least in my case I really was not happy using Linux until I found arch for me at least the experience using Ubuntu was pretty bad like after using Vim for years I kind of want to poke fun at myself in the past for using Nano when learning Vim was such a game changer for me so I know that we're on the internet and you can't really convey sarcasm that well on the internet but a lot of it is just that and sure I'm sure that there are some people out there that the only thing going on in their life is that they're proficient at using Linux and so they lowered over the fact that they're better than a Linux Noob but I really don't think it's the vast majority of people like I said I use it because for me it's the best tool for the job not for some weird superiority and eliteness thing I have better things to do in my life than feeling Superior than some random internet users and if you're like me before when I had this weird kind of feeling of inferiority because I used Ubuntu and all these basic norming tools then increase your knowledge and try some new things try some new tools like before I didn't understand all of the Vim memes about how Vim is so much better than every other text editor and then I actually tried it and I liked it of course in life you can never go wrong learning something new so learn some more Linux skills learn how to navigate the command line maybe learn how to do something weird like use a terminal file manager and maybe you'll find like me that is actually better than using a graphical file manager with all that being said of course there are just some people that are just being plain rude on the internet is not very nice but that's just the nature of the beast that's life on the internet and hey compared to Twitter Arch Linux users are the nicest people that you'll ever meet online but I think the vast majority of arch users are not super toxic and if you don't believe me go on the Arch Linux forums or the Arch Linux subreddit and try to find a toxic comment look I tried to find one for this video and it was actually really difficult the vast majority of people are totally normal if not a bit terse like they're not dropping pleasantries every sentence but if my opinion that's not really toxic and if somebody tells you to read an art wiki page that's just their way of helping you and if you go through and spend a few minutes reading the wiki then you'll probably find the solution to your problem and obviously there are a few vocal people who will probably insult you but it's definitely not the majority and of course if you are an art Linux user and you see a beginner in the wild I always recommend you to be kind and polite to them I always try my best to be polite to everyone I've had my fair share of beginner questions on my videos sometimes let's face it they're stupid questions because if they had watched the entire video then they would already know the answer but I still do my best and try to respond to them politely you can say read this artwiki page without being rude about it and sometimes they don't even know it's a stupid question maybe English is their second language and it's difficult to understand some things you don't always know what somebody's going through so just be polite and if you want to make the internet culture better then be the change that you want to see pay it forward and once you build up your knowledge share it with others answer Forum posts be helpful and do it respectfully and politely and so that's why I think that the claims of Arch Linux Community being super toxic is a little bit exaggerated but of course feel free to share your opinion in the comments if you think I'm completely off base then we can have a nice polite conversation and I promise you I won't tell you to read the friendly manual

Channel: Eric Murphy

Views: 407,870

Keywords: arch, arch linux, linux, linux community, linux users, arch linux users, toxic, toxicity, rude, arrogant, elitist, condescending, ubuntu, beginners, desktop linux, reddit, arch wiki, arch linux forums, rtfm

Id: sHQFGhTiyk0

Length: 12min 31sec (751 seconds)

Published: Sun May 14 2023