Switching to Arch Linux

Publish Date: Feb 23 '21

Full disclaimer

I don't hate Windows. It's a great operating system, and I've been using it for decades. And it's totally ok if you use it too. In fact, you may need to use Windows or Mac if your work depends on tools that are not available on Linux.

Even though I tried Linux many years ago, I always returned to Windows for different reasons (mostly work and gaming). But my desire to leave Windows behind has grown on me recently, mainly because I've been learning more about the free software movement (free as in freedom).

Like many of you, I want to get things done, and the idea of having to spend weeks learning how to use a new operating system didn't sound appealing to me. That's why I decided to change my point of view and see it as an occasional hobby.

💡 If you found this content valuable, you can follow me on Twitter and Instagram.

Early experiments

After dual-booting Windows 10 and Manjaro Linux, I started to spend a few hours a week doing small experiments within Manjaro. Three months later, and with a better understanding of both the operating system in general and the Linux terminal, I decided to try ArcoLinux and spend even more time on Linux.

Finding the right tools

My main concern when switching to Linux was not being able to do my job. I use a few tools every day (like Figma or Notion) that I thought could not be used on Linux. But after some research and experimentation, I managed to get all of those tools working.

So I decided to share a list of tools/projects/apps I found that enabled me to do my daily job with Linux. A few apps are not strictly required for my job, but they highly improved my experience and boosted my productivity.

i3 Window Manager

After doing some research, I learn that there are unlimited customization options for your desktop environment on Linux. You can use a full desktop environment like GNOME, KDE, Mate, Cinnamon, or you can use Window Managers.

Window Managers are only one of the many components of a desktop environment, and its objective is to control where elements appear on the display. Because I wanted to fully customize my setup (and get a deeper understanding of Linux), I decided to start using i3.

There are dozens of options out there (xmonad, qtile, dwm, Awesome, Openbox, etc.), but I stick with i3 because it's easy to customize.

I really love Window Managers because it allows you to move through different windows without leaving the keyboard. Once you get used to them, there is no going back.

I managed to set up i3 to work with different workspaces on each monitor and open certain apps like VSCode on a specific workspace. In that way, I always have my browser on my left monitor and my code editor on the right one.

To learn more about i3, follow this link

Feh

Feh is a lightweight and versatile image viewer. I'm using it to set up my wallpapers on my i3 config file. You may not need this tool if you're using a full desktop environment instead of a window manager like i3. If you want to learn more about Feh, follow this link

Polybar

I wanted to have a custom status bar for my i3 window manager, so after some research, I found Polybar. Polybar is a powerful open-source tool that aims to help users build beautiful and highly customizable status bars for their desktop environment.⁣⁣

Even though I'm an absolute noob to Polybar, I spend some time customizing my bar to look like this:

One of the things I love about Polybar is that it's modular. Meaning that there are tons of out-of-the-box modules you can add to your bar without prior scripting knowledge.⁣⁣ Besides, you can create your own module if you want, and the documentation for the out-of-the-box modules is fantastic.

To learn more about Polybar, follow this link

Flameshot

Flameshot is the best substitute for the Windows Snipping Tool. It's a powerful yet simple to use screenshot utility. Here you can see an example of how many things you can do with it.

If you want to learn more about Flameshot, follow this link

Vysor

I've been working a lot with React Native, and I needed reliable software that lets me cast my phone screen on my desktop environment to control my phone without having to deal with the touch keyboard. Besides, sometimes I need to show a demo of the apps I'm working on, so having the ability to run this tool on Linux was kind of a deal-breaker for me.

After doing some research, I managed to compile the app following the instructions available on GitHub.

Here's Vysor, running on my ArcoLinux and casting the screen of my Android Phone:

To learn more about Vysor, follow this link

Peek

There's a tool called ScreenToGif that I use a lot on Windows. It allows me to record animated gifs to share on social media quickly. Sadly, it's not available for Linux. Thankfully I found Peek.
Peek is a super simple-to-use gif/video recorder. It's not a general-purpose screencast app with extended features but instead focuses on the single task of creating small screencasts of an area of the screen.

Here's an example of a GIF generated using Peek.

To learn more about Peek, follow this link

OBS

Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) is a free and open-source, cross-platform streaming and recording program. If you're producing content for YouTube or streaming on Twitch, this program has pretty much everything you'll need to start. Follow this link to learn more about the project.

Alacritty (Terminal Emulator)

Alacritty is a modern terminal emulator that allows extensive configuration, and it's a GPU-Accelerated Terminal, so it is known for having a good performance. To learn more about Alacritty, follow this link.

Brave browser

I really love Brave. It's privacy-focused, it's open-source, and it pays you with crypto if you accept to see sponsored ads occasionally. Besides, it's based on Chromium, so the developer tools are excellent. You can learn more about Brave on its official website

Spotify

Even though you can't download Spotify for Linux from the official website, you can get Spotify using the Snap package management system. Just type snap install spotify on your terminal, and you're ready to go. Now you can listen to your favorite music on Linux.

Spotify-TUI

If you are into Terminal user interfaces like me, you'll really enjoy Spotify-TUI

Lotion (unofficial Notion app for Linux)

Lotion was an unexpected but cool surprise. I found this fantastic project on GitHub. It's super easy to install, and it just works!

Figma-Linux

Figma-Linux is an unofficial electron-based Figma desktop app for Linux. You can easily install it using the snap package management tool.

To learn more about the project, visit the GitHub repo

VSCode

There's no much to say here. VSCode is my favorite IDE, and it's multi-platform. So, if you're working with VSCode on Windows, just know that the Linux client has precisely the same features.
You can find more specific instruction for installation based on your Linux distribution here in the official VSCode documentation

Docker

Docker is my daily driver to work with things like MongoDB and SQL Server on Linux. Docker is multi-platform, and you can use it on Linux. If you heavily rely on Docker for your daily job, know that you won't find any limitations while using it on Linux.

Final thoughts

I wanted to share my experience in case you're thinking about trying Linux, but you're not sure if that time invested will pay off.
At least for me, Linux has improved my work experience by letting me customize every single piece of the environment. And that's enough for me to keep learning and tweaking.

Did you do your daily work on Linux? What's your favorite distro and why?

I would love to hear about your experience with other Window Managers, so let me know if you tried anyone besides i3.

Comments 162 total

Maxime GuilbertFeb 23, 2021
Really interesting!
- Mauro GarciaFeb 23, 2021
  Thanks! Let me know if you have any questions. I'm a total noob on Linux, but I've been playing a lot lately :D
  - Maxime GuilbertFeb 23, 2021
    I will let you know if I have questions
    Thanks for your help :D
Patricio FerraggiFeb 23, 2021
Thanks mauro, awesome guide. I already have my laptop and I will be switching to linux soon (waiting for the ax500 wifi drivers to be fully supported). I also have arch in mind so this is perfect for me
- Mauro GarciaFeb 23, 2021
  Thanks Pato! The wifi drivers sometimes are a headache! Thankfully I'm using ethernet so I didn't have to deal with it 😄
- OBenFeb 23, 2021
  you could try a different distro, perhaps from ubuntu family, their team has made a huge progress in supporting ton of drivers.
  - Patricio FerraggiFeb 23, 2021
    Yeah probably ubuntu is gonna be my first try, but even for them the drivers are still not fully merged. I am following the launchpad issue for ubuntu fixing that so hopefully soon 🙂
    - Kettle3DFeb 25, 2021
      Linux Mint has good drivers.
      - Mauro GarciaFeb 25, 2021
        Mint is another great option!
        
        Patricio FerraggiFeb 25, 2021
        Yesterday the driver support got merged on the ubuntu launchpad bug and the dev who fixed it wrote me a message on how to use the fix so today I am gonna give it a try. Wish me luck 🤞
        
        Mauro GarciaFeb 25, 2021
        That was fast :D
        
        Patricio FerraggiFeb 25, 2021
        Everything worked out great, installed ubuntu (no wifi or bt) gave myself internet with usb tethering, updated kernel and firmware and after that everything worked out of the box. Considering deleting my windows partition even
        
        Mauro GarciaFeb 26, 2021
        So glad it worked out!
🌌 Sébastien Feugère ☔Feb 23, 2021
Arch Linux should be only allowed for people doing experimental art. I wish you a good time on your new OS and let's talk about it again in six months.
Mauro GarciaFeb 23, 2021
I'm using ArcoLinux to avoid the initial pain of installing Arch. The installation process is pretty user-friendly in case you want to give it a shot lately. Ubuntu is an excellent alternative though 😁

I'm going to try bspwm! Thanks for the recommendation
brandon_wallaceFeb 23, 2021
This is a great, well-written article. It is nice to hear about your experience using Linux. By reading it I also learned about a few new applications I have not heard of before.
- Mauro GarciaFeb 23, 2021
  Thanks for your feedback Brandon! Do you use Linux?
  - brandon_wallaceFeb 23, 2021
    Yes, I have been using Linux for more than a decade for desktop and server. I even used Linux to set up a router at one time. The advantages of using Linux outweigh any disadvantage more so than other operating systems.
    - Mauro GarciaFeb 23, 2021
      I'm investing hours learning how to use it, so It's nice to hear that feedback! Do you recommend any particular distro? Did you try any window manager that I should try?
      - brandon_wallaceFeb 23, 2021
        I can explain. How can I contact you outside of dev.to? I do not have twitter or instagram. There is no contact form on your website.
        
        Mauro GarciaFeb 23, 2021
        Sure! You can write me at maurogarcia0209@gmail.com
Andrei DascaluFeb 23, 2021
Just that .... never Brave. The affiliate link injection scandal made me reconsider all the privacy claims.
- Mauro GarciaFeb 23, 2021
  Do you have a link? I didn't hear about that scandal! 😨 Do you recommend another browser? I use Mozilla for like a year, but I find a lot of bugs lately.
  - Andrei DascaluFeb 23, 2021
    Been in lots of news.
    theverge.com/2020/6/8/21283769/bra...
    
    It's been a while but between this and a rumoured deal to ignore some FB tracking in some cases, I sort of felt it's not really worth the hassle.
    
    I do prefer Opera, more from the perspective that I know its downsides (particularly with respect to privacy) so I know how to make up for them.
    
    I also like Vivaldi, which is more lightweight and more privacy focused. This is my main browser for personal navigation.
    
    I also use Duck duck go extension on Opera and Chrome for privacy settings.
  - Robert GrimmFeb 24, 2021
    A quick web search found this: coindesk.com/brave-browsers-affili...
    
    Personally, I use different browsers for different purposes. For example, I'll do most online shopping one way, general interest browsing another way, and work-related internet usage yet a different way. It takes a few extra minutes to set up the additional browsers and profiles, and takes a bit of discipline to build the habit of separating between them, but I find it worthwhile to keep going.
    
    As long as I separate the usages and keep my various privacy settings in mind, adding Brave into the mix is acceptable to me. In other words, I just keep in mind that -- when using Brave -- I'm selling my attention and a limited view of my browsing behaviors for the benefit of Brave and for some BAT to myself.
    
    On that note, I generally avoid Google Chrome because of the proprietary built-in spyware. I also don't want to enable or support the anti-competitive behaviors that they engage in. Being that Google builds web-based services and a browser, they're in a position to want to control the audience. Most other browser-software companies are not also building web-based services (like YouTube/Gmail/etc).
    
    Anyway, here are a couple examples of the way Google doesn't compete in good faith:
    
    Former VP of Firefox tweeting about it
    
    Microsoft calling out Google for adding unnecessary "invisible div" on YouTube, which impeded other browsers' hardware acceleration (laptop battery life)
    - Mauro GarciaFeb 24, 2021
      I'm avoiding Google Chrome for the same reasons. A couple of months ago, I decided to switch to DuckDuckGo as my default search engine too.
      
      I'm also aware that Brave is paying for my attention, and it's ok because they are transparent about that, and I can opt-out.
      
      I tried Firefox for years, but during 2020 started performing poorly, so I decided to try another browser (of course not Chrome), and then I found Brave.
      - Andrei DascaluFeb 25, 2021
        Not sure what you mean by "paying for your attention". The problem is that they're changing the urls you're accessing with their affiliate codes to cash in for your clicks and they're not transparent about it.
        
        Jae BeojkkochFeb 25, 2021
        It should also be noted that brave started to collect donations using content creator's images (without rewarding them of course) as well as having a really sketchy CEO.
        
        Robert GrimmFeb 26, 2021
        @jae - Yes, it was unwise of Brave to collect BAT for creators that did not opt-in to the Brave Rewards system. Even more so to include images from their profiles. That's a pretty poor decision and something to keep in mind when evaluating Brave.
        
        @andreidascalu - The behavior that I see today is that Brave shows ads to users who opt-in, and then those users are given a small amount of cryptocurrency as a "reward". In other words, Brave pays cryptocurrency to users in exchange for agreeing to see Brave's ads. That's "paying for your attention".
        
        With regards to the claim that Brave was changing the URLs that users are accessing, I believe that's a bit of an exaggeration. Take a look at this video that demonstrates the behavior and this other one that demonstrates the same behavior when using Google as the address-bar search engine. I can agree that Brave was auto-completing to a URL likely beyond what the user intended, but nobody forced anybody to take the full auto-completion. In other words, it wasn't surreptitiously changing the URL; instead, it was suggesting a URL and the enter-key -- like with most auto-complete UIs -- indicated that the user agreed to the suggestion. It also seems to have been limited in scope to exclusively "binance.us" (no www) and "binance.com" (also no www): I see no indication or reporting that the referral link scandal hit any other website beyond Binance. So yes, it's inconvenient. And yes, I disagree with it. That said, let's agree to aim for accuracy when we describe this.
Mauro GarciaFeb 23, 2021
You're not lucky. Arch is a good distribution :D The documentation is insanely good too.
- 🌌 Sébastien Feugère ☔Feb 23, 2021
  Yes, the documentation is excellent, I have to admit. I recommend it very often to people using Debian. Because Arch people run into so many problems, they built this amazing wiki that can save a lot of issues. This is really a thing.
🌌 Sébastien Feugère ☔Feb 23, 2021
It's ok as long you upgrade your system 10 times a day.
- Mauro GarciaFeb 23, 2021
  Maybe it used to be more unstable? I don't know because I'm pretty new to Arch. But I've been upgrading my system once a week and didn't have problems yet :D
OBenFeb 23, 2021
great article! I’ve switched to full time linux workstation for both my web development job and personal usage. I must say it takes some time (reasonably) to adapt (after MacOS in my case) in terms of software alternatives BUT it’s totally worth it. Thanks for the software list, cheers ;)
imonemFeb 23, 2021
Thanks for the article Mauro, for all people not taking the Arch switch to avoid the pain and the 40 years setup time you can try github.com/MatMoul/archfi
It's a script that semi automates the process
- Mauro GarciaFeb 23, 2021
  I didn't know about archfi! Thanks for your feedback!!
Tim JonesFeb 23, 2021
Thanks, Mauro, for the great guide, especially your list of tools. I've been trying to switch from Ubuntu to Arch Linux, but have been having a rough time. Not so much with Arch itself, but just leaving the "comfort and familiarity" of Ubuntu. You've inspired me to give it another go. :)
- Mauro GarciaFeb 23, 2021
  Thanks for the kind words, Tim! Let me know if I can help you with your transition. DM me on Twitter if you want!
Chittoji Murali Sree KrishnaFeb 24, 2021
Welcome to arch, I started my linux journey with linux mint , ubuntu and alot, finally ended up with arch Linux,

I've fallen in love with vanilla arch

The only thing is, it's hard to install, but basically you are creating your own system, you can easily understand if anything goes wrong, it's an really light weight distro than others and ofcourse it's an rolling release, no matter what just sudo pacman -Syu will find you the latest kernels and applications, And for applications there are ton of support from pacman repository, and we can have this stuff AUR, once we have that installed, we can almost get any software that we needed, finally the famous arch wiki,

I tried xmonad, dwm, awesome, and qtile, but these are a bit complicated when it comes to customisation, so I sticked with i3,

I am using i3 from past 2 years, it's really lot easier to customize, and it's pretty lightweight and simple to use.
- Mauro GarciaFeb 24, 2021
  Wow! thanks for such complete feedback, Chittoji! You mentioned a couple of things like pacman and AUR that I'm really enjoying! I've been using snap, too, for a few packages.
  
  About window managers, I was learning about Awesome because I saw that it comes with great defaults and has good documentation. I hear that dwm and xmonad requires a lot of additional work, so I think I will try them later on my journey :D
  
  I would like to hear your thoughts and experiences with Awesome.
  
  Thanks again for taking the time to share your experience with Arch!
  - Chittoji Murali Sree KrishnaFeb 24, 2021
    Awesome is a good window manager, but it uses rc.lua file for config, Awesome wm comes out of the box with
    a good desktop, panels and widgets, unlike other window managers Awesome wm have a proper menu system, but if you want to config the wm, you have to import the libraries first, then have to settle things around, people like it because it comes close to desktop like feel.
    
    unlike i3, you can use right click on empty window for options like opening menu, or other stuff just like desktop managers, it probably a good window manager, but its config is not as easy and simple as i3
    - Mauro GarciaFeb 24, 2021
      The thing about awesome that didn't like me was the amount of stuff that it has. As you said, it comes with a full menu system, status bar, etc. I think that I'll stick with i3 at the for the moment. Thanks for your feedback 😄
- Ryan BrownFeb 24, 2021
  A while back I was trying various distros and couldn't settle. When I sat down and analyzed what I wanted out of Linux, Arch came out on top. I truly value the knowing exactly what is going into everything I'm doing. Arch runs most of my VMs and some of my desktops (that aren't windows)
  Arch rules :)
  - Mauro GarciaFeb 24, 2021
    You mentioned many of the reasons why I decided to use Arch too. It takes a little bit of effort initially, but it's totally worth it in the long run.
    - Ryan BrownFeb 24, 2021
      Agreed, the effort to understand really helped me later in solving issues that came up even when dealing with other operating systems and programming situations.
      - Kettle3DFeb 25, 2021
        I really like Arch. I completely GNOMEd it, and I like that pacman handles dependencies better than apt.
- Conrado FonsecaFeb 25, 2021
  Exactly, one of the best things about Arch is the package repositories (Pacman and AUR). Mauro suggested using snap, this is completely unnecessary on Arch, and you should be able to have everything you need on the main repository (Pacman) or users repository (AUR).
  And, as Chittoji said, the famous arch wiki 💕
  Also, want to say that I use DWM, ST and dmenu (suckless ftw) 🤖
  - Mauro GarciaFeb 25, 2021
    For most packages, AUR is all you need. But I found a few packages (like Figma-Linux) that are not available in the AUR. That's why snap is not entirely unnecessary.
    
    I heard a lot of good things about dwm! I definitely want to try it later on my journey. And I love dmenu! I'm currently using it.
    - Conrado FonsecaFeb 25, 2021
      Nice one, Mauro. I was able to find the Figma-Linux on AUR repository. Have you tried it?
      
      DMW looks to be one of the more complicated Window Manager to configure, and it's possible to get to a point where patches conflict with others 😅 . Still, if you have experience with C, it's possible to overcome the conflicts. Also, polybar is easier to customize compared with the DWM builtin status bar, but once you have it all set, it's all happiness 🙂.
      Check my dwm build, and feel free to reach out if you have any question or need any help.
      - Mauro GarciaFeb 25, 2021
        Not sure why, but today I searched the same package in AUR, and I get 0 results. I just performed the exact search, and now I see two results.
        
        About DWM, what you mentioned about the patches was the reason why I'm skeptical about using it, but I'm sure once you get to the point you want, you probably don't need to touch it frequently.
        
        It's been like eight years since the last time I worked with C, so I'm rusty. 😄
        
        I'm going to check your dwm build later :) Thanks for your help, Conrado!
- josemanuelpMar 3, 2021
  I took that path too, it was a lot of fun, but I finally settled on Manjaro Gnome with Material Shell. Simply the best desktop a developer could have, IMO.
  - Mauro GarciaMar 3, 2021
    Great choice! I'll be playing for a while until I learn a little bit more, and then I'll probably stick to one configuration too.
John KarloFeb 24, 2021
Archo Linux - well I will give it a try

I use manjaro and it is very easy to fix when it breaks. Just search the problem, uninstall unecesarry things or drivers, or install missing things you are good to go.
Ubuntu base OS like pop OS gives me lots of problems when fixing things, arch linus is the way to go
- Mauro GarciaFeb 24, 2021
  Until trying Arch, I thought it would be difficult to find support to solve issues, but I'm very impressed with this distro's active community. ArcoLinux will help you get your system installed without problems. It comes with a wizard where you can choose what programs do you want to install.
  
  Probably the best installation wizard I saw.
ShrihanFeb 24, 2021
The important reason for the switch will be to proudly say "btw, I use arch"!
- Mauro GarciaFeb 24, 2021
  I won't say anything until I could say, "I use Vim... (dramatic silence) on Arch."
arvindsridharanFeb 24, 2021
The best thing is the ease with which you can install packages. Yay or pacman.
- Mauro GarciaFeb 24, 2021
  Yep! you have so many options! I'm using snap too
  - arvindsridharanFeb 24, 2021
    But one thing, while upgrading to a new kernel branch one has to take backup of the files. What if on reboot you see the shell login and not the desktop. Things become difficult then. I am running two arch variants in my laptop. Garuda linux and archo.
    - Mauro GarciaFeb 24, 2021
      Yep! thanks for the reminder! I should back up my things just in case.
ShrihanFeb 24, 2021
I always liked the Arch and Arch based distros, because:

Ubuntu: sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
Arch: sudo pacman -Syu

Ubuntu: sudo apt-get install software-properties-common; sudo add-apt-repository ppa:some/repository(Run the second command for every new software not found in the official repos)
Arch: sudo pacman -S git;git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay-git;cd yay-git;makepkg -si(No need to do anything again. Almost every software is found in the AUR)

Ubuntu: sudo apt-get install ...
Arch: pacman -S ...
- Mauro GarciaFeb 24, 2021
  You're right! I always thought that the ubuntu way of installing packages was “ok” until I started using pacman.
- Noah GinsburgFeb 24, 2021
  That's interesting, WARNING HERE BE DRAGONS( i.e. my opinion lol)
  
  I find apt a lot easier, because I'm typing out the verb that I want to happen. With pacman it's all flags, so you have to memorize all those flags instead of just thinking about what you're trying to do.
  
  I also I have an update script that I wrote for Debian based systems to handle update/upgrade/dist-upgrade and what not, that sure id never run on production systems but it's served me well for years.
  
  That way my upgrade process is just "updatey" (yes the y means auto accept lol)
  
  Also as far as additional repos go I think I've only got like 2 on Debian based machines, so I don't feel like that's a big deal.
  
  I also always found it strange that pacman basically needs wrappers (such as yay) to do the same functionality that the other package managers do out of the box. Now sure, you don't need to use yay, but it's gonna get painful if you don't.
  - Mauro GarciaFeb 24, 2021
    You're right about Pacman being a little bit cryptic, but I think you could solve it using aliases.
    
    Really cool what you did with your script 😄
    - Noah GinsburgFeb 24, 2021
      To pacman's credit though.. man pacman leads to some very well written documentation
  - ShrihanFeb 25, 2021
    So your dragons are a bit more powerful 😜
Gokul RangarajanFeb 24, 2021
I used to have ArchLinux customized for my needs. Currently I use Manjaro.
This article is bringing back my old memories of Arch days. I may get back to ArchLinux.

My favorite distro as of now is Manjaro, it is extremely simplified version of ArchLinux.

My favorite desktop environment as of now is GNOME 3.
- Mauro GarciaFeb 24, 2021
  I like Manjaro a lot! In fact, I've been using it for months and only switched to ArcoLinux because I wanted to try it, but no complaints about manjaro. The KDE Plasma desktop is beautiful
EllieFeb 24, 2021
I've also been using linux for few years now, but debian based distros. Recently came to think about arch for some reasons, like: latest packages (app versions), lightweight and "unlimited" customization, but thinking of downsides (assuming) of learning curve or long experimentations kept me at a distance. Now I think i'm going to dip my toes shortly though. There's a distro in my mind that utilizes the idea of highly configured WM with no DE - archcraft, which i'm yet about to experiment with
- Mauro GarciaFeb 24, 2021
  ArchCraft looks beautiful! And seems like is keeping the "minimal" Arch philosophy. I should try it as soon as I can. Thanks for sharing! I didn't know about ArchCraft!
A.J. RomanielloFeb 24, 2021
Tried out Linux Mint a couple of weeks back and ended up removing it because I kept getting frustrated with the automatic boot into Linux as well as IntelliJ applications not working as intended. This post, specifically the spotify terminal, has inspired me to try the Windows 10 dual boot with Arch Linux! Cheers and wish me luck, hopefully can get a decent development environment set up there. :)
- Mauro GarciaFeb 24, 2021
  Good luck! Take your time to learn how to use it. Since you already have experience with Linux, it shouldn't be a problem.
anhuretFeb 24, 2021
It was funny when you said that Docker works on Linux. Docker IS a Linux tech. Containers were a feature of Linux kernel. You could only use it on Windows by running a Linux VM underneath. Maybe MS caught up now and can use containers natively, not sure...
- Mauro GarciaFeb 24, 2021
  Yep, you're right! I was trying to answer the question: does it works or not? Without getting into details about containers but yes, MS is using HyperV behind the scenes; I think
  - DominicWattsFeb 24, 2021
    I use docker for web development and the overhead of running containers within Windows and Mac vs running them on Linux means docker is only usable on Linux. Yes docker for windows uses hyper-V. However when you mount directories there is a conversion process for file permissions. The causes IO overhead. The only workaround for me to continue to use windows for a while before ditching for linix was using hyper V to run a full Linux VM and installing docker in this. So yes its more docker was ported to windows - it runs effortlessly in most distros.
anhuretFeb 24, 2021
Actually, my favourite "distro" is Chrom OS now. After almost 25 years of exclusive Linux use, I decided to test new waters.
I run ArchLinux as a docker container inside Chrome OS. Experience has been superb so far. You get both worlds. A usual Arch workflow with all the dev tools on the inside, and a nice polished Google product (with top notch security) on the outside. Highly recommend.
- Mauro GarciaFeb 24, 2021
  Wow, I never heard about anyone using Arch inside Chrome OS, but I read that the usage of Chrome OS has grown exponentially lately, so it looks like they are doing their job 😄
Justin HagerFeb 24, 2021
❤️ for the Spotify-TUI
Thanks for the share 👍
- Mauro GarciaFeb 24, 2021
  You're welcome Justin!
Mango-DFeb 24, 2021
"VScode is my favorite IDE"
Lol, VScode is a text editor, not an IDE.

I use arch btw
RoFeb 24, 2021
Awesome article, definitely going to try out some of those tools. I dual boot Windows and Fedora but over the years have found rarely launch Windows at all anymore. Haven't used Arch yet but may end up running it one day
- Mauro GarciaFeb 24, 2021
  You can start with Manjaro or ArcoLinux too. Both great arch-based distros
  - RoFeb 25, 2021
    Sweet Manjaro looks good, think I'll fire it up on the weekend
    - Mauro GarciaFeb 26, 2021
      Great choice!
Abdoulaye BaldeFeb 24, 2021
I have been try to install arch linux for two days now I ended up going back to manjaro 😪.
If I can get any help i will really appreciate it.
- Mauro GarciaFeb 24, 2021
  This video really helped me
  
  youtu.be/PQgyW10xD8s
  - Abdoulaye BaldeFeb 24, 2021
    Thanks I will try it again after sometimes
Lord FidoFeb 24, 2021
I ve been using Linux mint xfce for decade. Tried cinnamon, mate, ubuntu, but never last more than 3 days. Ive never have courage to try arch LOL because I heard arch needs an expert user. I just saw garuda dragonize it Looks really cool. But I Dont have time to switch to it so far. Maybe years later I have courage to try Arch ;) thanks for the article, awesom job here.
- Mauro GarciaFeb 24, 2021
  I assure you I'm not an expert :D The distrotube channel on YouTube helped me a lot in doing this transition. But as I said in the post, it took me a couple of months of spending 2 o 3 hours a week learning, watching videos, playing with the console, etc.
  
  You can try Manjaro or ArcoLinux instead of plain Arch. The installation process is the same as it is for Ubuntu.
eze-higaFeb 24, 2021
Nice Post! Thanks for sharing!
- Mauro GarciaFeb 24, 2021
  Valheim. Today. :D
Nuwan KarunarathnaFeb 24, 2021
Nice post!. Btw is this on a laptop? if yes how is the battery life compared to Windows?
- Mauro GarciaFeb 24, 2021
  I'm working on a desktop PC, so I don't know about the battery life 😕
  But now I'm intrigued :D
  - Nuwan KarunarathnaFeb 25, 2021
    I always have issues with the battery life when running linux on my laptop, even with tlp. That's why I asked ;)
HaxNetFeb 24, 2021
Great post. Are you using Vanilla Arch now?
If you aren't comfortable with installing vanilla arch, I highly recommend using ArchLabs which is what I use now. I used to use V. Arch but when I broke my Arch OS, i didn't want to vanilla arch install again. Done it over 15+ times.
ArchLabs is the closest thing to Vanilla Arch, in my exp.,
BTW, I think you should try URxvt instead. URxvt is much more lightweight. It's not the prettiest out of the box, but super customizable.
- Mauro GarciaFeb 24, 2021
  I'm using ArcoLinux until I feel comfortable enough to leap vanilla arch!
  Thanks for recommending ArchLabs! I'll take a look :)
  I also saw a video on the Distrotube channel that seems to be pretty helpful
  
  About the terminal emulators, that is another journey I'm just starting now. I heard about urxvt, and looks interesting. Going to try it out later
  - HaxNetFeb 24, 2021
    Awesome! Hands down ArchLabs is the best one there. Great community as well.
    - Mauro GarciaFeb 24, 2021
      A great community is something I see a lot within the Arch and Arch-based universe. That's always a good sing.
Samuel SutherFeb 24, 2021
I'm Microsoft-Free since Win98
I used SUSE, Kubuntu and now Manjaro and Arch.
I don't miss anything yet.
I like xfce and KDE. Also nice application I do use is easystroke for mouse gestures, phpstorm for webdeveloping, insomnia as alternate REST-Tool for Postman.
I do prefer Thunderbird over KMail and really love the funktionality of Klipper and KIM (which I've enhanced a bit).
I agree with your choice of brave, flames hot and docker.

I don't know Lotion yet, so I'll have a look at it. Thanks for this suggestion.
- Mauro GarciaFeb 24, 2021
  I really enjoy the simplicity of Xfce! I didn't know about insomnia! I should take a look! Thanks for sharing your story! It's awesome that you've been using Linux for some many time
  - Samuel SutherFeb 26, 2021
    Yep, it was a strategic decision. Round about the year 2003 I started as self-employee. Right before I've started I think about which way I'd like to go.
    I decide to use Linux, because there you don't have to pay licence fees for the software like on Microsoft Products.
    As Webdeveloper I need some Applications for coding, graphic, writing letters, answering mails and so on.
    Only thing I had on linux for some years after starting my business was application for doing invoices. At 2003 there where no Cloud-Based invoice Services.
    I don't blame Windows or Mac, I'd only like to say: Try Linux and see if it's work for you. If you can make it work, than you will have huge benefits in freedom, saved licensce fees and stability.
    
    Oh did I notice, that Linux - in my opinion - is the best choice for developers?! ;)
    
    Even my mother (> 65) use Linux (currently Manjaro) > 15 Years. She started using Linux, because I recommend her to try it ( as it was to time consuming for me to fix and repair her Windows nearly once per quarter).
    - Mauro GarciaFeb 26, 2021
      Make sense want you said about Linux as a strategic decision. Today we have the privilege of choosing between many free options for each type of software we need, but back then, it was tough.
      
      How cool is it that your mother uses Manjaro! I would really like to have her feedback here! 😀
sainad2222Feb 24, 2021
Thanks for the guide. You inspired me to try arch. I've been using ubuntu for a year. But I don't see a point switching to another distro especially it's a pain to setup port my data from ubuntu. Maybe I'll try in Virtualbox first
- Mauro GarciaFeb 24, 2021
  Sure! Vms are great for testing before doing the switch.
  - sainad2222Feb 24, 2021
    Have you faced any hardware problems like Bluetooth or wifi drivers?
    - Mauro GarciaFeb 24, 2021
      I'm using ethernet (desktop PC), so I didn't have to deal with wifi yet. But I heard that sometimes it is a pain! The same about Bluetooth. Didn't try to use any device yet
João SantosFeb 24, 2021
Pacman and AUR are great!
starpebbleFeb 24, 2021
Neat stack.
Brian WeasnerFeb 25, 2021
I have had it break on my laptop once, and that was due to an nvidia driver update which I simply downgraded on next boot in another tty using the downgrade package
Richard RheinFeb 25, 2021
Pretty good article. I did distro hopping on Linux for many years and in the end it kinda sucked... I did not know, where to stop and settle down. I literally changed every damn month or year my Linux distro and I was exhausted by setting up my new sys for my needs. So head back to Windows 10 again, it is quite comfortable, but I do miss using Linux...Maybe I gonna try Arco Linux on my computer.
- Mauro GarciaFeb 26, 2021
  I've heard the same you said about distro hoping! It seems like the best you can do is settle down with one distro at least for six months so you can get comfortable
Caio CostaFeb 26, 2021
Extras:

Mailspring for email management
Slack is available on Linux
Document Scanner is a great tool as well
qBittorrent is a great torrent client
Stacer is similar to CCleaner on win
Gnome Boxes is a great virtual box alternative
4K Video Downloader to download videos from dozens of sites
VSCodium(VSCode without sending analytics about your usage to microsoft)
ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors is a great MS Office alternative
Postman also works on Linux(Prefer the snap version if you're using Ubuntu or any other Debian-based distro. snap is mandatory to install it in this case)

That's it folks. Hope it helps
- Mauro GarciaFeb 26, 2021
  Thanks Caio, I'm saving this list to check later 😁
S Stewart Feb 26, 2021
Cool article! Would just like to note that scrcpy is a great alternative to Vysor. It is on the AUR, or you can also use snap install scrcpy.
- Mauro GarciaFeb 26, 2021
  I didn't know about scrcpy!!! Thanks for the recommendation! I'll definitely try it out
Chris SaundersFeb 27, 2021
Dang from Windows right to Arch and I3! I enjoy i3 on a big screen but I do find on a laptop screen it doesn't fit my workflows yet so I have kde installed as well. Sometimes I'm working on a bigger screen and log into i3, other times I'm on a smaller laptop screen so I start a kde session. This is the beauty of Linux - there is so much customization available to make the OS work they way you want !
- Mauro GarciaFeb 27, 2021
  Totally agree with you! It's way more useful to use i3 on big screens! I'm using a desktop PC with two monitors, so it's awesome! But for laptops, I would probably switch to KDE too!
Boris Jamot ✊ /Feb 27, 2021
Nice config. It seems to be very comfortable.

I'm using manjaro with I3. After a few years using polybar, I found a more simple alternative : bumblebee. I use Kitty as a terminal emulator with fish shell which is very user friendly. I also use feh for wallpapers. And also vscode, IDEA, evolution, jitsi, sky, deepin screenshot, OBS, gimp, Firefox, ranger, neovim, wire, docker, openvpn, git, lnav, tmux...
- Mauro GarciaFeb 27, 2021
  So cool! I want to try ranger as soon as possible! And I'm slowly learning tmux (it's awesome)
  
  I'll check bumblebee, and it's the first time I hear about it! Thanks for sharing and for the recommendations! Now I have to do some research 😄
Mauro GarciaFeb 28, 2021
Totally get the Photoshop dependency 😂 . You can always set up a dual boot and play for a few months. I’m still using Windows for specific tasks, but I’m trying to move most of the other things to Linux.

Take a look at the comments on this post. There are a ton of awesome recommendations from different people 😁
Mehmed DuhovicFeb 28, 2021
I am using Ubuntu exclusively for the last couple of years, but I wanted to go the DIY Linux route, and I'm definitely thinking about picking up a more customizable distro. This was an amazing article!
- Mauro GarciaFeb 28, 2021
  I highly recommend you to check out the distrotube channel on youtube. He covers Avery simple piece of a custom Linux distro in a very beginner-friendly way
- brandon_wallaceMar 9, 2021
  A lot the customization is in the installer, certain distributions allow for more customization than others. If you want to customize thing more look at Debian, Arch, Gentoo, and Slackware. The ultimate customization is LFS (linux from scratch).
Phan Dũng TríMar 2, 2021
I've been using Manjaro Linux for about 2 years, and totally got rid of Windows. Before Manjaro, I tried many other distros, and finally I decided to settle here, in Manjaro. I don't why many people on internet hate Manjaro, it's a good distro, almost things I need are available on Manjaro, it gives me a very good performance. I'm a lazy ass so I use GNOME as my DE because I can have a beautiful desktop without doing so much. Nice post btw, you show me many cool apps that I've never discovered before.
- Mauro GarciaMar 2, 2021
  Gnome is a beautiful DE and it just works so it’s a great choice! I’m really enjoying window managers because it’s an excuse to learn a little bit more about the system, but who knows maybe I’ll try a DE later.
Periklis GkoliasMar 2, 2021
Nice setup. Congratulations on moving to a great distro. Unless you are bound to windows for specific reasons, usually people don't ever look back (not even Microsoft, they are slowly adopting more and more of the Linux ecosystem).

A big con to me is that Arch, at least when I was a user of it, needs good levels of attendance regarding the frequent updates. Not really a fire-and-forget-distro.

To answer your questions, I have not used i3 to be honest, but I have seen it in action, really interesting project. My favorite distro, after having tried about 10 (ubuntu, arch, debian, centos, suse, bodhi linux, pclos, mint, kali, mandriva from the top of my head), nothing compares to Debian testing. Fresh software and stable enough, power by apt and great community
- Mauro GarciaMar 2, 2021
  Yep, you need to keep your updates up to date, but at least in my recent experience, it is not a big deal. I'm updating once a week without problems (yet).
  
  I love Debian and Ubuntu too, and totally get the benefits of the stability.
  
  Totally recommend you to try any window manager if you're into keyboard-driven navigation.
Pavel SvitekMar 2, 2021
As far as I remember, I started with Slack linux, then Gentoo, then Arch. I ended up using Arch on my desktop, until I switched to Macbooks.

I also tried Ubuntu, Fedora and Suse, but everything worked "too automatically" and it was hard to do even simpler changes.
- Mauro GarciaMar 2, 2021
  It seems like Gentoo is trending now, but I didn't try it yet. I also have a MacBook for iOS development, but it's an old mac, so my primary device is my desktop computer with Arch.
Tacio NeryMar 2, 2021
Great post. Thanks for sharing your experience with Arch. I used to use some Arch based distros in the past, but I stopped for no reason. It's time to go back using Arch!
- Mauro GarciaMar 2, 2021
  Welcome back to Arch 😁
Nico DominoMar 2, 2021
Lol great post! Funny I use almost the exact same tools. Big fan of Flameshot, Peek, Polybar, Lotion, VSCode, i3, Alacritty, etc.
- Mauro GarciaMar 2, 2021
  Thanks! Did you try other window managers?
  - Nico DominoMar 2, 2021
    I came from xubuntu, so only xfce, no other tiling window managers. You?
    - Mauro GarciaMar 2, 2021
      Only i3 at the moment, but xmonad looks amazing and AwesomeWM too.
      - Nico DominoMar 2, 2021
        If you're into tiling window managers, check out 'DistroTube' on youtube. Its a linux focused channel, but the guy is also a tiling window manager lover and has tons of "reviews" and other content about various WM incl. xmonad and awesome.
        
        Mauro GarciaMar 2, 2021
        DistroTube is probably my favorite Youtube channel at the moment! I think the first time I heard about xmonad and awesome was there 😄
Ronaldo PeresMar 2, 2021
For the people that never used Linux, I do recommend Distrowatch to check the top 100.

I already tried distros like Bunsenlabs (old Crunchbang), Mint, Arch Linux, Debian, LXDE (for old laptop very good), Zorin OS (good for people coming from Windows), Slackware, OpenSuse, Fedora, Bodhi (very beautiful IDE), Xubuntu, Lubuntu and Kubuntu, and of course Ubuntu, also others that I don't remember :).
Stefano CanepaMar 2, 2021
I develop only on Linux (Fedora 34) as it's a reasonable mix of stability and updates, I'm using Gnome, vscode but I like to use emacs and vim, too.
- Mauro GarciaMar 2, 2021
  I'm learning how ! But is a slow journey 😂 I'm thinking about using tmux too... But emacs looks amazing too
  - Stefano CanepaMar 4, 2021
    emacs has a steep learning curve, setting up your ideal configuration takes time but a few years ago it was more or less the only app running on my computer I used it for: email, chat, writing code, debugging, even web browsing.
    - Mauro GarciaMar 5, 2021
      I hear a lot about people living inside emacs :D Doom Emacs looks amazing
      - Stefano CanepaMar 5, 2021
        It is, I had to disable vim mode as if I'm using emacs my mind goes for emacs shortcuts if I'm in vim not always (sometime I lock myself pressing C-x C-s)
        
        brandon_wallaceMar 9, 2021
        Since Vim and Emacs are both super awesome editors people usually select one or the other and stick with the one they selected. I have not heard of Emacs having a steep learning curve on the other hand I think the steep learning curve of Vim is a bit overrated. To learn Vim a person only need to learn how to move around in command mode and switching from command mode to insert mode.
Mauro GarciaMar 2, 2021
I'm keeping my dual boot just in case (and for gaming, to be honest), and Manjaro is one of my favorites! The KDE Plasma desktop environment looks ridiculously gorgeous
Phong DuongMar 3, 2021
Great list. Thank you for sharing
- Mauro GarciaMar 3, 2021
  You're welcome 😁
Aswath KMar 3, 2021
Welcome to Linux.

What's the difference between Figma or Notion directly in the browser vs using the thirdparty application?
- Mauro GarciaMar 3, 2021
  Actually, no so much 😂 but it's easier to start each app as a native program. And I can assign a specific i3 workspace and position for each program. I can even configure to start notion on startup.
oriewancuMar 3, 2021
Yes, daily work on linux. I choose Bodhi Linux.
Very light, fast & simple! Suitable for me.
- Mauro GarciaMar 3, 2021
  I've never heard about Bodhi! It looks super interesting! Thanks for the recommendation! I'll check it out later
Matthieu CneudeMar 7, 2021
Ah! Arch Linux. It's my OS for 6 years now, and I never had a system as stable as this one. The myth that Arch Linux breaks all the time is just that... a myth.

I've some experience in OS. I've been using in order: MS-DOS, windows 3.1, Windows 98, Windows XP, macOS, Windows 7 , Ubuntu, MANY Linux distros, and finally Arch.

If somebody is interested, I wrote a whole book how to install Arch Linux with i3, zsh, Neovim, and tmux: themouseless.dev

I thought it would be cool to share all the knowledge I gathered over these years :)
- Mauro GarciaMar 7, 2021
  Love the idea of a mouseless environment! I'll definitely take a took at your book 😁
  - Matthieu CneudeMar 8, 2021
    Thanks :) don't hesitate to reach out if you have any question.
Dhruva SrinivasApr 25, 2021
Lotion (unofficial Notion app for Linux) Lotion was an unexpected but cool surprise. I found this fantastic project on GitHub. It's super easy to install, and it just works!

There is an AUR package for notion which works seamlessly with Arch:
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/notion-app.git cd notion-app makepkg -si
OR
yay -S notion-app
- Mauro GarciaApr 25, 2021
  Wow! I didn't know about this package! Thanks for sharing! I'll definitely check that out 😁
joephill11Dec 3, 2021
i have found arch based distros to be my favorite to run. i even run arch on my home server and have no issues with it

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Mauro Garcia @mauro_codes