Story time.

I learned Debian-based distros back in high school from a college tech class. After leaving school and getting my first job, I built my first computer (after two DOA boards and much gnashing of teeth). I sat happily in my Windows bubble for a long time.

Years later I had a catastrophic failure when trying to get clever and unlocking my system32 folder to do some tinkering. I'd had enough of Windows. Thought Pop! OS looked really nice.

But we sometimes have that one friend. Arch. Every time I talked about my OS or showed him my clean setup, Arch. If I had a problem with packages. Pacman. AUR. Arch.

I was going nuts. Did he care I was running Pop! OS with KDE Plasma using Kubuntu backports to jury rig a later version? No. Arch.

After a long and grueling battle, after slogging through mountains of unsolicited Arch memes in my DMs, after vehemently defending Debian, I will only say this:

I use Arch, btw.

I think we're years past the point where the frequency of memes about people saying "I use arch btw" has exceeded people actually saying "I use arch btw" by a wide margin. At this point I'm just waiting for this one to die.

Maybe better to use cross-post next time. Sometimes people do not cross-post and then the same link will appear five times in the time line for the five identical posts they made. With cross-posting it appears only once. I use Arch, btw

Controversial opinion: you become a senior, when you let arch behind and use distros like debian.

I don't dislike arch, going step by step through the install process is the best way learning and no matter which distro someone use, the arch wiki should be the first place to visit for instructions or help.

I genuinely don't hear about people using arch too often anymore.

My current theory on the whole meme:

1. Someone in high school debate class is tasked with arguing in favor of Flat Earth theory or moon landings were faked.
2. Intrigued by the ease with which they manipulate people into believing outlandish concepts, they try talking people into believing more untenable ideas like "grip tape is much better at holding reaper pepper hot sauce on the surface of a dildo than barbed wire."
3. Person finds that limits exist and tries to come up with something more reasonable -- becomes champion for Arch Linux.
4. People take them seriously and it takes off..

DISCLAIMER: I have tried neither grip tape and hot sauce covered dildos nor Arch Linux but you get the concept I'm trying to convey I hope.

I use glorious nixos BTW

I wonder how much shit I would get if I was to declare Arch the veganism of Linux 🤔

How did you know? I do use arch btw.

The crow is people making fun of using arch. Becaus the phrase "I use arch btw" is said orders of magnitude more by those people.

Migrated to void

I use Arch BTW

Still relevant

I use Fedora BTW