this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2023
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Arch Linux
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I feel like Linux would be more acceptable to people looking for alternative to windows if a bit more care was spent on the image of the software from a customer facing perspective.
I went to the Archlinux website to check out what it was a was met with a wall of text and techno babble with complicated sounding package names and stuff that a layman would never be able to parse.
All this from the distro that on their home page claims to "keep it simple".
"Linux" isn't one singular distribution. Arch is for people that have tried a few different distros, know exactly what they want, and want to "keep it simple" by having those exact features without any unnecessary bloat. They don't mean "simple" in the sense that any idiot could just instantly use it.
If you want "simple" to mean "any idiot can use this" then maybe check out Mint, Ubuntu, or PopOS. Those have a nice GUI setup and sane defaults that should just boot into a usable system that people can go do their Facebook doom-scrolling in.
I was more so referencing the appearance of the home page of the site itself. My original Linux experience is from the early 2000's Pre-Ubuntu so I am familiar with being able to tailor exactly what you want from a technological standpoint but not all people are looking for that.
PopOS and Mint do the best job I have seen of being reasonably inviting to non-technically literate users. Ubuntu is pretty bad but not nearly quite like Arch.
I think the point I was trying to articulate (not very well as it seems) was that there are few Distro's websites that I could send to friends or family with out scaring them away permanently and that's a shame. The Arch Linux site just seemed to pop that thought into my head.
While I'm not going to say that Arch doesn't want those users, Arch is not really designed for those people. Arch is designed for those who want to build their OS from the ground up and pick the pieces they want. For people who fit this, they (traditionally) would not want a flashy website - they just want the information. You'll find that most people whether they use Arch or not, if they're familiar with what it is they would not recommend it to new users.
Due to the rolling release nature of Arch, the homepage is designed to be essentially a changelog for what you need to be aware of when updating your system. Or in other words, the "bread and the butter" is supposed to be the latest news portion right below the introduction. Such as the latest news post as of this time of writing.