I’ve never talked to an Arch user about Linux, so I dunno how toxic their community is. But I do read Arch documentation, and it’s fantastic. Arch’s documentation has (for me, anyway) taken the place that used to be held by the old HOWTOs back in the early days.

The kind of cooperation required to accomplish this doesn’t speak of a toxic community to me. I didn’t watch the video since I don’t watch YouTube on my phone, but I’m guessing it’s not the Arch community that has issues but annoying teenage “I’m more 1337 than you” jackwads that are the turd in the Linux punchbowl. Those little cretins are drawn to distros like Arch because they like feeling superior to the “normie” users.

I should know, I used to be like that thirty years ago. Most of us grow out of it after we start getting laid.

I mean… They’re not. Not counting the individual or course.

My favorite Arch interaction I’ve read was where someone asked the best way to change the theming of a certain distro, and an Arch dude took issue with this, saying that if they wanted something different they should just use a different distro or create their own, instead of disrespecting the vision of the distro creators. This, over changing the theme, for which options are built-in, and which is the base minimal type of customization you can do on any OS, for a distro type where a primary selling point is endless customization compared to other distros.

Seriously, gtfoh.

I don’t think most Arch users are.

However, I do think a small portion of the Arch community are. There seems to be a segment that is quite aggressive with RTFM, even where the wiki is unclear, or are otherwise very condescending or even aggressive to new users.

People also really need to stop recommending Arch to new users, especially those looking to move to Linux for gaming.

If linking to a Wiki entry counts as toxic then I don’t know what to tell you. Users need to hear that their problems aren’t unique and aren’t worth anyone taking time out of their day to handcraft a response to. This isn’t Ubuntu - you are expected to be able to DIY, and if you constantly need someone to hold your hand through the process then you need to uninstall and start over elsewhere until you understand why Arch exists. It’s like declaring you’re going to build a shed to keep your mower in, but you call your contractor buddy every five minutes asking where to drive the nails and place the studs. Your time is best spent driving to the hardware store and buying the shed outright.

If someone is contemplating installing Arch, they need to be asked why. If they can’t explain it or give a poor answer (“I saw a video” etc,) direct them somewhere else.

Isn’t the video saying that they are “toxic” because noobs asks questions without providing info? And that wastes their time? And if they don’t want to spend some time finding out by reading wiki + providing a full post of what they tried, the logs and info, those experts on Arch Linux aren’t going to lose time with them as they didn’t spend any time resolving or explaining their own issue… I think it’s pretty clear what the video says, if you don’t want to learn and be “independent” just keep with Ubuntu or Linux Mint.

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Arch seems to target users who are inclined to read the wiki and manpages, so it doesn’t surprise me that beginners run across some saltiness if they approach people who aren’t focused on beginners. Even the installation process seems to be designed as a screening mechanism. It wasn’t a big hurdle when I first tried it out, but it was a small one.

There are plenty of distributions that focus on people who are just getting started. For whatever it might be worth, this includes several distros based on Arch. I usually suggest Mint or Xubuntu over Debian for people with no prior exposure to Linux. Even though I like it personally, I try not to suggest vanilla Arch to anybody. They can try it if they want to, but there are plenty of reasons to try something else instead.

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

https://piped.video/watch?v=sHQFGhTiyk0

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.

Looks like most people vote on the title of the post and don’t actually watch the video. TL;DW: most Arch users really aren’t.