Note: I wrote this article myself. Since English is not my first language, I ran it through ChatGPT to scan for grammar corrections and paraphrasing. I reviewed the output and made my own adjustments before publishing.
It All Started with Neovim (and a Lot of Pain)
I use Neovim BTW and if you’ve spent any real time working with Neovim, you’ve probably been pulled into the rabbit hole that is developer tooling. It starts with configuring your text editor… then plugins… then terminal tools… and eventually, for many of us, it leads to the infamous meme: "I use Arch BTW."
The first time I heard that phrase was from Dreams of Autonomy. Back then, I didn’t think much of it—just another YouTuber being quirky. But then I started watching Typecraft, where I learned a lot about Neovim configurations and dotfiles. Around the same time, I came across Coding with Sphere while debating whether to dual-boot Linux for the first time. One thing stood out across all of them: they all used Neovim… and they all seemed to be running Linux.
Coincidence? Maybe. But the deeper I went, the clearer it became: if I wanted to truly level up, I had to leave the comfort of Windows.
Leaving Windows Behind: My First Steps into Linux
I had already spent countless hours tweaking Neovim on Windows—enough to notice that certain things just didn’t play nicely. File paths in particular were a headache. Yes, you can work around them, and yes, I tried all the common fixes, but those workarounds started to pile up.
Take ThePrimeagen’s Harpoon plugin, for example. Sometimes it would save the full path to a file instead of the one relative to cwd. It’s a minor annoyance on its own, but when you keep running into little inconsistencies like that, it chips away at your sanity.
And then there’s WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux). It’s good. Honestly, it’s a solid stopgap. But it’s still not really Linux. It feels like you’re emulating a vibe rather than living it. I wanted the real thing. No abstraction layer. No translation. Just raw, native Linux.
About
Welcome to my blog! A random corner of the internet where I drop thoughts, ideas, cool finds, and whatever else pops into my head. No theme, just vibes.
So I made the jump. Not on my main gaming rig, of course—I’m not ready to give up my Steam library—but on my dev laptop which I got really recently for work purposes. And that’s when the real adventure began.
Why Arch?
There are plenty of beginner-friendly distros out there. Manjaro, Ubuntu, Pop!_OS, or Fedora. They’re easy to install, well-documented, and work out of the box. So why did I pick Arch?
Well, to be honest… for the meme.
There’s a certain honor in being able to say, "I use Arch BTW." It’s a badge of pride. You don’t hear people saying, "I use Ubuntu BTW." It’s not just about the system—it’s about the journey.
But there’s more to it than just internet clout. Arch forces you to learn. There’s no fancy installer, no slick GUI to walk you through things. You don’t just install Arch—you build it. From the ground up. Manually.
When you install Windows, you get dropdowns, progress bars, and colorful pictures telling you everything is going to be okay. When you install Arch, you get a blinking cursor, pacman, and a wiki. That’s it.
It’s intimidating, but empowering. You touch every part of your system: disk partitions, file systems, bootloaders, the kernel itself. You don’t click through your install—you craft it.
The Meme vs. The Reality
The joke goes like this: Arch users always find a way to tell you they use Arch. They’re like CrossFitters or ex-vegans—you don’t even have to ask; they’ll tell you anyway. Only instead of reps and macros, it’s pacman -Syu, missing firmware, and broken sound drivers (at the time of writing, my laptop’s mic still doesn’t work… but the speakers are fine!).
But behind the meme is something real.
Arch users love their systems because they’ve built them themselves. Every package, every config file, every corner of their environment was placed there intentionally. It’s not just a Linux distro—it’s your Linux distro. And that level of ownership? It changes how you see your machine. It makes you more aware. It makes you curious. And it absolutely makes you a better developer.
No GUI? No Problem (Sort Of)
To my surprise, Arch has gotten a lot easier to install. There's now an official script called archinstall. It’s not a GUI, but a TUI (Text-based User Interface) that gives you a menu-driven flow. You still need to know what you're doing—but you don’t have to type every single command manually anymore.
Again, shoutout to Typecraft for their, guide on installing Arch, was a lifesaver. I followed along, picking options and letting the script handle the details. It wasn’t exactly smooth, but it was doable.
Okay, Maybe It Was a Problem
Here’s where it went sideways.
At the time I installed Arch, there was a bug in archinstall. The fix? A full system update using pacman -Syu. Simple, right? Not so much when your installer is running entirely in RAM—and you’ve only got 8GB.
Updating the system filled up my memory. I tried just updating archinstall using pacman -S archinstall, but ran into keyring issues. I ran pacman-key --init, hoping it would help. It didn’t.
I soldiered on anyway. Let the script run, even though things were clearly broken. And, as expected, everything failed.
Four hours passed. No progress. I was this close to reinstalling Windows. One final search… and there it was. A Reddit post with the exact solution I needed. I followed it, updated archinstall again, and it finally worked.
I wanted to reset everything I've done to try and fix my issues so I force-rebooted and started fresh. I started off doing what the Reddit post said and this time, the install went through flawlessly.
Config Hell (and Heavenly Freedom)
The first things I installed: stow, git, and neovim.
I’ve always loved the idea of dotfiles. Linux makes managing them so much cleaner than Windows. On Windows, config files are scattered across AppData, ProgramData, the registry, and who knows where else. On Linux, it’s usually just .config.
With stow, I symlink all my config folders from a local git repo. Simple, elegant, version-controlled. I pulled in my Neovim setup, started building out my environment, and dove deep into customizing it all.
Thanks once again to Typecraft for giving me a solid head start. I installed a window manager, an app runner, and started playing with things I could only dream of on Windows.
Here's the thing: everything runs on config files. That’s both a blessing and a curse.
On the bright side, having everything in config files means I can just push them to my repo. Next time I reinstall Linux, I just stow everything and it's like I never left. Pretty sweet.
But sometimes, I just prefer a GUI. For certain tools, I’d rather have dropdowns, sliders, and toggles instead of writing out lines of config. Ideally, I’d adjust everything through a nice interface and still have it saved to a file I can stow and version control.
As of now, I haven’t bothered looking for front-ends for the stuff I use. I mean, why would I? I’ve got like 20 different config files—do I really want to deal with 20 separate GUIs? No thanks.
Exploring the Linux Playground
You ever hear of Ghostty? It’s a slick new terminal app that wasn’t available on Windows. Now it’s my main terminal.
Then there’s tmux, zsh and many more. All the good stuff that Linux users rave about. Yes, you can get some of these on Windows through WSL—but it’s just not the same. WSL always felt like Linux with a Windows filter on top. Native Linux is smoother. Snappier. More cohesive.
Once I had things the way I liked them, I created a new branch in my dotfiles repo—arch-btw—and pushed it up. I didn’t merge it with my main branch just yet, since that one still supports my Windows configs. I’ll probably keep them separate for now.
Dark Mode Is Supposed to Be a Toggle
Dark mode is better, change my mind meme
Dark mode. It should be a simple toggle, right?
But no—getting dark mode to work properly took way more effort than it should. I’ve set it up in my Hyprland dotfiles. It works when you're using Gnome, but when you're using i3 or hyprland? It’s a headache! It's probably a skill issue though.
I'm still struggling with dark mode in tray icon context menus. Some of them show white text on a white background—completely invisible unless I hover over them. It’s like playing hide-and-seek with UI elements. Not exactly the dark mode experience I signed up for.
"I Use Arch BTW" — Earned, Not Given
Now, when someone asks what distro I’m using, I don’t hesitate.
"I use Arch BTW."
And yeah, I smile a little. Not because I’m flexing (okay, maybe a little), but because I earned it. I built this system. I troubleshot it when it broke. I Googled obscure forum posts. I read the Arch Wiki until my eyes bled. And I survived.
No mic? Still broken. No regrets? Absolutely.
Reflections & Advice
Arch isn’t for everyone. If you want a system that "just works," try Ubuntu or Fedora. No shame in it. Those distros are great.
But if you want to learn—really learn—how Linux works from the ground up? Try Arch. It will teach you. Sometimes through pain. Often through frustration. But you will come out the other side stronger.
The hardest part isn’t the install.
The hardest part is staying sane when something breaks and you have no idea why.
Conclusion
So what does it take to say "I use Arch BTW"?
Curiosity.
Grit.
Patience.
The willingness to fail repeatedly and keep going.
It takes time spent on forums. It takes diving into the Arch Wiki like it’s your new best friend. It takes loving your system enough to want to break it—just so you can fix it again.
But when you get there… when your system finally clicks and everything feels like yours?
