So I have an old laptop from 2013 and WinBLOWS 10 chugs on this thing on good days. Today it’s struggling with yet another “update” that acts more like malware, it hogs 100% of your hdd and the actual install process can take upwards to an hour. So like MicroSHAFT wants me to buy a brand new PC, at a time when GPU prices are astronomical, all so I can run 11 on it. On what planet am I going to want to continue using your service when you’ve been this bad to me? Maybe if you buy me a new computer I might consider using 11 but I highly doubt Bill Gate$$ is going to send me a check in the mail anytime soon.
Gotta get off my ass and instal Mint soon.
Just don’t use mint then? Try something rolling release, far less trouble when doing modern things like games or professional software. EndeavourOS has a super slick installer and the gnome edition truly Just Works. I’m happy to help if anything comes up, I’m getting a bit tired of these takes about any remotely modern distro being spooky scary unstable or whatever. It’s fine, it’s just a computer.
I feel like exposing someone brand new to the AUR borders on sabotage.
Edit:
The Arch User Repository is a powerful repo of user-sourced builds with next to no vetting. Using it without knowing exactly how you are managing dependency versions is a recipe for an immediately unmanageable amount of tech debt that would leave a new user flat footed and soft-bricked at an indeterminate point down the line.
Please, you do new users a disservice by telling them to use distros with what’s effectively a “burn everything the fuck down next time the kernel updates” button integrated into system tools.
There’s also the recent scandal of malware being found on the AUR. At this point, recommending average people the AUR is irresponsible. The AUR should be something that someone who’s very familiar with Arch occasionally dabbles with.
Nothing about the AUR is more irresponsible than downloading random .exes off the internet (standard practice on windows). Fear mongering about it does everyone a disservice.
yeah you shouldn’t recommend average people do that either.
Whether or not I recommend it has no bearing on how most people use their computers. People don’t stick to windows because they find it more secure or stable, they do it because it’s convenient. In my experience, rolling release is far more convenient because modern software actually runs well on it. There’s a reason Valve switched from ubuntu to arch(-based) as their distro of choice.
and that reason was Debian dropping 32bit support
Arch is 64 bit only
Look, I don’t know what your experience has been like, but honestly the issue you described sounds like a worrying hypothetical at worst. I simply have never run into any such issues, the AUR really does “Just Work” in 2025. I actually don’t think I’ve ever had trouble with it.
On the other hand, when I was a newbie, trying to navigate getting access to newer packages on ubuntu so my games would actually run properly was miserable. PPAs (and similar systems) are 100x more confusing and annoying than the AUR has ever been.
Please know I’m writing this in good faith. There are things that are unfamiliar and that require some adapting when switching to linux, but the issues you described sounds really aren’t among them.