As the title says. Everyone keeps saying that Arch is a not a good base for beginners, which I could see for a scratch Arch install or Manjaro, by why would that apply to Endeavour? I have had less problems with my Endeavour systems (really only 1) that my Debian installs. Is there something I am missing because I have more experience? If it is just about system updates BTRFS and Snapper seems to fix that problem easily. Well, a lot easier than Windows.
Just wondering if there is any reason I should keep my customers on LMDE vs Endeavour. I love LMDE, but the process for upgrading the disro and keeping repositories up to date is aggravating sometimes. I could just be spoiled with the AUR.
My opinion on the matter is that it’s best to start where you intend to end up, there’s not much point in intermediate distros. That given, you could say that avg joe/josette doesn’t know enough to know where they want to go.
But also to Arch adequately enough, you have to be able to think and read. And I feel that might leave some out in the cold (yes mean of me, but look at averages)
It can need manual intervention which just like Arch means editing config files by hand or running arcane commands in the terminal. It doesn’t happen very often and if you update daily while checking the news, it shouldn’t cause any problems. But at the end of the day the average user doesn’t want to be running those commands, they just want to use the computer.
I don’t necessarily disagree with you. But, a beginner can still “break” their install much easier than Mint/Ubuntu/Zorin and the like. You need to follow an update schedule and keep an eye on the Arch Wiki for news. A bit more goes into maintaining an EndeavourOS install than does the aforementioned.
Believe me when i say there are reports on the Zorin forum of users breaking their systems with Zorin. Which made me think, if a LTS based distro can break things…why should i use outdated stuff while a distro like endeavour offers me the latest stuff. I did alot of research, read the awesome reviews on distrowatch and i made the jump.
But you’re here a decent amount of the time. And you know how and where to ask for assistance, if needed. The typical Linux newbie can be easily intimidated, even by something as simple to use as Mint/LMDE.
I would say the process of installing EnOS make it accessible for beginners to Linux. But you will still end up running Arch and no amount of nice utility scripts and hand holding can make it that much “easier” to manage if the user is not prepared to roll up their sleeves and get some dirt under their nails.
From my pov it is a beginner Distro in cases in others not.
We write the year 2025 all information is free to reach for most people on planet earth.
Everyone should get/have some basic “Computer” skills, and know about how things work in the modern world of electronic things. With this, you are totally okay starting your journey into Linux with EndevourOS or even Arch itself.
You only need to dedicate yourself for the endeavour it will bring with it. But as said here already:
Good wording for that.
On the other hand, someone not willing to dive under the hood of Linux, It’s not the very best to start here if you may only want a free and secure OS to browse the web writing Mails chatting with friends.
As your goal is not to master Linux, using a very open toolbox with all the possible things you can do with it. Only to end on a more closed up Fedora Mint or what ever.
Incidentally, today I watched a YouTube video about an (admittedly) IT person using Linux for the first time. He rated it generally quite high (8.5 out of 10) in his experience with his brothers desktop.
I’ll see if I can find it and link..in case.
Well, if you’re talking about someone with even a little experience under their belt, like with Mint/LMDE, Ubuntu and so forth… then yeah. I would definitely recommend EndeavourOS as a final Linux destination point. I started with Debian, then Ubuntu, Mint, LMDE and moved to Antergos. That got me into pure Arch which I ran for a long time. When the rebirth of Antergos as EndeavourOS happened, I came back and never looked back.
I’m by no means a Linux or Arch expert. Far from it. I consider myself an intermediate Linux user, in general. Though I know much more about the Arch experience than anything else. I still have fun with Fedora/Debian/OpenSUSE and their derivatives on my laptops. But as for Arch/EndeavourOS, I can fix most things that may break, and nearly all minor issues that arise from time to time on my own. But ANY Linux user should always have that bookmark of the official forum for their distro in case help is needed. And keep checking the distro’s news source or WIKI. Most windows users aren’t used to that. As long as someone newer to Linux can adhere to that, I think they’d be just fine on EndeavourOS, or most other mainstream distros.
