Arch and Gentoo have IMO the best documentation ever and you learn a lot when you try using either of those distributions as you have to do everything from scratch starting from a minimal system. Since you’re saying you’re new to Linux though, I’d say you should start with something more user-friendly like Mint or Ubuntu (or even Manjaro if you want a rolling release distro) and stay away from Arch and Gentoo in the beginning.

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I use mint and I really like it. It’s an easy familiar transition from windows.

Arch is for user’s who want to start with a completely blank slate. Like there’s no file system when you start, as far as I know. Think of arch like windows but nothing is installed, not even explorer.exe

As someone who has used both as my primary operating system the main reason I ended up on Arch is the Arch User Repository (AUR).

The AUR allows you to run installation scripts for apps that aren’t supported by the official repositories and pretty much everything you could ever want is there.

The other big thing I liked is the Arch Wiki documents everything really well, and I preferred the kinds of answers I found there and on the Arch forums to the Ubuntu/Mint forums.

At the time, operating system overhead was extremely important to me and a window manager like i3 or awesome was less resource intensive than Mint’s Cinnamon Desktop Environment (DE).

All of that being said though, because Arch doesn’t ship with a DE getting started will require a configuring a lot of things using old school text based configuration files. The Mint installed on the other hand leaves you with a very capable and functional system as soon as you finish installing it.

If you want something that works right out of the box, I would recommend Mint. If you want a project give Arch a shot!

Well, Arch is not inherently better, it depends on your needs. If you want up-to-date packages and don’t mind the do it yourself approach you’ll love Arch. I’ve used Arch for a few years and learned a lot from it. I love the minimalism. Now I switched to a minimal install of Sway on Debian because I just want a tried and tested stable system. I am at a point of my life where I want a really boring install. Instead of tinkering with the system I use it as a base to learn more on the server side, and learn more coding, etc

arch is for noobs. linux from scratch is a little better

Package base is always up to date since it’s rolling. The AUR is absolutely fantastic and gives me any obscure application I could ever need. You ever tried installing the marathon trilogy with alephone on fedora? The AUR makes it a single button install. I’m currently running endeavour OS plasma, such a smooth experience.

*btw

Arch teaches you about the inner workings of Linux. Mostly because it breaks all the time and you have to fix it.

Probably already said here, but it’s going to just come down to your end goal to know what distro fits what you’re looking for.

I am personally a huge fan of Gentoo, another distro that’s all about “from the ground up” approach. It’s actually where I started with Linux and is how I became as proficient in it as I am today. In fact my internal server that does everything is running Gentoo as it’s OS… Has never had any problems in the last decade that would require a reinstall or anything crazy like that.

But even as much love as I have for Gentoo, I have Linux Mint installed on my laptop. Why? Because it’s just more convenient when I need my full focus on the 10 other personal projects I’m working on… Also amazing on the gaming front. Doesn’t have nearly as much bloat as some other Ubuntu-based distros on first install, has a huge community support, and is just great all around to have.

The community and wiki.

One of arch’s things is it’s a rolling release distro, which means that every bit of arch is updated as soon as an update is available for it. Mint on the other hand tests the package updates before they release it to make sure its stable, but this results in the packages being out of date.

More of the software I use is in the repos/aur compared to debian. Which makes everything easier.

Linux is Linux. The differences largely come down to packaging and release cadence. You never really have upgrade difficulties with Arch due to the rolling release model as long as you are updating pretty regularly. On other distros, it’s not uncommon to deal with release upgrades that can be a little more involved. The other advantage to Arch is the repository and AUR. You can install just about anything with one command/click.

Personally, I think Arch is the easiest distro to use once it’s installed. I was a Debian user before Arch for mostly the same reason - it’s so easy to install software because the repository is huge. Being on Mint, you have access to a lot. Just imagine having access to even more but needing a little more knowledge to get started and that’s Arch.

If you like extra config work you’ll love Arch relative to Mint.