I would say that Arch is not the best distro to learn the ins and outs of Linux. Arch is comparable to Void in that both are rolling-release distributions and require comfort with the command line.

Gentoo goes a step further by allowing you to tweak CPU-specific and software compile-time options before building packages from source. Then you have PLD Linux, whose installation process demands a strong understanding of the system and its internals.

A step further down is CRUX, which leaves you with the bare essentials - essentially just the kernel. You need to manage repositories yourself to a significant extent.

Finally, we arrive at Linux From Scratch (LFS), which is somewhat similar to CRUX, but with an even more hands-on approach. With LFS, you must manually install virtually everything, including the toolchain, libraries, and basic utilities.

So, from Arch to LFS, there’s still a huge gap in terms of how deeply you engage with the system.

Finally, what does it really mean to “learn Linux”? You can learn Linux with any distro, but when you are using a distro, you are mostly just learning that particular distro.

But the attacking line is also much lower. So? 🤷

This is misleading. While Red Hat contributes significantly to Linux and some open source projects, they did not create the Linux kernel, GCC, or glibc - those are GNU or community projects. You can absolutely use Linux without Red Hat software, especially with distros like Alpine, Gentoo, or Guix. Red Hat is influential, but not essential.

Thanks for the awesome news! I really hope more distros follow that move - more independence means more real freedom.

When exploring the libre distributions recommended by GNU.org or broader FOSS communities, I find myself questioning whether being „blob-free" is truly enough. Some suggested distributions - such as Guix - host their code on GitHub, which is owned by Microsoft.

Similarly, systemd is maintained by Red Hat, a company closely tied to IBM and known to collaborate with Microsoft. It’s used in distributions like Parabola and Trisquel. This raises concerns about centralization and corporate influence, which makes me wonder whether these choices truly align with the spirit of software freedom.

That said, maybe I’m misunderstanding what „libre“ fully entails.

Thank you for mentioning SourceHut as another option - I didn’t know about it. In my opinion, it doesn’t matter whether Void Linux or other distributions choose Forgejo or another platform, as long as they move away from Microsoft-controlled GitHub. Doing so would reduce the risk of corporate influence and give them greater independence, even if I fully understand that it would also mean more work.

Not only GNU projects, but also entire distributions. Void Linux, for example, is still on GitHub! I hope so much that they will turn to Forjego, Codeberg or Gitea.

You could not be more wrong. It is well alive and still kicking.

Defaults are generally who do not want to understand in depth what they are doing (no offence). Example from other sphere: in R-Cran (used to write statistical models), some functions have defaults to either choose a particular algorithm or an optimisation value. I have heard almost about nobody among students, PhDs and even higher up the ladder, who took the time to understand what is happening below the shell. Instead these people took just the defaults, it worked (result was significant), done. However, if they may have chosen another algorithm, things may have turned differently, which would open up a box with many questions concerning modelling adequacy and understanding of data. It is the same with defaults in Linux.

Can you give 1-2 links, please? Would like to see these guys and what are they saying.

How comes that Vim is proprietary? Jetbrain offers community versions which are afaik open source too, so you can look at the source code, you do not need to pay or agree to an EULA.

Attention Ubuntu users if you haven’t heard about it. There is currently a problem with the update, which is why it is stopped: Release Manager Simon Quigley on Reddit.

IMHO it is at first much more important that the distribution is running well, is safe, and gets the required support so that it can establish itself among the many distros and remains for many many years an entirely European distro! I do not care in the beginning if it is called Donald Duck OS, mc2 Linux or whatever.

I do not have a Slimbook but they look really nice on their webpage. However, I miss the possibility to choose among hardware components like with Tuxedo Computers, which is also located in Europe.

Ah, right! This is among the reasons why Russia has the lowest share of seats held by women in politics (won’t go into business) in Europe (Statista).

Give it a try. Perhaps they may give you at least a hint.

Pcmanfm? Nemo? However, if one does not need a GUI I would suggest ranger, nnn or alike.

Oh, I did not know about the possibility of replacing xfwm4 with i3. I too am using i3 for some years and like a lot to have a clean surface which facilitates focussing on my tasks. However, never thought about integrating it in a DE.

You mean switching between the DE xfce and the WM i3wm, right? Yep, this works and it can indeed make life sometimes easier to have a DE and a WM aside each other.

I am absolutely with you about i3. Simply great (there is also dwm or qtile)! But it is a WM, not a DE, what OP asked about.