Why I'm Not using Arch Linux now

Is Arch Linux REALLY the king of the hill for the last 3 years?! 🤔 Market share reports are claiming Arch dominance from 2022-2025 (excluding SteamOS, which makes sense!), and it’s got me scratching my head. Seriously, is this data accurate?

I get that back in the day, before Docker became the norm, Arch’s lightweight nature and AUR were a HUGE draw, especially for setting up development environments. We all remember wrestling with those caffe/yolo installations… 😅 But now?

With Docker’s rise, I’ve found myself gravitating towards a lighter host OS (Mint XFCE, in my case) and doing everything in Docker, including all of my deep learning workloads (hello, nv-docker!). I suspect I’m not alone. The Docker container is just so much more practical and portable - and usually ubuntu-based for community compatibility. I mean I’m a convert myself. Moreover, it seems Arch/Manjaro is getting harder to use, with increasingly unstable updates that often require manual downgrades, which is a total pain.

So, how can Arch still be dominating? Am I missing something? Are there still hordes of folks out there who need that full-Arch experience directly on their hardware, even in the era of containers? 🧐 Maybe it’s just my small bubble here! It feels like the effort with Arch has just shifted to a different stage, moving from the initial setup to constantly dealing with AUR and downgrade issues. With a stable system like Mint, I can focus on my work and only spend energy on setup when needed.

Would love to hear your thoughts – especially from other developers who’ve switched to Docker-first workflows. Let’s discuss! #archlinux #docker #linux #devops #containers #opensource #marketshare #developer #tech #techdebate