I have used Arch for more than a year, and I can say that it still does more to keep things simple yet powerful for as many users as possible than any other distro I have tried. Ubuntu is still one of the best for n00bs, but I personally can't stand Unity, and package creation and maintenance can be a real pain. Fedora, don't even get me started; I left it years ago and refuse to go back unless I'm dragged kicking and screaming with the choice of either Fedora or Windows. Gentoo, now there's an interesting option, but it still seems to be for geekier geeks than me. *BSD, well, it looks good from what I've read, but there's no version as of yet that will just come up talking so I can get it installed without eyes. The Talking Archinstaller is definitely the most simple and minimalist way of making this happen quickly and painlessly..
Regarding recent changes, it is extremely important to be as simple as possible, but to also work as closely with upstream as possible. In spite of all the recent changes, Arch has done this with less pain and frustration than I expected. The change to multiple config files from a single /etc/rc.conf is not a major stressor for me, me, because geeks like me have been dealing with this in other distros for years, and it seems to be one step closer to upstream, which IMO can only be a good thing. So call me an Arch fanbou if you like, and keep your Fedoras and Ubuntus off my computer, except for the occasional virtual machine so that I can offer tech support. Give me Arch, and I will make it sing louder and burn brighter than all the others combined. To the devs, thanks for all the great work you do to make Arch the best available distro. ~Kyle -- Kyle is a droid. The whole world knows it. This e-mail shows it.
