As a Linux noob I decided to try Arch Linux 4 years ago because I wanted to actually learn how the various parts work that make out a whole Linux distro (things like the bootloader, systemd, various desktop environments etc). Other distros give you everything ready out of the box, which made it hard for me to actually dig deeper under the hood, because I had no clue where to start. With Arch Linux you more or less build a whole Linux system from the bottom up.

Following the Arch guides to get a fully working system was easy enough for a complete Linux noob like me. But you still need some basic knowledge about computing, for things like networking, file systems, drive partitioning and such. If you learned this knowledge from other operating systems then Arch Linux is fairly easy to setup by just following their guide.

I've been using it for about 12 years now.

It was much rougher in the early days, as there were massive fundamental changes - adopting systemd, /lib becoming symlinks, etc.

But now I wouldn't use anything else. I have my configurations synced with a Gitlab repo via chezmoi, and have a bootable customised USB stick built with ALMA - so I can easily set up the same system on different machines. In that time I've used different set-ups - dwm on an 11" netbook (could only have one app per workspace and they had to be full-screen), xmonad and awesome-wm for a bit, and now i3.

One issue to note on the Steam Deck though is that it's immutable by default. So atm to install the xone drivers for example, you have to enable system mutability and reinstall them after every system update.

But it's so nice having something that is up-to-date - e.g. for kernel hardware support, bug fixes, etc. but also won't change much unless you want it to. I even use it on my work computer now since my company allows it, and it's so much better than losing hours to intrusive updates on Mac (or Windows).

There is once again a TUI installer, but also a lot of the standardisation of hardware platforms (UEFI), GPU landscape (Intel and AMD graphics "just work"), printers (IPP/AirPrint), the desktop Linux foundational layers (systemd), have combined to make Arch much easier than when it earned that reputation a decade ago.

My hot-take is that people trying Arch derivatives as their first linux has and will continue to hinder linux desktop uptake.

That being said I believe the Steam Deck OS is an arch derivative. I will allow this one to be the exception to the rule.

I absolutely do not know what I am doing, and managed to get an Arch Linux setup working on a laptop.

It's complicated, but the Arch Linux docs are fantastic.

Didn't try gaming on it, though - I have a Steam Deck for that ;) Though I can plug in a keyboard, mouse and monitor and switch to desktop mode on the deck if I need to work, so maybe I'll just use that as my laptop now

There’s user friendly variants like Manjaro.

Also you don’t technically have to know what you are doing. Their guide is very helpful at guiding you, but it’s all commands you have to type out on the command line until you get to a more GUI environment.

You have to know what you're doing to install it, which is a moot point if it comes pre-installed.

That's even less true these days, now that there's an official installer, and variants like Manjaro exist.

I installed Arch after not using Linux for over a decade (last time was Ubuntu circa 2010). The wiki is excellent. The key here is you have to be prepared to put in the time to learn it all. It is rewarding. A lot of "learning" I end up doing with software & computers generally is how to use some proprietary thing and the knowledge becomes outdated within a year. The knowledge you pick up installing Arch will stay relevant for a decade or more and is worth the investment, and a lot of the minor issues people complain about with Linux become trivial things you are more than capable of debugging & fixing. I would not say installing & configuring Arch was particularly difficult on a technical level. It is simply a matter of accepting the time needed. It took me about three weeks to get my setup to where I was happy with it, although this is probably longer than most because I had to debug some lin/win dual boot network card issues.

I have been using Arch for more than 10 years and it is great.

It has great Wiki to start using it, and it is very stable considering it is a rolling release distro.

Back in the day Ubuntu upgrades were extremely painful for me because I had to use a few custom repositories to get up to date versions of common software and they broke upgrades. On Arch it is not really an issue because everything is up to date. And even if something breaks once in a few years, if you set it up yourself (not using Manjaro) you will most likely have a better understanding of Linux and you will be able to fix those issues. And if you check Arch news before updating, you will never run into those problems in the first place. :)