My Mom Uses Arch Linux
Introduction
Arch Linux is a linux distribution which caters to advanced linux users. It is exponentially more difficult to install than other operating systems because you need to install it from the command line. Building it is like building a death star out of lego. It is almost impossible to install and operate without prior linux knowledge. So the question is, why does my mom use it?
Some background on my mom
No my mom is not some kind of a linux ninja. She is an art teacher. The most she uses her computer is for taking online classes (due to COVID-19), browsing youtube and pinterest, and occasionally making powerpoint presentations. So in linux terms, she is a normie.
Now don’t get me wrong, she is pretty modern for her age. She is very fluent on her iPhone and iPad. But not so when it comes to her laptop. In fact she learnt how to scroll up and down just a month ago and got her typing speed up to 15 words per minute after practicing for 3 days.
ArchLinux? Why would you do that to your mom?
No I am not some kind of sadist. There are very sound reasons behind my decision.
The Low End Laptop
My mom needed to buy a new laptop according to the aforementioned needs, which aren’t much. So I walked into a Dell store and asked for the most crappy laptop on the shelf. And I got myself a Pentium Gold Dell Inspiron with 4 GB RAM (for those of you wondering, pentium gold is even worse than an i3 core). Just to put that into perspective, my phone has twice as much RAM as that laptop (although that is not a very accurate comparison since the type of RAM differs, but for the sake of establishing how bad the machine is, let us overlook this).
I specifically asked for a laptop without Windows as I knew that a low end laptop does not run windows well. But due to the current international crisis, no such laptop was available. So I just decided to buy whatever I could to overwrite it later, and ended up paying extra for Windows and Microsoft Office (the Microsoft monopoly over the general purpose laptop market enraged me).
The Experiment
ArchLinux is VERY minimal. It can run on any 64 bit machine and can be customized to your heart’s content, primarily because there is no bloatware. You decide what you want on your build, from the kernel to the desktop environment to the packages. So I knew that it would run very efficiently on the low end laptop.
I decided to do an experiment. The aim was to see if I can abstract a complicated system enough so that a normie can use it without any hindrance whatsoever. This experiment was reinforced by the idea that normies only care about what they see rather than the underlying operating system.
Doing the worst so she can have the best
How many times did I break it?
2 times. Installing Arch Linux was hard. Especially since I was used to GUI based installations (coming from an Debian/Fedora background). This gist covers the whole step-by-step procedure I followed to get it up and running. The system which I was working with used the old method of booting, through BIOS rather that EFI (I broke my system twice before realizing this!).
The not-so-hard decision
Storage is becoming cheaper and cheaper these days. Even with such a low-end machine, I was able to get a terabyte of HDD storage. Now I had to make a decision to wipe out all of windows (including the recovery partition) or keep the recovery partition. I decided to remove all of it due to the following reasons:
- Windows can always be reinstalled with the recovery image provided you have the key. So even if we remove the recovery image, we can always download it from the net.
- I didn’t want my mom to select an OS at boot time, it would confuse her.
The windows transition
My mom was used to windows. So I started looking for desktop environments that are ideal for users coming from windows. And I found cinnamon. It is a full-featured desktop environment which uses mutter as its window manager. It is has a windows-like UI and yes, it is VERY easy to use.
But that wasn’t enough. I had to make sure that my mom didn’t face any issues when coming from windows. So I installed some additional applications which she might use. I also added desklets on the desktop and made sure that the contents of the desktop folder are visible on the screen itself (most windows users cannot live without it).
- Desktop Environment: Cinnamon
- Window Manager: Mutter
- File Manager: Nemo
- Video Player: mpv
- Image Viewer: feh
- Browser: Firefox
Maintenance
Since Arch is a rolling distribution, it needs to be updated regularly. If you update it after a very long time, things might break. So scheduled maintenance is needed. I installed openssh on my mom’s laptop and the alacritty terminal emulator, for when I am remote as well as when I am physically present to take care of the system. I also use her system (when she is not using it) as an additional monitor using X11 Forwarding.
Mom’s Reaction
Well… did the experiment succeed? Yes it did. My mom barely noticed the change from windows, since everything was where it is supposed to be. She even navigated the file manager like a pro. The home directory didn’t confuse her at all. Keep reading to know what she said:
This is sooo fast!
Where is the downloads folder? Nevermind I found it.
What do you mean I don’t have to switch the system off whenever I am done using it?! That is nice.
I want a yellow flower wallpaper. *5 minutes later*, wow the desktop looks so good!
Everything is here!
