How to install archlinux? Very difficult? Why?

Question

I wanted to install archlinux which I downloaded through bittorent (an iso file). It was around 290 MB file. But I found it is the most difficult of all distros. Upon booting I was taken to shell command which I don't know at all. I am not a computer professional. What is the easy way? Otherwise I will say goodbye to archlinux.
Last edited by mirchichamu (2008-08-21 17:41:19)

Answer 1

It does seem that you really want to get a working GNU/Linux distribution, when I first started with it, I was a student at high school (circa 1994), and there WERE no easy to use distributions, everything was a hard slog to get working.  Arch is quite simple once you work your way around it the first time, unfortunately however, it does require you to become a little familiar with the terminal and the commands available from it.
The fundamental difference is that you need to type your commands rather than just clicking on something to get it to work as in windows.  There are downsides compared to ubuntu, but you will quickly find, that if you try to get it working, then once you have mastered it, the rest will come easily.
On the other hand, you could try one of the other distributions, Ubuntu is generally considered pretty good for most new users, but if you have had problems with it, then it might be worth trying Fedora, again it is very easy to use and configure.  However you will likely find that there will always be something that you stumble with on any easy to use distribution unless you understand the fundamentals of how the operating system works.  This is something that a distribution such as Arch will teach you, in spades. 
The most important thing though is to not let yourself get intimidated.  It is quite easy to just look at the wiki for example, and think to yourself that you are not capable of understanding or following the instructions, in some respects you don't need to understand them now, that will come later, but if you think you can follow the instructions, even if it means printing the pages out so that you have a hard copy that you can follow then it is worth doing, and you will find yourself with a feeling of accomplishment at the end that you would not get if you got Ubuntu or Fedora working.