Maybe not a rite of passage, but a good learning experience if you want to know what goes into your system! I'd recommend trying it to those who want to get more out of their system and know what they're using... Though I also wouldn't recommend Arch to people who don't want that.
"Calling out" gnome for needing extensions for customization seems stupid when those extensions are easy to find, easy to use, and work really well. On the other hand, I have not been able to find a taskbar for plasma that would let me group windows from an application together while also letting me rearrange the windows inside of a group. I know I need to try implementing it myself someday, but I feel like gnome ends up having more options.
Except when you're doing calculations, a calculator can run through an equation substituting the given answers and see that the values match... Which is my point of calculators not being a good example. And the case of a quantum computer wasn't addressed.
I agree that LLMs have many issues, are being used for bad purposes, are overhyped, and we've yet to see if the issues are solvable - but I think the analogy is twisting the truth, and I think the current state of LLMs being bad is not a license to make disingenuous comparisons.
That's not really right, because verifying solutions is usually much easier than finding them. A calculator that can take in arbitrary sets of formulas and produce answers for variables, but is sometimes wrong, is an entirely different beast than a calculator that can plug values into variables and evaluate expressions to check if they're correct.
As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure that argument would also make quantum computing pointless - because quantum computers are probability based and can provide answers for difficult problems, but not consistently, so you want to use a regular computer to verify those answers.
Perhaps a better comparison would be a dictionary that can explain entire sentences, but requires you to then check each word in a regular dictionary and make sure it didn't mix them up completely? Though I guess that's actually exactly how LLMs operate...
I think Arch is meant for people who want to learn the software - so that you can also choose, control, customize, diagnose, and fix the software!
That said, archwiki is still a great resource on other distros for when something does go wrong, or when it's not obvious how to do something, particularly when messing with experimental or server stuff.
The reason entropy is a "force" that dooms things is that once maximum entropy is achieved, there is no energy differential, and with no energy differential you can't perform any work, life cannot exist, electricity cannot be generated, etc.
The idea that entropy unstoppably increases predicts that, eventually, all energy will be "spent" and no life can exist - a timer for all sentience in the universe.
Also, launching probes into space doesn't increase entropy (to be precise, the act of launching probes uses energy with some inefficiency, so it does increase entropy, just not through the fact that a probe is now in space), because pulling matter away from other matter increases potential gravitational energy. Maximum entropy in this sense would be all matter in the universe clumped together into an inert, uniformly mixed... Clump?
Also, I'm not a physicist, so I probably got some things wrong, especially terminology, so take this with a grain of salt.
Oh screw that, that's an emotional post from somebody sharing their reaction, and I'm fucking STOKED to hear about it, can't believe I missed the news!
I don't think that's a good point, since they make their own immutable images, so they can use whatever versions of software they want, and you don't normally get to update them with the rolling release
That's the point of the fediverse and activitypub - posts from one platform are federated to other compatible platforms. I know this also includes kbin, but there's probably other platforms.
As others mentioned, archwiki is the information source if you want to use Arch, and a great source of information even if using other distributions.
For other distros, I've seen people mention Linux Journey.
All that said, you might not be able to drop Windows entirely - if we're talking CAD software, the Adobe suite, that kind of stuff, you might not be able to find suitable alternatives for Linux. That said, you can always dual boot, or you might even be able to work with a VM.
If you do want to try a dual boot, I strongly recommend setting up the Linux boot partition on a separate physical drive, to minimize the risk of Windows overwriting it... As well as you accidentally messing up your windows install. I'd also recommend using rEFInd as the bootloader, since it's very easy to set up and will automatically show a boot option for Windows.
Feel free to ask questions, I'm no expert, but I'll try to answer when I have time.
I will happily recommend Arch to a new user... If they're interested in learning Linux, and not dependent on it working reliably, while warning them of the risks and telling them about the advantages.
I wouldn't recommend it to somebody who wants something that just works, but for tech-inclined people looking for a system they are in control (and responsibility) of, willing to learn how to set it up, I think a manual installation is a good experience.
By the way, for editing server files consider nano. It's also widely available, has simpler shortcuts and displays them on the screen. It's obviously not powerful like vim, but a good match when you just need to edit a config file.
Maybe not a rite of passage, but a good learning experience if you want to know what goes into your system! I'd recommend trying it to those who want to get more out of their system and know what they're using... Though I also wouldn't recommend Arch to people who don't want that.