I am in the same situation as parent so I'll give you my reasons for not using Arch:

- Tried arch for some weeks, I liked it but had to reinstall twice after some pacman -Sy managed to break something and I couldnt't upgrade/install anything anymore ;

- I love the nice ubuntu fonts and aliasing/hinting ;

- I installed it again in the beginning of this year (netinstall) and although I was installing from the web I had no connection (not even eternet) upon rebooting even though I followed the wiki step-by-step (I tried it twice as well).

I wish there was some arch version that would have a debian like cycle release.

(I also dabbled with parabolla)

I've never had a problem with pacman breaking things on install/updated except for when I attempt to use unstable repositories.

You can get the exact same font aliasing/hinting, you just need to change the hinting settings (if you're using gnome, install gnome-tweak-tool, if you're using xfce it's in the font settings menu, I don't know about other DEs).

Arch wouldn't really be arch if it had a release cycle. Part of the simplicity of it is that it's a rolling release.

> I've never had a problem with pacman breaking things on install/updated except for when I attempt to use unstable repositories.

I wasn't using any unstable or experimental repo., only the standard basic one. I read on HN some weeks ago that there had been problems last year and there were related to some changes in the system and that that year wasn't a good one to get started with arch but I didn't follow on that.

> You can get the exact same font aliasing/hinting, you just need to change the hinting settings (if you're using gnome, install gnome-tweak-tool, if you're using xfce it's in the font settings menu, I don't know about other DEs).

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Font_Configuration I have my doubts I just need to change the hinting :] Ubuntu's defaults are really good (for me).

I am using awesome. I don't see the point of using gnome or kde with a distro that has simplicity in mind (but that's my take on it).

I'm really curious about Arch. What gap in the market does it fill? What advantages does it have over Debian or Ubuntu? It's certainly mentioned a lot on HN...

Arch's philosophy: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/The_Arch_Way

I guess the most notable difference between Arch and Unbuntu is Arch's quest for simplicity as a system, where Ubuntu tries to be simple for the "common man" by abstracting implementation details, adding to overall complexity of the system.