[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":44},["ShallowReactive",2],{"post-\u002Fblog\u002Farch-install":3},{"id":4,"title":5,"body":6,"date":33,"description":34,"extension":35,"meta":36,"navigation":38,"order":39,"path":40,"published":37,"seo":41,"stem":42,"tags":39,"__hash__":43},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Farch-install.md","I Ditched Windows for Arch Linux and It's Great",{"type":7,"value":8,"toc":29},"minimark",[9,13,23,26],[10,11,12],"p",{},"I've been a Windows guy my whole career. Not because I loved it, just because it was there and it worked well enough. I think most people are in the same boat. But \"well enough\" has a way of accumulating. Slow startup, Docker being a second-class citizen, random background processes eating CPU during a build. It got old.\nSo when I had an excuse to swap my boot drive for a new Samsung 990 EVO Plus, I took the detour. Fresh SSD, clean slate, Arch Linux.",[10,14,15,16],{},"I picked Arch because I figured it would at least be a fun project and I'd end up with more control over my machine. The install has a bit of a reputation, but I found it pretty smooth. My main hiccup was my motherboard only having a single M.2 slot. I couldn't have my Windows drive and the new SSD installed at the same time, which meant flashing the Samsung firmware straight from the USB boot kernel. ",[17,18,22],"a",{"href":19,"rel":20},"https:\u002F\u002Fblog.quindorian.org\u002F2021\u002F05\u002Ffirmware-update-samsung-ssd-in-linux.html\u002F",[21],"nofollow","This guide was a lifesaver.",[10,24,25],{},"For me it was worth it. Here's the part that actually surprised me though: Docker.\nOn Windows with WSL2, my dev containers had this annoying 15–20 second lag on file change. Hot reload felt more like warm reload. I'd save a file, go check Slack, come back, and maybe it was done. On Arch, running Docker natively, that same reload is near instant. Same codebase, same dockerfile. It's not a small difference, it's genuinely changed how I work.",[10,27,28],{},"The rest of the setup took an evening of my dad and I poking at features and getting my peripherals configured. NVIDIA drivers are still a mild adventure on Wayland, KDE Plasma needed some tuning, and yes I had to look up more than one command. But the machine feels lighter, faster, and like mine in a way a Windows install never did.\nIf you're a developer who's been sitting on the fence, a new SSD is a pretty good excuse.",{"title":30,"searchDepth":31,"depth":31,"links":32},"",2,[],"April 2026","What I gained, what I learned, and why I'm not looking back","md",{"draft":37},false,true,null,"\u002Fblog\u002Farch-install",{"title":5,"description":34},"blog\u002Farch-install","8puspXtrrkkcpO8K7tJxOVaC-M_o-g759bidjflJOSQ",1776821943164]