I have also moved to Arch from suse and fedora, and haven't been happier with any other distro.

Along with the wiki that is informative, the forum is also useful if you're stuck.

Once in a way you do have to tweak files, a recent example being the upgrade to the Kernel version 3.0. Pacman also took me a while to get used to, and love it now.

Definitely my favourite distro, I like the rolling release concept and the bleeding edge as well, and to answer your question, yes - it is easy to learn provided you follow the steps explicitly during the installation process in the beginners guide.

Thanks! So it sounds like there's a bit of a learning curve with Arch. Is there a particular website, or maybe on the Arch site itself, that offers a decent tutorial on how to install and get up and running? With more long standing programs like Ubuntu, Slackware, etc. there are books, websites, tutorials, etc., in abundance. Is there a source (or sources)that offers that kind of assistance with Arch? I appreciate everyone's generous contributions here!

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners%27_Guide is a pretty good start.

The Arch Wiki is a very good source of documentation. I find myself consulting it even when working with other distros.

I was looking into Arch before, and I was really astonished by the amount of documentation their Wiki holds. I really believe it is one of the most well-documented distributions I have ever seen.

Personally, I feel that installing Arch is a learning curve when you are just starting out. The installer is text-based and does not have a nice GUI installer. However, once you get it up and running, it is probably one of the most lightweight and fully-functional distros. You could also learn a lot about Linux (like configuration files). I highly recommend giving it a try.

I concur. After installing Arch a couple of times across a few machines, it is actually extremely simple to configure and use now.

Once you figure out which daemons and modules you want running at bootup, configure xorg, your desktop environment, and your graphics drivers, the rest is just a little tweak here and there.

I have Gnome 3 (fallback mode by default as I don't like Gnome Shell) running perfectly, it uses about 380 MB of RAM without Compiz running, and it's the FASTEST distro I have ever used besides Gentoo where everything is compiled specificly for your hardware.

The bottom line: Give Arch a try and not only will it become your favorite, but it will become VERY easy - easier than Ubuntu because you have CONTROL.

I agree, the documentation is all in one place and so easy to follow.

I would think anyone experienced with their distro of choice can have just as much control as anyone else. Ubuntu pushes user-friendliness more than Arch, but Ubuntu can be for a power-user just as much as Arch can.

Isn't it true that Slackware, in its more recent versions, is more user friendly and doesn't have the problems with repositories, etc., that it used to? It sounds like both Slackware and Arch have the same advantages/disadvantages--is that correct? You have to deal with a definite learning curve in the beginning, but eventually you come to appreciate the relative ease and simplicity of these systems. Is it just that Arch is a newer distro than Slack, or are there decided advantages to be found in Arch?

The best way to know about it is to install it and feel your comfort zone. This is also mentioned earlier. If you don't want to go into the details of configuring your system, try ArchBang which is arch based with light weight WM, openbox.

I haven't tried Slackware myself, and I have some experience with Arch. But if I'm not mistaken, Slackware doesn't really have a package manager that will resolve automatically dependencies for you. Arch doesn't have as many precompiled binary's as Ubuntu, but it does have a 3rd party manager (AUR), that will have more apps that are ready to be compiled.