Why Artix?

I may have mentioned this before, but I am an Artix Linux user by default (except when I am an OpenBSD user). I have tried many other Linux distributions (Fedora, Linux Mint, Ubuntu, Arch, Antergos (RIP), Endeavour, Manjaro, MX, OpenSUSE, Debian, Devuan, a couple of LFS based distros, NuTyX and Venom). I think it's fair to call me a Linux power-user. No, I haven't ever gone down the CentOS (RIP), or Mandriva (RIP) based distros, but I am pretty comfortable with Linux systems. And yet, no matter how far I may roam, no matter what I try, I always come back to Artix. What can I say? The repos are excellent, I can go the minimal install route and not have to remove a bunch of crap, and leave unnecessary libraries littering my SSD, I have the entire AUR at my disposal (even though I typically have to write init scripts for the daemons I get from the AUR, like auto-cpufreq), I have the one ok part of systemd (logind) without the rest (I can choose either RUnit, OpenRC, or S6 as init systems).

But, if I ever need something a little more normie to install, Artix also comes with a few full Desktop Environment Calamares installatino options. And, being Arch based, it's easy to support Full Disk Encryption (including an encrypted /boot, which I would like to make a tutorial for soon, once I get it ironed out).

Additionally, the Artix repositories, while missing certain packages from the Arch repos, have a LOT of options, enough that the Artix team was confident enough to stop including the Arch extra and community repos, by default. Although, the repos are still installable with the artix-archlinux-support package, and then editing the pacman.conf.

Finally, pretty much every application packaged for Linux is available in the AUR, which means that when I need to install something, it's generally a snap to get done (no pun here, snappy has a hard systend dependency, and Artix is a sytemd-free zone).

That unintentional non-existent pun reminds me, Artix also has Flatpak support, which is nice with some software. For example, installing a sandboxed version of Steam (which, if I remember correctly, Steam is one of the small group of apps which is actually sandboxed by any practical definition, which is a rant I intend to go on another day). It's nice to containerize proprietary spyware, it makes me feel a little better about using it.

Additionally, the inclusion of such a low-level choice as the init system is something I enjoy; I love Runit, but I am actually trying OpenRC right now, and it certainly has its merits. S6 is also an option, which I'm going to have to try out at some point as well.