[9] Arch Linux is intentionally minimal, and is meant to be configured by the user during installation so they may add only what they require.

[16][17][18] Inspired by CRUX, another minimalist distribution, Judd Vinet started the Arch Linux project in March 2002.

[20] Vinet led Arch Linux until 1 October 2007, when he stepped down due to lack of time, transferring control of the project to Aaron Griffin.

[24] The end of i686 support was announced in January 2017, with the February 2017 ISO being the last one including i686[25] and making the architecture unsupported in November 2017.

Without package authentication checking, tampered-with or malicious repository mirrors could compromise the integrity of a system.

[42] Arch Linux focuses on simplicity of design, meaning that the main focus involves creating an environment that is straightforward and relatively easy for the user to understand directly, rather than providing polished point-and-click style management tools –the package manager, for example, does not have an official graphical front-end.

This is largely achieved by encouraging the use of succinctly commented, clean configuration files that are arranged for quick access and editing.

[48] The Arch Linux website supplies ISO images that may be burned to a CD or USB drive.

Installation can be accomplished manually by following the instructions on the Arch Wiki, or automatically through the use of the included "archinstall" script.

[52][53][13] An alternative to using CD or USB images for installation is to use the static version of the package manager Pacman, from within another Linux-based operating system.

[54] The user can mount their newly formatted drive partition, and use pacstrap (or Pacman with the appropriate command-line switch) to install base and additional packages with the mountpoint of the destination device as the root for its operations.

This method is useful when installing Arch Linux onto USB flash drives, or onto a temporarily mounted device which belongs to another system.

[57] Occasionally, manual interventions are required for certain updates, with instructions posted on the news section of the Arch Linux website.

[59] Pacman handles package installation, upgrades, downgrades, removal and features automatic dependency resolution.

The Arch build system makepkg tool can be used to create custom pkg.tar.zst packages from third-party sources.

These PKGBUILD scripts simplify building from source by explicitly listing and checking for dependencies and configuring the install to match the Arch architecture.

[76] Arch User Repository helper programs can further streamline the downloading of PKGBUILD scripts and associated building process.

[77] Users can create packages compatible with Pacman using the Arch build system and custom PKGBUILD scripts.

Reasons for exclusion from the main repositories include: PKGBUILDs for any software can be contributed by ordinary users.

He has also praised the Arch Wiki, the distribution's rolling release model, and the feedback loop with the community.