Arch Linux’s pkgstats data provides one of the few large-scale, opt-in snapshots of how real users configure their systems. While not a perfect census (participation is voluntary), the long-running dataset offers a clear picture of how desktop environment and window managers’ preferences have shifted across more than a decade.
At the same time, the data (to some extent) also reflects a broader trend for one key reason: as you know, a default Arch installation gives you only a base system, and you build everything else according to your own needs and tastes. In other words, there’s no predefined desktop environment that users are locked into, unlike most other distributions.
That means these statistics give us a very accurate look at which desktop environments and window managers Arch users actually choose to install and use. But enough talk, let’s move on to the data.
The premise of the question is wrong, since it assumes a general preference.
If you’re asking 👉 this 👈 Arch user, the answer is “NONE”.
EDIT: The majority of users, especially experienced ones, don’t enable pkgstats. So such stats always end up in some form of self-selection (biased towards users who would use a DE in this case).
Why would an experienced user not enable pkgstats? Anyways the biggest bias here is that arch inherently caters to power users which are going to have very different needs and likes than regular people.
well I’ve never heard of it and I’ve been using Arch for well over a decade. I see it’s actually a package of its own, rather than just a feature of pacman that you can enable.
Wouldn’t that mean the opposite - that you are actually not very experienced, or knowledgeable at least about arch? I’ve been using arch for a couple of years and “heard” of it just fine.
Ok bit of a smarmy response. Congratulations are what you’re looking for? In any case, I think it’s just an entirely optional package that is not of interest to many Arch users.
Thanks. But in all seriousness i was trying to convey that your initial argument - experienced users not enabling pkgstats didn’t make much sense. It’s just funny in this case because you’ve been using arch for a decade and yet don’t know this basic thing.
Not knowing about opt-in telemetry doesn’t convey lack of experience, or lack of (relevant) knowledgeability. Especially considering the fact that Arch purposefully keeps the existence of it low-key to avoid the possibility of pissing off anyone.
I was already an Arch user when that opt-in telemetry was introduced. And only heard about it because I was relatively active in Arch communities back then (relatively young, relatively new to Arch). If pkgstats were introduced two years later, I would have never heard of them. Because believe it or not, Arch is just a reliable OS, where you don’t have to interact with anything other than reading the odd announcement every other year. It’s not a “community”, or a “way of life”, or anything in that bracket.