Finalization

Desktop Environment

Now it's time to choose your desktop environment, if you want or need one.

KDE

KDE is a powerful and feature rich desktop distribution that at first resembles a layout similar to that by Microsoft Windows. KDE is very customizable though, and it can be changed to look like almost anything. This DE although is more suited for newer hardware, as it does need more resources than others.

Install KDE, a login manager, a file manager, a browser and a terminal with the following command:

$ sudo pacman -S plasma sddm dolphin firefox konsole
$ sudo systemctl enable --now sddm

Gnome

Gnome is a DE that is ideal for laptops and people who like polish. It is a very stable and responsive distro, although still very customizable with extensions and themes. Resource-wise, Gnome is less of a resource hog than KDE, though there are still more lightweight choices for older hardware.

Install Gnome and a browser with the following command:

$ sudo pacman -S gnome firefox
$ sudo systemctl enable --now gdm

Then continue on with your login. If you've got an NVIDIA card, use the Xorg variant in the bottom right menu, until NVIDIA adds proper support for Wayland.

AUR HelperHelpers

To simplify the process of installing packages from the AUR, we can use an AUR Helper, like yay or pakku.
They are also wrappers of pacman, so you can also use them to install packages outside of the AUR.
This covers installing both of themthem.

yay

# We need git and base-devel to download packages from the AUR. If you didn't install it already, do so now.
$ sudo pacman -S --needed git base-devel
# Then clone the appropriate repository into a temporary folder.
$ git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay.git /tmp/yay && cd /tmp/yay
# Once you're inside the newly created directory, compile and install yay
$ makepkg -si

# You can also use the following one-liner:
$ sudo pacman -S --needed git base-devel && git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay.git /tmp/yay && cd /tmp/yay && makepkg -si

# Use yay like you would use pacman, it uses the same syntax.
$ yay -S <package>
$ yay -Syu
# etc.

pakku

You can use the same steps for pakku as for yay.

# We need git and base-devel to download packages from the AUR. If you didn't install it already, do so now.
$ sudo pacman -S --needed git base-devel
# Then clone the appropriate repository into a temporary folder.
$ git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/pakku.git /tmp/pakku && cd /tmp/pakku
# Once you're inside the newly created directory, compile and install pakku
$ makepkg -si

# You can also use the following one-liner:
$ sudo pacman -S --needed git base-devel && git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/pakku.git /tmp/pakku && cd /tmp/pakku && makepkg -si

# Use pakku like you would use pacman, it uses the same syntax.
$ pakku -S <package>
$ pakku -Syu
# etc.

Desktop Environment

Now it's time to choose your desktop environment, if you want or need one.

KDE

KDE is a powerful and feature rich desktop distribution that at first resembles a layout similar to that by Microsoft Windows. KDE is very customizable though, and it can be changed to look like almost anything. This DE although is more suited for newer hardware, as it does need more resources than others.

Install KDE, a login manager, a file manager, a browser and a terminal with the following command:

$ sudo pacman -S plasma sddm dolphin firefox konsole
$ sudo systemctl enable --now sddm

Gnome

Gnome is a DE that is ideal for laptops and people who like polish. It is a very stable and responsive distro, although still very customizable with extensions and themes. Resource-wise, Gnome is less of a resource hog than KDE, though there are still more lightweight choices for older hardware.

Install Gnome and a browser with the following command:

$ sudo pacman -S gnome firefox
$ sudo systemctl enable --now gdm

Then continue on with your login. If you've got an NVIDIA card, use the Xorg variant in the bottom right menu, until NVIDIA adds proper support for Wayland.