I agree with this, the issue may be the packages installed rather than the distro. For a more reliable experience, I like to:

• Use Flatpak instead of the AUR where possible
• Use built-in filesystems and avoid DKMS

I don’t like Notepad++ as a text editor for code, but my god is it amazing for taking quick notes. I’ve been searching for a Linux equivalent but haven’t found it yet. My favorite Notepad++ features:

• Opens immediately.
• Never loses data, and I mean never - unsaved files are restored after crashes, reboots, power outage, you name it.

For jotting down quick meeting notes in a hurry, it’s great. The settings are messy and hard to configure though, so I use Vim/Helix for writing code (hobbyist, not professional).

I wrote my own program, filetailor. It’s similar to Chezmoi but uses inline comments instead of templates for machine-specific lines. This allows me to make edits directly to my local files and then sync those changes to other machines.

I also use Ansible.

I just moved from Neovim to Helix. I think it’s worth considering, especially if you don’t know the keybindings yet. Plus, Helix is probably easier to learn.

Interesting idea. If you really break it down, the “terminal with command buttons” is similar in concept to saving each of the commands as a script and putting those scripts in a directory to act as “buttons.”

I’ve also seen some programs such as Kopia, a backup tool, that provide a GUI with the equivalent terminal commands for what is bring done shown at the bottom.

I don’t think what you’re describing exists, probably because experts don’t need it and beginners would prefer a full GUI.

There is Nushell, which promises more helpful error responses for the terminal, but its too early for it to be targeted at beginners in my opinion.

Came here to suggest Onshape. It spoiled me for all other CAD software. (But it is web-based and proprietary.)

Good question. Flatpak doesn’t lead to fewer updates overall, but it does lead to fewer system packages installed via pacman or yay, which can run into dependency conflicts unlike Flatpak.

Flatpak provides a common runtime upon which different applications can be installed via containers, much like apps on a phone. You can then adjust the permissions for each app such as which directories it can access. It’s kind of like installing Firefox (e.g. Flatpak) and then a Firefox extension such as uBlock Origin (e.g. LibreOffice). It doesn’t matter if you’re on Ubuntu, Fedora, or Arch, from the extension’s perspective it’s the same old Firefox and doesn’t touch anything else on your computer. This means uninstalling is clean and it has no dependencies on other packages installed.

The disadvantage with Flatpak is they can be slower (sometimes not even noticeable) and take up more space, although the runtime can be re-used between Flatpak applications. Personally, I like Flatpak for large GUI applications like LibreOffice, which has 170+ dependencies if installed via pacman.

I’m not an expert, but hope this helps. For more/better info, I recommend reading https://itsfoss.com/what-is-flatpak/.

I think you can use Arch for university, but I have a few suggestions:

• Don’t update packages unless you have time to fix issues. Rare, but it happens, although usually minor.
• Never mess with greeters, kernel modifications, bootloaders, or anything else before login. Fixing issues may require a live USB and take some time. Avoid the temptation! (Ask how I know…)
• Use Flatpak where you can for increased stability by way of fewer packages to update.

Of course, you could also use a non-rolling release distro. Nothing wrong with that.