ArchWiki
Hacker ApprovedThe most recommended of 6 online documentations
Clear, accurate, concise documentation praised as one of the best Linux references, and useful far beyond Arch. Critics say some pages are bare or outdated.
Clear, accurate, concise documentation praised as one of the best Linux references, and useful far beyond Arch. Critics say some pages are bare or outdated.
90 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 86
- criticize it
- 4
- approval share
- 96%
Recommended in 10 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 86 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 22 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 10 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Among the best documentation available
“Archi Wiki? That is like... the best thing and should be a national treasure.”
Comment from 16 May 2026 in “I love Linux, but I can't quit Windows” “the Arch wiki is one of the best wikis ever existed for what it covers”
Comment from 23 Nov 2025 in “1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18” “It's astoundingly high quality, some of the best content out there”
Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “I love the work of the ArchWiki maintainers” - Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “Code Wiki: Accelerating your code understanding”
- Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “I love the work of the ArchWiki maintainers”
Useful on any Linux distro
“the Arch wiki is useful regardless of when I'm using Arch at home or when I'm using other distros at work”
Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “I love the work of the ArchWiki maintainers” “The wikis themselves are largely distro agnostic and exceptionally useful for everyone on Linux though.”
Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “I love the work of the ArchWiki maintainers” “A ton of advice and information is for all Linux distros and the Linux kernel itself”
Comment from 16 Feb 2026 in “I love the work of the ArchWiki maintainers” - Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “I love the work of the ArchWiki maintainers”
Concise, precise, detailed content
“the implicit culture quality (concise, precise, extensive) of that wiki”
Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “I love the work of the ArchWiki maintainers” “Succinctness and not wasting the reader's time are such rare pleasures”
Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “I love the work of the ArchWiki maintainers” “It is astounding how diverse and detailed (and yet concise) it is.”
Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “I love the work of the ArchWiki maintainers” - Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “I love the work of the ArchWiki maintainers”
Go-to for fixing Linux problems
“ArchWiki is usually my first stop when I run into a Linux issue, even as a fellow Debian user.”
Comment from 14 Nov 2025 in “AGI fantasy is a blocker to actual engineering” “When in doubt, I head to the Arch wiki or more rarely the forums, then I'm good to go.”
Comment from 4 Mar 2026 in “Microsoft bans the word "Microslop" on its Discord, then locks the server” “For Linux content nowadays the Arch wiki is still one of my most used resources”
Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “I love the work of the ArchWiki maintainers” - Comment from 3 Mar 2026 in “India's top court angry after junior judge cites fake AI-generated orders”
Other online documentations people recommend
The four most recommended other online documentations, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ArchWikiThis page | 86 | 4 | 96% | 10 | — | Approved |
| MSDN | 17 | 10 | 63% | 10 | — | — |
| Gentoo Wiki | 9 | 3 | 75% | 3 | — | — |
| Anthropic documentation | 5 | 4 | 56% | 4 | — | — |
| Consumer Rights Wiki | 5 | 1 | 83% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 96 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“The act of searching the Arch Linux wiki produces a picture of the anime girl.”
“if you follow the instructions on the arch wiki to use the AUR the instructions tell you not to trust things.”
“it was very convenient to take the Arch wiki, and personalize it”
“Archi Wiki? That is like... the best thing and should be a national treasure.”
“because installing an OS does require a manual if you want to be able to do any customization at all”
“their documentation is some of the fastest to cover relevant changes with regards to users' needs in software”
“When in doubt, I head to the Arch wiki or more rarely the forums, then I'm good to go.”
“I guarantee that archwiki will get me on track faster than watching videos”
“some of their admins suffer from the same sort of petty tyranny and procedural injustice”
“Had been using Arch for years, and whenever I landed on their docs pages”
“A ton of advice and information is for all Linux distros and the Linux kernel itself”
“The wikis themselves are largely distro agnostic and exceptionally useful for everyone on Linux though.”
“the arch wiki expands on the vauge man pages, often with examples for cases actually used by people”
“It’s one of the best resources out there which helped me learn linux”
“It reads like a cook book rather than a dictionary of tech specs.”
“Arch wiki is one of the reasons I stick to Arch as my daily driver”
“the Arch wiki is so much better that I often times won't even check the man pages”
“the Arch wiki pages has more detail than the man pages themselves”
“the ArchWiki was answering all of my questions. It's very, very good.”
“all the articles are very straightforward and full of paths you may encounter”
“the Arch wiki was super helpful to gain better understanding of various things I came across”
“Arch is also a little more comprehensive when it comes to mainstream tech that's divergent”
“the wiki was a blessing and ever since I have found it (>10 years), I never needed anything else”
“the implicit culture quality (concise, precise, extensive) of that wiki”
“Arch wiki is indeed the most informative and comprehensive of all”
“For Linux content nowadays the Arch wiki is still one of my most used resources”
“It is astounding how diverse and detailed (and yet concise) it is.”
“the Arch wiki is useful regardless of when I'm using Arch at home or when I'm using other distros at work”
“It's astoundingly high quality, some of the best content out there”
“Arch worked out most of the bugs for them and documented them on their wiki”
“resources like the Arch Wiki are largely responsible for how good AI is at fixing this kind of stuff”
“Succinctness and not wasting the reader's time are such rare pleasures”
“still use the wiki as a primary reference to understand various tools”
“the wiki remains a valuable resource even if you aren't using Arch itself”
“the best part is that it seems to be never incorrect, unlike essentially every other result in Google”
“I'd rather deal with Arch wiki and the command line even without an LLM.”
“Arch Wiki is one of the best documentation system I have ever seen”
“resources like the Arch Wiki just don't have alternatives on macOS”
“the Arch wiki is one of the best wikis ever existed for what it covers”
“ArchWiki is usually my first stop when I run into a Linux issue, even as a fellow Debian user.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.