The following five principles comprise what is commonly referred
to as the Arch Way, or the Arch Philosophy, best summarized by
the acronym KISS for Keep It Simple, Stupid. Simplicity is
absolutely the principal objective behind Arch development. Many
GNU/Linux distributions define themselves as “simple”. However,
simplicity itself has many definitions. Arch Linux defines
simplicity as a lightweight base structure without unnecessary
additions, modifications, or complications, that allows an
individual user to shape the system according to their own
needs. In short; an elegant, minimalist approach. A lightweight
base structure built with high programming standards will tend
to have lower system resource demands. The base system is devoid
of all clutter that may obscure important parts of the system,
or make access to them difficult or convoluted. It has a
streamlined set of well documented configuration files that are
arranged for quick access and editing, with no cumbersome
graphical configuration tools to h