The Arch Linux philosophy, also described as "The Arch Way", is in general summarized as being KISS (keep it simple stupid). There are five core principles defined in this core: philosophy, simplicity, code-correctness over convenience, user-centric, openness, and freedom.

Simplicity is definitely the base objective for Arch development, with the idea that a lightweight base structure with high quality code will have lower system resource demands. The base system found in Arch Linux has no clutter that might hide parts of the system, or make it difficult to access parts of the system. All configuration files are simple, nicely documented, easy to read, and nicely arranged for quick editing. There are no special configuration tools that might hide possibilities from the user, which leads to a system configurable to the very last detail. The Arch Linux Developers believe that trying to hide the complexity of a system results in an even more complex system, and this should always be avoided.

Code-correctness over convenience implies clean, correct, simple code and not unneeded patching, automation, eye candy or "newbie-friendliness". Software patches are only introduced when needed. Packages found in Arch Linux are really the way the Developers created them, nothing more, nothing less.

Being user-centric means that the users fully manage the system on their own. The system will offer no, to little assistance. There is a simple set of maintenance tools that are simply relaying the commands given by the user. Arch Linux is founded on simple, sensible design, and excellent documentation. As a user, you need more of a "do-it-yourself" approach rather than asking the Developers to implement a new feature. Most Arch users have indeed the tendency to solve their problems and share them with the entire community, which also leads to a friendly and helpful community of developers and users.

Openness is also briefly touched upon in the just discussed principle, saying most Arch users share the solutions to the problems they have encountered. Also, the Arch Linux Developers strive for an open system, which goes hand in hand with simplicity. Openness is intended to make things simple. It also removes the abstraction of things, which might lead to a steeper learning curve, but in the end it leads to an easily controllable and maintainable system. More experienced Arch users find some of the helper tools provided by other distributions cumbersome, and things that are sitting in the way of easy and fast configuration. The Arch Linux community is also known to be very open and willing to give advice.

Freedom is probably one of the most important things you get when you start using a Linux-based operating system. This is where Arch Linux is one of the leading distributions where all configurations and decisions regarding the system are taken by the user. In the end, the user defines the system. Arch Linux is built in such a way that you can—if you really want to—rebuild the entire system. It even provides a simple tool to do so. The entire system and all of the components are 100 percent transparent, so you can replace everything with something else providing the same functionality. In addition to this, Arch Linux also provides the freedom to use exclusively open source software, but you can also without hassle use proprietary software packages.

Ending with a final quote from Judd Vinet: