[rgoulter]

My experience with Arch (which I tried after I'd used Linux Mint) was that for the first few weeks I was constantly consulting the Arch Linux Wiki to get anything done. -- I mean, yes, the emphasis is on "learned a lot".

The Arch Linux Wiki is a fantastic resource.

[bombcar]

Installing Arch (or even Gentoo) is worth doing at least once just to learn a bunch about how the parts work together.

Heck, even just reading the installation guide gives you a better understanding of how a Linux machine operates.