I am a Linux noobie and have only used Mint for around six months now. While I have definitely learned a lot, I don’t have the time to always be doing crazy power user stuff and just want something that works out of the box. While I love Mint, I want to try out other decently easy to use distros as well, specifically not based on Ubuntu, so no Pop OS. Is Manjaro a possibly good distro for me to check out?
if you want an Arch based distro, Endeavour OS is more popular – Manjaro has had a few issues over the years
Just switched to EndeavourOS about a week ago from Manjaro and been liking it so far.
Biggest reason for the change was my manjaro install was getting cluttered, and moving over to a new distro ( taking all my previous knowledgement with it) has been a blessing.
Beforehand, my Manjaro install was EFI, whereas my Windows 11 drive ( yes I know) was UEFI so switching on boot was an issue. Now both are on UEFI and show up within Grub.
Endeavor OS has bluetooth turned off by default. Thought there was an issue but nope.
So from no issues with updating, even with AUR turned on.
I just like starting fresh and setting things up with all my previous knowledge.
I have used it in the past for a few years. I don’t think you should. Why?
- The Manjaro devs are idiots. They have broken the AUR on multiple occasions.
- Their packages break more often than upstream Arch since you get update bundles which they release. This isn’t tested as well as it should and may lead to things breaking.
- Arch is also easier to install nowadays, if you really want a rolling release distro.
If you just want something not-Ubuntu and easy to use, I tend to favor Fedora personally.
What even is an unbiased opinion? That doesn’t even begin to make sense.
That being said, my very biased opinion is that it’s a great way to install Arch without learning how Arch works so that when it inevitably breaks you don’t even know how to ask the right questions.
I disagree. Not everyone wants to spend the time to completely customize their system. Distros like Manjaro and Endeavor give people a decent “just works” install while still giving them experience with the Arch ecosystem. The forums are usually a good resource, and everything on the arch wiki still applies. It might just be because I had previous linux experience, but I’ve learned a lot running Manjaro.
The average person is not going to jump straight into vanilla Arch as their first distro, but after a couple years with Manjaro, they might try it.
If you don’t want to spend the time to completely customize your system just don’t use an Arch based system. Seriously. Arch has some neat things about it, but it’s not the magical be all and end all of distros. If you don’t want to use what it’s good at use Mint, or Debian, or PopOS, or Ubuntu, or Fedora, or if you want something bleeding edge use OpenSuse Tumbleweed. You don’t have to use shitty imitation Arch if you don’t want to use Arch. You also don’t need experience with Manjaro to use Arch. I jumped straight into Arch after using Mint for years and it was fine. I still use Mint on my laptop and as a backup on my old drive I moved to my new computer just in case I do something stupid in Arch. Mint is great. I just like playing around with completely customizing my system. Why would you want something Arch based if you don’t care about the main thing it’s actually good at?
To answer your question: AUR. Aur is something that I love about Arch.
Also please stop gatekeeping. Installing Arch by hand instead of using something like EndevaourOS doesn’t mean anything. I used EndevaourOS after using arch simply because it was way faster and easier to configure. It still has all the functionality of arch (since essentially it is arch).
If you don’t want to spend the time to completely customize your system just don’t use an Arch based system
Thats the thing. You can still customize everything and anything. I mean what’s stopping you from using a tty and changing things? Also even the installer helps you customize a lot of things…
Personally, I think the idea that you can’t ask the right questions because you haven’t installed Arch manually is a silly notion that’s borderline gatekeeping. It’s why Arch users have the reputation that they do and why Arch itself has a reputation for being difficult even though it really isn’t.
Over the years, I’ve moved from Manjaro to Antergos to Endeavor, and then finally the official archinstall tool. I probably will never be arsed to install Arch by hand, but it doesn’t mean that when something breaks I don’t know how to consult the Arch Wiki and fix it myself.
Do users of other distros not know how to ask the right questions? Are Arch users the only ones who know their system inside and out? I don’t think so. Every person has their own threshold for how much investment they want to make into learning about their system, no matter the distro.
The reason Arch users all end up like this is that we’ve all tried to help someone, been run around for hours, and then finally figured out that the problem is caused by some stupid thing that Manjaro did despite the person insisting the whole time that they’re using Arch and there’s literally nothing we could do to help, only to be called an elitist gatekeeper for trying to point it out because “It’s the same thing.” Fuck that, and fuck you for calling me a gatekeeper.
If you want to use Arch use Arch. You are welcome to use it. It’s not actually hard. If you can read a wiki, you can install Arch. It’s not a fucking herculean task that only super-geniuses can manage. I get it. Some people’s brains don’t mesh with the wiki style of information presentation, and that’s okay. That doesn’t make you inferior or unintelligent, but if you think the Arch wiki is good for other things then you can just install it in an afternoon. I promise. And you’ll learn more in that afternoon than you learn in a year of using Manjaro. Seriously. I’m not kidding.
If that’s not what you want, there are almost certainly other distros that are way, waaaaaaay better for you than any Arch-based distro is. I can’t actually stop anyone from using Manjaro, or Endeavor, or whatever else they want to use, and I wouldn’t want to be able to. I’m not in charge of your life. If you want to do something stupid you should be able to make that choice. I just want to point out how stupid it is. Is that so wrong?
This is a great explanation of the frustration that Arch users have supporting Manjaro users. The problem is a subtle error in the lesson learned. It is not that Arch is uniquely better. It is that Manjaro uniquely sucks.
The idea of Manjaro is great. It is just poorly executed ( but well enough that you have to use it for quite some time to understand that ).
Other Arch derivatives do not have these issues.
You simultaneously complain that you’re being called an elitist gatekeeper and in the same damn breath call everyone else who doesn’t share your opinions of Arch-purism stupid. That is a textbook example of gatekeeping dude.
The reason Arch users all end up like this is that we’ve all tried to help someone, been run around for hours, and then finally figured out that the problem is caused by some stupid thing that Manjaro did
This is a made up situation. I am an Arch user and I have never been so incensed about derivative differences that I felt the need to restrict help to only pure Arch users like I am running some product support hotline. Please, give me a break. Why do we have to be so damned picky about who we help? There’s always going to be differences between my system and another person’s system which can make debugging confusing, even between two separate pure-Arch systems, but that’s part of the fun! And so what if they’re using Manjaro? A ton of problems in the Linux space are distro-agnostic and more due to wrong configuration, etc. If you don’t want to help them, that’s fine, just move on instead of pretending like their entire community committed some cardinal sin against you. Can RHEL users not help out Fedora users? What about Ubuntu vs Mint? Is it really so damned hard to be like “Hey, I can’t figure out your problem. It could be that there’s some differences between Arch and Manjaro” and just move on with your life?
It’s fine if you don’t want to contribute to these kinds of things, but insisting Arch-derivative users stop using them and or be shunned from interaction is gatekeeping to be perfectly frank. There are many reasons why some people might prefer an Arch-derivative. Just because you can’t see them doesn’t make them any less valid for other people who have different usecases and preferences than you.
Idiot Devs that forgot to renew their certificates twice in a single year. A pm that can break your packages. A treasurer hat gotbfires cause he didnt allow the CEO to buy a 2k gaming laptop. They fiddled with arch so much there is a chance when something goes wrong, its likely manjaros fault.
They are not to be trusted frankly.
Use endeavouros, it makes arch actually usable Instead of a KISS nightmare and doesn’t have any of the manjaro baggage.
I never recommend Manjaro, even for experienced users. Multiple times, they’ve let their ssl certificats expire, and renewing those has been easy to automate for a number of years at this point. There have been a number of cases where they ship work-in-progress versions of software as part of their default install, and there was an open letter posted calling this out: https://dont-ship.it
So in my opinion, Manjaro leaves much to be desired from a project governance standpoint.
Now, using an Arch-based distro that does the install process for you doesn’t absolve you from learning what it takes to maintain an Arch install; at some point, something will crop-up that requires manual intervention to get back up & running again after an update.
If that is what you’re looking for, I suggest EndeavourOS.
