I made a post a few days ago asking your opinion on Manjaro and it was very mixed, with a slightly negative overall opinion. I heard some recommend EndeavourOS instead and did some online research and it seems to be pretty solid and not have the repository problem that Manjaro has.
Just for context I am a Linux noob and have only used Mint for about the past six months. While I don’t have any major complaints, I am looking to explore more distros and the Arch repository with its rolling releases. I am not a huge fan of how certain packages on apt are a few years old and outdated. However, I also don’t have the time to be always configuring my OS and just want something that works well out of the box.
Is EndeavourOS a solid choice?
It’s literally Arch Linux but with an easy bundled installer and a couple of small tools you’ll forget about.
I am using it until the archinstall script gets easier for dual-boot, encrypted BTRFS configs.
I kinda wished the EndeavourOS team made efforts to improve archinstall and simply bundled their couple extra tools as that, extra tools for easier Arch Linux usage, instead of branding it all like a new distro.
I made an install script for encrypted Btrfs Arch Linux, systemd-boot and KDE Plasma in case you want to have a look. gitlab.com/dataprolet/arch
Why would it not? I think maybe a few times in 20 years I’ve come across an installer that didn’t let you do custom partitioning.
Yes! That’s the point. It’s just Arch with a GUI installer, quite literally. So, why not simply make the archinstall script better? Or simply make an installer for Arch Linux? It’s like you take your grandma’s cookies and put a sticker of your face.
If you want something that “just works” any Arch base won’t be a good idea in my opinion. I love Arch but there will be certain things to figure out from time to time and for someone with little experience they can be tough! For you usecase I would recommend Fedora, that’s a lot more up to date but not a rolling realease and tends to just work for me.
Here’s the thing with Arch-based distros: they aren’t more stable than Arch, and Arch breaks. Fixing Arch is often possible, but requires Terminal skills. You mentioned you want Arch because of the AUR, why not try Distrobox? It’s a tool for integrating containers (and their apps) with the “base” system. With a few commands, create an Arch container, then just use your favourite AUR wrapper (like yay or pacman) as you would on a regular Arch system and you may need to run `distrobox-export ’ in the container. Your apps will just show up like any other apps.
The out of date package problem you’re running into is because Mint is based on the LTS version of Ubuntu. This means that it’s set up for long term service and stability. All well and good if that’s what you’re after.
As to your problem, I’m not big on Endeavor - or any Arch based distro - for folks who are new to Linux. Unless you’re willing to take the time to use Arch itself and set up your system, and learn how it all comes together, you’re better off not using Arch. I know I’ll get shouted down for this, but IMHO, all of the easy install Arch based distros are terrible for people new to linux.
If your biggest issue is that the software versions aren’t as up to date as you’d like, then all you really need to do is switch to a non-LTS. I’d recommend Fedora. I use it myself, and it’s easy to set up, works great out of the box, and is up to date. They come out with a new version twice a year, and upgrades run smoothly.
If you’re really focused on a rolling release, though, I’d suggest looking at OpenSuse Tumbleweed. It’s rolling, super stable, and has a fantastic community. Their Yast tools are famous and really impressive.
Alternately, take the time to install a proper Arch setup. You’ll learn a ton, and find out that all that maintenance stuff you feel like you don’t have time to do isn’t that big a deal, really.
Fedora is ok, idk what it is but I have never had a good experience with Fedora. If you need to install anything outside of the default repos it can be a major pain and while yum is ancient and rock solid, it’s replacement with dnf, is terrible and slow. OpenSuse is also rock solid but I didn’t like the install experience and while yast is good, you’re still limited by the repos. Also OpenSuse is getting rid of, I think it’s called leap or something, which I think tumbleweed uses as a base. It’s unfortunate but I think the best option for most new Linux users is simply the latest Ubuntu. I hate snaps as much as the next guy, but their packages are fairly up to date. Outside of that you have the niche distros like MX and Garuda, but even those are just Debian and Arch. The other option is LMDE by the Linux mint team but idk how often that’s updated.
Tumbleweed is a snapshot of factory. Leap is based on SLES which is based on Tumbleweed. The next SLES release is likely to be immutable and there will be something like Leap but it could have a different name.
What do you think flatpak and snaps are? They’re at the very least containerized applications. Why would I install distrobox when I can literally install the same apps without having to screw around with installing a third party tool from a GitHub repo? That just seems like more trouble than it’s worth. Not to mention you have to trust the GitHub author which really is no different than trusting the AUR package maintainer.
I use EndeavourOS and OpenSuse tumbleweed myself, and I’d caution you about using endeavour. It’s a great OS that I personally love but there will be manual interventions you’ll have to keep track of, and implement. Maybe twice yearly. Like the grub issue, or the repo migration for two recent examples.
OpenSuse tumbleweed however is a rolling release distro that’s more stable, takes little in the way of manual interventions, and is quite sleek out of the box. I use it as a work partition for freelance dev work personally.
I love endeavour, but it can take some more babysitting than other distros as it’s essentially just a really good graphical arch installer
Apologies if I’m a bit ramble-y, I’ve recently caught covid.
Just a few simple partitions. I have one for EndeavorOS, one for Tumbleweed, and a third intermediary that I auto mount on both. That one houses a few applications that both need access to, I just added a bin folder before adding it to the path on both. As long as nothing there is system critical it’ll be fine
You definitly could get away with just two partitions though if you just want stability, and auto mount your partitions onto each other for ease of file transfer of you want.
it’s not really different than duel booting windows, and works quite well
I also have a fourth 70gb partition for a macOS virtual machine as that’s much quicker than a qcow file but that’s a bit much, to be fair
