Linux

I had more trouble in a few month of Manjaro on a secondary system than I had with Arch in over 15 years. The amount of conflicts I had to resolve during package updates was crazy. If I now want to set up a new system, I use EndeavorOS as a base. Quick install procedure but I end up with something very close to Arch.

I've been using Manjaro (XFCE edition) as my daily driver, both on a laptop and a desktop system for more than 6 years now. I've tried many others beforehand: Ubuntu and its variations, Arch, Fedora, Tumbleweed, ...

But Manjaro was what made me stop hopping around. While it's true that it has some pitfalls (e.g. cert issues, AUR incompatibility at times), to this day it's working well enough for me that I don't feel like switching away.

I'm not just browsing web on it either. Software engineering, music production, image and video processing, etc.

Then again, I don't consider myself a beginner at this point and can troubleshoot a fair amount of issues now that I simply couldn't when I started using Linux more than a decade ago.

I also try to:

• not overdo the amount of AUR stuff I use
• read the official forum post BEFORE whenever I run a system update

I also always appreciated the fact that I could get away with not doing a system update for like six weeks and then do a big one (as mentioned, in combination with reading their update announcement). That's always something that didn't quite work for me on Arch in the past (then again, I still was a beginner back then, so most "reinstall to solve this problem" situations back then were on me).

What if Manjaro really would get worse enough so I'd want to switch? I guess EndeavourOS would be an option, because it's very close to Arch, but at the same time, it seemingly offers a graphical installer that hopefully will set itself up properly on a laptop. Then again, I haven't installed Arch in quite a while now. Maybe the install experience has gotten much nicer.

I was forced to switch from manjaro to fedora at work a year ago (we were forced to pick between Ubuntu or Fedora) and I miss it. Things break more often on fedora, I now even lag 1 release behind so that I don't have to deal with breaking updates. I didn't have any problems with manjaro. Still use it at home

I’ve been running it for a few years. I’ve learned the hard way to not use the AUR. Manjaro breaks AUR software installs with its delayed release schedule. I’m running it now with pretty much all flatpaks and it’s MUCH more stable. So if you do run it, stay away from native AUR and opt for flatpaks instead.

The next time it breaks I’ll finally get motivated, nuke the drive, and install arch again (I liked arch better).

I think I have the skills now to keep an arch box alive, if you don’t have those skills then manjaro won’t really solve that problem either imo. Just go mint or something similar.

it would be better as an arch installer and a couple of extra packages - not completely different repos

Manjaro is training wheels except when it's time to take them off you realize they're super-glued in place

It's mostly fine but has had enough issues over the years I stopped using it for my "I want arch but I'm lazy" distro. Arch itself is really not hard to install these days but if you find it too intimidating endeavor is basically just arch anyway but with an installer.

Fedora is nice, not based on Ubuntu, and it mostly "just works" out of the box. The only obnoxious part is having to manually install codecs to play videos.

I used Ubuntu for a month. Switched to Manjaro for 9 months, then went to Artix Linux where I've been for 2 years.

Manjaro has quite a few issues which I think are addressed by EndeavorOS, which would be my personal recommendation.

A rolling release distro does require a bit more attention, however, as you should be updating your system more regularly and you'll occassionally run into dependency issues depending on how many packages you install.

This usually requires being a bit familiar with the command line and how to properly search internet resources to find answers to specific bugs. The Arch Wiki is an incredible resource about computers in general and worth looking into for pretty much anyone imho.

You'll want to also look into using the AUR, as eventually you'll find that you'll want/need a piece of software that isn't in the official repositories.

If you want to try out other distros without friction, spin up a virtual machine via Gnome Boxes or virt-manager with some different distros

I don’t have the time to always be doing crazy power user stuff and just want something that works out of the box.

otherwise why change whats running for you?

Never had manjaro running smoothly over a longer periode of time. Sth broke every time i tested.

The themes are awesome

My advice, pick a base distribution, and build what you want. Mostly when picking different distros all you are really picking is a package manager, default applications, and a desktop.

If you want to advance in your Linux knowledge building your own will help you quite a bit in learning how it works at the core and what peices are needed to run a system. Then when something breaks you have the understanding to fix or at least properly ask for help. I would especially say this is true if you are looking to switch to arch as your base distribution.

I would only recommend Manjaro to a new person trying to dip their toes into arch but not for their daily driver.

All opinions are biased and I don't like Manjaro!

I don't understand the hate. I have been using Manjaro as my sole OS on two machines (a Thinkpad with XFCE, a Surface with Gnome) for several years, and have never had any major problem. Everything just works. The same could be said of Mint (which I used to be on before Manjaro), but I enjoy having faster updates on Manjaro. So I guess, from experience, I am very happy with it.

I used Manjaro on raspberry pi and it worked well however i personally havent used Manjsro in years i still wouldnt use it though because its arch and i prefer simpler distros when i first started using Linux it was Linux Mint, then Kubuntu, then Zorin, then Fedora and now OpenSuSe Tumbleweed im happy with that distro and dont want to change it

It's ok, if you're willing to read the Forum once in a while and inform yourself before applying upgrades.

Opinions are always biased.

Its Green.

tbh i never had any problems with it while toying around with it (i'm a debian stable type, anything else is a flirtation) and it works just fine for gamery and such but they have some significant flaws in their operation which makes them unfit for serious computer click clacking imo (im no software nerd or anything, just been using linux since forever). certificate expirations, financial goofery, there's just better distros including rolling with straight arch.

As Chris Titus once said “why install Manjaro when you can install arch" I used to daily manjaro but stuff broke and if you do decide to use manjaro don't use the AUR if you don't know what your doing

Every time I use Manjaro something horribly breaks. It's odd though because I daily drive endeavour now and it's been rock solid with no issues other than my own stupidity in partitioning my drives. I would stay away from Manjaro personally and use endeavour if you're dedicated to arch. If you want a rolling release distro then rhino Linux just released their first major version and it's a rolling release Ubuntu distro. Either way my opinion is the same, Manjaro was good for it's time, but it's been overshadowed and buried by other arch distros that are way more stable.

I've used Manjaro it went and died on me so now I just run arch