Leading Arch Linux derivative Manjaro puts out version 21.3

Version 21.3 of Manjaro - codenamed "Ruah" - is here, with kernel 5.15, but don't let its beginner-friendly billing fool you: you will need a clue with this one. Manjaro Linux is one of the more popular Arch Linux derivatives, and the new version 21.3 is the latest update to version 21, released in 2021. There are three …

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't think I'd recommend Manjaro as a first distro either. Mint was the first distro I used 8-hrs a day; though it's conservative update policy was eventually the prompt to move.

With a year or two of experience in the bag jumping over to Manjaro worked very well for me; when I started wanting the "extra" power while still having some cuddly UI around it. The AUR functionality is particularly useful.

I still can't run all of my hardware in Manjaro; and have to keep a copy of CentOS7 around on a spare partition to push an LTO drive around in the absence of Windows.

[unimaginative]

Manjaro IS easy compared to Arch, BUT "easier than Arch" can be a long way from "easy".

Manjaro is for people who can fix the occasional glitch. You should also be able to check build scripts if you install things from the (untrusted but vast) AUR repo.

I switched recently and am happy with it. The odd thing needing a fix once every few weeks is fine by me (noting that too much time so far).

In general rolling releases are not great for beginners.

[VoiceOfTruth]

And yet...

-> The team maintains its own hierarchy of repositories, with more testing and integration

-> the Xfce edition wouldn't boot...

-> then refused to boot from another distro's GRUB menu

-> the drivers didn't actually seem to work

-> significant issues like this shouldn't appear in a point release

Indeed they should not. It makes me wonder just how much "testing" there really was. I sort of give them a pass with the other distro's GRUB failure - up to a point. GRUB is complex and, at the same time, one of the least user friendly tools out there. Anyone who has had to deal with GRUB problems knows what I am talking about.

Given the problems encountered I would not recommend it to a newcomer. Stick with Mint, as I suggested previously.

[dvd]

Re: And yet...

Oh, God, GRUB. I get panic attacks at the mere mention of the name. I can't believe that it's meant to be better than Lilo.

[Nik 2]

En_GB

There seem to be other issues, but I would suggest that anyone who doesn't know whether they want en_GB or en_US probably shouldn't be installing any operating system, let alone Linux.

[Doctor Syntax]

"The user guide compares the relationship between Manjaro and Arch as being similar to that between Ubuntu and Debian."

Apart from the fact that Debian is far from being a rolling release distro and, from this account, far better put together than Manjaro.

[unimaginative]

Its a trade-off. Latest and greatest vs stability. Occasional breakages vs big upgrades between versions.

My preference at the moment is to use Manjaro on desktops and Debian on servers.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd not seen that, but it is an accurate description.