Manjaro 24 is Arch Linux for the rest of us Manjaro Linux is the DIY-spirited Arch Linux distro, but made easier – so that those still on their way to guru status will be able to say: "I run Arch, BTW." Manjaro 24.0 "Wynsdey" is the latest release of this Arch Linux metadistro, backed by the eponymous German company. The new release offers kernel 6.9.0 and some of the …
I have used Manjaro KDE on my Acer Aspire laptop for a while.... it mostly works - the last update before this one broke something which causes crashes occasionally. Before that it was quick and rock solid.
I ran the update last night, so am expecting - from the forums - an interesting time this evening trying to persuade Plasma 6 to work as I would like it to. If I get bored I may just re-install from scratch.
The only issue I have with Manjaro in general is that the first comment on any request for help after updating (no matter how respectful that request) is "Why didn't you read x y or z before doing the update?" the second is "Why do you expect your users to read documents they don't know exist before doing an update? Updates shouldn't break stuff" then the subsequent posts are split between zealots ranting "RTFM RTFM", people actually offering help and others saying "waaaa it broke my machine, someone needs to magically fix it without me doing anything or I am leaving"!
I had the same experience. Every other time KDE updates, it throws it into dependency hell. And the community prides itself with being insufferably pretentious. I switched to Endeavour and haven't looked back. It uses the Arch repos and updates don't break things. I haven't had to restore a snapshot since I installed. Plus the community members seem to possess actual human empathy.
Thanks, I already run Mint a fair bit, but I'm now looking at taking the full on plunge for my main rig, which is also my gaming rig.
From what I understand, including some helpful ElReg commenters on another thread, for the smoothest experience you still want to stick pretty close to Ubuntu/Kubuntu. Other distros will work but with more effort?
I'd avoid Ubuntu when Mint can give you all you want without having to face most of Canonical's madness. Some their wheezes are just IMHO silly.
Even some of the diehard Ubuntu users in my local LUG are running up the white flag and moving to Mint or Rocky Linux. SNAP is one of the prime reasons. A common comment is along the lines of
Did Poetering write this crap? WTF did they make it so effing complicated and intrusive?
I've just finished rebuilding the last of my servers to remove any dependency on SNAP. FScK Canonical.
It's one of those "depends on what you're doing" things. I've reached the similar point in my life, where my primary machine is running something that is boring and reliable and works. There are VMs and a Raspi for odd experiments, and a laptop running a "stable enough" rolling release. I'll get off your lawn, but I really don't see anything wrong what that approach. Primary machine is where you put something like *buntu/Mint, Debian Stable, a Mac, or whatever. Save the fighting with an OS for unavoidable catastrophes or something you don't need working NOW.
By far the easiest way to live close to the bleeding edge of Linux while letting the devs do the bleeding. I've been living here for a while and learned to live with most of the quirks.
Two bits consistently continue to annoy. The first is more a problem of linux audio systems than specific to Manjaro - sound never comes back correctly when waking from sleep.
The other is a bit of a head scratcher. A minority of applications from the AUR repos that used to work now just give an icon pop up and immediately close. No doubt someone that knows arcane config file lore could figure it out, but there is literally no user feedback on what's happened and so no clue where to even start on troubleshooting that one.
(Same if attempting to run from the command line also).
Do you know if you're using pipewire or pulseaudio? They both have a separate version of this problem. Pulseaudio sets the audio device to a dummy when going to sleep but sometimes doesn't switch back, pipewire has an issue of just not waking back up with the rest of the system.
For pulseaudio you need a script to kill the pulseaudio process so it can reboot (pulseaudio -k), while in pipewire the solution seems to be to just stop it from putting itself to sleep in the first place. If you search for 'Pipewire suspend +your distro' you should find a relevant method.
As for the AUR stuff, if you're using a helper like yay or paru try searching for the package (-Ss just like pacman) to see if there's a different build of it. Some packages have a bin or a git version.
> there is literally no user feedback on what's happened and so no clue where to even start on troubleshooting that one
My first step would be something like the below on the command line:
$ strace -f -o debug.log bad_application_name_goes_here
-f is follow forked processes. Trace child processes as they are created.
-o is write the trace output to the file filename rather than to stderr.
strace can prevent some applications from starting correctly, because too many resources are being used to debug the problem. But it would be my goto for any program that does not do what I would expect it to do.
Sound jumps to the hdmi / displayport ouput in manjaro KDE after sleeping. Even when set to the optical out off the mainboard.
You can delete all reference to hdmi audio then it behaves better or use the settings to set it back to optical.
Finaly solved it to get a 42" OLED TV as monitor and use the optical output of that for the sound.
Playstation 4 also routes through the TV and fixed the prime video only using lowres in linux by using the TV app.
I wanted to escape the SNAP, FLATPACK hell of apps that don't quite work and move from the stealth upgrade of my full Thunderbird install to a flaypack.... pretty pissed about that one... Currently running fine on Endeavour BUT have given up hope of making Bluetooth work without issues...... certainly scratches my itch... Been using a Linux distro for 20+ years
I'm an Arch user, have not tried Manjaro. A word to the wise for new users on the AUR: be careful. As implied by the word USER, the software packages and installation scripts available in the AUR are provided and maintained by users. Read the build scripts before installation to see what they are doing and where they are downloading code from, and be aware that at any time, the user may stop updating the package. It's worth looking at all of your AUR supplied software from time to time to make sure it isn't stuck on an older version. If you install enough stuff from the AUR, your system WILL eventually break due to dependency issues. An experienced user will be able to fix it fairly easily in many situations, but it's something to be aware of. When I want software not available in the official repositories, I check to see if it's in the AUR, and also to see whether there is a flatpak version available. If both exist, I make a judgement call on which to use.
I like Manjaro with XFCE. It works. I would recommend Linux Mint initially for beginners, but when one has the urge to check out other (Arch) versions, Manjaro is a good choice. I can remember one problem following a major update, which was resolved by using Timeshift to go back, and unlike the Windows 10 restore offering, Timeshift actually worked! Win restore has never worked for me, and I have had to try to use it many times. I find that Linux installs faster than Windows, it updates more smoothly than windows, and (lots of other nice things to say about Linux!).
.......and they could not care less about the OS............
Speaking personally........I had ten years of headaches with an OS from Redmond, WA (say 1990 to 1999)......
RedHat and Fedora have been fine (and mostly inconspicuous) from 1999 till today..................
What am I missing here?
> "What am I missing here?"
The genetic deformity that causes many of us to want to try every distribution under the sun and discover what they do differently, apparently. If you are indeed one of those users who is focused primarily on applications and doesn't care what's happening under the hood, then in the end the distro doesn't matter much. There is nothing wrong with sticking with what you already know and are comfortable with.
Do you consider the desktop environment to be an application? Technically it is, I suppose, but to the average user its not really separate.
I find the desktop environment is important - apart from launching applications (and how you launch applications matters) it provides panels, integrated applications (matters for file managers and a few others), GUIs for settings (unless provided separately by another component of the OS).
The other big differentiator for me is installation and maintenance load. its not just easy vs difficult (i.e. say Gentoo vs Ubuntu) but the pattern (rolling or big updates) and the risk of problems.
I find the desktop environment is important - apart from launching applications (and how you launch applications matters) it provides panels, integrated applications (matters for file managers and a few others)
You forget an audio/video player, a text editor, a web browser, a mail client, a PDF reader, a full office suite, an app store, and Solitaire and Minesweeper.
Some of the reasons why an "operating system" takes 10GB+ these days.
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That entirely depends on how you set up Arch. KDE Plasma for instance defaults to live patching for smaller updates, applying them immediately through a transform tool. You're not required to reboot anyway, even through pacman, it's just considered more a reliable practice.
It is easier than Arch, at least I tried Arch in the past and found it to much work compared to ubuntu. Manjaro works mostly out of the box. Installed it on it's own disk on a work laptop and behaves much better than Windows 11. That manages to empty the battery in an hour and a half.
I would hesitantly suggest Endeavor OS over Manjaro.
The idea of a more stable/tested Arch is attractive, however Manjaro historically hasn't delivered with a history of updates breaking more than Arch. Additionally, letting their website decay due to not renewing certs on time, etc. There are quite a number of videos about it. However, Manjaro has improved over the past year which is great news and I hope it continues.
A word to the wise though: if you run Manjaro do not ask for help from Arch, they are 1000% completely fed up of trying to debug Manjaro created issues.
Endeavor OS is just an installer for vanilla Arch that offers several completely working desktop choices with batteries included, verses Arch where the whole point is to choose and install exactly what you want - a serious challenge for a novice.
(Endeavor also has a custom greeter app which alerts you to arch / endeavor news in case something big is changing gives shortcuts for arch maintenance/updates, and they have a purple theme.)
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Setting another theme seemed to work. Had to add the previous pinned programs again. Tried wayland for a while, not completely bug free with a wacom. X is behaving reasonably.
Ardour doesn´t work nicely. Not the trouble free updates from the past. But so far sticking with it. I do have some other disks with working versions of linux so not everything is lost when something really misbehaves.
Once upon a time, I used Slackware - from 2001 to 2004, it was my primary desktop ... apart from gaming.
I'd previously been through RedHat rpm horrors, I absolutely loved win2k as a Desktop (I still rate it as my favourite)
Bottom line, I've got a bunch of t-shirts where I claim I've been there and done that.
But Manjaro? Arch?
I've been a Debian lad since 2005, so stepping into this world was hard. Really hard.
I can't do it - it's almost like trying to move to iOS from Android.
Maybe I'll try again one day, but for now - I'm a lazy ass old computer nerd.
I've kinda got bored of trying Linux distributions for the sake of it.
I switched to macOS a decade back for my primary "get work done" driver.
I switched to Linux two years back for my primary "play some games" driver - but Debian flavoured.
I just can't be arsed fighting with operating systems anymore...
So far, they have released installers for several desktops but Mate doesn't seem to be one of them. Maybe it's just not ready yet.
Being Arch-based, if you already have a Manjaro-Mate (which I do) then you keep it, and you get upgraded to the newest kernel and such, but I am somewhat troubled by the lack of a Mate installer.
Even the Manjaro wiki states that Manjaro is a different beast to Arch and is therefore not Arch. Therefore, if you say 'I use Arch' or 'I run Arch', technically both are incorrect.
From the Manjaro wiki:
https://wiki.manjaro.org/index.php/Manjaro:A_Different_Kind_of_Beast#:~:text=Manjaro%20is%20developed%20independently%20from,from%20its%20own%20independent%20repositories
Do try to keep up :)
Ps. Manjaro is pointless as are most other distros. Most 'distros' are simply skins. I used Manjaro for about 6 months until it broke after an update and I switched to Arch 2 years ago. Great to see my first comment is controversial and down voted. Excellent.
OK I'm a true Windows user and a complete Linux noob, only played with early stuff years ago, so thought I'd give this a go at the weekend, as I needed a simple and light distro for an older laptop that was to build and manage XCP-ng Orchestra to manage my VMs.
What a nightmare, simple stuff that Debian handled wasn't installed with the default or installing was harder, as it sometimes referred to a fork of some sort. (Git, Curl)
So in the end, back to Debian, that compiled and run first time. Sorry but until Linux gets their finger out and makes it all idiot proof, standardised and idiot proof as Windows (go on hate me), it will never be a serious consumer competitor to Windows.
< "...until Linux gets their finger out and makes it all idiot proof, standardised..."
This exists. It's called a Chromebook, and they have a big market share in the education sector. "Linux" as a group cannot really "get their finger out", as it is not monolithic. It's a million independent projects, cobbled together in various ways. If every distro used all the same components and standardized everything, there would be no need for more than one distro, and I would be very sad. The choices and customization options are why I love linux.
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