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?

    • PHLAK@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      As an Arch user this is how I feel about Manjaro as well. Installing Arch not only allows you to customize every aspect from the shell to the DE and more but also teaches you how to maintain and fix your OS when it breaks.

      The best Arch-based distro is Arch.

    • zarkony@lemmy.zip
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      1 year ago

      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.

        • Coldus12@reddthat.com
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          1 year ago

          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…

            • Coldus12@reddthat.com
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              1 year ago

              I agree Arch isn’t magical. And I’m more than aware of the issues with the AUR, however i disagree that everything on there can be found by other means. There are several programs (such as optimus-manager for nvidia and integrated video card laptops) which are pretty much only found on the AUR (Not counting Github). Again this is about ease-of-use (Since you could build my example from github as well).

              Obviously you can customize anything anywhere, what sets Arch apart is pacman and aur. And again in the case of Manjaro and EndeavourOS these and the wiki are the main “selling points”.

              Arch is just the easiest one to start from a very minimal system and build something up that’s totally yours

              Minimal ubuntu and fedora exists as well. And if you were to customise them you’d end up with something that you like as well. But i see what you are saying and i agree.

              • Molecular0079@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                There are several programs (such as optimus-manager for nvidia and integrated video card laptops) which are pretty much only found on the AUR

                As a person who uses Davinci Resolve, I can safely say that the AUR version is probably the easiest way to get it on a non-CentOS/RHEL distro. The AUR is still one of the biggest draws to Arch for me.

    • Molecular0079@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      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.

        • LeFantome@programming.dev
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          1 year ago

          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.

        • Molecular0079@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          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.

            • Molecular0079@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              It’s that somebody lied to me for hours

              So you let one person define your opinion of an entire community and distro? Mmm okay.

              they started spewing the exact same bullshit name calling that you’re using right now

              If multiple people are calling you out on your behavior, then maybe its time to look inward instead of being so defensive. Just look at this convo. Right off the bat you’ve called an entire community stupid for having preferences different than you, shat on a distro you don’t even use as your daily driver, and then told me to go fuck myself twice. This is just classic “I am not wrong, everybody else is wrong” behavior. Check your toxicity dude.

                • Molecular0079@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  So you admit that it’s super rare you encounter these bad Manjaro users that have offended you so much, and then decide to make generalizations about the entire Manjaro community and the distro? Yes, you absolutely ARE the problem.

                  Let me put it this way. If in real life you went into a crowd of people, called them all stupid for being there, and told a few of them to go fuck themselves, you would get punched in the face. Just because you’re on the Internet doesn’t make this kind of behavior okay.

                  From this comment thread, I can already tell you simply don’t understand why anyone would use a computer in a different way than you do. It’s absolutely fine to be opinionated about how you want to run your personal machines, but to tell others so vehemently that they’re wrong for wanting a different computing experience other than the one you’ve “deemed” correct…well that’s just silly.

                  It’s not wrong for someone to want something in between, say for example Fedora or Ubuntu, and Arch. Heck, the reason why so many Arch-derivatives exist is because a lot of people want it. You telling other people that they either go full-Arch or they’re stupid IS gatekeeping.