Free and open-source.
Receives regular software and kernel updates.
Avoids X11.
The notable exception is Qubes, but the isolation issues which X11 typically has are avoided by virtualization. This isolation only applies to apps running in different qubes (virtual machines), apps running in the same qube are not protected from each other.
Supports full-disk encryption during installation.
Doesn’t freeze regular releases for more than 1 year.
We recommend against “Long Term Support” or “stable” distro releases for desktop usage.
Supports a wide variety of hardware.
Preference towards larger projects.
Edit: I’m new to linux
clearly the hive mind seems to think my choice in distro is akin to eugenics!
Off-topic, but how long have you been using Manjaro? I am genuinely interested, btw*.
Man, um… not sure. I think I installed Manjaro in 2018 or 2019. nice thing about Linux and rolling updates is I have been on the same install and been updating that whole time. Even swapped to a bigger m.2 without any issues.
Thanks for answering!
Just to be clear; the ‘metrics’ on how popular Manjaro is compared to Arch and other Arch-based distros reveal to us that Manjaro has been going strong for quite some time. While the numbers of its adoption during its heyday were IMO completely justifiable. I think that -currently- it continues to stay more relevant than it otherwise would have any right of based on its merits. Which has been something that has caught my attention and made me curious to find out why that was the case.
Thus, if you had been a relatively newer user, then I would have loved to know what made you gravitate towards Manjaro in the first place. But, as you’ve been using it since before the controversies and
archinstall, I think your reasons to start using Manjaro were completely legit and the continued use of Manjaro is at least justifiable.Don’t get me wrong; I’m not in the “Manjaro is blatantly bad”-camp, I just think that it attracts more newer users than is desirable.
Interesting… I saw that there were some controversies but honestly if I avoided everything in my life over every little bit of bad press or disagreement I would have nothing left to eat and nowhere to live.
I am not sure why any distro that attracts new users is an issue considering we want Linux as a desktop to keep growing as it improves the lives of all having both more users, contributors, and devs building software.
The main reason I have stuck with Manjaro is that for the most part I dont have to mess with it. I have other computers I mess around with my main PC is where I go when I just want to surf the web, game, and just decompress.
The choices we make and the actions we take mostly come with compromises anyway; just because it’s on topic: Manjaro probably continued to function as you were used to and thus you didn’t see any reason to change that which “just works”. Which, I somewhat alluded to in my earlier comment with:
Moving on.
That’s not what I said, nor what I implied. What you just said assumes/implies that people start using Linux because they want to try Manjaro, which is just simply not the case. You might have mistaken Manjaro for Valve’s Steam Deck. Perhaps this chart does a better job at conveying my thoughts. As you can see, the search “install Manjaro” has for a considerable period in the last 5 years been more than half times as often searched as “install Arch”. By comparison, it just dwarfs the hits for “install EndeavourOS” and “install Garuda”. That’s the problem. To put it onto perspective, I’ll follow it up with charts for Ubuntu with its popular derivatives and Debian with its popular derivatives. I tried doing the same for Fedora and openSUSE, but their respective graphs just showed me why their derivates aren’t talked about that often 😅. Even Nobara is absolutely dwarfed compared to Fedora.
Why is it a problem? Not bait, seriously trying to understand why its a concern.
I assume you do not use the AUR much then? Personally i tried Manjaro in the beginning and broke it in less then 2 months. Hat a ton of dependencies conflicts due to using AUR packages. installed arch and everything was fine. Now using tumbleweed just to switch things up a bit.
I use AUR sparingly for the reasons you describe. It has not been a perfect experience but its been good enough I have had it on my personal gaming machine, and both my kids computers for several years now. I really only use my personal machine for games and for that Manjaro has been fairly reliable, I have run into the credentials bug a few times but its fixable.
The overall stability has kept me from disto hopping and its been as close to a “it just works” experience I have ever had on linux.