New to Linux? Yeah, DON'T Use Manjaro...
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- Опубликовано: 3 июл 2024
- If you're new to Linux, there's a good chance you've been recommended Manjaro Linux. After all, you get all of the benefits of a rolling-release distro without all of the instability of Arch Linux! Sounds great, right? Unfortunately, after using Manjaro myself in the past I just can't recommend it to anyone, especially newbies to Linux. In this video, let me explain why I no longer trust Manjaro with anything...
Why you (probably) shouldn't use archinstall: • Why you (probably) sho...
Don't make this mistake when using the AUR: • Don't make this mistak...
What you should know before using the AUR: • You NEED to know this ...
🌐 My website: ericmurphy.xyz
💸 Support the Channel: ericmurphy.xyz/donate
🎥 Watch my videos on Odysee: odysee.com/@ericnmurphy
💻 My GitHub: github.com/ericmurphyxyz
Background footage:
• Review of Manjaro i3
• AwesomeWM Rice on Arch...
• Manjaro 22.1.0 (Talos)...
Sources:
forum.manjaro.org/t/aur-pleas...
web.archive.org/web/201504090...
web.archive.org/web/201712030...
AsahiLinux/status...
/ 1533444824061419521
0:00 Why use Manjaro?
2:39 The packaging problem
6:25 My experience
9:06 Manjaro's many mistakes
13:49 So what should you use instead of Manjaro? 
Наука
I've used Linux right after the very first distros came out. Debian was one of those, and it is still my "go to" distro. If the distro that you are using works for your needs, that is the correct one. 🙂
100% agree
Facts my man
I suppose you're very happy with Debian 12
@@CalazaBR So far I am.
I love Debian, but packages being outdated screws me over enough that I have to use Arch.
I've daily driven Manjaro on 3 machines , the longest being 5 years. I use both AUR packages and Manjaro's packages and haven't had any breakages or anything failing
But he's right that Manjaro has new problems that Arch doesn't have.
same for me
Problem is manjaro booted to the live environment on my laptop while arch and endeavor is didn't.
kde?
@@vladadextra2312 Mate first. I've moved them all to Xfce
I've used Manjaro for the longest time among all distros, and have been using it for about a year now both on my desktop and laptop. I've had issues with package updates and a few other little things. But when I take a look at a bigger picture on different distros, I come across articles, videos, etc mentioning issues with all of them at different times, so the expectation I have is that no matter which distro I may choose, sooner or later there will be an issue with it. So I've been sticking with Manjaro, and have been pretty happy with it lately.
im with u
I've been using the same Manjaro install for 4 years now and I haven't had any major issues. I've also had no problems getting it up and running on new machines, I've been using it since I was a beginner too after breaking my first Kubuntu install.
I haven't ever tried EndeavourOS though, because I never had a reason to switch, but I think it would also be equally good as a beginner Arch based distro.
When I was new to Linux I tried mint and enjoyed it. But because of my needs, it just felt hampered. Several Linux users kept pushing to avoid Arch and just use Manjaro or Fedora since they just “work” and I had nothing but issues. Fully manually installing Arch and carefully reading the wiki was the best decision I made. Arch is very comprehensive, I can manage exactly what I need, and because documentation is excellent I have zero issues figuring out problems. I don’t view myself as better for using Arch, I more respect those who do Linux from scratch, but Arch is the “true” beginner distro for understanding Linux. My view, anything that encourages you to learn and keep learning is a fantastic tool. Huge respect to Arch community, even when they get mad over people not rtfm.
Edit: no disrespect to Manjaro or Fedora users. Enjoy what works for you. I speak only for my personal needs.
Manjaro doesn't "just work". Last time I tried it it felt bloated and unstable. Fedora has a much higher user incompetence tolerance. It's been a great gateway distro for me.
One of these days though I probably will make the switch and get Arch.
I finally did a manual install of arch instead of using the archinstall script and this time everything works and isn't completely broken, it's great and I have literally had zero issues.
EndeavourOS is Arch Linux with a real GUI Live Disk and installer on it.
Arch was my first linux distro that I used on my computer and I never regretted it
Our school had a really weird linux distro which seems to be alt-linux based but uuuuuughhh that was a disgusting experience
Actually today was the day when kernel image decided to annihilate itself in the middle of pacman -Syu and thankfully i've had liveCD to regenerate the kernel but now missing libs and pacman dbs are hell so yeeeah i ran yay to reinstall every package from pacman -Q in hope this will fix something
Funny, I was one such user for my first daily drive distro. I was with Manjaro for a bit, but I’m currently daily driving EndeavourOS.
I went from Windows > Ubuntu > Manjaro > Windows > Endeavour OS, and I have been using it for years
i went from windows to pop os to windows to pop os to fedora to manjaro (dual booted) to steam deck os and windows and mac os, but i'm doing linux vms now to see before i load it up, probably going to go with fedora
same here
I went from Win10 to mint, hated how much you wanted to type and paste in the terminal to install stuff, looked at arch, got recommended EndeavourOS, used it for a day or two, loved it and also hated it because couldn't find comparable alternatives to my windows softwares. Installed debloated windows 11 and as soon as i opened the task manager out of habit, i saw fucking anti-malware service executable hoarding 40% of my CPU at fucking IDLE compared to 2-3% of endeavourOS. Immediately switched back and promised not to look back and its been two months and i can't recommend it enough, i've found better alternatives of my windows softwares, i am much more productive & efficient, my machine runs much more faster and is going to give me at least half a decade more.
Interesting how I had the exact opposite experience with Arch and Manjaro. I've been using Arch as a main distro for about 2-3 months and I had problems popping up daily. Breaking the system, visual bugs and so. I've been using mainly Manjaro for almost 2 years now (and used AUR) and had almost no problems. It's actually the first Linux distro that I felt was stable enough for my main operating system.
I think it's not the opposite but what it really should be, considering that Manjaro is sold as a more stable Arch.
Ironically in my case I started with Manjaro until it broke after 3-4 months, tried Arch and it didn't break until 1 year and a half later. I strongly recommend you to back up your files and be ready for it to stop working at the worst possible moment.
Yep, exactly the same here. I've tried arch off and on for years and its always been buggy shit. Manjaro has been going strong for me for over 3 years with no issues.
I've had manjaro break about 10 times in the week I used it for, never going back. But hey, that shitty experience is what pushed me to do the 'proper' arch install way and it's been smooth sailing ever since. I'd never recommend manjaro to anyone too many people have experienced issues. I'd only recommend endeavour and artix. Manjaro is a pile of crap as soon as you try to use the aur which is the main reason for using arch...
I had the same experience of Arch being a problem and Manjaro being a better solution. TBH I didn't even know this was a problem, I don't use AUR, my Linux box is just my dev server.
It always depends on the way it's used, but Manjaro's choice of holding back packages for a while is the correct way in my opinion. I have had EndeavourOS break on me after system update, but Manjaro hasn't disappointed yet.
2 years ago I used Ubuntu and no matter what, .NET was broken with the latest release so I couldn’t code until Microsoft fixed it. So I just booted up Manjaro and it worked right out the box. I think there are plenty of reasons to use or not use a distro.
if some wacko jacko tell me to not Use Manjaro i will telll him to eat my sausage.....
@@fabricio4794 😧
not your 🌭 😱@@fabricio4794
every distro seams to have a similar amount of positives and negatives, the important part is that you are using luinix
I had problems learning Linux and nothing ever working, and I would get frustrated. Ubuntu made me give up for a while (like a year)... I installed Manjaro KDE and used it a long time because it ran perfectly. It was fantastic and the only reason I was able to learn and stick to Linux. I've used tons of Distros now, and mainly just use Fedora now, but I'll always have fond memories of Manjaro KDE working great enough to make me not give up. I had more breakages and problems with Arch than I ever did with Manjaro.
Everyone has far more problems with arch. If they say they don't they are lying.
The bootloader meme kicked me. I once lost not bootloader, but kernel after updating Manjaro. 10/10 highly recommended to anyone who wants to learn how boot process works.
Something similar happened to me just this week on vanilla arch. I updated the kernel but my fstab file had the efi partition mounted in /boot instead of /boot/efi. The fix was to chroot in and reinstall the kernel with the efi partition mounted where it was supposed to be.
I used Manjaro for a long time, but I'm much happier with Endeavour. I switched to Nobara briefly, but Endeavour has been my favorite and I don't see myself leaving for anything else after leaving and coming back to it, and I've gone through a lot of different distros.
Manjaro was the first and only distro I had tried before today. I just switched to Endeavour (like an hour ago) and tried to install and use pamac, but it just wouldn't work. Kept crashing halfway through downloads or getting stuck (or maybe just taking forever to download something, but there's no clear indication of that slow progress so how should I know). Which is also an issue that wasn't uncommon using it on Manjaro. I'm just gonna have to get used to using pacman and yay in the console, which is probably good for me anyways. I should stop being afraid of that little black box if I'm gonna be using Linux lmao. Gives me a much clearer view of what's going on, which makes me kinda annoyed I didn't bother with trying to figure out how to do this in the first place
@@keegan2226 yeah if youre on arch based being afraid of the terminal is counter-productive. Endeavour is amazing btw
*Endeavor
@@MelodyGoad It's EndeavourOS. You can google it real quick if you don't believe me
@@MelodyGoad Colour*
I use TempleOS btw. Made by rhe God himself
I must admit that I find Manjaro's theming and desktop layouts very attractive. Any quick and easy way to incorporate these into a generic arch install, or an endeavour os install? Maybe an aur meta-package, or a 3rd party package repo?
There is the archinstall command which you can use to easily install arch, but for me it just wouldn't install the proprietary nvidia drivers like it should, and trying to follow guides and do it myself just led to a lot of visual visual glitches/flickering of UI elements and windows, while the Manjaro installer installed the drivers correctly. Also, the archwiki is confusing as hell. idk why anyone would recommend new users to read it, as most instructions it gives are not clarified.
I've been using manjaro as my first distro and got enough linux experience and understanding. Recently got an SSD and installed arch with archinstall on it with ease. To be honest, for me arch is just like manjaro but with some packages missing by default.
Manjaro is a Arch based distro.
@@JoelMogwasa ikr
after a long break from using manjaro, I installed it again just a few days ago and am using it as a daily driver... easily switched to the LTS kernel, enabled the AUR, installed the chaotic-aur repo, and installed every app that I need without any issue... with the KDE desktop it looks good, its stable and I fully recommend it to anyone, don't listen to this Murphy dude, just try it for yourself and draw your own conclusions...
I did go through a baby Distro phase with Kubuntu, however after swapping to Manjaro - and that was approximately 3-4 years ago, I haven't had the issues you're talking about - I tried to install official packages, didn't have clashes with other AUR packages due to dependencies on newer versions of packages, an unstable system or buggy behavior - it was quite reliable for me and the performance was good. I even messed around plenty of times with Wine, theming, I changed the display manager once or twice, changed the kernel manually once and customized, changed the shell and did various other customizations. When it comes to packages I also always preferred system packages or packages released by their developers rather than AUR/user-maintained packages.
Was my costumization/using of the system just low-level enough that I didn't run through significant issues? 'cause I really don't remember anything significant, but it's still a possibility that I simply don't remember.
What do you think: has it gotten worse since then or did? Or did I just miss those issues? Or did I behave responsibly? I'd ask about my memory, too, but I really can't know at this point.
What are your thoughts?
I will use manjaro anyway
Manjaro is ok but archinstall is so easy it’s obsolete
I dare you to pacman -Syu
@@SS-gu2tx some people just want to watch the world burn
Installed Manjaro xfce , had to rollback twice
@@SS-gu2tx rm -rf /
I started using linux 2 years ago with manjaro, and I still use it, I have manjaro xfce on my laptop and manjaro-minimal xfce on my desktop. The first one that I switched to linux was my laptop and I did broke some things while learning at the start, but I never had a big problem in using it on a daily basis. Nowadays I use manjaro on its unstable branch so I'm as up to date as arch (dont have the 4:10 problem). I did had a little problem on a manjaro forum with a core dev, but it was solved when I took some time to dialog with him in dm. Overall it's a pretty good distro although I heard a lot of complaints (mostly about untrust of the community (linux in general) on the core devs of manjaro). I will take a look in this EndeavorOS probably though and I did play with Arch a little bit for some days and will probably try it again in the future.
Hey, I get it. I literally went through the same thing with Manjaro a while back. Shit was too jank so I went back to windows for a bit. Now I'm on Endeavor OS and man, I've never had a distro where things just... freaking....work! I've hardly had an issue with it, and any issue I've had was my fault mostly. Endeavor OS is honestly a damn good distro
I could never be convinced by anyone to no use any distro, I test the distro myself and if it works for me believe I'm gonna use it until I find it inappropriate.
Imagine being a youtube streamer and judge Manjaro with mediocre 1 month experience about a distro, that run in my 4 years experience on AMD Laptop and Intel/nvidia PC perfect stable and Manjaro KDE was and is my first distro, gaming performance also reallly good.
Also, had it fail the 1st update before installing any software 😂 good job shipping a broken image.
In the past 3-4 years, I've install Manjaro three times on my PCs. Unfortunately, two of those attempts resulted in glitchy and unusable systems, with broken functionality and screen tearing issues. On the third attempt, I managed to get it to work on a dual display setup with one FHD screen and another connected through VGA. While the experience wasn't as smooth as with my previous distros, it was at least working well. However, after installing some packages, some from the AUR and others from their official repos, and a few updates, the system became clumsy and glitchy once again. I uninstalled it and went back to my go-to and most frequently used distro at the time, Linux Mint.
I've installed quite a few distros and different flavors over the five years that I've been using Linux, and for the past year and a half to two years, I've been using Artix. To this day, my recommended newbie-friendly, out-of-the-box distro for everyone is still Mint. I'm glad to see that Manjaro works for some people, but to be honest, I don't understand what it brings to the table. If I'm looking for a newbie-friendly distro (or actually something that truly works for everyone who isn't a power user), I would recommend Mint. If I want something more advanced, with access to the biggest amount of and latest packages, then I would directly go with Arch or Artix.
Although I do understand the attractiveness of Manjaro, my experience with it being glitchy and broken defeated its purpose as the out-of-the-box Arch. I don't mean to bring hate to it, however. One of the coolest things about Linux is the wide variety of distros available to experiment with, allowing you to see what you like and what would fit your needs.
I used Linux Mint for over 2 years until it slowed down. But it had some annoying things like printer issues, no system suspend or freeze, it would freeze from time to time and only a reset helped.
I started looking, checked several distributions, mainly based on Debian or Ubuntu. MXlinux - nice, but I didn't like it. EndevourOS too sweet. And I was looking for something that would get up and running right away with a little change by me. I didn't want an Arch because I wanted something that works right out of the box.
I took a chance on Manjaro with XFCE4 and that was it. Nice fast, just a new package system I had to learn. So I switched from Mint to Manjaro and after 6 months of use, I don't regret it.This is my main and only system I use.
@@adams5261 damn that sucks. None of that happened to me with the multiple computers I installed it on, Mint has literally been the most reliable distro I've used. Thou as I said above, been using artix for the past two years so no idea how it has been lately...
I can totally relate to your experience with Manjaro! Liked and subscribed. I also believe that some distros shouldn't exist, and the community should focus on the more stable and superior ones. I've been using Linux Mint for 3 years now.
Agreed. Diversification good, but Linux must have a default. Linux Mint or Fedora is pretty good defaults.
Mint was the first distro that installed and restarted on my test bed system back when MS Windows 10 was new. It also worked with our printers and scanners. And it works well on new Ryxen builds, equally good for me because that's what I built to replace aging desktops.
We just have too many distros that are pointless. I mean some are just for goofs and giggles and that's fine. However, there are many that believe to be the best user friendly distro for everyone, but instead just become another fork with a different look or desktop that could otherwise be easily replicated with their upstream counterpart.
@@fabiandrinksmilk6205 I have to agree with you. One reason is that I like the idea behind Linux Mint Debian Edition, which happens to be running well on my bare metal test bed this week whilst I work through a Brother's Keeper to Gramps conversion. Now, if a distribution will install there and restart, we're off to a good beginning, and I'm distressed by how many distributions I've tried that would not do that. (AMD FX-4300 Black build from three desktops back which proves I don't toss good hardware very often, grin.) I admit that trying to keep up past 70 gets harder every year.
My experience with Linux started with Mint several years ago after using Windows and Mac machines of any kind due to my profession.
I had used Mint for a couple of years as a main driver on several machines in my home studio and at work, which was good (not too drastic) as a transition from Windows to the Linux world.
In the mean time, I was trying different distros looking for some "modern" looking DE and I found KDE Plasma on Debian/Ubuntu based distros. Kubuntu became my new everyday driver for some time. I loved Plasma and I knew I would stay with this DE. Kubuntu had some problems with audio drivers (among others...) for my studio equipment and I switched to TUXEDO. That was a really great and solid distro for a couple of years. A year ago, while checking many different distros (Arch based, Fedora based, etc...), I found Manjaro (with KDE Plasma). It gave me even more packaging-installation-management options. I could use Pamac AND Discover - each having some nice advantages. I do not install AUR if I do not have to. I try to install first the versions that Manjaro offers as a "default" or Flatpak. I use AppImages a lot, but I modify them to make them real "portable" applications contained in totally separate folders, including their Config files. My browsers do not leave any traces on any computers I used them on, especially at work.
I have to repeat: I use at least 11 computers of different manufacturers, different guts and different age. Two of them are Windows based - unfortunately, the sophisticated recording studio software and hardware is mostly Windows or Mac based. All the rest has Manjaro on them, two stations having three monitors (each) connected. I do not have ANY problems with Manjaro and with every week updates.
... so... speaking of "more stable and superior" distros, and "excluding" the other ones... what should I do? Should I go back to Linux Mint ? :D Mint looks to me like kind of "windows-like" Linux OS. It was good as a start for me, but I would not go back to it.
I’ve installed Linux on many machines, all kinds of distros, but Manjaro was the only distro that I just couldn’t get to boot on my modern desktop after install, I tried different isos, gnome, xfce, none would work. Regular arch worked fine. I am a popOS user these days and it is by far the most polished and stable distro I have ever used. It’s fantastic
I'm running Pop! with Manjaro on a dual-boot system. Love them both.
Lol, I had similar experience, but I had that issue with PopOS. This is the beauty of Linux. If something doesn't work, there is always an alternative. 💌Linux💌
Honestly, for quite experienced linux user (total of few weeks of pain on ubuntu, then few laboratories on debian/mxlinux on uni and few years on openSUSE), Manjaro feels like a perfect fit for me. I tried multiple times to install arch, but every time, at some point there was either a problem with pipewire or nvidia drivers, which caused arch to stop working or even refuse to install. The funniest part of this is that these issues , repeating the same exact steps, sometimes appeared and sometimes not.
Therefore, after trying manjaro, which just plainly works, as software developer, needing a working system without a necessity to constantly rebuild everything (not saying about single packages, but the whole system), manjaro with its package availability seems like the best compromise between simplicity and stability of suse and fast, but broken arch.
I have had a similar experience
For new users here - the recommendation is to NOT use Manjaro and use Arch directly. Arch is shipped with an official script (archinstall) to install Arch very easily (try installing Arch in VM before to get used to the script). I used Ubuntu for a long time and moved to Arch on my main gaming PC (Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti, pipewire, intel i7). It was straightforward, everything just works and it's stable.
Your experience is similar to mine, I just used manjaro for longer before I started to feel the problems setting in. I originally picked up Manjaro because I was still having hardware issues after installing Arch for a long time, whereas Manjaro "just worked"... At first. These days I would not recommend Manjaro to anyone really.
I think in some ways, what you say of Manjaro is arguably true of all Linux distros aimed at beginners... they make things seem easier on the surface by just abstracting a lot of the details away, but actually make things harder in the long run. The moment you want to "go off the rails," so to speak, you'll need to learn a lot of details and fight with the way the system was designed. There's really not much of an in-between, IMO... either you go for stuff like Fedora and Ubuntu and deal with a few out of date packages and a limited selection of options to make maintaining your system easier, or use a distro like Arch or Gentoo and get your hands dirty. Stuff like Manjaro tends to work okay as long as you don't use the AUR, but at that point it's really not much different from using something like Fedora Beta versions to get bleeding-edge packages.
Yes! You came through with the Manjaro video. I wholeheartedly endorse the conclusion: install vanilla Arch and really make your system yours. I was a Manjaro user for close to 3 years, and although I never experienced a botched update that would necessitate a re-install, there were several annoyances in the distro that, ultimately, contributed to making me move away. It's true, Manjaro often will retain packages for a couple of weeks... if not more! In one instance, I waited weeks (maybe 5?) for the Manjaro repo to update a piece of software, only to give up and just reinstall from source. Pamac almost never worked for me when it came to system-wide updates: it would almost always hang. I would use pacman for that, even though that method is not officially endorsed by the developers (which shows just why Manjaro is really not Arch). Also, Manjaro comes with a lot of packages pre-installed, and I never did figure out which were cruft and which were not. With time, updating the system would take a bit over 15 minutes because of all the accumulated packages. Because of this long wait, I frequently forgot to update. Now with vanilla Arch, I only have half of the packages and everything is snappy. Updates are quick and painless. All that aside, trust is critical, so when you read about Manjaro's f-ups over and over, it breaks that trust, and that is why I had to leave it.
I remember wanting to install Manjaro Plasma on a family member's laptop. Tried it in a VM, only for pamac to hang during a kernel update. Promptly gave up on Manjaro after that point, never tried it again, never will.
And the fact that if you point out flaws or errors (in f ex pamac, that I like you never use), they mostly goes into defense mode blaming others or not responding at all.
You: "this package is broken, can you help?"
They: "you do realize the packages are maintained by community members on their free time right"..
You: "ummm, yeah, thanks for that. What about the package being broken though...?"
They: *cricket sounds*
Just the fact that the official download location states: "It (manjaro) is user-friendly and suitable for those new to computers" and I have MORE THAN JUST A FEW INSTANCES seen on their forum, both ppl working for manjaro and other ppl say stuff like "some ppl really should not install Manjaro" without ANY pushback from Manjaro.
Well duh, if you invite ppl "new to computers" what tf do you expect?
Seems SOME ppl have the right to shit on ppl just for being beginners.. nice...
And this REALLY pisses me off, I have given them WAY to much money to accept behavior like that!
But to be honest, it doesn't really affect me any more, I usually know what to do if stuff breaks and use manjaro because of my lazy a** not getting around to installing arch, or moving over to tumbleweed. xD
But for these new ppl, old windows users wanting to try out linux "for a beginner" (like they state on the web page) it can really have devastating effects on that user that thinks all linux distros are like that. If user uses the distros BUILT IN PACKAGE MANAGER THE SYSTEM SHOULD NOT BECOME UNUSABLE (witch has happened MULTIPLE TIMES on manjaro)! :(
Again, I do not think the distro is inherently bad, quite the opposite actually, but NOT FOR BEGINNERS!
If they want to call it a distro "for ppl new to computers" then you have to make god damn sure it is friendly and works for those people, or simply remove that statement.
Everything you said is basically what most new users DON'T want to deal with. Everyone I know I said to use Mint instead of Ubuntu is because it just works and it's stable and "windows like". They don't need weekly updates or anything like this. Arch is basically telling them to starting learning computers again.
It's not just learning computers, they need to learn package management and open source. Because you WILL run into issues, and you need to debug the issue.. find the responsible package.. report your issue there.. and then wait till it ends up getting resolved. Meanwhile, Ubuntu is maintained with extensive testing by Canonical, so Ubuntu is amazing
Kinda off topic:
I've been using Linux for about 3 to 4 years now, starting off on my desktop, and it was an awesome experience. But things got a bit tricky when I switched to using it on my laptop. I tried out different distros, but I kept running into problems. Pop!_OS was the most user-friendly option I found, but I really wanted to try a good Arch-based distro because Arch was what got me super excited about PC tinkering in the first place.
However, most of the time I've had this laptop, I've been feeling frustrated and discouraged. I mean, let's be real, for any operating system to be enjoyable, the basics need to work smoothly, right? I need that solid foundation to have the time and motivation to learn and have fun with it.
Now, why did I just unload all of this on you? Well, the last time I tried Manjaro, my screen completely bricked. Yep, you heard me right. Talk about a major bummer. By the way, my laptop is an Avell A 70 mob (Avell is this Brazilian company that resells Clevo and Tongfang laptops).
I found what you may be looking for in the new Garuda. It's the most ready to go and stable distro I've used and it even helped me avoid a few mistakes I was about to make without knowledge it in the terminal.
I'm pretty computer illiterate and I've been the most comfortable in Garuda that I've been on any other Linux distro or desktop environment. The guy really did a good job with it.
The only knock on it is that it bloats the install with a lot of stuff you probably won't need even if you're a gamer, which is what the distro is setup for.
I recommend giving it a shot if you haven't already.
@@SaintKines I looked at Garuda, and the look and feel put me off, thanks
@@lofurd42 I felt the same as far as looks go but I just switched the theme and was good. It's the baked in hot fixes and what not that I'm most attached to.
I've used Manjaro for 2+ years now, both my old desktop and my old laptop and I've been ready to switch to something else (Arch-based) for a while. For all the same reasons you state here! BUT... I've been fairly pleased with the experience compared to using Windows.
I already switched to Arcolinux on my laptop, which is a completely different ballgame, and i love it!
Switching away on my desktop is a dreaded prospect, because its a btrfs based install, and keeping my home partition is a bit involved without relying on a complete backup. But thats the way of Arch... It's very probably doable, but you have to invest the time and effort! And thats the main problem with Manjaro: Its announced as an almost dropin windows replacement, which 'just works' or tries to adopt the windows mindset of that it just works, but in reality its still linux/Arch-based: Learn to fix your own problems by learning to research solutions (RTFM, ask questions, search answers using internet ressources, etc!)
I been using Linux Mint for it just works but I was considering to explore and try Manjaro but I do not want the headache. Thank you for the informative video :)
I'm running Manjaro Linux for years now. No problems at all .. everything worked out of the box. At least if you use the stable branch. In the beginning i used the testing branch because i needed support for my then brand new Ryzen 5 2700G. Yes that was a bit rough but i'm running Manjaro stable for years now without problems.
havent used it in like 4 years but back then i was very new to linux and it broke constantly, having so much interconnected software with configs made by someone else makes every problem so hard to find a fix for. doing everything yourself like arch might be difficult to start with, but when something breaks you tend to understand what went wrong because you put the thing together to start with.
I've been running Manjaro now as my daily driver for over a year and as my first proper Linux distro. I can say that I'm super happy with it and almost never run into issues.
The only thing where problems popped up was when a newer kernel version (not LTS) were offered and it broke the system. That sucked but I have no problem with running the LTS kernel.
I think you have some valid points in your video like the holding back of the software in their repos and the bad track record of the dev team. Though I think it is unfair to say not to recommend Manjaro to beginners as in my experience you rarely run into issues. If you tell beginners to go to pure Arch they'll just end up in configuration hell and will get demotivated very fast.
All in all I think Manjaro is a good beginner distro, but also has some problems. If those concern you I'm on point with you to go to Endavour OS (though I have only heard recommendations and not tried it out myself).
Thanks for sharing your experience. I think Arch Linux can be fine for beginners if they go with a desktop environment like GNOME or KDE that sets most things up for you and don't use something like a TWM. That's what I did when I first started using Arch and there's not too much configuration needed from there.
@@EricMurphyxyz Always happy to. Yeah you're right on that. I set up my pure Arch with I3, Polybar, etc and it was honestly pain.
Manjaro is LITERALLY the only distro that works OOB with my setup! And I’ve lost count of how many I have tried. Really it’s more on nVidia than anything else, but it’s still ridiculous that even the likes of Ubuntu, Debian, Mint (another go-to for me), Fedora/Nobara, and over a dozen other, more niche distros utterly shit their pants at the presence of my Lenovo Graphics Dock!
Plus, let’s face it, it’s got fantastic theming.
And in case anybody asks, I’ve also tried Arch, Garuda, and Endeavor OS too. None of them work with my setup
What nvidia issue you got ?
I'm currently in love with Nobara, Arch is just too overly complicated and breaked itself 3 times, from both software and hardware issues, Fedora and Debian are just so much stable, I see why they are the most popular.
I really liked Nobara, I later switched to Fedora with KDE and fell in love.
had manjaro and a kali vm ("simple Arch" + kali for a school course). No problems with Manjaro, but didn't use it longer than 2-3 months and then thought "fuck it, I manage Arch somehow", installed Arch and just installed the tools that I needed instead of a Kali VM
After trying all major and some exotic distros on VM while preparing my exodus from Windows, I've also picked Nobara and so far I like it. I was pleasantly surprised that almost everything I wanted as a rpm package was actually available. Though I still feel like a debian based repos are a bit more complete.
ArchLinux exists with the mind of DIYing and the KISS principle (Keep it simple, stupid). It is (in my mind) for experienced Linux users and/or tecky peoples not for newbies. (Maybe EndeavourOS could be such a distro which I could recommend. I should test that maybe in a VM. 😅)
Arch extremely rarely "breaks itself" it just doesn't hand hold you from doing stupid shit
What's your thoughts on ArcoLinux? Its suppose to be a build up to being able to create your arch install on your own. I tried it for a bit and really enjoyed it, very basic but simple.
A new user cannot go wrong "enrolling" at Arcolinux University. Thousands of videos by Erik Dubois are at your disposal and make learning the system relatively easy.
I am currently in Manjaro. I started with it and hopped all over the Linux desktop world (even Arch btw) and I love Manjaro. Most of the issues in this video are related to the AUR, and you can simply switch to the unstable branch of the OS then those issues don't exist anymore you will get updates exactly on time with Arch. The other stuff I cannot excuse.
I've been using Linux since 1993, back then I was using Slackware. I switched between a number of distributions over the years. Experience with the different package managers helps. I use Gentoo Linux as of current with a laptop that has Nobara installed to test as a possible replacement for my Windows install. I had Pop_OS! in a virtual machine, but the release schedule based on their hardware largely. I do know that they're working on new hardware, hence light updates/releases. In the end, I will ikely go with Vanilla Arch unless Nobara does the job for me. If it doesn't work for me, then Gentoo will be installed as I'm familiar and comfortable with it.
I have gone a weird route, starting off with Ubuntu waaay back in time... And then I just used whatever fitted my needs, but didn't actually replace windows because of lazyness.
Then I gave Manjaro a try, and boy it was so good. Sooo much better than I expected. And so much worse. Just went over to Arch, as everyone is telling you it would be better. For me, it just wasn't. Same problems, and even more regularly.
After that I switched to OpenSUSE Tumbleweed. Better experience in every aspect. Exactly as customizable, faster, lighter and more robust, so overall much, much higher quality. With Arch I ran into issues after every 3 to 6 months. Same with Manjaro, but the issues were much easier to repair and less severe. I didn't have issues with Tumbleweed yet, and I doubt that I will have any comparable headaches as with Arch there.
i used to use manjaro but not anymore but I don't understand the argument when people complain about packages being held back by just a week, which dependencies are getting major update within a week that will cause the package to break?
and, majaro has officially stated that they don't recommend installing arch packages but users can do so on their own risk, and in pamac the AUR support is disabled by default, so you have to manually enable it to start using it
I was drawn in by Manjaro's ease of use and have used it since 2018, but lately I've been looking at jumping ship to either NixOS or raw Arch. The main trouble for me is that my primary machine is also my work machine. Gotta keep it running, unfortunately.
Thanks for the tip man!
Thanks Eric, nice channel!
I used Manjaro for a couple of years. The main attraction was the rolling releases. However, this led to some problems. I kept finding little problems that I couldn't quite figure out. They weren't deadly - just annoyances. But they seemed to accumulate over time. The rolling releases didn't correct the issues. Ultimately I decided that occasionally wiping out the whole system with a new install wasn't such a bad thing after all. It's a pain in the butt, but it gets rid of a lot of cruft that could get in the way...
I do like pamac and it being in the core packages, along with the kernel switching menu that manjaro adds, I find those as compelling enough reasons to use it and really don't get why people are so negative about it, its been rock solid for me for 2 years and I think its a great gateway to arch.
It's just a tiny older crowd. They wont accept change whatsoever. Surely Manjaro sometimes gives a little bit to be desired on the details... But that's ok if you at least know how to do the basics and understands their wonderful "help-desk" forum. Endeavor is just Arch with Calamares installer and an ugly base personalized theme. Arch is Arch, and even them, they are sort of changing. I believe Arch to be a huge distro for IT schools, but nothing more on top of that. IT students should have their lives "difficult" to an extent so they learn the underlined stuff on "bare metal" if I can make understandable. But forgive me if I'm being heretical for some: Even the most advanced sys admin of this and the other world don't want to deal with a huge long and painful installation process that can stick for hours, nor even less to go to the terminal just to add that odd userland app that comes in Flatpak format!... TBHH: Those few goodies that Manjaro offers are the ones 99% of us appreciate to facilitate our lives. AUR?... Huh!... Oh, well!... Nowadays even Goggle Chrome is on Flathub. I believe for the most part you won't need AUR for nothing on Manjaro, unless you really need that very specific media codec that there is nowhere to find outside of it. Most of your userland stuff will be Flatpak these days.
bro_which desktop environment are U using, its seem cool.I'm new one!
Manjaro is the best Linux distro out there. I was a total noob and I absolutely fell in love with how easy it was to use and how powerful it is. I've even configured it to do pentesting. Im using Manjaro to type this right now! It's my favorite distro. Period.
I must be dumb cause when I tried just normal Arch I ran into so many issues that just gave me a headache and wound up uninstalling. Issues such as docks not being able to be moved because when I moved them they just disappeared, to accidently switching to another virtual desktop and not being able to switch back cause i lost my docks when trying to move them, and then winding up not being able to click anything because somehow my firefox was on my virtual desktop but not on it at the same time. I really don't understand how people say they understand arch, and i'm probably gonna be called an idiot but i really don't care my experience with arch has made me never want to go back unless someone teaches me hands on how to use it because I can't figure it out on my own.
1:40 - What window-manager (and system monitor topbar) are you using there? Does it work for Ubuntu KDE?
I am the kind of user who switches from Arch to Windows every few months and use archinstall to save time during the install. Manjaro was my first linux distro and it got borked within a couple weeks, probably because I was a newb and did something wrong myself.
I've been on Mint for 5 years now and play games on it just fine. I don't care that Mint is a "Noob" Linux distro, I install it and run with it as I don't care to customize my OS as much as other people do with their OS installations.
was using manjaro for 1.5 years, the only issue was video drivers and kernel update after I was offline for 6 months. some dependency error, whatever. It required some manual intervention in the terminal: remove video drivers, do a whole upgrade, install video drivers again. I am almost sure I could avoid that if I used LTS kernel, but I couldn't predict that I will have to be offline for so long. regarding other people hating manjaro, it starts to feel like the same story: noobs come to linux, pick manjaro, break something because they don't know anything, and move on, blaming the distro. and the next distro feels "better", because they learn a thing or two between distrohopping. I have no idea how it is possible to break anything by installing something from AUR. maybe AUR issues were the real problem in the past, and it was solved by moving critical packages into manjaro repos, so they are never replaced by AUR packages anymore. I have firmware packages from AUR, I have a dozen of programs from AUR, also when I build something from AUR often I get some dependencies from there as well, but everything works fine. Regarding that theoretical issue with super new AUR packages with super duper new dependencies, I have never encountered that. I don't think I am the only lucky man on the planet. so... git gud scrub. regarding arch stability, few months ago I've seen a video from DistroTube, where he complained about arch packages stop working all the time, so he started to use snaps. imagine that lol.
I started out using Arch before trying Manjaro and until recently, I've never had an issue with Manjaro. There was a time when it was the most stable distro out there when compared to Distro's like Ubuntu. Lately (as in the past few years) it has begun to fracture in terms of the stability and reliability of packages updates.
I remember having an issue with a number of packages and having to wait over 2 months for an update to the prerequisite package and by the time it was released, it was already out of date. It wasn't even an AUR package. Sure, I couldn't have updated the packages on my own, like I would with Arch, but Manjaro would complain about compatibility issues afterwards and would then break my ability to do future updates. After that I went back to using pure Arch. Though truthfully, I only really like Manjaro for a few reasons, one being `mhwd`... well really just that.
I'd still choose Manjaro over Ubuntu, but its better used as a fixed 6 month release cycle than a rolling release and I wouldn't recommend it for complete Linux beginners.
I use endeavour btw 🍻
What I personally like to recommend:
1. Linux Mint or PopOS LTS, for beginners and/or non-gamers.
2. Nobara Linux, a distro made for gamers. It's based on Fedora.
3. EndeavourOS, if you need to be on the latest software or want to make use of the AUR.
4. Arch Linux, if you want to build your system yourself.
5. AlmaLinux, if you want a rock solid experience and do not need the latest software and NVIDIA drivers.¹
¹. Only when using flatpak, the Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL) repo and RPM Fusion free and non-free repos.
EndeavourOS is king. It's like Antergos was resurrected from the dead but it came back with a sick purple t-shirt
Love for endeavour ❤
Endeavour is awesome
PopOS is also perfect for artists since Wacom Tablets just freaking work out of the box and the Nvidia/AMD drivers painlessly self-install/update.
Manjaro has never broken on me and i heavily use Windows plugins on native Linux Apps via wine-staging, latest technologies like pipewire, on my commercial production system in a real-time recording studio with clients present. Now... I found Debian/Ubuntu PPAs much more dangerus than AUR. The AUR getts dependencies from the standard repositories. On the other hand, PPAs can install their own dependencies and can easily leave an unusable system even after a small gui app install. Of course it is stupid to install beta or testing core-apps/core-modules from AUR or PPAs on your main or production system. Don't blame the systems for that.
About a year ago when I decided to switch fully to linux, I tried to install manjaro, it kept breaking and I couldn't get it working correctly. Decided I would just install arch manually and it worked fine.
You can use the AUR directly if you want, besides the package management system is very good at avoiding conflicts, I never encountered any version issue in more than 4 years of usage.
I moved to Manjaro from Ubuntu and it delivers on all the promises:
Speed
Stability
Ease of use
App choice
I wouldn’t change it for anything. If you don’t like it, I understand but for me as a beginner, it not only worked flawlessly but also served as a entry to the Linux world.
also Manjaro DDOS the AUR in the past.
Hey dude I am new to Linux and start University in 3 weeks. I hate windows and I am thinking of installing Ubuntu and using it as my daily drive and using it instead.
The course I’m doing is sort of a mature age catch up program to get into university so I can apply for a CS degree, so I don’t think there is any specific software I need to download for it. Do you think it’s possible to do assignments etc or will I be at a disadvantage compared to using word etc? Thanks
Linux has it own verison of word you can get and I use Ubuntu on my school laptop no issues what so ever.
I am “sort of” a beginner, like I may need to constantly learn how to accomplish simple terminal tasks, but I can run through an installer with ease and operating systems in general are rather easy from a user perspective, most things are intuitive. I spent over a month daily driving Manjaro on my main machine, as a windows user, and it worked far better than I expected, it even played games better than windows. I for many reasons was back on windows for a few months, but when I came back today just to update Manjaro, even did a kernel update, it was painless, and makes windows look like bloatware. Maybe your millage may vary, but I’ve found Manjaro to be rather pleasant. I am currently looking for something to stick to long term on a dedicated laptop, but also remain reliable and productive, and I keep getting calls back to Manjaro. I am torn, I feel like I should probably build my base of things around something else but I don’t want to be hopping or going too far in the weeds with different branch offs and potentially dropped projects. I also don’t really want to just use Ubuntu or mint, but I’m not entirely opposed either. Fedora got me a little tempted, and I’m iffy about Nix, I like what I hear but I also hear some downsides that I don’t have time to learn for such a singular thing. I am doing a bit of web design, starting a small business, admittedly using Microsoft and one drive (they have some god tier granular permissions and more for enterprise stuff, learning it), and learning JavaScript, I also have Adobe.
What I’m getting at, windows is what has to work but I want to get a bit more into Linux, I just don’t have time to fuss too much, I’m also doing all this with a separate day job, and side job.
Any of you have suggestions? I want to get more integrated with Linux, that’s for sure, I would like to be able to contribute after learning more languages and potentially ditch some of windows, and be better at say running Linux web servers and other neat projects with Pi’s, maybe even use them with business clients. (Beyond web design, small small business domains, email, basic IT needs, branding, digital footprint, and security, the starter pack for non technical people to have an online yet safe digital presence).
Debian 12 😎
Since I just installed Spotify from the AUR, what would be the better way to install it?
I think that's the only way it can be installed on arch. I believe that spotify officially only supports .deb and .rpm linux packages on their website
I cant ever use Ubuntu cuz i have a bad history of Ubuntu being unstable on amd hardware newer than 3 gens. I heard fedora is alot better for new users over manjaro is that true?
The one thing I hate is when someone says that if they can do you can too.
I've been using Manjaro for years, it is simple and works well.
Jesus... How is that animation on the tilling window manager done???
Not my setup, but with picom :) ruclips.net/video/-dkpcEeKk0E/видео.html
Thanks for your video mr Eric i use regular Fedora KDE and Pop OS
Garuda Linux looks pretty neat but I've no idea if its better than EndevorOS for newbs
Great video, explaining problems with Manjaro. I notice some of the same issues.
i am using it for a year now. all running well. never had any issues.
I hear a lot of people talk trash about Ubuntu and arch but I don’t hear people talk trash about Linux Mint the distribution I use. Is mint just better or is there nothing notable about it?
Been using Mint for a year, for my new PC i want something more advanced but stable so im switching to debian, been trying it in a virtual machine and honestly it feels great.
I'll be honest. I used to daily drive Manjaro before switching to arch and I have never had one AUR package break for me in that time. There are some hilarious oopsies in Manjaro's past (like the time they accidentally DDoS'd the AUR), but it's aggressively ok as a distro.
I was happy with the Manjaro system I've set up on a machine for my parents... until I wasn't. It managed to bork itself after an update due to mismatched versions, pretty much as described in this video. I've tried Arch for a couple of weeks and it was OK. However I've felt like I've had to configure and tweak too much to get it to where I was happy with the system. I now increasingly want to try building a NixOS config - it seems like a more organized approach to configure and administrate your system. Configs are in one place and not all over the system, dependencies are less likely to conflict and after you put in the time to configure it, I think it would be way easier to maintain and reproduce that system if you had to than trying to sift through the usual dotfiles, installed packages etc.
Vanilla Arch is def the way to go! But if you still feel that arch is scary, give EndeavourOS a try. Its basically arch but with some QoL changes, easier install and... a more beginner friendly community. Even though i use vanilla arch and love it, i got to admit that the users can be dicks to newcomers at times.
I've been using EndeavourOS for about 7 months now with pretty much no issues. I didn't want to go through an Arch install and I needed some guide rails but not too many.
@@robertlunderwood Yeah that is completely fair :) For me it is basically arch with a more friendly community lol. The only reason i pick vanilla Arch over EndeavourOS is because i like to manually configure stuff for learning purposes.
I had pretty much the same experience with manjaro. Got sick of Шindows, tried to install arch, failed to install arch, then tried a first popular arch-based distro I found online -- manjaro. And overall, it wasn't that bad, but there were some problems with some outdated packages, mainly discord desktop app. In the end I just got tired of it, and switched to endeavour.
"Shindows"
I'm curious if you would ever consider covering Obarun, recently switched from vanilla Arch to it and don't think I'll be going back.
Never heard of it, I'll have to check it out.
What if I want just a semi-stable distro and use mostly flatpaks? It seems okay for me. Something like a fedora alternative
Iam new to linux and currently run endevour os, but now iam a bit confused, if I want to install some popular program like codium or spotify, where would I download it if not the AUR?
It's fine to use the AUR as long as you're aware of some of the issues that can arise from using it. Check out the two videos I have on the AUR in the description.
AUR uses bash code inside a PKGBUILD script that tells your Arch based Linux how to download, build, and package a software from source code.
If you don't understand how to read the PKGBUILD and understand what it does you blindly trust any random person who made the script in that AUR to not install a virus/trojan on your system.
So if you can't read PKGBUILD it's like with a windows exe you downloaded somewhere. It's secure, because "Trust me bro! I am just a nice random stranger on the internet!".
Of couse other people that can read PKGBUILD may have already reported a malicious PKGBUILD. So this makes AUR less dangerous than downloading a random exe from the web ...
I made the same mistake. I've turned on AUR packages support and broke system upgrade / applications update due to dependencies. Now, I cannot update apps.
I've been on Manjaro for years, using AUR, and it does break sometimes. I haven't quite hit that last straw yet, but I do wish I was on Garuda or something. Too lazy to change atm.
Im new to linux so should i go for pop or manjaro?
If you're new to linux the best way to learn is install it, don't put all your important stuff on it, have fun and break it, best moment I had with Manjaro was me getting frustrated with the permissions system in place and just said "screw it i'll change every file to be read writable" whole thing blew up, I was laughing my ass off and tried again
I am just now watching this video. I wonder what Eric thinks now. I have been using it for about 2 months and completely love it. I have had no problems whatsoever. It is the first distro to find and use all my hardware out of the box. I have a webcam that isn't supported under Linux and every distro I have used couldn't use it. Under Manjaro, it works just fine.
I am wondering if they got to a point where their popularity was too much for their internal personnel, but have now gotten past all that. I am sticking with Manjaro and until I see those issues arise, this will be my daily driver.
Arch vanilla is fantastic but sometime when I have a machine to install and not much time I go for an Arch based system that has already been configured. Normally go for Arcolinux B. Everything setup and just works along with immediate access to the AUR. Unlike Manjaro which as you said holds back packages. Also had stability issues with Manjaro. Have tried pretty much all Arch based systems and always land up going to Arcolinux. Stable and just works.
Ever heard about Endeavour OS? For me, it is the perfect version of what Manjaro promises. You will need to use the terminal a bit (eg for installing software), but the forums are high quality and the AUR works flawlessly since Endeavour uses the Arch repositories.
I use arch on my laptop and Ubuntu let's on my desktop every time I've tried Manjaro something breaks within a week while nothing has really broken on my arch or Ubuntu installs
I've been using Manjaro for 3 years now, it's actually good for beginners like me who came from Ubuntu. Timeshift had saved me from a lot of troubles, specially with the nvidia driver stuffs when doing updates. For AURs, yes you do have to be careful as it could ruin things quickly (that's why Timeshift exists for me).
Yes, I've read and heard a lot about their bad track records which is why it's best to avoid for newbies.
As much as I would love to move to EndeavourOS, I couldn't, not right now at least. And although the vanilla Arch is enticing, I don't have a time (even for EndeavourOS) nor the patience to do so sadly.
Agreed on that, I've daily-driven Manjaro for 1,5 years after having mained Ubuntu MATE for 2,5 years.
Since moved to Garuda Linux, which is pre-installed Arch with their own repos layered on top of Arch's.
In which I've found a number of minor issues or things I had to know that I learned to handle from Manjaro.
While similar to EndeavourOS, I felt right at home in the Dr460nised default setup, only tried it between moving from Manjaro to EndeavourOS but stuck with it.
But there's nothing wrong with keeping a Manjaro install while it works, as long as you are aware of the issues and know how to work around them.
Hey ur arch setup theming looks awesome. Can you create a video for it?
Loved it
Great vid with warning. Deciding for my first linux distro, these infos are very valuable, having head spinning from so many choices.
The bit around 4:00 is why I'm glad I watched this. If I were to switch to Manjaro and then have instability caused by the lack of synchronization between the repos and the AUR dependencies, then I'd be right back where I was with Ubuntu and the PPAs. Thanks for saving me the hassle.
whats the windows manager your using around 15:28?
breh i was looking forward to install manjaro but it looks like i should just wait for finals to ends and then read the whole arch doc so i can get used to what i gotta do to install it without the script as that would help in future if something breaks up
There are a few times that I bricked my system because I forgot to update before installing more packages.
I started using Arch from March, started with Manjaro but idk why stutters & lags after a few days on my i3 dual core laptop. Then distro hopped a bit & loved endeavour os, stayed on a bit for a while. Then came to know about pure vanilla arch & installed using Archinstall script. Used for a month with xfce de. Then saw soldoestech & jakoolit RUclips channel & switched to arch hyprland but they weren't minimal as I wanted & don't know or have time to fix things on my own. Currently on Archcraft Bspwm 😅 , waiting for some good minimal pre-configured hyprland installer script 😁
I've tried Manjaro four or five times in the last four years. It loads fine on my hardware but within a week or two it starts to have problems. During this time I don't change anything to give it a burn in period. I'll give it another try to see if it has improved.
What is the DE that he uses when ever he uses Arch?
Unfortunately arch gui is dead now so I don't know how to install it without LAN cable
I have a GPU bug with almost all distros. Gentoo, arch..,. My GPU (7900 XTX) will die with tons of dmesg errors. But Manjaro I don't get any errors.
Have used Manjaro over a period of six to seven years as my main Linux distro. I have also used Linux Mint (almost entirely LMDE), Arch, Arco, Artix, antiX, KDE Neon, and some others during the same time frame. Generally, I have found Manjaro to be one of the most stable and complete distros of those I have used. LMDE is also excellent, but runs a long way behind on getting new software out to users. Arch is also good if a person has the time and interest to set it up, but I would say that it is very much something that requires some knowledge and tinkering to get it working properly. I too have found archinstall to be less than ideal as an Arch Linux installation method, having only used it successfully once out of about five tries. Have not used Endeavor, but Arco seems like a reasonably usable and stable distro, if not for beginners, at least for those with some basic understanding of Linux.