I've been naughty, I've installed Manjaro...

[Cristobal]

This week, I bought a second hand laptop on eBay for less than €100 (Thinkpad x200, a ten years old machine), either as a back up laptop or for distro hopping. Although it came with Win10 pre-installed (spent a few hours debloating the system), I decided to install linux alongside Windows.

My first choice was Mint, but after installing it, I got so many error messages while installing software, that I changed my mind and formatted the linux partitions.

As I felt adventurous, I installed Manjaro xfce. Everything went smooth actually and it runs pretty well. Some software crashing often (Vocal, Fontbase) are the only downside at the moment. The integration of VLC user interface with Manjaro themes is not great either.

This experiment however made me realise how reliable is MX. Therefore, I think I am going to keep Manjaro until MX next release.

[ChrisUK]

If you read the Update Announcements on the forum, and wait for error reports before updating, Manjaro is quite stable. Arch-based is different from Debian-based, but both are excellent base Distros.

(Be careful with using the AUR - read the PKGBUILD file before installing)

[Eadwine Rose]

PERMBAN!!

Nah hahaha.

[fanisatt]

Nice Distro....a lot of updates !
And while at first it was all fine, then the problems begin ... and it becomes a habit to wait for the next update....

[Cristobal]

To be honest, I was expecting a few glitches after reading feedbacks on Manjaro, but was eager try other "user friendly" distros. The purpose of the extra laptop was for playing around after all, without messing with the main laptop one (MX). However, Manjaro is quite nice actually.

[Cristobal]

PERMBAN!!

Nah hahaha.

Hahaha! Hilarious.

[asqwerth]

To be honest, I was expecting a few glitches after reading feedbacks on Manjaro, but was eager try other "user friendly" distros. The purpose of the extra laptop was for playing around after all, without messing with the main laptop one (MX). However, Manjaro is quite nice actually.

Manjaro has never been difficult to install. What requires a mindset/procedural change is how you update and maintain it thereafter, compared to fixed releases like MX.

It is after all a rolling distro, which means every package, even base and foundational packages, are being updated all the time. So there is much more package churn than in MX. Also, say you haven't yet installed the latest round of updates, you can't open their GUI package manager pamac and choose to install a new package without first installing the outstanding updates. Why? Because everything is being updated all the time so it is crucial for all packages' dependencies to be in sync.

Like ChrisUK said, for users new to rolling releases, don't update immediately when you're notified of updates. Wait maybe 3 days, go to the Update Announcement forum thread for that particular update, and check out the first 3 posts. That's where instructions, advice on potential issues (if any) and fixes, are posted.

Once in a while you may be notified of a config file change. The update process does not automatically adopt the new config files since you may have adjusted your current config file to your own preferences and they don't want to wipe your own settings away. The new config files are thus saved as .pacnew files and you are expected - as part of maintenance - to compare the current config file with the new one, to see if you need or want to incorporate any of the new changes to your config file. Most of the time it's not necessary, to be honest, but still, this is your own system so you are responsible for taking care of it.

If you do all that, you should be fine. In return, you never need to reinstall your Manjaro system, ever, and you get the newest versions of packages before most fixed release distros.

But it means constant large updates every 2 weeks (usually at least 60-70 packages every update if you're running their standard non-minimal install) and time spent to check each update before proceeding.

Rolling or fixed, there is a cost in time, effort, vigilance. In rolling, you have to do it every update. In fixed releases, you have to take some time every 2 to 5 years, depending how impatient you are to use a new version of said distro, to reinstall. But for MX, that's not too difficult. YOu can preserve /home, whether or not it's in a separate partition from root partition. You just need to reinstall your favourite apps if they are not installed by default in MX. How long will that take? 2 hours every few years? That's not going to kill you.

[JayM]

Cristobal, for shame! I'm going to rewrite my will and disinherit you.

[mxer]

It's always nice to know that your chosen distro is still the best available.

[Cristobal]

To be honest, I was expecting a few glitches after reading feedbacks on Manjaro, but was eager try other "user friendly" distros. The purpose of the extra laptop was for playing around after all, without messing with the main laptop one (MX). However, Manjaro is quite nice actually.

Manjaro has never been difficult to install. What requires a mindset/procedural change is how you update and maintain it thereafter, compared to fixed releases like MX.

It is after all a rolling distro, which means every package, even base and foundational packages, are being updated all the time. So there is much more package churn than in MX. Also, say you haven't yet installed the latest round of updates, you can't open their GUI package manager pamac and choose to install a new package without first installing the outstanding updates. Why? Because everything is being updated all the time so it is crucial for all packages' dependencies to be in sync.

Like ChrisUK said, for users new to rolling releases, don't update immediately when you're notified of updates. Wait maybe 3 days, go to the Update Announcement forum thread for that particular update, and check out the first 3 posts. That's where instructions, advice on potential issues (if any) and fixes, are posted.

Once in a while you may be notified of a config file change. The update process does not automatically adopt the new config files since you may have adjusted your current config file to your own preferences and they don't want to wipe your own settings away. The new config files are thus saved as .pacnew files and you are expected - as part of maintenance - to compare the current config file with the new one, to see if you need or want to incorporate any of the new changes to your config file. Most of the time it's not necessary, to be honest, but still, this is your own system so you are responsible for taking care of it.

If you do all that, you should be fine. In return, you never need to reinstall your Manjaro system, ever, and you get the newest versions of packages before most fixed release distros.

But it means constant large updates every 2 weeks (usually at least 60-70 packages every update if you're running their standard non-minimal install) and time spent to check each update before proceeding.

Rolling or fixed, there is a cost in time, effort, vigilance. In rolling, you have to do it every update. In fixed releases, you have to take some time every 2 to 5 years, depending how impatient you are to use a new version of said distro, to reinstall. But for MX, that's not too difficult. YOu can preserve /home, whether or not it's in a separate partition from root partition. You just need to reinstall your favourite apps if they are not installed by default in MX. How long will that take? 2 hours every few years? That's not going to kill you.

Thanks to you and ChrisUK, very instructive indeed.