Hey fellas friends. Sorry to create yet another post on this topic (maybe we should have a sticky for this?).

About 2 weeks ago I decided it was time to move on from Windows and installed Manjaro. I would consider myself a newbie-intermediate level linux user.

Though I’ve used Windows most my life, we use Linux servers (no GUI) at work, managing them is part of job description. I also own a late 2011 Macbook Pro with vanilla Arch Linux. I barely ever use it but boy, Arch really brought it back to life!

I’ve been reasonably happy with Manjaro so far, feels easy and intuitive to use but the community has made me aware that Manjaro is maybe a questionable choice. Since I don´t plan on distro-hopping a lot I want to get it right sooner rather than later.

Here’s what I’m looking for:

  • Rolling distribution, preferably. Though this machine is also used for work, our environment depends mostly on remote servers anyway. I’d rather have a distribution that provides the most recent packages for whatever I want
  • I don´t mind running a distribution that forces me learn new things or do things in a different way, I kinda embrace it. I just don´t enjoy complexity for complexity’s sake.
  • KDE is my preferred Desktop Environment so far, though I guess that’s not very relevant. I’d love to run Hyprland, but you know… Nvidia :(
  • I play games on Steam but from my understanding this doesn´t matter either. Everything I tried worked great, I don´t think I want a ¨gaming focused" distro or anything like that
  • No Ubuntu, please.

My hardware, in case you feel is relevant!

OS: Manjaro Linux x86_64 
Kernel: 6.5.5-1-MANJARO 
Shell: bash 5.1.16 
Resolution: 2560x1440, 2560x1440 
WM: KWin 
Terminal: konsole 
Terminal Font: MesloLGS NF 10 
CPU: 12th Gen Intel i7-12700K (20) @ 4.900GHz 
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Lite Hash Rate 
Memory: 23313MiB / 64087MiB
  • Joker@discuss.tchncs.de
    172·
    3 years ago

    Anything but Manjaro. I won’t get into the reasons why because it’s easy to find, but suffice it to say that it’s an amateur distro that makes dumb mistakes.

    If you want rolling, Arch, Tumbleweed and Endeavour are the first places to look. Maybe even Fedora because it updates very fast, although it’s not rolling.

    • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
      3·
      3 years ago

      I’ve been using Manjaro for years without issue. I fully understand the arguments against using it, but it’s never been a problem for me and I’m too lazy to distro hop for no good reason.

      Are there problems with Manjaro? Yes, of course.

      Are they bad enough that “anything but Manjaro” is good advice to give to someone? IMO, no.

  • MrBubbles96@lemmy.mlEnglish
    8·
    3 years ago

    Yet another “Time to reccomend EndeavourOS” reply.

    Seriously tho, EndeavourOS is a pretty solid distro, and not that different from what you’re currently rocking (Manjaro is based on Arch) except well…it actually works as an Arch based distro should, unlike Manjaro. EndeavourOS’s a bit on the light side tho, and it comes with no GUI Add/Remove Software outta the box, but if you don’t like using the Konsole for that, nothing a “yay pamac-all” (or “yay pamac-all-no-snap”) and a bit of installing the packages you want/need can’t fix.

    • radix@lemm.ee
      2·
      3 years ago

      I’ve looked into EndeavourOS now, and I’m very confused. Normally I’d download a .iso and burn it onto a USB using Balena Etcher (or Rufus), but the official page for EndeavourOS doesn’t have a .iso. I tried following “method three” on that article, but I don’t understand the dialog asking me to choose between Raspberry Pi, Odroid, and Pinebook. I don’t have any of those. I just have my own desktop PC with its Intel CPU. Also I see “ARM” everywhere and I think that also implies incompatibility because ARM is RISC whereas my 6th-gen Intel is CISC.

      How do I get started?

        • radix@lemm.ee
          1·
          3 years ago

          I realized it’s the literal homepage that has the .iso. I’m gonna try it out in a VM when I get the chance :)

      • MrBubbles96@lemmy.mlEnglish
        1·
        3 years ago

        They seem to be doing UI changes to the website.

        Currently the non-ARM version of the ISO is in the main page (https://endeavouros.com/) just scroll down and you’ll find the mirror list of the most recent ISO by country. Dunno why it’s there NGL shrug

      • MrBubbles96@lemmy.mlEnglish
        2·
        3 years ago

        I also do this, partly outta habit and partly to hear the sounds my mechanical keyboard makes when typing lol

        Anyways, I’d say you’re golden if you wanna give Endeavour a shot then

        • pathief@lemmy.worldOP
          1·
          3 years ago

          I too have been in the Mechanical Keyboard rabbit hole. I ended up with the Happy Hacking Keyboard 2. Such a joy to type! :D

    • EntropyPure@lemmy.world
      3·
      3 years ago

      This is the closest to a rolling Debian release, and I really like it. It’s basically the next major release for Debian, Updates are plenty and the packages much newer than in the stable, though not bleeding edge.

      Best of both worlds IMHO

  • pastermil@sh.itjust.works
    3·
    3 years ago

    I’d usually recommend Linux Mint, but since you seems to be up for a challenge, how about Gentoo?

    Otherwise for something more mild, you can go for OpenSUSE Tumbleweed.

  • danielfgom@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    3 years ago

    In short: Manjaro sucks. No one should ever use it.

    For rolling distro you should look at:

    1. Opensuse Tumbleweed: latest packages, well tested, bullet proof reliability and built in system rollback. RPM based.

    2. Garuda Linux: full flavoured ARCH. Very fast, has all the latest packages. Reliable. Built in rollback. Cool theming.

    • Aties@lemmy.world
      1·
      3 years ago

      In short: Manjaro sucks. No one should ever use it.

      I’ve seen their certificates fail to renew multiple times. I feel like I don’t know anything, but I could at least certbot.

      • danielfgom@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        3 years ago

        They are notorious for breaking your system because they mix old packages with new which causes dependency issues and driver issues.

        If you’re using a rolling distro both the system packages and library’s, as well as the apps packages must both be up to date.

        Manjaro doesn’t follow this

  • CocoLopez@lemmy.world
    2·
    3 years ago

    I’ve already mentioned this a couple of time this week, so I hope no one get bothered. But I can’t recommend Xerolinux enough (page). I think it’s what you may like. Rolling release, gorgeous KDE, a ready to use as is system. I’ve been distro hopping for a while but this made me settled.

    • pathief@lemmy.worldOP
      1·
      3 years ago

      Do they use Arch official repositories or is it like manjaro where they have their own repo?

      • Skerse@lemmy.world
        1·
        3 years ago

        It uses the Arch official repositories so it’s as rolling as pure Arch, i used it before it’s great. It uses KDE Plasma and has different theming options to pick from that all look really nice.

        You can always try it in a live environment before installing it to see if you like it.

  • zingo@lemmy.ca
    2·
    3 years ago

    OpenSuse Tumbleweed is an excellent choice, if you want the most stable rolling release distro.

    High quality OS.

  • BRINGit34@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
    2·
    3 years ago

    Man I used arch for a while and many other “bleeding edge” distros and I just can’t get enough of Fedora. It is so stable and has such reasonable defaults. I use the fedora kde spin and have zero issues with my setup. Now since you are on nvidia you may have more issues, since by default fedora only ships the open source nvidia drivers and you would have to use https://rpmfusion.org/Configuration to get the nonfree stuff. Also you’d have to use dnf which is very similar to apt in my eyes and is very easy to use. Fedora even gets stuff sooner than arch on ocassion which is nice.

    I do enjoy my time with fedora and for the most part it has very little setup. It’s a very set it and forget it distro

  • GamesRevolution@programming.dev
    2·
    3 years ago

    If you want to be a little adventurous, just install vanilla arch and it will be great, but if you want a little bit of a easier install with all the same benefits, use endeavor os.

    If you want something not arch based the only thing I can recommend is OpenSUSE Tumbleweed, I’ve heard great things about it.

    Also about Hyprland and Nvidia, I’ve been using Hyprland for some months now with Nvidia and it’s been working great. I do have a significantly older card then you, but it could be worth a try to see if it works. You just have to follow the Hyprland wiki very carefully and you should be fine.

  • radix@lemm.ee
    21·
    3 years ago

    I’m just like you, newbie-intermediate Linux user who recently jumped from Windows to (Ubuntu then) Manjaro. What’s wrong with Manjaro?

      • radix@lemm.ee
        1·
        3 years ago

        Thanks. Guess I’ll have to look into EndeavourOS too, as commenters seem to be saying.

          • radix@lemm.ee
            2·
            3 years ago

            We have the same exact requirements, which is a first. No Ubuntu, must play nice with Nvidia GPU, KDE is nice, basically your entire list of preferences. I’m glad you posted, for one.

    • MrBubbles96@lemmy.mlEnglish
      2·
      3 years ago

      Pasting an old reply of mine from another thread answering this same question:

      Manjaro is…tricky.

      I’ve called it an Arch based distro that kinda sucks at being an Arch based distro before, and I stand by that. You can’t treat Manjaro like you would EndeavourOS or Vanilla Arch Linux because of how Manjaro decides to do things: essentially, updates are held back by a couple of weeks for better and worse instead of being released as they’re made avaliable. While that means it can catch disastrous things like the GRUB issue another user pointed out (Manjaro was unaffected by it IIRC), it also means the system is prone to breaking itself more often. And you can forget about using the AUR if you’re using Manjaro–or well, you can, but the AUR and Manjaro are nortorious for not playing nice with one another because of the latter’s tendencies to hold back packages, which, natrually, leads to even more breaking.

      Personally, I wouldn’t recomend it. However, If you don’t mind being extra careful with what you install (really that’s standard practice for any distro, but hey, I’ve never found a WIP package that messed up my system anywhere other than when using Manjaro, so make of that what you will), are willing to tolerate constant mild to severe breakage, and just using Flatpaks and appimages over the AUR, then give Manjaro a try, but otherwise? Go with EndeavourOS, or Garuda, or literally anything else.

      • radix@lemm.ee
        1·
        3 years ago

        Thank you for the detailed explanation. I haven’t had any issues in my few weeks with it, but I don’t want to wait until issues do show up.

        Honestly I was just in love because the wifi just worked somehow without me having to port over drivers via USB dongle from my laptop.

  • GustavoM@lemmy.worldEnglish
    32·
    3 years ago

    Just “man up” and do a minimal install of (any distro you want), and (manually) install the things you want via the package manager.

    …no really. All it takes is two commands (one to search for the package you want, and the another one to install it).

    “b-buh its my first ti–”

    DO IT

  • iHUNTcriminals@lemm.ee
    23·
    3 years ago

    Funny story … I hunt theives in PA. Especially luchessi fam connected to la Costa Nostra. True stories.