Recs.
Updated
Manjaro attempts to simplify the process of installing Arch Linux for users who may not be comfortable with the command line and expect a GUI out of the box with options for selecting common default applications. Many regard it as the most evolved derivative distribution of its power-user staple parent.
SpecsUpdate
Pros
Pro Excellent documentation
The Manjaro community is very helpful, and there are lots of tutorials.
Pro Excellent graphical package manager (Pamac)
Features include: providing notifications of available updates; mirror management; AUR support (with the option to suppress unnecessary confirmations during the install process); update settings (frequency, whether to check for updates from the AUR, packages to ignore updates for); and a history of packages installed, updated, or removed (from the official repositories - AUR packages are not currently tracked).
Pro Manjaro provides its own distribution-specific tools such as the Manjaro Hardware Detection (mhwd) utility, and the Manjaro Settings Manager (msm)
Run automatically during the installation process, it allows for Manjaro to work fully on your system 'straight out of the box', without the need to manually identify and install the necessary drivers or to manually edit the appropriate configuration files. Also usable via the terminal after installation, the features of the mhwd command include:
- The choice of free (i.e. open-source) or non-free (i.e. proprietary) drivers
- Identification and listing (general or detailed) of your system's hardware
- Identification and listing (general or detailed) of installed drivers
- Listing of available drivers for installation (free and proprietary)
- Support of hybrid graphics cards (e.g. Nvidia Optimus)
- Easy removal and installation of drivers (selected automatically, or you can identify and choose your own)
Pro Manjaro provides its own distribution-specific tools such as the Manjaro Hardware Detection (mhwd) utility, and the Manjaro Settings Manager (msm)
Run automatically during the installation process, it allows for Manjaro to work fully on your system 'straight out of the box', without the need to manually identify and install the necessary drivers or to manually edit the appropriate configuration files. Also usable via the terminal after installation, the features of the mhwd command include:
- The choice of free (i.e. open-source) or non-free (i.e. proprietary) drivers
- Identification and listing (general or detailed) of your system's hardware
- Identification and listing (general or detailed) of installed drivers
- Listing of available drivers for installation (free and proprietary)
- Support of hybrid graphics cards (e.g. Nvidia Optimus)
- Easy removal and installation of drivers (selected automatically, or you can identify and choose your own)
Pro The best cutting edge package base for rapidly developing Plasma
Manjaro that is built on Arch Linux has a minimalistic and future-proof KDE edition.
Cons
Con Calls itself "stable," but actually just holds Arch Linux repositories back for a week
Con You can't change the default theme in certain applications
Although it is possible to change the default dark theme, this has no effect on Firefox, which appears to have the dark theme "hard coded". Hardened Linux pros may find a way to change this, but for the rest, it renders an otherwise nice distro a no-go.
Con Not the best KDE implementation
Ugly theme that really needs updating. Slow to boot.
Con No real installer
Per default Manjaro uses the Calamares installer, which is mainly just an extractor/clone tool that copies the LiveCD to an HDD. There is no way to customize the installation like in real installers eg Fedora(anaconda), debian(debian-installer), suse(yast). Its also has a couple of bugs like handling multiiple EFI-partitions.
Recommendations
Comments
Flagged Pros + Cons
Con Bad Dependencies
This is similar to the mac0S experience in that you're not allowed to remove plank.
Con Calls itself "stable," but actually just holds Arch Linux repositories back for a week
Pro Good documentation and forum
The Manjaro community is very helpful, and there are lots of tutorials.
Con Security issues
Since packages are not updated as fast as in Arch, critical security updates may not come as fast as needed for packages that may have issues.