What are the best Arch Linux based distributions?

10

Options Considered

152

Recommendations

2 hrs ago

Last Updated

Here’s the Deal

10 Options Considered

10 Options Considered	Price	Default Desktop Environment	Release Schedule
Manjaro		XFCE, KDE, Gnome, Budgie, Cinnamon, Deepin, i3, LXDE/lxqt, and MATE	Rolling Release
Antergos		Cinnamon / GNOME 3 / KDE / MATE / Openbox / Xfce	Rolling Release
Anarchy Linux		–	–
Artix Linux		Lxqt	Rolling release
Porteus		–	–

Manjaro

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Top Pro

Easy to install

Calamares installer and MHWD is the reason why this distribution is good for desktop user-friendliness! Audio codecs, latest packages, latest kernel and easy upgrade to the latest build makes it the best choice for new users.

Top Pro

Complete

Top Pro

Easy to start

Top Pro

Beautiful

Top Pro

Improved stability due to a longer testing period for new packages

Packages from Arch's repositories are tested (about two weeks) longer for stability and compatibility issues. Patches are applied, when necessary, before being made available in the stable repositories.

Top Pro

All major desktops and even less common ones like Budgie, Lumina, LXQT, Deepin, Enlightenment, etc. can be directly installed from official repositories

Also available as independent variants.

Top Pro

Uses low memory

By using XFCE (or LXDE, Fluxbox, supported by community) as the default desktop on an install, Manjaro is able to have a low memory footprint.

Top 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...

Top Pro

Stable and consistently up to date

Manjaro receives regular updates, but more importantly these updates are stable. The updates are rolled out, which means you can easily update the software without needing to re-install.

Top Pro

A rolling-release distribution

Manjaro uses a rolling release method for all updates, so once a system is installed, as long as the user regularly updates there is no need to re-install.

Top Pro

Good documentation and forum

The Manjaro community is very helpful, and there are lots of tutorials.

Top Pro

Arch User Repository access

Manjaro allows the user to access the Arch User Repository, a very large user-maintained repository of packages for Arch Linux and derivatives.

Top Pro

Based on Arch and user friendly

Manjaro is an Arch-based distribution with all the benefits of the Arch ecosystem and community but with the added benefit of being much more user-friendly than Arch.

Top Pro

Support for multiple kernels

Manjaro has built-in support for multiple kernels as well as a way to easily install them.

Top Pro

Friendly community

If you ask questions of users in their forums or on other platforms, they are willing to help you. Also according to the developers, they are open to new ideas in order to make the distro better.

Top Pro

Steam comes installed by default

Top Pro

Based on Arch but less prone to breaking

Manjaro repositories are basically curated snapshots of the official Arch repositories with a number of Manjaro-specific packages and customisations added. Updates, fixes and the like are delayed and only introduced from the Arch repositories once tested more thoroughly. This reduces the number of...

Top Pro

Deepin desktop environment is a worthy attraction

Top Pro

Stable

This distro is very stable with either Xfce and Budgie as the DE.

Top Pro

Steam installed by default

Top Con

Based on Arch but uses its own repositories

Manjaro repositories are basically curated snapshots of the official Arch repositories with a number of Manjaro-specific packages and customisations added. This means updates, fixes and new releases are not always available to you when they become available in the Arch repositories. Having to wait...

Top Con

Developers failed to renew SSL certificate not once, but twice

https://manjaro.github.io/SSL-Certificate-Expired/

See 20 more Pros & Cons

See 20 more Pros & Cons

Antergos

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Top Pro

Close to normal Arch

Very similar to Arch, but still user-friendly.

Top Pro

Arch User Repository access

It can visit AUR to build packages.

Top Pro

Offers choice of desktop environment on installation

Ability to choose your preferred desktop environment on installation.

Top Pro

Rolling release model make is easy to keep apps on updated versions

Antergos is a rolling release distribution (as it's based on Arch Linux). Your entire system, from the base OS components to the applications that you install, will receive updates as they are released upstream—with only a minimal delay to ensure stability.

Top Pro

Easy to install

Antergos is easier to install than Arch Linux. It offers a GUI over Arch's CLI-only installation, and it does some things for you automatically that eliminates the need for manually installing software like in Arch.

Top Pro

Surprisingly stable Linux desktop

From popular distros of rolling and standard releases, compared to Debian (stable) and Arch, Antergos stability rocks. Debian is stable, however, it's with old packages and Arch. The only thing that broke it, so far, was compiz-manjaro (C++ 0.9 branch) from AUR, but compiz in Antergos reposito...

Top Pro

Offers minimal ISO download

Top Pro

Very fast and stable system

Top Pro

Nice theme across all environments

Top Pro

Works on any environment

Straight from the official website.

Top Con

The installer breaks often

The installer, cnchi breaks all the time. It's very buggy.

Top Con

Rolling release problems

Rolling release is quite a pain sometimes. You might face some problem with a buggy application since you always get the latest version. This problem is a little bit solved by Manjaro distro where applications are tested but updates are slower than usual.

Top Con

Package popularity is not visible in Antergos repositories

Small issue, but would be nice to see package popularity in Antergos repos, just like it is visible for AUR. packages. Antergos with AUR gives access practically to all possible packages, so popularity could help in this sea of packages.

Top Con

Installation can easily go wrong - no separate /home partition by default

Top Con

May have swap problems if poorly configured

Top Con

Abstracts some core principles that are needed to maintain an Arch installation

See 14 more Pros & Cons

See 14 more Pros & Cons

Anarchy Linux

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Top Pro

The end result is a well configured standard Archlinux system

Top Pro

Saves a lot of time to set up an Archlinux system

Once you had your experience to set up an Archlinux system manually from scratch this distro saves a lot of setup time.

Top Pro

Many preconfigured Desktop environments supported

Know any negative aspects of this option?

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See 2 more Pros

Artix Linux

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Top Pro

No systemd

Top Con

Not all Arch packages are available yet

The project is new and developers are working migrating all packages into their own repositories while ensuring there's no systemd malware.

Porteus

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Top Pro

Very useful for old PCs and Laptops

Know any negative aspects of this option?

Arch Linux

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Kaos

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Top Pro

Designated KDE distro

Top Pro

Clean UI

Top Con

Not Arch based

KaOS uses pacman but it is not ARCH based. Some AUR packages work, but not all, and pkgbuilds have to be modified for some, and depends have to be installed if not already and some are not in the KaOS repositories. So you have to know what you are doing. The developer does not support any apps that...

Archbang

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Top Pro

Lightweight

Archbang is a pretty lightweight distro. The ISO is well below a CD. It uses Openbox as a Window Manager by default, without having the need to use a desktop environment which would only bloat the OS further.

Top Pro

Small but friendly and responsive community

In stark contrast to the maddening noise of certain communities where inane questions drown out any real conversation, Archbang's community is tiny and quiet, but approachable and comprised of seasoned experts.

Top Con

No sense of direction

Archbang frequently goes through seismic shifts, where most of the basic setup gets completely replaced between releases. This is usually not a bad thing, as the setup is rather minimal anyway, so with some knowledge it's easy enough to configure everything to one's own liking, and the expe...

Manjaro KDE Arch Rolling Release

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Chakra

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Apricity OS

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152 Community Recommendations

+130

Request recommendations from the community

Contributor for 2 months

2

Total Rec's

150

Total Karma

Recommended 17 days ago by FunnyRongo

Win-win. I've had a long love-hate relationship with Antergos. Loved the Arch side, loved the quick install, hated the Antergos packaging (superfluous, out of date, sometimes broken packages). Anarchy is that, without the annoyance of Antergos packaging.

The end result is a well configured standard Archlinux system

Many preconfigured Desktop environments supported

Saves a lot of time to set up an Archlinux system

Contributor for 3 years

30

Total Rec's

2.1K

Total Karma

Recommended 23 days ago by kaqqao

A minimally preconfigured Arch. Gets you going fast, but still completely under your control.

Small but friendly and responsive community

DiplomaticIlabrat

Contributor for 25 days

1

Total Rec's

235

Total Karma

Recommended 25 days ago by DiplomaticIlabrat

Recommand Manjaro , work better than other anny distro, specialy with Xfce and Budgie. No other linux 4ever . I use linux sience to 2003, and Ubuntu now it's not a king, the new king is Manjaro. Use manjaro from 3 years,never crash or some issue with !

Easy to install

Based on Arch but less prone to breaking

Arch User Repository access

Based on Arch and user friendly

Support for multiple kernels

A rolling-release distribution

Improved stability due to a longer testing period for new packages

Good documentation and forum

Stable and consistently up to date

Friendly community

All major desktops and even less common ones like Budgie, Lumina, LXQT, Deepin, Enlightenment, etc. can be directly installed from official repositories

Excellent graphical package manager (Pamac)

Uses low memory

Steam comes installed by default

Contributor for 2 months

1

Total Rec's

100

Total Karma

Recommended 2 months ago by ShrewdBoreas

Easy to install without CLI. Runs solid as a rock. Little resources used. Excellent Repositories between Antergos & Arch's AUR.

Close to normal Arch

Offers choice of desktop environment on installation

Rolling release model make is easy to keep apps on updated versions

Arch User Repository access

Surprisingly stable Linux desktop

Easy to install

Contributor for 8 days

1

Total Rec's

0

Total Karma

8 days ago by SuaveEshmun

nearly two years as a primary OS

Close to normal Arch

Offers choice of desktop environment on installation

Rolling release model make is easy to keep apps on updated versions

Offers minimal ISO download

Arch User Repository access

GraciousHuehuecoyotl

Contributor for 10 days

1

Total Rec's

0

Total Karma

Recommended 10 days ago by GraciousHuehuecoyotl

rock-solid stability with plenty of software to choose from

IntuitiveAirmid

Contributor for a month

1

Total Rec's

0

Total Karma

Recommended a month ago by IntuitiveAirmid

Easy to install, great distro repository along with AUR's. Not hard to use at all, and is rock solid stable.

Nice theme across all environments

Close to normal Arch

Offers choice of desktop environment on installation

Rolling release model make is easy to keep apps on updated versions

Arch User Repository access

Surprisingly stable Linux desktop

Easy to install

Very fast and stable system

CaringSamshinHalmoni

Contributor for a month

1

Total Rec's

0

Total Karma

Recommended a month ago by CaringSamshinHalmoni

Easy to use and rock solid. Easy installation as compared to antergos cnchi which fails most of the time.

Contributor for 2 months

4

Total Rec's

135

Total Karma

Recommended 2 months ago by UpbeatBelenus

About year with Porteus 3 to 4

Very useful for old PCs and Laptops

Contributor for a year

248

Total Rec's

16K

Total Karma

Recommended 2 months ago by schlaumeier

I have used it to set up several archlinux systems. Works like a charm.

The end result is a well configured standard Archlinux system

Many preconfigured Desktop environments supported

Saves a lot of time to set up an Archlinux system

Currently displaying 10 out of 152 total recommendations.

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