What are the best Arch Linux based distributions?

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

Top Pro

Saves a lot of time to set up an Archlinux system

LuckyChimalma's Experience

It has got an automated encrypted installation that is just working as opposed to other Arch based distributions. See More

Top Pro

Full access to Arch repositories as well as Aur

Panda Foss's Experience

Anarchy Linux is an installer that greatly facilitates the installation of Arch Linux. As of the date it is active. Its developers and the community in general is very attentive. There are no obstacles when solving any problem or if you want to collaborate. See More

Top Pro

Many preconfigured Desktop environments supported

schlaumeier's Experience

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

Top Pro

Everything you need in a small and fast Arch distro

DebonairItzpapalotl's Experience

I've been trying to download Anarchy Linux for a few days now. Appears their website is down. See More

Top Pro

Looks good by default

Anoop Krishnan's Experience

Taking testing and development to next level See More

Top Pro

Low setup time

Even a person without prior knowledge will figure out how to set it up quite quickly. See More

PopularPeklenc's Experience

very flexible installer See More

Top Pro

LVM on LUKS encryption of whole disk possible

It works! Whereas neither the calamares installer used by arcolinux or manjaro nor the archlabs installer produces a working result. See More

MethodicalSarutahikoOkami's Experience

They make it easy to install necessary packages to get started on arch before the first boot. See More

Top Pro

Good for gaming

Smooth and cool. Easy to get going. See More

BrilliantSarpanit's Experience

It is very nice and fast os. Good devloper support! i am using it form 6 mnth See More

Top Pro

Friendly community

The community and developers are willing to solve any kind of inconvenience. See More

Lawae's Experience

Best Linux, great for everything. I even taught my noob friend how to use it and he’s dum. See More

Top Pro

Supports 32-bit architecture

Use ArchLinux32 instead of the traditional Arch Linux to support 32-bit architectures. See More

Top Pro

Fully developed in Bash

Being programmed entirely in Bash, it is relatively easy to find and solve errors or propose improvements. See More

Developers are working migrating all packages into their own repositories while ensuring there's no systemd malware. See More

30 Other Options Considered

Artix Linux

Top Pro

No systemd

Top Con

Few Arch packages might not be available yet

AmiableAzimua's Experience

Great experience. It's fast, customizable, flexible. The way Arch would been if they gave the user a choice but they wanted something easy to manage as devs which is understandable. If you're struggling with systemd and whenever you ask for help people would either blame you or your hardware then this distro will feel like home :) Long live for distros that gives you the right to choose See More

Specs

Default Desktop Environment:LXQt/KDE or MATE/LXDE

Init-System:runit, s6, or OpenRC

Release Schedule:Rolling

No learning curve if you're coming from Arch or any of its derivatives See More

Top Pro

Close to bare Arch Linux

Top Con

No systemd

FerventMaderakka's Experience

Full Arch experience, sans systemd See More

Top Pro

Flexibility

You can have a functional system in less than 10 mins using GUI installer OR you can do it "the Arch way" See More

Top Con

No systemd

CharmingAphroditus's Experience

Too many things break too easily See More

Top Pro

runit

Artix actively supports the runit init system known from Void Linux. (Equally besides the OpenRC init system known from Gentoo.) See More

OptimisticCantzicnal's Experience

I use it for 2 years. perfect. See More

Top Pro

Rolling distro

Yoši Yoda's Experience

Artix Linux is very close to Arch Linux, more than Manjaro, but still offers the comfort of the Calamares graphical installer and doesn't use systemd. I tried both spins, OpenRC and runit and sticked with runit, as it has a lot of elegance in its simplicity and needs only a few seconds for a clean shutdown. See More

Top Pro

Lightweight

Only the software you would need like Terminal emulator, file manager, media player and a browser. See More

AmbitiousAmatsuMikaboshi's Experience

Clean , simple and fast. See More

Unbelievably fast for ArcoLinux with XFCE, Openbox, I3. See More

ArcoLinux

Top Pro

Easy to install

Top Con

Small development team

IntellectualMedusa's Experience

Great distro and sooooo flexible! See More

Specs

Default Desktop Environment:Openbox + Xfce + i3

Finished Product with almost every tool a experienced user will use. See More

Top Pro

XFCE, Openbox and I3

Top Con

A bit bloated

It is is a bit bloated to many web browsers, text editors out the box. A simple customize menu's for all 3 desktops would have been nice. See More

ExpertMorta's Experience

This is a beautifully themed distribution and great fun to work with. See More

Top Pro

Community support is great

Need to install Discord on cell phone and computer. Fastest way to receive help. Community is mostly European on Discord so getting help at midnight may be a challenge. See More

NeighborlyAmphiaraus's Experience

Bloated and slow See More

Top Pro

Blazingly fast!

Startup time, shutdown time, everything in between. See More

ChattyErebus's Experience

The best arch-baed: it fast and beautiful See More

Top Pro

Easy to isntall desktop environments

Thanks to the manuals provided by the developers it is really easy to install more than 10 different desktop environments that'll work at the same time! See More

Top Pro

Learning bash script

Fastest way to reload any Linux desktop is a script that will install all your favorite apps. Keep this file on a USB stick Update for any distro from Ubuntu, Fedora or even Arch Linux back to you favorite apps in minutes See More

Top Pro

Helps you to become a Arch Linux user

Arch's goal of simplicity means there's usually one preferred way to get things done - through organized and well documented configuration files. This focus, combined with the community's recognition that configuration files can be intimidating, has resulted in excellent documentation that's accessible to newcomers, and very instructive about how Linux actually works. The documentation is often so thorough that, when searching for solutions to problems while using other distributions, such as with video card drivers, oftentimes you'll find the most effective solution in the Arch Linux wiki or on the forums. See More

Arch Linux

Top Pro

Excellent documentation

Top Con

No Graphical Installer

CalmUpelluri's Experience

Did a mess-up while installing it. Broke the entire computer! I couldn't use the BIOS (When trying to enter BIOS, the screen just went blacck), the Windows I had installed before couldn't boot, and even after making a USB-stick with Windows, I couldn't reset the computer (Just gave me an error when I tried to.) Couldn't do anything, as I had no operating system. I returned the computer, and it is currently being fixed. See More

Specs

Default Desktop Environment:N/A

Based On:N/A

Release Schedule:Rolling

Init-System:Systemd

Arch is mainly aimed at experienced Linux users, there is no hand-holding and not much in a way of UI elements when trying to install or tweak settings. See More

Top Pro

No restrictive handholding, pure control over everything

Top Con

Occasional upstream package bugs

Most package maintainers look for issues that the packages might have ispecifically for arch. Which means if a package has a bug that applies to all linux distros regardless of the flavor, the maintainer may not be able to: A) catch it before pushing a update or B) have to wait for the packages developers to fix it. This is a minor issue because most issues are often patched before the end of the day if many users rely on it, or if its a less used package there will be specific troubleshooting instructions on the arch site. See More

cosmo's Experience

If you want Arch Linux, your best bet is to use Arch Linux! Don't be intimidated by the manual installation, it's much easier than the rumors would have you believe. See More

Top Pro

It is Linux at the core

This distro is barebones enough to make a new distro from. See More

Top Con

Manual install process

DaringBelobog's Experience

Super, fastest and no hectic with less memory usage can make simple desktop environment having powerful and strong comparison with other Linux. See More

Top Pro

Cutting edge rolling release

Arch Linux follows a rolling release model, which allows users to stay on the most up-to-date versions of the software they are using. See More

Top Con

Requires some background with Linux and the command-line to setup

Going in with zero Linux knowledge is not really recommended when wanting to install Arch, though it can be a good learning experience for those that are dedicated to trial and error as well as reading many faqs. See More

Top Pro

Helpful community

If searching through the wiki or the forums for any problems turns nothing, any question on the official forums, Arch subreddit or the IRC channel will be answered within minutes. There will probably be no hand-holding however, Arch users prefer to point anyone to a resource that may help them instead of trying to outright solve their problem in a forum thread. This is quite helpful for people who want to really learn how their system works but also for other people who may stumble in that thread considering how most problems don’t have a universal solution. See More

Top Con

Poor Steam support - not based on Debian

Since Steam is made for Debian distros, some hard linked applications have issues due to a different library path. See More

Top Pro

A package for almost everything

If you need to install something, chances are someone in the Arch community has already made a package for it. This makes it incredibly easy for you to install and maintain all of the non-media content on your computer. See More

Top Con

Documentation only makes sense if you know how to adjust it

While the documentation is a very valuable reference for experts, the recipes often don't actually work on your own computer. Some articles are outdated, incomplete, contradictory or duplicated. Only if you are expert enough to know which steps to skip, to adjust or which other documentation parts to plug in, you can make it work. See More

Top Pro

Helpful for understanding how Linux is installed

Arch does not come with an automatic installation process. The user is expected to walk through the installation steps published on the Arch wiki. This is very useful if, later, something happens to the installation as the user will be more familiar with the foundational steps required to get a full blown Arch installation working. See More

Top Con

Too many package upgrades that require manual intervention

Every year or so there is a update to ArchLinux that will break your system unless you first read the front page of archlinux.org. This happened with SystemD and with a few other updates that require you to do prior steps befor pacman -Syu. See More

Top Pro

Good overall system quality

QoL of Arch is generally good. You get something more consistent and doable in Arch then you would get with most other OSes. See More

Top Con

Not so good multi arch support

It has a very weird multiarch support. See More

Top Pro

Simplicity is absolutely the principal objective behind Arch development

The design approach of the development team focuses on elegance, code correctness, minimalism, and simplicity, and expects the user to be willing to make some effort to understand the system's operation. See More

Top Con

Lost its way

It aimed to be KISS but it has lost iits way and is getting more and more complex, for example it uses systemd which is anything but KISS. It also has now some kind of package post configuration included. See More

Top Pro

Fast and simple package management

Pacman has performance advantages over apt-get and yum in both database operations (thanks to being written for speed) and download times (by virtue of using better mirrors than other distributions tend to select by default). There are also fewer default repositories to download from, and all package management is combined into one tool instead of being split into dpkg, apt-get, and apt-cache like on Debian distros. See More

Top Con

Not for the faint of heart

You need to be very carefully with updates . See More

Top Pro

Excellent package management with the AUR

The AUR is a repository with a very extensive catalogue of build/install scripts that are contributed by users. While these scripts are inherently less secure than conventional packages maintained by a distro's authors, it's still way easier to verify the security of install scripts than it would be to write them yourself. It's very usefull. See More

Top Con

Fragile packages

Updating an Arch system is always a gamble. The problem could be as simple as a package having a bug causing a program to crash on start or it may be something bigger like the WiFi or Bluetooth no longer working. There is also the slight chance the system may not even boot at all after a large update. If the user does not plan to read the forums weekly/daily or update fairly often, things can go wrong very fast. See More

Top Pro

Support for a large variety of hardware

From latest wacom pads to obscure wireless cards in laptops Arch's hw support has been and continues to be good. It has worked on laptops where other leading distro's like debian/ mint/ ubuntu failed to detect and work with all hardware. See More

Top Con

Works only on AMD64

It is the only official supported instruction set of CPUs. See More

Top Pro

An opportunity to improve

The process of learning to setup and use Arch will improve your skills with Linux and computers in general. See More

Top Con

Instability can be an issue

Sometimes you can have a surprise, but in most cases it can be fixed quickly. See More

Top Pro

Huge Repositories

Although Arch Linux only comes with around 10,000 packages, you can use the Arch User Repositories (AUR) which will add over 50,000 more packages. See More

Top Con

pacman is a slow package manager

Compared to other distribution packages the extracting of a pacman package archives is taking ages. See More

Top Pro

As slim or copious as you want it

Arch keeps its core repositories slim and free of unnecessary dependencies. At first installation only a bare system is set up. You can easily get the other applications through the package manager. The repositories are nearly as full as those of Ubuntu, while they are often more up to date. That way you don't have to waste time with software you don't need or want. See More

Top Con

Not so great overall

Apart from the ArchBuildSystem/AUR, which brings you very quickly newer package versions, there is not really much where Arch Linux shines. You get better package managers with other systems. The most Linux distributions are far more stable than Arch. You learn more about Linux by using LFS or a source based distribution. You can customize the system much more in LFS or Gentoo. See More

Top Pro

Easier to review the distribitions packages.

Unlike other some distributions its super simple to review the packages you download on the official arch repos or arch user repository. See More

Top Con

Multiple Aur helpers

Arch has strict reasoning behind what goes into the official repositories accessible by pacman. As a result, many other projects end up in the Arch User Repository (AUR). Effectively using Arch, and getting easy access to all of the available software, means either manually downloading and installing from the AUR, or installing an AUR helper - these work along side the main package manager (Pacman), but are a bit less standardized or heavily supported. See More

Top Pro

Stripped down to the bone

Since its stripped down, it is fast and you don't have to deal with bloatware. See More

Top Con

Rolling release requires bandwidth

Arch uses a rolling release model for updates. Unlike, for example Ubuntu where a new version is released every six months, packages are updated when they are ready. The advantage is a very up to date system and that the work of upgrading can be spread over a longer span of time to a point where it is hardly noticeably effort. However it can be difficult for people without a high bandwidth connection, or with limits on how many GB can be downloaded imposed by their internet service providers. A GB a month of downloads is quite possible. This can be somewhat offset by Arch being lightweight, besides the relatively small core, the user selects what is installed (and has to be updated). See More

Top Pro

Helpful for understanding how Linux is installed

Arch does not come with an automatic installation process. The user is expected to walk through the installation steps published on the Arch wiki. This is very useful if, later, something happens to the installation as the user will be more familiar with the foundational steps required to get a full blown Arch installation working. See More

Top Pro

Helpful 3rd-party installers

There are extremely helpful 3rd-party installers such as Anarchy Linux (Formerly Arch Anywhere). See More

Top Pro

Ultimate mid-range OS for Tinkering

If you like to tinker with things and see how they work you don't get much better than arch linux unless you commit to building your own kernel and using flags manually when installing your packages. See More

Top Pro

Arch Linux Wiki

The Arch Linux Wiki is very useful not just for Arch Linux users, but for anyone who uses Linux. See More

Top Pro

Simple by design.

Arch linux is actually incredibly simple. Its really just a partition scheme, package manager, Linux kernel, file system, systemd and the bare minimum of utilities needed to easily set up your hardware. This makes it super simple to build your desired system using binary packages because there no bloat getting in your way when installing or configuring packages. See More

Top Pro

Vast variety of use and purpose

With it's vast repos, Arch offers tons of applications for all kinds of use. See More

Top Pro

Supports various desktop environments and window managers

Doesn't limit you in terms of desktop environments or graphical servers (X, Wayland). See More

Top Pro

Multilib support is just around the corner

Just uncomment the according entries in the pacman.conf See More

Top Pro

Incredible educational value

Arch gives great insight in the inner workings of operating systems, computers and data manipulation. See More

Top Pro

Great for low performance hardware

Arch Linux works quite well with low performance hardware like netbooks. See More

Top Pro

Vanilla

Learn about Arch, learn about Linux. What works for Arch, works for many other distros too. See More

Top Pro

Highly customizable

Taylor the system to your needs See More

Top Pro

Flexible upgrades

Upgrade once a day, once a week, once a month,... three times a day... automate it, upgrade manually, add packages to the ignore list See More

Top Pro

No need for external repos

The default and community repo of Arch Linux are so vast, that there is barely any need for additional software sources. And if there is, the additional software can be added to AUR, which results in the need actually growing the Arch repos. See More

Top Pro

Great hardware support

Out of the box Arch comes with great hardware support See More

Top Pro

Low maintenance

To basically keep your Arch setup up and running, it takes very little to barely any maintenance. See More

Top Pro

Highly reliable upgrades

Always works. No matter if you upgrade 7 or 700 packages. See More

Top Pro

Arch is the best!

#!/bin/sh echo "Arch is the best!" See More

Top Pro

Rolling updates

Updating will keep the whole OS up to date (unlike Ubuntu/Debian/etc. where occasionally you will need to perform major version updates). See More

Top Pro

Good for ricing for r/unixporn

lol See More

Top Pro

Experts working on the packages

Providers only provide the basic system and do a great job doing so. While with AUR people who actually use the packages, provide and maintain them. They CARE about making them work. See More

Top Pro

Incredibly easy to manage

Arch is very simple to maintain, backup and in rare cases repair and recover. For example, the manual to recover your boot manager is already in the install guide! See More

Top Pro

Highly reliable and stable build

See experts working on the packages and upgrades. Given Arch splits the load among people who care and have the experience, the overall setup is very stable and reliable, even though very broad too. See More

Top Pro

Great security out of the box

Even a default Arch setup offers great security with the minimum number of open ports and very little information on the system for outsiders. See More

Top Pro

On avarage only 1 manual intervention needed a year now.

The comments about issues with upgrades are over exaggerated. Those comments assume that : A) They happen often, B) you are using a specific package with an issue, C) that package maintainers can't release a patch to the package that will work around the issue for you, and that D) Manual intervention or system recovery from such issues is hard to fix. On average once or twice a year a user may have to cut and paste some commands in the terminal to fix an issue, but that's about it. Additionally any system recovery required from such missed interventions is easy, just follow the wiki and make a live usb if your using a desktop or laptop. See More

easy ,fast, lightweight See More

Archman Linux

Top Pro

Handy, easy to install, effective, has a variety of Sessions.

DedicatedPhrike's Experience

Specs

Default Desktop Environment:XFCE, KDE, MATE, DEEPIN, LXDE, LXQT, etc..

Release Schedule:monthly updated (rolling)

Init-System:SystemD

Very nice look out of the box. See More

Damian Höster's Experience

ResoluteMazu's Experience

nice distro See More

The ArchLabs installer is very simple and gives users so many choices such as kernels, bootloaders, which extra programs to install, whether you want LVM, etc. See More

ArchLabs Linux

Top Pro

Powerful AL-installer

GregariousArke's Experience

Finally an Arch derivative that doesn't miss the basics See More

Specs

Default Desktop Environment:Openbox, Xfce, i3, Bspwm, Awesome

Top Pro

All the benefits of Arch Linux

Since this is an Arch-based distribution, it has all the same benefits. See More

Top Pro

Inspired by BunsenLabs, Powered by Arch

Top Pro

Retains the minimalism of Arch

ArchLabs provides an easy-to-use installer without including unnecessary packages by default, unlike Manjaro. See More

Top Pro

Lightning Fast

Based on Arch, Endevour OS keeps its core repositories slim and free of unnecessary dependencies. The distro comes with no bloatware, only the necessary packages. The repositories are nearly as full as those of Ubuntu, while they are often more up to date. See More

Endeavour OS

Top Pro

As slim as you want it

Top Con

Not for everyone

ThriftyWaramurungundi's Experience

Absolutely been a wonderful experience. No problems what so ever, and the forums are nice and friendly if needed. See More

Top Pro

Helpful community

Great team of developers and excellent forum support on their official website. See More

Top Con

NET installer on the way

niingu's Experience

Easy install with Calamares installer and a beautifully themed XFCE desktop. Built for speed! This is THE best Arch distribution - a perfect replacement for Antergos. And it will become even better in short time. See More

Top Pro

AUR support

One of the best reasons to use an Arch based distro. You can find almost every package there is in the Linux world! See More

Top Con

Kalu needs a little refinement

I applaud the developers to carry on the legacy of Antergos, the only niggling thing that I would appreciate is, while it's nice to see news about updates; my opinion is that once you dismiss the notifications they STAY dismissed. And just clicking on the icon brings kalu brings it to the foreground. Or have the functionality of turning off the news altogether would be well received. Good distro. See More

Top Pro

Cutting edge rolling release

Exactly as Arch - allows users to stay on the most up-to-date versions of the software they are using. See More

Top Con

Same Cons that apply for Arch Linux

Top Pro

Easy installer

Top Pro

Good overall system quality and performance

Lean, fast and surprisingly stable. See More

Top Pro

Great for low performance hardware

Easy on the specs and still blazingly fast. See More

Top Pro

Great community

Top Pro

Lightweight

Top Pro

Stripped down to the bone

Since its stripped down, it is fast and you don't have to deal with bloatware. See More

Top Pro

Arch Linux Wiki

Being an "easy to install version of Arch" means it is exactly easy to use the famous Arch Wiki! See More

Top Pro

No restrictive handholding, pure control over everything

The user can do whatever he wishes because the distro IS Arch - with and easy installer and great themes. See More

Top Pro

Great XFCE implementation

Their use of themes and configuration look great! See More

Top Pro

Fast and simple package management

There can only be one Package Manager (pacman) ;) See More

Top Pro

Not based on Ubuntu

Top Pro

Support for a large variety of new hardware

Rolling release means newer, up to date, mesa and kernel versions able to handle newer hardware with better performance! See More

Top Pro

Great hardware support

Default Desktop Environment:Openbox

Obarun

Liri OS

Default Desktop Environment:Liri

Kaos

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 aren't in the KaOS repositories, so you are on your own when it comes to using the AUR. Newer versions often break AUR apps whether intentionally or not. Getting help is not a really good experience. It's a beautiful use of KDE though. See More

Top Pro

Clean UI

Specs

Default Desktop Environment:KDE Plasma

KaOs is strictly for 64bits only. No packages for other architectures in repositories. See More

Origin:USA

PackageManager:Pacman

Top Con

x86_64 support only

Top Pro

Designated KDE distro

The distro uses Openbox by default. It's small, fast, and looks cool. It's similar to the BunsenLabs distro. See More

ArchLab Linux Minimo

Top Pro

Looks good out of the box

NeighborlyAmphiaraus's Experience

Fast, easy to use and looks good. See More

Specs

Default Desktop Environment:Openbox, Xfce, i3, Bspwm, Awesome

It comes out of the box configured to use with wm like i3, bspwm, awesome, xfce. See More

Top Pro

Not only Openbox

Max's Experience

The installation process is quite easy and looks great out of the box. See More

Top Pro

Installation similar to Anarchy

ArchLabs is using a very similar installer to that of Anarchy's, you can't change as much, but if polished Openbox and/or i3 are what you're after, ArchLabs might be for you. See More

ArchBang is minimal but completely functional out of the box. It's still up to you to set up to your liking. You still get Arch's unmatched documentation, insanely vast number of packages (in AUR) and extreme customizability. And a small but friendly and approachable community. See More

Archbang

Top Pro

The best features of Arch without the hassle

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 experiments eventually lead to a better distro. But it can also be disorienting and annoying to do a fresh install and barely recognize the distro. See More

kaqqao's Experience

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

Specs

Default Desktop Environment:Openbox

Top Pro

Rolling release

Being based on Arch, Archbang follows a rolling release schedule, ensuring that the software will always be on the bleeding edge. See More

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. See More

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. See More

No need to install Nvidia, detected out of the box, blazingly fast. See More

Salient OS

Top Pro

Fast, Nvidia versions

Top Con

No sound with spdif output

PerceptiveFascinus's Experience

Great Arch based Linux distro, incredibly fast. Automated install of NVidia drivers. See More

Specs

Default Desktop Environment:Xfce

Top Pro

Customized and great performance

Its really good customized, and the performance was the best of my laptop 2 gb ram 50 Gb ROM. See More

InfluentialFeronia's Experience

Very nice distro easy configurable..........with AUR pacqets ! See More

Top Pro

Higly customizable to tiny details via KDE settings and preinstalled Kvantum engine

Super fast and stable. Dolphin root restrictions can be solved with yust few clicks. Easy installation via Calamares , and preinstalled packages are awesome. Salient OS is a huge competitor to Manjaro both KDE & XFCE. See More

NiceMarzyana's Experience

It uses Arch repositories, but it has Calamares and everything configured out of the box. It comes with Steam, OBS, Discord and Nvidia drivers. Perfect OS for gamers. The UI is light and beautiful. The best XFCE theme I`ve ever seen. See More

CreativeChemosh's Experience

Excelent distribution and its detectec how archlinux, excelent See More

PerceptiveHypnos's Experience

Incredibly easy & fast installation with Calamares. Gives full root privileges with minor tweak. elegant and beautiful Xfce and plasma 5 in the polishing process with a tendency to be superb. both of versions runs super fast, stable and come with lots of preinstalled packages for, multimedia and gaming. the plethora of awesome wallpapers and super customized Xfce out of the box. absolutely fantastic distro. til now for me, this is the best distro of 2019 and i hope it vil be officially pronounced as best distro of 2019, absolutely fantastic distro super user-friendly arch based. unbelievable. more friendl<y than Manjaro See More

Default Desktop Environment:Openbox, Xfce, Mate, Gnome, KDE Plasma, i3

Revenge OS

Very nice and easy to use GUI installer. See More

Zen Installer

Top Pro

Nice GUI installer

Specs

Default Desktop Environment:GNOME, KDE Plasma, Xfce, LXDE, LXQt, MATE, Budgie, Cinnamon, Deepin, Enlightenment, JWM, i3, Openbox, Enlightenment E16, Fluxbox, FVWM, IceWM, KWin, Mutter, GNU Screen, xcb-util-wm, Xcompmgr, Xfwm, Twm, Awesome, bbpager, Blackbox, bspwm, deepin-metacity, deepin-mutter, deepin-wm, herbstluftwm, i3-gaps, Keepass, Marco, Metacity, muffin, Notion, ObConf, PekWM, perl-anyevent-i3, PyPanel, python-smmap, python2-smmap, Qtile, ratpoison, spectrwm, Sway, vicious, wmctrl, wmname, xmonad

Default Desktop Environment:Xfce, LXDE, Openbox, KDE Plasma, GNOME

Bridge Linux

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. See More

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Manjaro

Top Pro

Easy to install

Top Con

Can still be unstable

Here are the details of it. See More

ToughHedetet's Experience

Great; it was my gateway into the Arch architecture. I have moved to EndeavourOS, which installs a bare-bones Arch system. Not set up, nor as bloated, as Manjaro is seen. When I say bare-bones, only yay is available as a package manager, no office suite, no VLC (!). Nonetheless, it's fun to install only the programs you want, and I have hit the taproot. See More

Specs

Default Desktop Environment:KDE, GNOME and XFCE

Release Schedule:Rolling

Init-System:Systemd

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. See More

Top Pro

Based on Arch and user friendly

Top Con

The Manjaro unstable repository is slow to sync with the Arch stable repository

The Manjaro unstable repository syncs with the Arch stable repository and if any package has moved, it gets moved to stable. Manjaro gets package updates a bit than Arch. See More

Madsen Altamirano's Experience

I have used Manjaro for about two years now, with a little break from GNU/Linux in between. As a student, I do not have the time to figure out how to get my audio, Bluetooth, or network interfaces working, and if I do know how, configuring them takes time that I would rather not spend. I have tried out other similar Arch-based distributions, but they were incomplete and somewhat lacking. Manjaro simply excels at quickly setting up a working operating system that I can use without breaking it. The community is a stark plus. People are there to help you, even if it's been answered thousands of times (but please, use the search function if you are capable!) Even I will help you there, if I see a problem I know how to fix. If you do use Google or DuckDuckGo to look for problems, the Manjaro Help Forums will likely be part of the search results, and already have an answer. For an example, I found easy-peasy instructions to install a specific WiFi driver from the forum. Why Arch-based, you ask? I simply love the Arch User Repository (AUR), and I am used to using pacman as a package manager (due, in part, to me using Manjaro.) Also, Manjaro is rolling release, so I get much newer versions of packages. But what's great about Manjaro, is that it's default (stable) package repositories are two weeks behind Arch's, and in those two weeks packages are tested a bunch, so Manjaro is somewhat less likely to break than Arch. All this isn't to say that you can't do an Arch-like minimal install. Manjaro includes a net-install tool called "manjaro-architect" that will install a base system, similar to the system you'd get in Arch after rebooting into your clean system. From there you can set up everything from scratch. I hope my experience will be helpful to some newbies out there! Overall, it's been a great beginner distribution for me, and feel confident enough to install a more traditional distribution like Debian or Gentoo. That is, if I have enough time and I forget about the AUR. Cheers! See More

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 the operating system, as opposed to fixed release distributions (Cough, cough: Ubuntu.) Furthermore, Manjaro's package repositories are two weeks behind Arch's, and the Manajro team tests these packages in this two-week period. This is how Manjaro guarantees both latest and stable software. See More

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 a week or more for the repositories to be updated is not uncommon. Also, instructions from the otherwise incredibly useful Arch wiki might not apply fully to your Manjaro system. See More

OptimisticChijoraji's Experience

Same as another; left Ubuntu after 11 years, for the availability of apps I couldn't get any more from the Ubuntu repos. I love Manjaro; it's been like falling in love with Linux all over. And, it's as suitable for beginners as for experienced user. J See More

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. The Manjaro repository also includes AUR-helpers like yay, which are not easily available on Arch. See More

Top 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. See More

Peter J. Mello's Experience

Manjaro certainly feels like a completely different approach to computing than anything else I've used in 25 years of using technology. It has a rich feature set and amazing stability, though very little effort is made to ease the process of onboarding. If you can persevere through feeling very lost with it for the first few weeks, as it becomes familiar it's very clear that it was all done that way for a reason: to deliver a premium experience and maximize your device's potential. See More

Top Pro

All major desktops and even less common ones like Budgie, LXQT, Deepin, I3 etc. can be directly installed from official repositories

Also available as independent variants. See More

Top Con

Daily manual updates

Since it is rolling release, it needs updates nearly every day, which (though are checked for automatically) must be manually downloaded, confirmed and installed. That may annoy or scare off many new users. See More

CompetentLevana's Experience

Daily driver for the past year. Simple enough for newbies yet configurable enough for more advanced users. See More

Top Pro

Support for multiple kernels

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

Top Con

Slightly bloated

ExceptionalLaima's Experience

Very stable and friendly. But, same php codes running fast in Peppermint 8, quite slow in Manjaro ... that is the only problem I get so far, the others are fantastic, especially I can find a lot of free tools in the "Add and Remove Software" such as XMind8. Dia, ProjectLibre, etc. See More

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. See More

Top Con

Installation is extremely buggy

There's no easy way to switch from local keyboard layout if non-Latin installer language is selected. See More

CreativeBachue's Experience

After 11 years of Ubuntu, I said goodbye to Canonical and am able to have my OS autocompile the apps which had vanished from the Ubuntu repos/ See More

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. See More

Top Con

No gfvs pre-installed

So no Trash (and possibly smartphone file system access via USB) support. See More

DiplomaticIlabrat's Experience

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 ! See More

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 packages installed, updated, or removed (from the official repositories - AUR packages are not currently tracked). See More

Top Con

Very slow development for 32-bit hardwares

ArchLinux-32 community maintain their forums every day. They upload new ISO's every month. But Mannjaro-32 community upload new ISO's in every 6 month. And provide only an DE-mate. See More

CleverNinkasi's Experience

Easy to use and the update are sicure thanks to the Manjaro Linux stable repos See More

Top Pro

Easy to start

Top Con

Weekly manual updates

Since it is rolling release, it needs updates nearly every week, which (though are checked for automatically) must be manually downloaded, confirmed and installed. That may annoy or scare off many new users. See More

MaybeGreatReviewer's Experience

Manjaro can be easily customized and can use Arch repositories. Works well with KDE Plasma. See More

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. See More

Top Con

Developers failed to renew SSL certificate not once, but twice

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

CaringSamshinHalmoni's Experience

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

Top Pro

Good documentation and forum

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

Top Con

when the installer finished it's not a pure Arch Linux system

FascinatingBathala's Experience

It looks great, stable, fast, ideal for beginners. I recommend. See More

Top 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) See More

Top Con

Calls itself "stable," but actually just holds Arch Linux repositories back for a week.

Verserk's Experience

Very simple to use, good OOTB experience with any of the default desktop environments. See More

Top Pro

Stable

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

Top Con

Nothing new

There is nothing new in Manjaro compared to any other Arch based distribution. See More

CharmingBoreas's Experience

Amazing, easy to use, favours both new and advanced users, been using Manjaro Xfce as my daily driver and have had no issues with it so far, that's if you phase out the normal Linux problems which are in every distro. 10/10 Remember, this is not pure Arch, it is based off of Arch See More

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. See More

Top Con

Bad Dependencies

This is similar to the mac0S experience in that you're not allowed to remove plank. See More

GraciousHuehuecoyotl's Experience

rock-solid stability with plenty of software to choose from See More

Top Pro

Steam comes installed by default

Top Con

when the installer finished it's not a pure Arch Linux system

CharmingPhaenon's Experience

It is Arch without the pain, which I like, of going from scratch. See More

Top Pro

Different editions to select from + Manjaro community

You can choose between different Manjaro editions which have their own change in features, and there is also Manjaro community editions where the community can make their own changes. See More

Top Con

Bad way of handling dependencies

Manjaro is based on Arch Linux. Arch Linux and its derivatives have a bad way of handling dependencies. To handle dependencies, it installs a whole another program which contains the required dependencies. See More

ImmaculateTusholi's Experience

Beacuse I Use For Everytime On My Vmware See More

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 bugs that might otherwise have reached you - and potentially have rendered your Manjaro system broken beyond repair. See More

Top Con

KDE problems for Manjaro

Ajay Kumar Rawani's Experience

Awesome ! See More

Top Pro

Deepin desktop environment is a worthy attraction

SpiritedVastospati's Experience

I'm using Manjaro for over 1 year, and being a linux user for around 10 years I can say Manjaro is one of the sweetest thing in OS's. At first I thought I was going to miss some packages but the ease and the AUR system gives you more packages and options than any debian or redhat based system can offer. It's also fast and not laggy. I can say I'm delighted. See More

Top Pro

Very good looking desktops

All desktops look good by default. See More

MeticulousIoke's Experience

my os since 1 year See More

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. See More

RespectfulLatona's Experience

The distro is fast and the environment has been polished to have a nice experience. But updates usually leaves the system KO and either you have to spend hours repairing or you have to reformat and reinstall much things. That usually not happens on stable distros See More

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 packages installed, updated, or removed (from the official repositories - AUR packages are not currently tracked). See More

DignifiedWerethekau's Experience

Bad experience with Manjaro downloaded on 29/8/18. It installed quite well, but it would not connect to the internet. My computer is old, so it could be that. But it did not connect after repeated attempts to connect. I am not a novice! See More

Top Pro

Stable, and perfect for newcomers, and as user-friendly as Ubuntu

Top 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) See More

Top Pro

Complete

Top Pro

Beautiful