Manjaro, the Linux distribution based on Arch has just put out a major new release with Manjaro 18.1.0 - Juhraya.
Something of a controversial decision was the Manjaro team were possibly going to replace the FOSS office suite LibreOffice in favour of the proprietary FreeOffice. After they took on plenty of feedback, they decided to drop that plan. Instead, when installing you now get the choice between the two or no office suite at all. Additionally according to what the Manjaro team said, SoftMaker (the developer), actually expanded FreeOffice to support more Microsoft formats due to the demand from the Manjaro community so thats' quite nice.
Pictured: Manjaro KDE Plasma Edition.
One of the other big additions in this release is the inclusion of their new software store named "bauh" (formely fpakman).
Bauh is a graphical package manager for both Snaps and Flatpak giving you the best of all worlds. So Manjaro now supports Snaps, Flatpaks and the Arch AUR.
You can download it here where it gives you a choice between XFCE 4.14, KDE Plasma 5.16, GNOME 3.32 or Architect which enables you to customise basically anything.
If you missed some recent Manjaro news, they actually formed a company to work on it professionally.
Personally, I've been using Manjaro now for around two months as my main daily driver and it has been a fun experience. I was fully expecting at least some kind of instability but it has been really smooth.
Like my wallpaper? You can download the source file here. It's under the CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication license (info), created by Frank during one of our older competitions.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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The comments on this article are closed.
Quoting: NanobangAs I reinstalled Ubuntu Mate, I wondered why, if Manjaro could determine that I had an Optimus setup, would the DE offer me an option that would bork my OS? Rather than get an answer, I decided I wasn't ready for the thing.In my experience, when you install Manjaro into a VM, it will install every Nvidia driver! Of course the VM is not using real GPU acceleration and those drivers are useless in the VM. I don't think removing the drivers was an option, either, because it was a dependency of the hardware detection tool, which was a dependency of the Manjaro Core suite.
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Quoting: pbProprietary office suite? Software store? I thought Manjaro was just arch with more conservative approach to packages, but it seems that it's to Arch something like Ubuntu to Debian? I'll stick with the vanilla distro, thank you very much. ;-)Not trying to sound like a snob, but I've been feeling the same way the past few weeks about Manjaro. I may reinstall the kids' computers with the Architect ISO next time. Even then, I'm not sure. Using installer helpers for Arch is not supported, but that might be my next step... I'm also watching EndeavorOS to see what they're doing.
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Quoting: eldakingRegarding snaps/flatpaks, I was a bit out of the loop but recently read an interview by someone at Canonical talking about the advantages and... holey moley, now I get why people hate Canonical with a passion. So much that is wrong and even downright hostile to other distros or FOSS. Flatpak seems less problematic, but I'm doubling down in my support of just using distro repositories.Link to interview?
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Quoting: GrabbyDon't get me wrong, there is a lot I like about Manjaro, but I'm really tired of seeing so many newcomers breaking their system because they selected the wrong option in that minefield. It's consolidating the reputation that "GPU drivers are unstable on Linux", especially since Manjaro is often recommended to newbies and they have no idea how to recover from a broken state.I'd say Manjaro is about as close to the same task as managing an Arch machine after it's installed. I actually think it's just a little more annoying since it's not the same as my main rig. (I find myself annoyed finding things installed that I wish weren't. And I find the system updater program overwriting my mirrors list annoying.) For that reason, I think I agree with you that Manjaro should not be recommended to new GNU/Linux tasters. Give them something like Pop! OS, Mint, Elementary OS, or Ubuntu.
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Quoting: haiku@Liam, you running out of spaceOh yeah I know :(, no extra funds for a new drive right now.
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Quoting: 14For that reason, I think I agree with you that Manjaro should not be recommended to new GNU/Linux tasters. Give them something like Pop! OS, Mint, Elementary OS, or Ubuntu.
All of those options are fixed release, though. I think target audiences like gamers will want a rolling release, they've got to stay up to date for maximum compatibility and performance. Most of the rolling release distros however have a reputation for not being very user friendly to the masses. Manjaro's mission is trying to bring the goodness that's Arch to them. How well it succeeds is debatable, but Manjaro is around for quite some time now so I think it has to be doing something right.
That being said, I think the rolling release distro of choice for Linux beginners is actually Solus. The experience with that for me was butter smooth, the only reason I eventually switched was software availability in repos. Solus is hurting a bit because of no AUR.
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Quoting: 14Quoting: NanobangAs I reinstalled Ubuntu Mate, I wondered why, if Manjaro could determine that I had an Optimus setup, would the DE offer me an option that would bork my OS? Rather than get an answer, I decided I wasn't ready for the thing.In my experience, when you install Manjaro into a VM, it will install every Nvidia driver! Of course the VM is not using real GPU acceleration and those drivers are useless in the VM. I don't think removing the drivers was an option, either, because it was a dependency of the hardware detection tool, which was a dependency of the Manjaro Core suite.
Interesting. So something about an Optimus setup confounds Manjaro? Maybe they'll integrate Nvidia's Optimus GPU switcher and somehow use it to present a better GPU selection for the Optimus-burdened user.
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Quoting: 14Link to interview?
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/why-canonical-views-the-snap-ecosystem-as-a-compelling-distribution-agnostic-solution/
It is actually defending snaps and its "advantages", but I was still horrified because I didn't know about the issues in the first place. I was like "wait, Canonical wants to control distribution of snaps for all distros and calls that 'agnostic'? The backend is proprietary?"
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Quoting: eldakingUm. That certainly confirms my gut feel that I prefer flatpaks.Quoting: 14Link to interview?
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/why-canonical-views-the-snap-ecosystem-as-a-compelling-distribution-agnostic-solution/
It is actually defending snaps and its "advantages", but I was still horrified because I didn't know about the issues in the first place. I was like "wait, Canonical wants to control distribution of snaps for all distros and calls that 'agnostic'? The backend is proprietary?"
Side note: So, according to the article Canonical are doing an "internet of things" push and all their packages for that are snaps, period? Isn't IoT one of the few areas where you'd expect bloat to still actually matter, because you're using tiny cheap computers with little storage?
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Quoting: eldakingThe backend is not agnostic; I see your point. The distributable product is, though. After reading the entire interview, it sounds like they're making Steam for apps. As long as app publishers don't exclusively build Snaps akin to game publishers choosing Epic, I don't see much of a problem with what Ubuntu is doing. As long as we all have free choice and the choices are pretty equal, I think the Snap Store will be a good option for users that don't use computers as a hobby but are running Linux.Quoting: 14Link to interview?
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/why-canonical-views-the-snap-ecosystem-as-a-compelling-distribution-agnostic-solution/
It is actually defending snaps and its "advantages", but I was still horrified because I didn't know about the issues in the first place. I was like "wait, Canonical wants to control distribution of snaps for all distros and calls that 'agnostic'? The backend is proprietary?"
0 Likes
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