Manjaro Linux 18.1.0 'Juhraya' has been officially released

Quoting: 14The 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.

I see a big issue with promoting a "solution" to distributing software across all distros that doesn't try to work together with other distros at all, but rather tries to retain control over the entire thing. Feels more like a takeover than a contribution. And it relies on proprietary software, which is enough reason to prefer other alternatives and bonkers for the makers of a popular distro. It is way too closed and centralized - I absolutely don't want Linux software installation as a whole to depend on a single company and their closed service. So I feel that any software that chooses to use snap instead of other solutions is a loss.

It also promotes proprietary software and does a lot of things for the convenience of developers/maintainers at the cost of disadvantages for end-users, which is not exactly good.

I mean, it is not the end of the world, but there are too many issues for me to see it as a step forward... in particular when there are other efforts that don't have those issues.

Quoting: eldaking...I absolutely don't want Linux software installation as a whole to depend on a single company and their closed service.

I completely agree with this!

Quoting: eldakingIt also promotes proprietary software and does a lot of things for the convenience of developers/maintainers at the cost of disadvantages for end-users, which is not exactly good.

Being nit-picky here, but the disadvantages to end-users I think you're talking about probably wouldn't be realized by them, only the superusers and nerds. The convenience and simplicity would only feel like an advantage to the layman I think.

Quoting: 14

Quoting: eldaking...I absolutely don't want Linux software installation as a whole to depend on a single company and their closed service.

I completely agree with this!

Quoting: eldakingIt also promotes proprietary software and does a lot of things for the convenience of developers/maintainers at the cost of disadvantages for end-users, which is not exactly good.

Being nit-picky here, but the disadvantages to end-users I think you're talking about probably wouldn't be realized by them, only the superusers and nerds. The convenience and simplicity would only feel like an advantage to the layman I think.

Sure, most non-techie users aren't aware of the issues, or don't know of the alternatives. I don't think this means they aren't affected or wouldn't care if they knew... many of the advantages of the system for the end-user, like sandboxing, wouldn't be visible either.

From a simplicity/convenience (for users) point of view, I think a great GUI frontend for apt would be the best thing they could make. Display a curated selection of software that is easy to find and to understand and just install it normally.

I'm a former user of Linux Mint, Xubuntu, and Debian. I've been using Manjaro since December of 2015. I also manage ~20 towers/laptops for friends/family, all running Manjaro. I made the switch on my computers after looking for a good rolling release distro that supported Xfce.

In my experience, Arch/Manjaro are king when it comes to having access to a massive amount of the latest/greatest software without having to sacrifice stability. Manjaro's update announcements will have instructions in the rare event you need to take manual action for successful updates.

Quoting: 14In my experience, when you install Manjaro into a VM, it will install every Nvidia driver!

These packages are installed on any manjaro system. They are required by the Manjaro Hardware Detection tool (mhwd). These are not the actual drivers, just profiles/ids for detecting when those drivers are applicable.

core/mhwd-amdgpu 1.2.1-1 [installed]
core/mhwd-ati 7.7.0-1 [installed]
core/mhwd-catalyst 1:15.201.1151-2 [installed]
core/mhwd-db 0.6.3-12 (base) [installed]
core/mhwd-nvidia-340xx 340.107-1 [installed]
core/mhwd-nvidia-390xx 390.129-1 [installed]
core/mhwd-nvidia-418xx 418.88-1 [installed]
core/mhwd-nvidia-430xx 430.40-1 [installed]
core/mhwd-nvidia-435xx 435.21-1 [installed]

Quoting: 14I find myself annoyed finding things installed that I wish weren't. And I find the system updater program overwriting my mirrors list annoying

There are minimal ISOs available that do not come with snap and flatpak, amongst other things.

The mirrors list is updated as new mirrors are added and old mirrors go away, in addition to updating which servers provide the best connection (lowest latency). If you want to manually limit which servers it pulls from, I recommend setting specific countries with the following:
sudo pacman-mirrors -c my,countries,here
You can see what countries have mirrors with pacman-mirrors -l


Last edited by lectrode on 13 September 2019 at 11:05 pm UTC

Quoting: Nanobang

Quoting: 14

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.

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.

Correct, until recently* Manjaro had only limited support for Optimus. They only offered the bumblebee+bbswitch method, which is really not enough in this day and age. Worse, that method can make the distro impossible to install on some machines because it causes ACPI lockups. That's another reason why I really don't want to recommend Manjaro for gaming. If you have an Optimus laptop, prefer Ubuntu or PopOS.

I wrote optimus-manager in an attempt to provide better support for Optimus machines in Arch-based distros such as Manjaro, but it's still a hacky solution.

* (I said "until recently", because Manjaro has just added support for the new Prime offloading method. I'm not sure how they handle it and how it cohabits with their bumblebee+bbswitch method, it's something I need to test.)

Quoting: lectrode

Quoting: 14I find myself annoyed finding things installed that I wish weren't. And I find the system updater program overwriting my mirrors list annoying

The mirrors list is updated as new mirrors are added and old mirrors go away, in addition to updating which servers provide the best connection (lowest latency). If you want to manually limit which servers it pulls from, I recommend setting specific countries with the following:
sudo pacman-mirrors -c my,countries,here
You can see what countries have mirrors with pacman-mirrors -l

Thanks for the pretty informative post. You cleared up the Nvidia "driver" piece. However, I have already performed the mirrorlist preferences. The problem is I don't seem to be able to type in my own mirror entry into the file. Manual touches get overwritten. Plus, and this might be outdated information, I think the update program (Octopi?) performs a pacman -Sy just to check for updates. If that is happening, it breaks the release consistency with the stuff you already have installed.

Quoting: Grabby* (I said "until recently", because Manjaro has just added support for the new Prime offloading method. I'm not sure how they handle it and how it cohabits with their bumblebee+bbswitch method, it's something I need to test.)

Do you mean the on-demand GPU switcher that was talked about a bit here on GoL?

Quoting: 14

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.

Tried Endeavor last week still wip a few issues but there is def potentially

Quoting: rat2000

Quoting: DorritI find Snaps/Flatpaks and AUR mutually exclusive.

How so? I use Manjaro for like 1 year now, and I use some packages from AUR and some from Flatpak and they work very good. Please elaborate...

Or snaps for that matter; as long as user gets whats desired and all work. Snaps have always worked fine for me.

After 11 years of Ubuntu, and a couple of derivatives, I wanted to compile my go-to music player, Aqualung. I had done it several times in the past 3 years:><::><:, and couldn't even compile GTK2, which is a dependency for Aqualung.

I knew that Aqualung is in the AUR. I tried Manjaro. It completely compiled Aqualung in under five minutes, with two clicks and my password.

I'm hooked. There are packages in the AUR long ago abandoned by Canonical, and programs I love, like exfalso and pypar2.

It is faster than Ubuntu, running roughly 1/5 of the daemons that Ubuntu does at idle. I have gotten some improvement in game speed, not to mention the system overall.
Steam, of course, is preinstalled.

Give it a shot; so far, the best distro I've ever used.


Last edited by oldrocker99 on 16 September 2019 at 12:27 am UTC