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Manjaro Linux, the semi-rolling distribution based on Arch Linux has a new stable build release out with Manjaro  20.1 'Mikah'. If you already have Manjaro installed, no need to download again, just check for updates. These stable releases mean they put up nice fresh iso files for new installs.

Manjaro 20.1 Mikah upgrades pretty much everything. They're shipping the Xfce 4.14 desktop as their "flagship", which is their most tested and supported version. They claim only "a few can claim to offer such a polished, integrated and leading-edge Xfce experience". Things being a new theme called 'Matcha', profile for display configuration and they implemented "auto-application of profiles when new displays are connected".

Their KDE Plasma edition brings the flashiness with Plasma 5.19. This includes their theme refresh from back in the Spring along with light and dark versions of Breath2-themes. It also includes the latest KDE-Apps 20.08. Additionally their GNOME edition is based on the 3.36 series, which includes some visual refreshes as well to areas like the login and unlock screens. There's also a new GNOME Extensions application, a do not disturb button for notifications, they added in a dynamic wallpaper, improved their GNOME layout-switching application and more.

Pamac, the Manjaro-made package managing application, went through the usual update rounds too. It should be more optimized and perform better, have better error handling, improved searching and bug fixes aplenty. Finally, it comes with Linux Kernel 5.8 as the standard package for all versions of Manjaro.

Manjaro is a good middle-ground distribution that mixes a reasonably stable experience with up to date packages. You can download here.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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a0kami Sep 14, 2020
Can't wait to get home to update :D
fagnerln Sep 14, 2020
I love the design choices of Manjaro's team, it's always clean and with nice colors. I hope that Xubuntu changes their theme, that greybird feels too antiquated.

What's the name of this theme?
tuubi Sep 14, 2020
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Quoting: fagnerlnI love the design choices of Manjaro's team, it's always clean and with nice colors. I hope that Xubuntu changes their theme, that greybird feels too antiquated.

What's the name of this theme?
I guess you missed it, but the article says it's called 'Matcha'.
Ehvis Sep 14, 2020
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Quoting: fagnerlnI love the design choices of Manjaro's team, it's always clean and with nice colors. I hope that Xubuntu changes their theme, that greybird feels too antiquated.

What's the name of this theme?

Always funny to see how different personal taste can be. To me this looks about as off putting as it can get.
Tchey Sep 14, 2020
Since i’ve switched from Ubunta/Mint to Manjaro about 3 or 4 years ago, my Linux experience is better.
Less issues, more games running, but it may simply be because all main distro are getting better with time.
Anyway, i like Manjaro and i don’t see myself changing anytime soon.
randyl Sep 14, 2020
Pamac was one of the things I really liked about Manjaro when I used it. It worked well and let me experience a slice of Arch. T'm not a fan of their theming or color schemes, but it was a reasonably polished and integrated distro.
Purple Library Guy Sep 14, 2020
Quoting: Ehvis
Quoting: fagnerlnI love the design choices of Manjaro's team, it's always clean and with nice colors. I hope that Xubuntu changes their theme, that greybird feels too antiquated.

What's the name of this theme?

Always funny to see how different personal taste can be. To me this looks about as off putting as it can get.
I'm not a fan either, but then I don't like the default look of most distros. I have a fairly idiosyncratic notion of what looks good (eg I like real colours better than interior-decorator muddy pseudocolours); one thing I like about Linux is how easy it is to decisively change these things to something aligning more with my taste.


Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 14 September 2020 at 8:35 pm UTC
benjamimgois Sep 14, 2020
Since i moved from ubuntu to manjaro i've never look back. Manjaro (specially the testing branch) have fast updates with good stability. Their theming kind grown on me over the time, but i still think they have some homework to do in this department.
fagnerln Sep 14, 2020
Quoting: tuubi
Quoting: fagnerlnI love the design choices of Manjaro's team, it's always clean and with nice colors. I hope that Xubuntu changes their theme, that greybird feels too antiquated.

What's the name of this theme?
I guess you missed it, but the article says it's called 'Matcha'.

Oh, my bad. I've read a lot of Mikah that I missed Matcha... lol

Quoting: Ehvis
Quoting: fagnerlnI love the design choices of Manjaro's team, it's always clean and with nice colors. I hope that Xubuntu changes their theme, that greybird feels too antiquated.

What's the name of this theme?

Always funny to see how different personal taste can be. To me this looks about as off putting as it can get.

Yeah, feels like I have an unpopular opinion about the themes that Manjaro uses. But I really like the colors, a good green, good grey, the dark panel, etc...
lectrode Sep 14, 2020
Quoting: scaineYour correction report on Manjaro Linux 20.1 'Mikah' is out now with a theme refresh was:
Quote
QuoteManjaro Linux, the semi-rolling distribution...

1. True-rolling distributions: These distributions update every part of your operating system.

2. Semi-rolling distributions: These distributions don’t update every part of your operating system. They are divided into a rolling part and a non-rolling part. These distributions often have a non-rolling core. They don’t update the kernel and drivers but do update everything else and have rolling software repositories.

Source: https://www.maketecheasier.com/linux-rolling-release-model/


Manjaro definitely fits the former over the latter.
I suggest you make this as a comment, lectrode, since I don't agree with it, and given that Liam lost his Manjaro install because they updated the Nvidia driver without releasing the matching kernel driver, I doubt he'll agree with it either!

It's a great observation though, and one I'm invested in - I'm thinking of trying either Manjaro or Endevour and the whole "semi-rolling" piece is putting me off Manjaro, so it would be a good/useful debate.

Thanks,
Scaine.


Per the above, continuing discussion here.

The manjaro devs still seem to be ironing out their metapackage kernel support. That was something that a recently departed member of the manjaro team would manage. The team was somewhat pushed to update the nvidia driver to 450 in a rushed manner (since a 440 update apparently broke some functionality) and neglected to update 5.7 nvidia modules right away (which is what linux-latest points to). 5.8 may also not have been updated as there were module build errors until recently.

(This is also one of the reasons I have people use the linux-lts metapackage instead of linux-latest - the actual latest kernel available occasionally has bugs or incomplete module support)

For that particular situation, it's more of an unfortunate oversight than the deliberate withholding of updates.

The metapackages were specifically created to automatically move a user to the latest recommended, or the latest lts. If you have a kernel installed that is EOL and is removed from the repos, one of these metapackages will be automatically installed to replace that kernel, install the respective updated kernel, and ensure the system is able to continue to install updates (without the metapackage, continuing to have the eol kernel leads to the inability to update). I'd argue that because this forces the kernel to be updated (if an eol one is installed), that this qualifies as a rolling release model, not semi-rolling.


Last edited by lectrode on 14 September 2020 at 9:55 pm UTC
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