Manjaro Linux gets an Immutable version available for testing

I just installed Kinoite on my laptop (secondary system) myself. So far so good. All the Atomic stuff seems so fancy and the computer magic behind btrfs goes over my head, but I am impressed.

https://boilingsteam.com/linux-distro-july-2024/

Manjaro seems to be fading away according to those stats. Over the past two years it's lost a ton, and if that continues, in another two years (or less) it'll be totally gone. I know those stats don't represent every single linux gaming computer out there, but still, it's something to go on. I am a direct contributor to those stats though. I used to use manjaro, but didn't like it and switched from it to opensuse and have been very happy ever since.

BoilingSteam specifically says this about Manjaro:

The one thing I’m confident about is the fact that Manjaro is probably going to fall even further. I just don’t see a reason for it to exist, and it has destroyed its own credibility over and over again.

Okay, now you have to also to talk about openSUSE Aeon and Kalpa :D

BoilingSteam specifically says this about Manjaro:

“… I’m confident … probably …”

Yes. Probably confident. I agree that Manjaro has done unfortunate things.

BoilingSteam specifically says this about Manjaro:

“… I’m confident … probably …”

Yes. Probably confident. I agree that Manjaro has done unfortunate things.

Then again what distros have not? Some dropped using pure Arch after they moved to systemd which was found unfortunate with some (insane reason IMO but yeah they did).

Arch seems to be best as a BASE (like SteamOS) rather than a distro (which it's also kind of is not since user chooses what's to be installed, apart from few things).

BoilingSteam specifically says this about Manjaro:

“… I’m confident … probably …”

Yes. Probably confident. I agree that Manjaro has done unfortunate things.

Then again what distros have not? Some dropped using pure Arch after they moved to systemd which was found unfortunate with some (insane reason IMO but yeah they did).

Arch seems to be best as a BASE (like SteamOS) rather than a distro (which it's also kind of is not since user chooses what's to be installed, apart from few things).

https://nosystemd.org/

https://nosystemd.org/

Whoa what a rabbit hole. I assume there's a half good reason to bear such hatred towards some OS component but I don't really need or want to know about it, just sounds pretty hardcore.

https://boilingsteam.com/linux-distro-july-2024/

Manjaro seems to be fading away according to those stats. Over the past two years it's lost a ton, and if that continues, in another two years (or less) it'll be totally gone. I know those stats don't represent every single linux gaming computer out there, but still, it's something to go on. I am a direct contributor to those stats though. I used to use manjaro, but didn't like it and switched from it to opensuse and have been very happy ever since.

BoilingSteam specifically says this about Manjaro:

The one thing I’m confident about is the fact that Manjaro is probably going to fall even further. I just don’t see a reason for it to exist, and it has destroyed its own credibility over and over again.

I am surprised that Garuda Linux is showing up on their graph and isn't grouped in with Arch, along with even surpassing OpenSUSE.
This as it's a layer-distro on top of the base Arch repos, though the tweaks made to the standard installation are significant if still reproducable on Arch.
OpenSUSE seems like a more established distro, one I consider my backup for Garuda or Arch as a whole and on paper more to my liking.
Contrary to what me daily-ing Garuda would suggest, this is not an attempt to advertise the distro, it's an expression of surprise to see it appear.
There is some relevancy in this off-topic ramble, as I tried out Garuda as an experiment between switching from working Manjaro installs I did not trust in tbe long term to EndeavourOS as a pre-installed Arch Linux, sticking as I like most of the (deeper) pre-done tweaks.

Continuing this distro-ramble, my recommendation for newcomers and personal choice for a versioned desktop is TuxedoOS.
This next to also recommending Mint, which I greatly aporeciate for their X apps project, having my Linux roots on Ubuntu MATE.
Which I switched to and now avoid from how snapd doubled my laptop's boot time, after which Pop!_OS gave a poor experience due to technical problems with their configurations changed from Ubuntu.
Which circles back to TuxedoOS, which makes the tweaks needed to the (KDE Neon) Ubuntu LTS base for a good experience, along with properly testing a modern Plasma 6 desktop on it.

While in the end "distro doesn't matter" in the sense of it being a different means to distribute the same software, as proven by Manjaro a few years back a surprising amount can be messed up by that.
And having a good supported base configuration which you can expect to work without tinkering is very nice to have.
This is why both of my picks have a supported Plasma 6 desktop, this being my weapon of choice in navigating Linux Land.

I'm using Manjaro on my desktop and I'm happy with it? What's so wrong about it that it's usage stats are shrinking?


Last edited by CZiNTrPT on 7 August 2024 at 7:38 am UTC

I'm using Manjaro on my desktop and I'm happy with it? What's so wrong about it that it's usage stats are shrinking?

Manjaro has had multiple issues in the past that they have handled poorly: https://manjarno.pages.dev/

I'm using Manjaro on my desktop and I'm happy with it? What's so wrong about it that it's usage stats are shrinking?

While the above is true and while I still actively recommend against switching to Manjaro, it has been almost two years since they made such a mistake, as found on: https://manjarno.pages.dev/
There is also the whole shippong of work in progress debacle around the M1 drivers, Firefox GTK theme and possibly other ones, leading to: https://dont-ship.it/
But if you are on some standard x86_64 systems thus avoiding the former, do not use the AUR and know to blame Manjaro first if shipped software has issues or problems, you do not have to switch.
A well working system is a well working one.
Heck, I stuck with Manjaro back during the aforementioned screwups, only changing as I wanted to change things about on my desktop and after learning how good Plasma 5 had gotten with a similar layout there also wanted to jump ship from GNOME on my laptop, another project that degraded my trust in it.


Last edited by RedWyvern on 7 August 2024 at 11:20 am UTC

This is a cool idea and I wonder how practical is it gonna end up eventually

I'm using Manjaro on my desktop and I'm happy with it? What's so wrong about it that it's usage stats are shrinking?

I was a user for about a year, and quit because despite being a "rolling" distro, they were quite the opposite, at least for me. This was back when KDE was releasing Plasma (I don't remember which version number) that came with a very specific feature I really wanted to use, but Manjaro delayed it by months and months and months for no apparent reason, and no comments or discussion about it. Meanwhile every single other distro already had it. I could have moved to experimental branch but after waiting for what I considered a long time with no updates or communication I had had enough. Moved to Tumbleweed and love it here.

I think the article author on boilingsteam just doesn't see a reason for its existence anymore in 2024. It's not the same insane complicated process to get regular arch up and running that it once used to be. And since regular arch has such a high share, might as well just use that and join in that community which is very large.

If I ever switch off of Tumbleweed, it'll be for Fedora. They also have a large active community that helps so much.


Last edited by Jarmer on 7 August 2024 at 4:01 pm UTC

Who gives a shit what Boilingsteam thinks about anything. That place is a waste of bits, much like Manjaro. One would hope it can't get any worse... but I'm certain they'll find a way.

I think these immutable boutique spinoffs can result in good workplace management strategies, but I don't really like it for home use. Container workloads are gross.

This as it's a layer-distro on top of the base Arch repos, though the tweaks made to the standard installation are significant if still reproducable on Arch.

Same with Nobara and Fedora really.

I know the Manjaro team has made some questionable decisions but I don't see them as deal breakers (at least so far). I'm still using Manjaro, I absolutely love it and it's been over 6 years already. Is thanks to Manjaro that I stuck with Linux when I switched from Windows 10 years ago. Before, I hopped through Ubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu again, Sparky Linux, Fedora and finally Manjaro ♥️.

The stability of the system after updates has improved a ton. Several years ago it was expected that from time to time (every 3 months or so) the system could break after an update and you had to spend a couple hours digging through forums on how to fix things. I never had to reinstall the system, though; so nothing too serious. These days is at most, once every couple of years, so we're talking about a massive improvement in stability after updates, which was for me the most annoying thing about a rolling-release distro.

Anyway. I hope Manjaro sticks around and regain some popularity (and make better decisions in the future to avoid too much drama/backslash). I really love it and I would only consider abandon it for Endeavour, but so far, I'm pretty happy with Manjaro.

P.S.: Old topic, but I just wanted to give my honest opinion.


Last edited by ertuqueque on 2 September 2024 at 1:58 am UTC