I used to use Mint and Ubuntu flavors in the past. But I always found myself wanting a newer version of certain programs because it had something that I at the time needed.

But, those updates usually came in months later which was annoying for me. Aside from that, I also at the time needed to update to the latest NVIDIA drivers but that ment me fiddling with the terminal and I always managed to do something wrong even-though I followed a guide. I ended up with a black screen after reboot.

Another thing that frustrated me was software that was not in the main repo required me to add a PPA to install it. Adding multiple PPA's felt like I made my system 'dirty' with external sources.

So, eventually I got back to Windows. But also, eventually I got the Linux itch again, and with Proton, the time was there.

So I started looking around for a Linux distro that I could use that always was up to date and did not require re-installation. I came upon Manjaro and decided to give that a whirl.

And now here I am, one and a half years later. All that time using Manjaro and I have learned a lot about Linux.

Manjaro wins for me since I can always keep it up to date. Installing software is easy because of the fact that the AUR repo is also included in the package manager. I never had to download something myself from git and compile stuff myself.

So far, I only had one issue after a update and that was easily fixed. I myself would recommend Manjaro to beginners. I was also a beginner when I started and now I am, I guess a advanced Linux user. Still not a pro, but defo average and above.

Last edited by Sojiro84 on 12 April 2020 at 6:52 am UTC

Quoting: RoosterOf course you can technically do it, but you are heavily warned against it, as it can break another package in your system.

From Arch wiki:

QuotePartial upgrades are unsupported

Arch Linux is a rolling release distribution. That means when new library versions are pushed to the repositories, the developers and Trusted Users rebuild all the packages in the repositories that need to be rebuilt against the libraries. For example, if two packages depend on the same library, upgrading only one package might also upgrade the library (as a dependency), which might then break the other package which depends on an older version of the library.

That is why partial upgrades are not supported. Do not use pacman -Sy package or any equivalent such as pacman -Sy followed by pacman -S package. Always upgrade (with pacman -Syu) before installing a package.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/System_maintenance#Upgrading_the_system

Wait a bit
Are we talking about installing a new package ? or doing an upgrade ?
From your initial post i understood you were doing a full system upgrade whenever you install a new package

Your quote

QuoteSince it is Arch based, you have to update your system every time you want to install something new

From the wiki

QuoteInstalling specific packages

To install a single package or list of packages, including dependencies, issue the following command:

# pacman -S package_name1 package_name2 ...

Quoting: razing32

Quoting: RoosterOf course you can technically do it, but you are heavily warned against it, as it can break another package in your system.

From Arch wiki:

QuotePartial upgrades are unsupported

Arch Linux is a rolling release distribution. That means when new library versions are pushed to the repositories, the developers and Trusted Users rebuild all the packages in the repositories that need to be rebuilt against the libraries. For example, if two packages depend on the same library, upgrading only one package might also upgrade the library (as a dependency), which might then break the other package which depends on an older version of the library.

That is why partial upgrades are not supported. Do not use pacman -Sy package or any equivalent such as pacman -Sy followed by pacman -S package. Always upgrade (with pacman -Syu) before installing a package.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/System_maintenance#Upgrading_the_system

Wait a bit
Are we talking about installing a new package ? or doing an upgrade ?
From your initial post i understood you were doing a full system upgrade whenever you install a new package

Your quote

QuoteSince it is Arch based, you have to update your system every time you want to install something new

From the wiki

QuoteInstalling specific packages

To install a single package or list of packages, including dependencies, issue the following command:

# pacman -S package_name1 package_name2 ...

Read the bolded part in my previous reply.

Also, just think about it. The issue with upgrading only one package is that it can upgrade a library also for other package, causing it to break. Then it is only logical, that same scenario can happen also when installing a new package. Therefore, doing system upgrade beforehand is required.

Last edited by Rooster on 12 April 2020 at 3:37 pm UTC

Quoting: TobyGornowMaybe it's KDE and not Manjaro but I found some quirks that didn't happen with Mint + Cinnamon.

See, this was my experience going from ("vanilla") Ubuntu to Linux Mint with Cinnamon (I loved Unity and hate GNOME, so I thought I'd take Linux Mint for a spin), which is why I will be going back to ("vanilla") Ubuntu when 20.04 LTS ("Focal Fossa") drops.

Although I'm no expert, I'm not a Linux newcomer by any stretch of the imagination (I dual-booted Red Hat until Ubuntu came out, then dual-booted that until Windows 8 came out, from which point I have single-booted exclusively)... But I think Linux Mint is better suited for newcomers because a lot of things "just work" or have a more logical approach (side note, I am told that Manjaro with Plasma 5 is even easier to use - but I've never used it myself, so I cannot comment on this).

For example, Linux Mint has a "Windows like" menu that many people would be familiar with, the (system) settings seem to be more logically laid out, I find that it is easier to configure my NVIDIA settings in Linux Mint and importantly, Linux Mint seems to notify me of updates / upgrades in near-real-time (unless I manually check, I have always found with Ubuntu that there is a bit of delay before it tells you of available updates / upgrades).

In saying this though, I have also found that Linux Mint seems a little less stable... For example, switching programs (Alt + Tab) or workspaces / desktops (Super / Windows key + S) frequently causes the window manager to "freeze"; Linux Mint itself is still running (you can see the menu open in the background when one presses the Super / Windows key), but the rest of the screen is "frozen" on the changing programs / changing workspaces / desktops animation.

In addition, it takes a couple of attempts to get my bluetooth headphones to maintain a "stable" connection, and one of my computers gets "stuck" on the "Linux Mint" logo when I try to shut down the computer (this is something they've changed in the 19.3 update, because it's only started doing this recently).

So yeah for me, I'll be going back to ("vanilla") Ubuntu.

Quoting: Sojiro84Another thing that frustrated me was software that was not in the main repo required me to add a PPA to install it. Adding multiple PPA's felt like I made my system 'dirty' with external sources.

This annoys me, but I'm seeing the issue less and less... I have run Linux Mint on my computers for the last 9-ish months and am yet to add a PPA, plus I'm temporarily running Ubuntu 19.10 on my tablet (until 20.04 LTS drops) and this has not yet been an issue.

In saying this, I prefer to use Snap or Flatpak where ever possible (as long as it doesn't break functionality and is officially supported), so perhaps this is why I am seeing the issue less?