Linux

I used Ubuntu for a month. Switched to Manjaro for 9 months, then went to Artix Linux where I've been for 2 years.

Manjaro has quite a few issues which I think are addressed by EndeavorOS, which would be my personal recommendation.

A rolling release distro does require a bit more attention, however, as you should be updating your system more regularly and you'll occassionally run into dependency issues depending on how many packages you install.

This usually requires being a bit familiar with the command line and how to properly search internet resources to find answers to specific bugs. The Arch Wiki is an incredible resource about computers in general and worth looking into for pretty much anyone imho.

You'll want to also look into using the AUR, as eventually you'll find that you'll want/need a piece of software that isn't in the official repositories.

All opinions are biased and I don't like Manjaro!

it would be better as an arch installer and a couple of extra packages - not completely different repos

A friend recommended it to mee because Ubuntu packages were hard to edit/create and the versions were always out of date. So I used XFCE and later the KDE edition and had no really big issues (since the forum if something broke always had a workaround). Ngl there were some stupid issues like 3 times (Nvidia GPU user yay!) but other than that the Desktop Experience, Windows Dual Boot, Gaming, Custom packages in minutes were perfect. Pacman is just a beast so I recommend any distro that ships with that.

(This is from the perspective of a Desktop user)

Every time I use Manjaro something horribly breaks. It's odd though because I daily drive endeavour now and it's been rock solid with no issues other than my own stupidity in partitioning my drives. I would stay away from Manjaro personally and use endeavour if you're dedicated to arch. If you want a rolling release distro then rhino Linux just released their first major version and it's a rolling release Ubuntu distro. Either way my opinion is the same, Manjaro was good for it's time, but it's been overshadowed and buried by other arch distros that are way more stable.

Its Green.

tbh i never had any problems with it while toying around with it (i'm a debian stable type, anything else is a flirtation) and it works just fine for gamery and such but they have some significant flaws in their operation which makes them unfit for serious computer click clacking imo (im no software nerd or anything, just been using linux since forever). certificate expirations, financial goofery, there's just better distros including rolling with straight arch.

It's aight. I like having access to the AUR and Pacman through a nice UI but easy to shoot yourself in the foot if you aren't careful.

The GNOME spin is really good imo. use it on my gaming laptop. Might go to Pop when it gets CosmicDE tho

I don't know much about the console and such magic which probably makes me not exactly predestined for an Arch-based distro with the AUR where I feel like you can break more than in some more common ones like Mint. Despite that, I have been on Manjaro for years now, still learned only the very basics, but have not found a more stable distro that works so well out-of-the-box with some of the newer hardware I have (or had, it's hardly new anymore). Also, I did in fact find the repos combined with careful use of the AUR to be satisfying.

I did distro-hop a lot especially in the beginning of my Linux adventure and was on Mint for a couple of years as well. And that's what I generally recommend to the other non-tech-savvy folks around me as well: Just try a bunch of the top distros on Distrowatch for a couple of weeks. They all have their advantages and disadvantages but eventually you'll figure out what it really is that you want from a distro and which ones work properly with your hardware – and you'll learn about some fixes for common issues which helps the learning about Linux in general.

There are probably folks who know much more than me who can tell you if Manjaro is objectively better than its bad reputation but from my personal experience as a fellow Linux noob: I found it very stable, decently accessible and the KDE spin with its many themes absolutely beautiful.

As Chris Titus once said “why install Manjaro when you can install arch" I used to daily manjaro but stuff broke and if you do decide to use manjaro don't use the AUR if you don't know what your doing

I have other thoughts, but these are the most objective ones:

• The theme was integrated with all applications I tried and I didn't spot any problems with it. (I'd tell you I liked it, but that would be subjective)
• Installing via Pamac required knowing what source (repos, AUR, et cetera) you were installing from or to try multiple.
• My Brother wifi printer couldn't connect and I didn't find a guide to resolve it.
• I couldn't get audio to work correctly on my Thinkpad X1 Carbon 9th Gen.
• The forums seemed to be active.
• I ran it for a week in a VM without breaking anything. Didn't run for any length of time on bare metal due to the printer and sound issues.

Compared to Fedora and EndeavorOS:

• Default GNOME theming, of course also through.
• GNOME Store will show you all available sources when you search for the package on Fedora. For EndeavorOS I have to search two places on archlinux.org and flathub.
• My printer worked with Fedora out of the box. For EndeavorOS I found a detailed guide they put together.
• No audio issues on either.
• Fedora also has a large forum. The EndeavorOS forum seems to have fewer users.
• I ran Fedora on my laptop for 6 months. When I upgraded between versions, I ended up with two versions of some applications like "Terminal" and "GNOME Terminal," which was confusing. No breakages.
• I've been running EndeavorOS for 14 months. I broke GRUB when everyone else on Arch and EndeavorOS did. I still had the live USB, and EndeavorOS provided instructions on how to fix it, although it was written for Ext4 and I had to make some educated guesses since I use BTRFS. I was successful and that was my only breakage.

I haven't used Manjaro in years so my experiences are not up to date, but from my experiences it always felt unpolished and somewhat amateurish compared to other distributions, especially compared to Arch.

I've made Arch crash many times but part of their ideology is that Arch "is as stable as your are". So when I made Arch crash it always felt like a fault of my own.

Manjaro, however, that has marketed itself as a new user friendly distro borked itself after updates just as often as Arch. Back in the day at least. For a newbie oriented distro I don't think this is excusable.

Then Manjaro has done some really weird choices over the years, like with them shipping a proprietary office suite. As well as them not renewing their SSL certs in time for their forum. Several times...

Still, I don't like the idea of point release operating systems so I've always kept to rolling release systems, and if you want a solid rolling release then I have to recommend OpenSuse Tumbleweed. Haven't crashed even once in the 5+ years I've been using it on several PC's and servers (in the form of MicroOS).

I run linux on my gaming rig. I've had the best luck with performance of graphics cards with manjaro and pop. I am not a huge fan of gnome and prefer kde (FWIW, gnome works fine, I just prefer the feel of kde).

With the above in mind, I really like the newness of the packages on rolling distros like Manjaro/arch. Yes, it can break things but Manjaro tends to be a bit behind Arch on releases -- maybe this helps? The AUR is awesome. I also like several of the gui tools Manjaro has implemented to make graphics driver installs simpler.

Pop worked really well and was simplier for gaming -- especially on devices with hybrid graphics.

That being said, I haven't used Mint since the forums were hacked. I haven't used Ubuntu since they started devaluing their users (integrated Amazon?, forcing snap?). Fedora is nice but I found pop/manjaro better for gaming due to graphics support.

My advice to you -- what you are asking is one of the main benefits of linux -- personal choice.

So... get out your USB stick and try them. Use the forums to help you with the nuances and make each work for your needs. Then see what you prefer. Then donate to that project and its base project.

It's awesome to have choice.