Frankly, I find that if it aint broke, don't fix it. If Mint is working for you, why switch?

Category still matters as people can go to forums directly, and it helps with searching ;)

Yes, I think you are right. I found a few videos that dealt with this somewhat objectively, and I think it would at best be a sideways move. Mint does everything I need well, and Manjaro would be unknown territory to me, and possibly a worse choice, so I'll stick with Linux Mint. I'm not tech savvy enough to fix problems on my own if something happens, and Linux Mint has generally been very stable.

Would be nice to have more updated kernels (Mint is on 5.3), but I do like their more restricted stance here in general, as it ensures stability.

Hi,

One month ago, I made the switch from Mint + Cinnamon to Manjaro + KDE.

Maybe it's KDE and not Manjaro but I found some quirks that didn't happen with Mint + Cinnamon.
Dual screen in KDE is customizable to a high degree, so much it's too much (Per Window and per application) and I needed to configure it since its behavior at start is different from what I'm used to.
My Xbox gamepad must be unplugged and re-plugged to be recognized.
Problem with streamed videos (ie Youtube) choppy AF with no sound, so I have to reboot 2 sometimes 3 times and sometimes it works on first try.
Pamac (Manjaro package manager GUI ) got stuck many times during downloads, so back to terminal and 'sudo pacman -Syyu'.
I like having a transparent background on my terminal and each time I turn on my second screen the desktop effects are disabled and I have to 'Alt+Shift+F12' re-enable them.
No shortcut to switch from one screen to another, you have to create it.

Everything is minor, you can troubleshoot everything, it's usable but it's not as pleasant as my experience with Mint and Manjaro + Cinnamon is community driven so maybe it's not the best choice support wise.

Else, as you said, you have fresh kernels + Firmwares, latest Mesa without fiddling with PPA or compilation, and mainly the AUR.

So going back to Mint or not, I'm not sure...

depends on what you mean with "beginner friendly"
i switched from kubuntu to manjaro kde and i dont see any difference at daily usage
it comes with a kernel manager like UKUU, but you dont need it, because manjaro has newer kernels since it is a rolling release (it is 5.4 atm)
you also dont need 3rd party PPAs for newer mesa, plasma, openoffice, etc, because... rolling release. makes it easier to be up to date
which mesa version does mint come with? i think it doesnt even have ACO. you have to wait til mint 20, or 3rd party ppa

some commands are different
sudo apt update / dist-upgrade is sudo pacman -Syu
but since you want beginner friendly you will use the GUI anyways

i think almost every distro is "beginner friendly". more important is the desktop environment
steam, gog and mango hud work the same

Quoting: TobyGornowHi,

One month ago, I made the switch from Mint + Cinnamon to Manjaro + KDE.

Maybe it's KDE and not Manjaro but I found some quirks that didn't happen with Mint + Cinnamon.
Dual screen in KDE is customizable to a high degree, so much it's too much (Per Window and per application) and I needed to configure it since its behavior at start is different from what I'm used to.
My Xbox gamepad must be unplugged and re-plugged to be recognized.
Problem with streamed videos (ie Youtube) choppy AF with no sound, so I have to reboot 2 sometimes 3 times and sometimes it works on first try.
Pamac (Manjaro package manager GUI ) got stuck many times during downloads, so back to terminal and 'sudo pacman -Syyu'.
I like having a transparent background on my terminal and each time I turn on my second screen the desktop effects are disabled and I have to 'Alt+Shift+F12' re-enable them.
No shortcut to switch from one screen to another, you have to create it.

Everything is minor, you can troubleshoot everything, it's usable but it's not as pleasant as my experience with Mint and Manjaro + Cinnamon is community driven so maybe it's not the best choice support wise.

Else, as you said, you have fresh kernels + Firmwares, latest Mesa without fiddling with PPA or compilation, and mainly the AUR.

So going back to Mint or not, I'm not sure...

Hmm. Does Manjaro not offer Cinammon ? If that is what you are used to , why not stick to that if i may ask ?

Simply: Rolling release + AUR, that's why I quit Linux Mint and stick with Manjaro now (5 years ago?).

Main thing I didn't like about Manjaro: Since it is Arch based, you have to update your system every time you want to install something new. On Manjaro however, all updates often come at the same time once in two weeks or so. This often caused problems when I was working on something with close deadline, needed to install a new software, but had to update my system first, which meant downloading about 1GB of updates before I could install a 50MB application.

Right now I'm running Debian KDE on my laptop (used for work and studies) and Arch on my desktop and couldn't be happier.

I'm starting to lean towards the opinion, that the best distributions are the ones not based on some other distribution. For example Ubuntu is based on Debian to fit more normie user, which is great to get started with Linux, but at the same time it introduces problems and bugs not present in Debian, because it is doing things for which Debian was not designed.

Last edited by Rooster on 10 Apr 2020 at 10:25 am UTC

Quoting: Liam DaweFrankly, I find that if it aint broke, don't fix it. If Mint is working for you, why switch?

Category still matters as people can go to forums directly, and it helps with searching ;)

I agree.

What's the point of switching distros, when you're already happy with the one you're using?

I used to distrohop, but that's because each distro had some deal-breaker for me.

When I found Solus, I finally settled on it and stopped distro hopping, because it's the one I'm most happy with.

If you're happy with Mint, you just keep using it, it's a fine distro.

You should only switch distros if you have a good reason for it.

Also, there's nothing like the feeling of having an old OS install (properly upgraded of course) that has everything set up the way you want it to.

Quoting: RoosterMain thing I didn't like about Manjaro: Since it is Arch based, you have to update your system every time you want to install something new. On Manjaro however, all updates often come at the same time once in two weeks or so. This often caused problems when I was working on something with close deadline, needed to install a new software, but had to update my system first, which meant downloading about 1GB of updates before I could install a 50MB application.

Right now I'm running Debian KDE on my laptop (used for work and studies) and Arch on my desktop and couldn't be happier.

I'm starting to lean towards the opinion, that the best distributions are the ones not based on some other distribution. For example Ubuntu is based on Debian to fit more normie user, which is great to get started with Linux, but at the same time it introduces problems and bugs not present in Debian, because it is doing things for which Debian was not designed.

Uhm . no.
I can install software just fine on Arch. No need to do a full system update.
Yes you can not do incremental updates , but you can install stuff just fine. I do it all the times. Pacman -S <package>

Of 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:

Partial 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

Last edited by Rooster on 10 Apr 2020 at 10:07 pm UTC

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 Apr 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:

Partial 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

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

From the wiki

Installing 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:

Partial 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

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

From the wiki

Installing 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 Apr 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?