I used Manjaro for a few years before switching to Arch. Manjaro finds a nice sweespot for “Arch but also nice”. Furthermore, Arch has gotten much more user friendly in the last 5 years or so. Back in late 2010s, Manjaro was adding a lot of value on top of Arch.
What really bothered me about Manjaro was the “forum cops” they employ, who are super aggressive to newcomers and unhelpful. It was not a nice experience to seek help. Say what you will about Arch people, they are at least helpful.
I finally switched to Arch when I got my new machine. I recommend the same.
If someone still wants “Arch but also nice,” I’d point them at Garuda tbh. I really liked it but the rolling updates kept breaking my NVIDIA drivers. If not for that I might still be using it.
Just to add to the 2010s bit, I tried Arch in like… 2015 I think it would’ve been. I followed the wiki to the letter. It was not my first Linux install, I’d been experimenting with a lot of distros for five years by then. I could not get it to work. To be fair, I still haven’t tried Arch in 2026, I use CachyOS, but I think back then Manjaro was really the only thing providing that type of experience. Everyone holds the Arch wiki on a pedestal because it’s so useful, but the install guide and state of Arch back in 2015 simply wasn’t what it is today. I haven’t ever used Manjaro so I can’t really speak for it, but that’s just sort of my guess as someone who had difficulty with Arch from that era. Luckily we have CachyOS, EndeavorOS, and, presumably, a better install process on vanilla Arch now.
I used Manjaro for a few years before switching to Arch. Manjaro finds a nice sweespot for “Arch but also nice”. Furthermore, Arch has gotten much more user friendly in the last 5 years or so. Back in late 2010s, Manjaro was adding a lot of value on top of Arch.
What really bothered me about Manjaro was the “forum cops” they employ, who are super aggressive to newcomers and unhelpful. It was not a nice experience to seek help. Say what you will about Arch people, they are at least helpful.
I finally switched to Arch when I got my new machine. I recommend the same.
If someone still wants “Arch but also nice,” I’d point them at Garuda tbh. I really liked it but the rolling updates kept breaking my NVIDIA drivers. If not for that I might still be using it.
Just to add to the 2010s bit, I tried Arch in like… 2015 I think it would’ve been. I followed the wiki to the letter. It was not my first Linux install, I’d been experimenting with a lot of distros for five years by then. I could not get it to work. To be fair, I still haven’t tried Arch in 2026, I use CachyOS, but I think back then Manjaro was really the only thing providing that type of experience. Everyone holds the Arch wiki on a pedestal because it’s so useful, but the install guide and state of Arch back in 2015 simply wasn’t what it is today. I haven’t ever used Manjaro so I can’t really speak for it, but that’s just sort of my guess as someone who had difficulty with Arch from that era. Luckily we have CachyOS, EndeavorOS, and, presumably, a better install process on vanilla Arch now.