If you have set your mind to Manjaro I don’t want to dissuade you, but if you are not yet strongly convinced of the distro I always like to point out that there were some issues with the distribution in the past (someone collected them here).
If you’re just after an Arch-like distribution I think EndeavourOS is a very friendly distro without adding their own repositories on top of Arch. But again - if you’re happy with Manjaro by all means also stay with it.
I’ve only been using it for a few weeks now, but I’m having a great time with EndeavourOS. I’ve tried Linux every now and then for over 20 years now, but always bounced off for one reason or another. This time, I’ve never felt any desire to go back.
For me, my use case, and my hardware, EOS has been significantly less of a headache than Windows 11 was.
I’d suggest trying a couple through live ISOs to see what works best out of the box with your hardware. I settled on CachyOS and definitely recommend it. Bazzite is ok, very stable, but keep in mind it is immutable which may hamper its abilities as a full desktop.
Yeah I’d wipe it if you’re going to switch, always less headaches that way. CachyOS has a lot of options so I’ll throw my 2 cents out there, I set it up with btrfs file system and the limine bootloader because it automatically sets up snapshots so you can roll back if something gets borked. It’s also easier to get secure boot working with limine if you’re trying to dual boot.
Arch was described as hard mode but I installed EndeavourOS with KDE Plasma about a month and a half ago and it’s been smooth sailing. Given all the programs I use have native linux clients and I don’t play kernel level anti-cheat games at all.
The ArchWiki is the best hand-holding that you’re going to get on Linux, it’s the finest system administration documentation that the OS has available. But Arch doesn’t “do things for you automatically”, that’s not their ethos. So it’s hard mode until you’ve developed enough sysadmin skills to understand what the docs are telling you, and then it’s easy mode because it all works great together and you’ve a phenomenal reference source.
We run SUSE at work; and when SUSE is working, it’s a damn fine Linux - secure by default, up-to-date, efficient. But if it stops working, man alive, I wish we were using Arch instead. (Admittedly, we just redeploy anything on SUSE that stops working, which takes moments, whereas fixing Arch takes a while but at least you can fix it.)
Not OP. Around same timeline. Went with bazzite for gaming. Have been using bazzite daily since. Stuff just works super easy to install. Also tried and have mint still installed on another partition but haven’t used it much besides the initial installation. And installed dual boot bazzite and mint on my old gaming laptop. Use mint on there daily for internet browsing and such, no gaming. But I’m certain it would work just fine as it’s all pretty much the same besides Debian (mint) Vs Fedora (bazzite).
I don’t play AAA slop either, and a few older easy anti cheat games don’t work. Such as Fawkes revival of Defiance.
Everything else works pre installed with Steam+ proton, Or Ludis + wine, Or the Heroic launcher for GoG, Amazon and EGS.
I do get higher FPS and better temps and less hardware usage than I ever did on Win11 for the same exact games.
Did this last May & haven’t missed much. I don’t play AAA slop though.
I’m thinking about going dual boot mode soon, as Manjaro is a godsend so far on my ThinkPad.
Just remember to have your installs on independant hard drives, not just partitions.
If you have set your mind to Manjaro I don’t want to dissuade you, but if you are not yet strongly convinced of the distro I always like to point out that there were some issues with the distribution in the past (someone collected them here).
If you’re just after an Arch-like distribution I think EndeavourOS is a very friendly distro without adding their own repositories on top of Arch. But again - if you’re happy with Manjaro by all means also stay with it.
EndeavourOS, CachyOS, and Bazzite are back-up options in case I need to distro hop.
I have been over 1 year in EndeavourOS and I can’t complain, no issues at all except when I screw up.
What does screwing up mean in this context?
I’ve only been using it for a few weeks now, but I’m having a great time with EndeavourOS. I’ve tried Linux every now and then for over 20 years now, but always bounced off for one reason or another. This time, I’ve never felt any desire to go back.
For me, my use case, and my hardware, EOS has been significantly less of a headache than Windows 11 was.
I am a Debian user, most of my homelab is on Debian but my desktop is on EndeavourOs, neither has any bullshit.
Which distro did you end up going with? Wanted to change my tower over from Windows. Guessing bazzite is appropriate?
I’d suggest trying a couple through live ISOs to see what works best out of the box with your hardware. I settled on CachyOS and definitely recommend it. Bazzite is ok, very stable, but keep in mind it is immutable which may hamper its abilities as a full desktop.
Oh it’s immutable? Damn.
That explains some shit.
How do I go about switching to CachyOS? Just wipe the NVME and run an installer?
Yeah I’d wipe it if you’re going to switch, always less headaches that way. CachyOS has a lot of options so I’ll throw my 2 cents out there, I set it up with btrfs file system and the limine bootloader because it automatically sets up snapshots so you can roll back if something gets borked. It’s also easier to get secure boot working with limine if you’re trying to dual boot.
Arch was described as hard mode but I installed EndeavourOS with KDE Plasma about a month and a half ago and it’s been smooth sailing. Given all the programs I use have native linux clients and I don’t play kernel level anti-cheat games at all.
The ArchWiki is the best hand-holding that you’re going to get on Linux, it’s the finest system administration documentation that the OS has available. But Arch doesn’t “do things for you automatically”, that’s not their ethos. So it’s hard mode until you’ve developed enough sysadmin skills to understand what the docs are telling you, and then it’s easy mode because it all works great together and you’ve a phenomenal reference source.
We run SUSE at work; and when SUSE is working, it’s a damn fine Linux - secure by default, up-to-date, efficient. But if it stops working, man alive, I wish we were using Arch instead. (Admittedly, we just redeploy anything on SUSE that stops working, which takes moments, whereas fixing Arch takes a while but at least you can fix it.)
Not OP. Around same timeline. Went with bazzite for gaming. Have been using bazzite daily since. Stuff just works super easy to install. Also tried and have mint still installed on another partition but haven’t used it much besides the initial installation. And installed dual boot bazzite and mint on my old gaming laptop. Use mint on there daily for internet browsing and such, no gaming. But I’m certain it would work just fine as it’s all pretty much the same besides Debian (mint) Vs Fedora (bazzite).
I don’t play AAA slop either, and a few older easy anti cheat games don’t work. Such as Fawkes revival of Defiance.
Everything else works pre installed with Steam+ proton, Or Ludis + wine, Or the Heroic launcher for GoG, Amazon and EGS.
I do get higher FPS and better temps and less hardware usage than I ever did on Win11 for the same exact games.
Kubuntu on my main workstation & Linux Mint on everything else.