this post was submitted on 25 Dec 2023
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I've been using Linux Mint since forever. I've never felt a reason to change. But I'm interested in what persuaded others to move.

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[–] [email protected] 58 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (40 children)

Most of them.

  • Debian world - apt sucks. For something with a sole purpose of resolving a dependency tree, it's surprisingly bad at that.

  • Redhat world - everything is soooo old. I can see why business people like it, buy I rarely, if ever, agree with business people.

  • Opensuse world - I've only tried it once, probably 15 years ago. Didn't really know my way around computers all that much at the time, but it didn't click and I've left it. Later on I found out about their selling out to Microsoft and never bothered touching it again.

  • Arch - it was my daily for a year or two. Big fan. It still runs my email. At some point the size of packages started to annoy me, though. Still has the best wiki. I've never really bothered with the spinoffs, as the model of Arch makes them useless and more problematic to deal with.

I've got the Gentoo bug now. For the first time I genuinely feel ~/. A lean, mean system of machines :)

[–] [email protected] 44 points 8 months ago (19 children)

never really bothered with the spinoffs, as the model of Arch makes them useless and more problematic to deal with

I highly enjoy using EndeavourOS. But then again, I wouldn't classify it as a spinoff, it's pretty much vanilla Arch, but purple.

Now Manjaro on the other hand... Tried it and understood why so many people don't like it within the first week.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Mind to elaborate a little bit more about the Manjaro problem? I am driving it since a couple of years without any issue but I keep hearing this… now I am afraid :)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

I hope it works for you forever. I am not going to get in an argument with the other Manjaro users here that will come to argue with you.

Just keep in mind that most of the people warning you away from Manjaro have a story that basically sums up as “I used to love Manjaro until, one day, it totally broke on me. Now I won’t touch it.” Sadly, this includes me. Will you join us one day? I hope not.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Most stories of people having manjaro break involve nvidia and not knowing how to build kernel entries.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Keep using it if it works for you.

Manjaro detractors are usually:

  • People who do stuff they shouldn't, like using non-recommended kernel or driver versions or replace critical system components from AUR, then blame it on the distro when stuff breaks.
  • People who don't understand how AUR works and think that Manjaro holding back binary packages for a couple of weeks has any effect on AUR (which is built from source...)
  • People who can't get over the times when they didn't renew their certs or when they accidentally DDoS'ed the AUR. It doesn't matter if the distro is good or not. Those instances of carelessness should be held against it forever.
  • People who can't stand the fact it's a commercial distro.
  • People who can't stand the thought of any Arch-based distro that dares to do anything different from Arch (other than make the install easier, that one seems to be acceptable for some reason; but there are more extreme people who dislike that too).
[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I am trying to think of how to respond to this without being a jerk.

Let me skip to the end. Until very recently, I thought of Manjaro users as innocents that just did not understand the risk. Like islanders living next to a volcano that had never erupted in their lifetime.

I still view most Manjaro users that way. Manjaro defenders though I now think of as dog owners whose animals have bitten multiple times. When told, the owner insists that “my dog would never do that” or “if it did, you must have done something wrong”. I am done arguing with those people. All I can do is warn others that this dog has bitten several of us and you may not want to enter that yard. If you do, who knows, the dog may be friendly. Or not. Again, all I can tell you is that many of us have scars. Use that information as you will.

Most “Manjaro detractors” I have encountered have years of experience with both Manjaro and other Arch distros. Their tales come from experience. When they share their cautionary tales, there are often Manjaro defenders whose best defence is just to deny that what the “detractors” are saying ( about their own experience ) is real.

My core question for the defenders would be, if it is our fault, why do we only encounter the problems on Manjaro?

Let’s go through the bullets above one by one:

  • I never did that on Manjaro. I probably do it more on EOS. Why only problems on Manjaro?
  • why does my lack of knowledge of how the AUR works only break things on Manjaro?
  • this bullet is the best. It admits that Manjaro has repeatedly broken things but we should not hold it against it. Literally this is saying that “Manjaro breaks things” is wrong because, while it does, we should just get over it. Hilarious.
  • how does attacking the “detractors” address the claim that Manjaro breaks things?
  • how does attacking the “detractors” address the claim that Manjaro breaks things?

I got in a lengthy back and forth with a Manjaro fan the other day where I repeatedly related the ways that Manjaro used to break on me and how that does not happen for me on vanilla Arch or EndeavourOS. They just kept coming back telling me that it could not have happened and, if I thought it could, that I did not understand how the AUR works. It was insane. Basically, this guy could not follow what I was saying to him. His response to his inability to understand the scenario that I was describing was to insult my intelligence and expertise.

Look loser. I don’t care if you believe me that your dog bites. I will continue to warn people and they can decide if they want to risk it or not.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 8 months ago

Isn't it funny how none of the people who claim that Manjaro "just broke" on them can recall what the problem was? They can't point at a bug report. It's nothing they did, naturally (they're "experienced" users, after all). It just broke.

Meanwhile, it never broke for me or others, in years of use, with dozens of AUR packages installed. So yeah. I think I'll stick to concrete evidence like a rational person, thanks.

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