Linux distribution
Manjaro 23.1 Vulcan
Nate Drake boldly goes to take Vulcan for a test spin and finds an incredibly user-friendly and efficient operating system.
IN BRIEF
Manjaro is Arch done right. Not only does it have a simple installer but it can also automatically detect and configure hardware. And adding packages is simplicity itself via the package manager.
SPECS
CPU: 1GHz (dual-core)
Mem: 4GB
HDD: 30GB
Builds: x86_64, ARM64, i686
Manjaro began life as a labour of love, announced on Arch Linux BBS – the OS on which it’s based. To quote its website, “Manjaro is a versatile, free and open source Linux operating system designed with a strong focus on safeguarding user privacy.”
The website also claims the distro can be installed on a wide range of devices. This much is true, given that it’s traditionally been a popular choice for Linux laptop vendors. Pine64’s Pinebook, for instance, comes with Manjaro preinstalled. Manjaro also partnered up with Tuxedo Computers to preinstall the OS on its devices, although this seems to have given way to the Ubuntubased Tuxedo OS.
This is one of Manjaro’s main advantages over stock Arch, in that it has an extremely user-friendly graphical installer. Like Arch, it operates on a rolling release model.
The original version of Manjaro used the Xfce desktop, but there’s also an official flavour that makes use of the KDE desktop (currently Plasma 5.27 LTS) and a flavour incorporating Gnome, which is the main focus of this review. There are also community-maintained editions of Manjaro that incorporate other desktops, such as Budgie, Cinnamon and Mate.