Distribution
Manjaro 24.2.1
Nate Drake delves into the distro that claims to make Arch Linux easy – will it puts its money where its mouth is?
On the main site, Manjaro developer Philip Müller states that this OS “targets beginners and advanced users at the same time”. This reflects the fact that it is based on Arch Linux, which requires advanced time and knowledge to configure and set up. Manjaro, on the other hand, simplifies setup greatly.
There are three official flavours, running the latest KDE Plasma, Xfce and Gnome desktops respectively. Community editions are also available with Cinnamon, i3 Window Manager and Sway WM. After downloading the robust 4.1GB ISO running Gnome, we fired up the OS in a VM to be presented with the choice of booting with either open source or proprietary drivers. After choosing the former, the desktop loaded and automatically launched Manjaro’s Hello, which groups useful features together. This included the option to launch the Calamares installer. (The helpful Manjaro wiki also states that the distro can be installed via the CLI and dual-booting is supported.)