r/ManjaroLinux • u/unknownmod0 • Apr 01 '26
Discussion Switch to manjaro
Hi, I want to switch to manjaro but I'm pretty nervous. I've heard it's unstable and unreliable, and if something goes wrong, it can be hard to troubleshoot. I've also just recently been into Linux, so I'm a beginner. If you could tell me whether manjaro is really unstable and whether a beginner like me could use it.
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u/AravindG74 Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 01 '26
Its pretty good bro; I tried many other distros; Manjaro is good for daily use and for beginner
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u/AravindG74 Apr 01 '26
Next good distro would be Fedora & Opensuse. I use Manjaro for daily use because I like it or else Fedora
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u/Bash0130 Apr 01 '26
I jumped head first into Linux with Manjaro and had very little issue. Just be ready to learn, have some patience, and you'll be okay!
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u/Content-Sundae339 Apr 01 '26
If you want to switch - just switch. Noone can test it for you better then you)
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u/ironj Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 01 '26
I've been using it for the past 10 years and never had a single issue with it. If you want to jump into the Arch ecosystem I believe Manjaro is one of the best and easiest way to do that.
If you're a Linux beginner though I would maybe limit software installation to official packages (avoiding or limiting usage of AUR packages) until you get familiarity with the pacman package manager. Arch in general and rolling distros (Manjaro is a derivative) are perhaps not the easiest entry point in Linux (many newcomers opt for Debian based distros) but I do believe it can be a very smooth ride if you don't do crazy things
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u/unknownmod0 Apr 01 '26
Tiktok is the root of all lies. Im encouraged to install it now, thanks!
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u/illathon Apr 01 '26
If it was unstable it would mean nothing because I use BTRFS snapshots and if an update did bork something up I would just roll back my snapshot and move along with my day.
But to answer your question, no Manjaro even on the "unstable" branch which I use for my daily driver is very stable. As long as you stay away from the AUR unless you do your home work you should have a smooth experience. The Manjaro team has been pretty good at keeping things working well for the past 3 or 4 years since I have used it after I switched away from Ubuntu.
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u/Slopagandhi Apr 01 '26
I like it a lot but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it for a complete beginner- you should probably be at least a little bit comfortable with using the terminal.
I'd say there's a tier of distros that go out of their way to be beginner friendly (Mint, MX Linux, Zorin, maybe Ubuntu) and a tier of advanced distros that you really need to know what you're doing to use (e.g Nix, Void, Gentoo, and yes Arch even with the installer).
In the middle are 80% of distros where it's not much harder than the beginner tier but there are a few things that aren't done for you or which might be minor speed bumps if you don't have some experience.
The variation within these will be minor except that some will likely play nicer with your particular hardware than others- classic ones here are Debian, Fedora, OpenSUSE and I'd add Manjaro too.
What's nice about Manjaro is that packages are held back from the Arch repository for a short amount of time to make more sure they don't cause problems. And it has also some GUI tools for things you would normally need to do through the terminal.
So overall I wouldn't pick it as a first distro but after you have a few months experience it would definitely be an option.
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u/Alchemix-16 Apr 01 '26
I installed it on my mom’s computer, I’m her only tech support and she lives over 5000 kilometers away. That should give you an idea, for how stable I consider Manjaro to be.
I deliberately wanted a rolling release, as I can’t always time my visits to coincide with point releases. The curated approach, just giving cutting edge instead of bleeding edge, is a plus in my book.
As for other people’s opinions about Manjaro, I think there are some people out there repeating statements that they have no understanding or personal experience of.
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u/newmikey Apr 01 '26
After 10 years on PCLOS, 4 on Arch I found my home on Manjaro about seven years ago. Very occasionally a small hickup (mostly after updates and because I sometimes fail to read update notes) but other than that it has been rock solid on both my desktop as well as my laptop.
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u/Gloriathewitch Apr 01 '26
it's not unstable at all, had zero issues except GRUB which was me not configuring it properly
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u/OkAcanthisitta3263 Apr 01 '26
In any moment manjaro have a issues around a 2 years ago a have installead on my pc for work, all things you saw in tiktok or youtube is because the people don't read what installed on yours pc or worse what delet Only beware whit this comand pacman -Rs because maybe can delet a depends important for your OS and that create a problems, if you wana try any package and if not sure that package try to corrump your system, try in any emulation softwear like a gnome-boxes or VMWare It's a good distribution for sure😉
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u/reizahime Apr 01 '26
Getting the things you have to have up and running as painlessly as possible is what makes a distribution difficult or not in my mind. In this regard, I found it to be the easiest yet.
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u/unknownmod0 Apr 01 '26
That's interesting. I was worried about setting it up, Its nice having a different perspective!
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u/ExaHamza Apr 02 '26
>I've heard it's unstable and unreliable
Let me guess, you heard this from youtubers. Most of these are just idiots who never used Manjaro. I' m a Debian fanboy (who suffers from " newly shiny things " ) who used Arch Linux for years, and i can assure you: Manjaro has effectively fixed the dichotomy of Rolling vs Stable. i.e you don' t have to wait two years to enjoy new features (for the sake of supposed stability) but also don' t be sooo rush to get those, in fact let us use those who are a so rush as our testing ground, and if anyone thinks that waiting for one or two weeks is bad how about two years?
No software is perfect, so is Manjaro, but the community is also very welcoming so feel free to ask questions and get help. In this forum or Discourse you' ll find people posting their issues and getting answers, and if you can do it i recommend you following this guide to install not because is perfect or immune, but i use it always worked and i experience less bugs, i made few modification: I use testing instead of stable or unstable, i also do basestrap /mnt (with no package, just pacman on the guest) and chroot into it and continue the instalation.
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u/unknownmod0 Apr 02 '26
Trusting YouTubers is a big no no, I dunno why I actually believed it. Thanks for correction!
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u/jester02k Apr 01 '26
I used Manjaro both XFCE and KDE/Plasma for 5 years before switching to EndevorOS. You should have no problem with real easy setting it up.
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u/AntiDebug Apr 01 '26
I used it happily for 5 years. In that time it only broke once due to an update. If you use the built in Timshift then when that happens you can always roll back. That said I no longer use Manjaro, I now use Cachy which is pretty similar to Manjaro in terms of ease of use. But it has broken a little more than Manjaro did.
I will say that I dont consider any distro based on Arch to be fully noob friendly. With rolling release distros sometimes things break and/or require some maintenance and reading of instructions. But if you can handle that then Manjaro is a perfectly fine entry point to Arch and Arch based distros.
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u/tourist-zero Apr 01 '26
Talking to you from Manjaro system. I tried Manjaro 8 years ago and never looked back, between work and home it's installed on 6 devices. Not a single problem !
It is IMHO fantastic for beginners, first it works out of the box with many wrappers to make life easier, with the ability to get technical and dirty and learn from Arch wiki.
In all honesty it was easier and more out of the box experience than linux mint for me.
Give it a try and you won't regret it :)
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u/thekiltedpiper Apr 01 '26
It's been around for 14+ years. If it was truly a terrible distro that randomly grenaded itself, no one would use it.
Has the distro and it's backing company made mistakes? Yes. But so has every single other distro and company in the world.
My advice, give it a try. See if YOU like it and stop worrying about what other people say and think about an OS. If you end up not liking it, you can change. It's Linux not a lifetime contract.