Manjaro vs PopOS

[hypertown]

I'm planing to ditch Windows in favor of Linux but I don't know which distro to choose. I've seen people recommending Manjaro as well as PopOS  for gaming and coding. I prefer Manjaro's KDE but you can install this Desktop Environment on PopOS with no problem. I also have Radeon  + Ryzen setup so I don't need any special drivers that are present in PopOS. So what else should I consider while choosing distro? 

[Electronics Wizardy]

It doesn't really matter, but debian based distros like ubuntu and pop os normally have better software support, and more comminity, so id pick something debian based as a first os.

 

You can also just try them in a live disk or vm to see what you like more.

[BardiaMGTGC]

manjaro is more stable and its not like debian base operating systems that has a limited support

if you have time to customize you can go with arch or even freebsd!

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, BardiaMGTGC said:

manjaro is more stable and its not like debian base operating systems that has a limited support

if you have time to customize you can go with arch or even freebsd!

what do you mean by debian base operating system that has a limited support?

 

Source for manjaro being more stable?

[hypertown]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

what do you mean by debian base operating system that has a limited support?

 

Source for manjaro being more stable?

Both system seems very stable to me. I've ran both of them from pendrive and neither of them had any problems. I know nothing about support though.

Edit: typo

[BardiaMGTGC]

4 minutes ago, BardiaMGTGC said:

manjaro is more stable and its not like debian base operating systems that has a limited support

if you have time to customize you can go with arch or even freebsd!

like ubuntu non lts that has a very limited security updates and lts that has 4 years of support

but in arch based operating systems there is no such thing 

you always have security updates 

[BardiaMGTGC]

i was a ubuntu user for a long time and all my vps are still all ubuntu but for desktop arch is much better

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, BardiaMGTGC said:

like ubuntu non lts that has a very limited security updates and lts that has 4 years of support

but in arch based operating systems there is no such thing 

you always have security updates 

that 4 years is for a given version, there is still support for the next version, just like windows does it.

 

arch is a rolling release, so there is no version, so if you want security updates, you need to have the latest feature updates, this often breaks more things that a relase based distro.

 

That support time isn't a fair comparison, both have unlimited secuirty updates if you update to the latest version.

[BardiaMGTGC]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

that 4 years is for a given version, there is still support for the next version, just like windows does it.

 

arch is a rolling release, so there is no version, so if you want security updates, you need to have the latest feature updates, this often breaks more things that a relase based distro.

 

That support time isn't a fair comparison, both have unlimited secuirty updates if you update to the latest version.

now that i think about it arch maybe for more experienced users |:

 

[hypertown]

Just now, BardiaMGTGC said:

now that i think about it arch maybe for more experienced users |:

 

Well it's not like I'm total newbie in Linux since we use Debian in work but I fail to understand what is different between distros beside Desktop Enviroment. I understand that some of them have some programs preinstalled or they have better support of specific drivers. But is that really it?
I update my OS as soon as I can so security shouldn't be an issue. The most I care about smooth experience

[BardiaMGTGC]

Just now, hypertown said:

Well it's not like I'm total newbie in Linux since we use Debian in work but I fail to understand what is different between distros beside Desktop Enviroment. I understand that some of them have some programs preinstalled or they have better support of specific drivers. But is that really it?
I update my OS as soon as I can so security shouldn't be an issue. The most I care about smooth experience

some other debian based distros come with a little bit of kernel change only a little bit but overall just desktop and as you said out of box packages is pretty much it(and some have a bit of different package manager)
if you want to test something different you might want to get into red hat based operating systems they have some different directory and packaging systems 

[Electronics Wizardy]

3 minutes ago, hypertown said:

Well it's not like I'm total newbie in Linux since we use Debian in work but I fail to understand what is different between distros beside Desktop Enviroment. I understand that some of them have some programs preinstalled or they have better support of specific drivers. But is that really it?
I update my OS as soon as I can so security shouldn't be an issue. The most I care about smooth experience

package manager is a big difference.

 

another big difference in mentality about things like:

-updates, so bleeding edge vs more stable and tested.

-should non open source software be included?

-what is the usercase, what is the distro optimized for?

 

BUt overall most desktop linux distros are pretty simmilar, and will all work fine.

 

[hypertown]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

package manager is a big difference.

 

another big difference in mentality about things like:

-updates, so bleeding edge vs more stable and tested.

-should non open source software be included?

-what is the usercase, what is the distro optimized for?

 

BUt overall most desktop linux distros are pretty simmilar, and will all work fine.

 

Since both package managers are fine for my needs I guess it come downs to optimization and updates. For games I guess PopOS will do better but for updates stability Manjaro seems to have higher position. Also since Manjaro is more popular so is it safe to assume that software will be better optimized for this OS? 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, hypertown said:

Since both package managers are fine for my needs I guess it come downs to optimization and updates. For games I guess PopOS will do better but for updates stability Manjaro seems to have higher position. Also since Manjaro is more popular so is it safe to assume that software will be better optimized for this OS? 

Id probably vote for debian based stuff for stablility

 

Debian based distros are much more popular than arch based distros, I think 10x more users on steam or more. pop os is basically just ubuntu with a skin and some defualt package changes.

[hypertown]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

Id probably vote for debian based stuff for stablility

 

Debian based distros are much more popular than arch based distros, I think 10x more users on steam or more. pop os is basically just ubuntu with a skin and some defualt package changes.

Then I'll probably go with PopOS. Thanks for the help! 

[DankDipstick]

On 7/9/2020 at 8:00 PM, BardiaMGTGC said:

manjaro is more stable and its not like debian base operating systems that has a limited support

if you have time to customize you can go with arch or even freebsd!

You can choose what branch you want to use in Manjaro, testing, unstable, stable, and then even(!) use a LTS(long term support) kernel for Manjaro and run that(they made it easy to swap kernels, there is a gui for that).

 

its linux, choose the distro you feel comfortable with.

Wine/Proton/Lutris/etc has come a long way in terms of support for games.

 

Quote

• Stable branch: the packages that come to stable have gone through roughly a couple of weeks testing by the users of the Unstable/Testing repos, before they get the packages. These packages are usually free of any problems.
• Testing branch: These users are the next line of defense. Being a larger number of users than those using Unstable, they refine the work done prior to them installing the packages with their feedback.
• Unstable branch: which usually runs inside of 3 days behind Arch package releases & are modified as necessary to suit Manjaro. Those that use Unstable need to have the skills to get themselves out of trouble when they upgrade into it. They are the Manjaro users who are most likely to need to use such skills. Due to the feedback from the users of the Unstable repo, most bugs are found & fixed for the rest of Manjaro's users. Although the very latest software will be located here, using the unstable branch may consequently break your system!

 

Edited July 11, 2020 by DankDipstick
typos, added quote.

[Badhalfoftheday]

I've given many debian/Ubuntu based distros a try but the thing that always brings be back to arch and now to Manjaro is the AUR. The AUR allows you to install pretty much any software without having to use PPAs. PPAs can be a big hassle since you are relying on one person to keep updating the program. If they stop then you will either have no idea or have to find (and mostly fail) another ppa for the same program. The aur really installs the program from the source. It's all in one place so you don't need to go searching for anything. Finally making an aur package is easy so you will most likely never have trouble finding the program you are looking for.

 

Another advantage to using Manjaro is that pretty much everything in the arch wiki (the best Linux documentation out there) works on your system. You can use Manjaro's architect installer to make a very custom installation (recommend that you are more comfortable with Linux before doing this).

 

Finally you will always have the latest and greatest. That does mean there could be issues but they are rare.

[3rik]

On 7/9/2020 at 7:57 PM, hypertown said:

I'm planing to ditch Windows in favor of Linux but I don't know which distro to choose. I've seen people recommending Manjaro as well as PopOS  for gaming and coding. I prefer Manjaro's KDE but you can install this Desktop Environment on PopOS with no problem. I also have Radeon  + Ryzen setup so I don't need any special drivers that are present in PopOS. So what else should I consider while choosing distro? 

Both are very good, imo it comes down to what desktop environment you prefer.

Main differences apart from that are software availability (both will have most of the stuff you need, but manjaro being based on arch linux often has more when it comes to random niche things, and in terms of customization and kernels etc. Pop will have certain apps that manjaro dosent though.

Installing KDE on pop OS isnt the best idea, since you will end up with duplicates of apps (Gnome Tasks and KSysGuard, Kate and Gedit etc) which is arguably a bad thing. If you prefer KDE its better to use manjaro imo.

Manjaro may also be better for gaming since many of the custom wine builds and beta wine builds (with stuff like EAC support) are packaged for pacman to install, and made for arch-based distros.

And a nice bonus is that if you one day decide to make the jump and switch to full-on arch linux (not that you necessarily should or have to, but you might decide to) it will be easier if you have already used manjaro.

[Ashleyyyy]

Manjaro supports more software because it has built in support for flatpak, snap and the AUR, but it's less user friendly than PopOS is for some stuff. manjaro has a pretty big following here though so if you can't figure something out just make a topic and me or others will likely be able to help.