Been in the computer industry for long time, I had my first computer back in the 80s, and like most, I was using DOS and then Windows.
I always wanted to try Linux, but never actually move to it, cause I was missing several things of my day-to-day usage. I usually had some Virtual Machine, testing popular distros to see if I can replace my Windows setup. Unfortunately due to gaming and being a .NET Software Engineer, I couldn’t.
Few years back, in 2018, and after W10 made some updates that literally ruined my experience*, I decided to try the most popular distro and see how it goes. So, I switched to Manjaro, setup few VMs for Gaming & Developing, and here I am few years later happy and without any major issues
- after a certain W10 update, I think 1903, two main things happened:
- I am Greek, living in Ireland, and used to have US layout to my keyboard. That is something that doesn’t work anymore to W10 (and W11). Once I setup US keyboard as primary, OS forces my regional settings to US. When I change them to Irish, it forces Irish keyboard layout
- No more mapped network drives, I had to use them like shares. But, once you connect a share it starts getting all content locally to support “offline files” and even if you disabled it, it never full clears the files, making inconsistency my daily problem
Those two, were the last drop…
Apart from my main system, I have few others in the house, a laptop for when I am out, or traveling, my wife’s pc, my son’s gaming pc (this one has Windows still, but not for long) and a media pc connected to the TV, for MAME, watching series, movies, YT, etc.
Now, to the Media PC (Intel NUC), I like to test other distros and see how it plays. And here is when I always come back to Manjaro!
I have been trying several distors (Ubuntu, Kubuntu, PopOS, Fedora, Mint, Debian) and I always have issues setting the system the way I like.
Problems I have experienced:
- Networks shares are read only
- VLC causes issues
- HDMI sound doesn’t work
- NoMachine doesn’t work, or shuts down
- Cannot install at all or even run Live
- During installation, and since TV is 4K, display is so small, I cannot see what it does
- Partitioning doesn’t offer enough options
- System renders unusable due to lag, when I am plugging in a USB stick
This is not a full list, as I don’t take notes, but the problems I remember most.
And once I start having issues and spend 1-2 hours of my life trying to solve them, I am having enough, plug in Manjaro USB and install back to “comfort zone”
Thank you guys for all the work and effort you put in this distro, I am grateful for what you create and all the things you have done for the community. Best of luck to all and each and every one of you.
Moderator edit: Fixed formatting
