But, @linux-aarhus, the complete quote is:
I faced the same issue yesterday, the first time I tried Manjaro, installing it for a friend who is new to Linux on his old laptop. I installed the system, upgraded and installed some applications (including some KDE ones) and the icons disappeared. Kiconthemes is a dependency of KDE applications. How this very noticeable bug went unnoticed through unstable and testing branches? Nobody in those branches uses KDE applications outside KDE? And what about the default Openbox theme that changes to a blue one simply upgrading just after installing because the upgraded arc-themes-maia package seems to lack the Openbox ones?
I don’t mean to sound rude, but frankly I got puzzled and disappointed yesterday because I thought Manjaro was perhaps the most stable of rolling distros. Now I’m wondering how stable is Manjaro actually. Did those issues were just a matter of very, very bad luck or should I better choose a non-rolling distro for my friend?
Thanks
Yes I know the complete quote is referring a few packages - but I explicitly asked for customization with relation to icons - and OP fail to mention that.
LXQt is not KDE despite using Qt toolkit primarily - so when you want KDE functionality you have to put 2+2 together - there is no hand holding - you will have to do it yourself.
If you apply a theme which is later changed upstream - why do you think this is a Manjaro issue?
Any computer system is as stable as the user modding it - Manjaro is no exception.
The default Manjaro ISO has been tried and tested - the @Manjaro-Team is not machines - we are not infallible but humans - so of course bugs sneak in - but the goal is to create a ready to use system for the average user - creating an infallible system is not possible.
But we do our best to provide the best possible system - and we always listen to suggestions of improvement - it is always a balance - but if it is beneficial to the greater audience and it is possible with complicating the system - there is a high chance of the improvement being implented.
If you want to learn how much work the team put into the profiles
- then start by building a system from scratch using the Archlinux way.
- create your own theming - either from scratch or by modding an existing theme
- package the theming into a reusable packages
- experiment with the multitude of packages available from the official repo to create the system
- then create scripts to replicate the above without user intervention
- add in some scripting to create an ISO
- then distribute it
- create a forum for answering questions
- read all the complaints you get on dysfunctional packages - packages you didn’t create - issues you cannot reproduce
- read all the complaints on dysfunctional systems from users who have installed third-party-packages ignoring package standards and best practice
Then you are entitled to have an opinion on stability …
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But the only “customization” in this case was simply installing any KDE application, not playing with themes and things like that. And what about the Openbox theme installed by default that dissapears on the after-install upgrade? It’s a Manajaro one if I’m not mistaken.
I’m a long time Linux user so I’m well aware that all this is HARD and VOLUNTARY work. You, developers, maintainers, etc. don’t owe us, users, anything. Simply as that. You don’t need to remind me it, really. But, certainly, sometimes entusiastic opinnions, reviews, etc. led us to high or even unrealistic expectations… and hence the disappointments when they are not meet; it’s understandable too. Maybe this was my case here, but I thought my expectation was founded… I’m a user of a rolling distro myself and I would say that issues are rare and mostly not serious (nor that I consider reasonable to put a new non-technical user through them), and I thought Manjaro, having filtering branches, could do even better than that. But the fact that this issue went unnoticed (we are talking about simply using any KDE application outside KDE) through those branches leds me to belive now that the user base and use cases there are small enough to cancel the improvement compared to other rolling distros.
I’m not wondering about stability as a rethoric way to critice Manjaro, far from it. I have to make the decision if I keep Majaro installed or better install a non-rolling distro on this old laptop. I can’t use Manjaro for months (wouldn’t have much free time to spare anyway) to make myself a clear idea of its stability, I have to give the laptop back to my friend in a few days (fortunately he didn’t saw the issues, it wouldn’t be a good start). I want to do what is better for my friend, and I want him to have a good experience using Linux. I wanted to avoid him bothering with release upgrades and having always fresh software, and I know there is a trade-off: stability. Maybe I simply was too naive thinking there could be a rolling distro stable enough for new non-technical users.