Is Manjaro good for daily driving?

[Cookiehead]

Hello,
I’ve wanted to try Manjaro on real hardware for some time, and I was wondering if Manjaro is stable enough to be used.
I’ve heard stories about people breaking their system when doing a -Syu or anything because Manjaro tried using the AUR to download packages.
But I looked in the wiki, and the AUR seems disabled by default.
Will I have to be careful about installing any package from the command line to make sure it doesn’t come from any incompatible sources, or can I just use pacman/pamac without worrying?
Thanks.

[omano]

Yes Manjaro is as stable as you make it.
Of course if you import a load of ■■■■ from out the repositories and don’t understand what you’re doing, you will probably have issues at some point.

I think if you try to search the forum you could answer everything by yourself already.

Also about the AUR:

Arch User Repository

[Cookiehead]

Ok, thanks.

[Aragorn]

Welcome to the forum!

@Cookiehead

I’ve wanted to try Manjaro on real hardware for some time, and I was wondering if Manjaro is stable enough to be used.

Manjaro is probably the most stable of all rolling-release distributions. Even Arch Stable is already fairly stable, and serves as the daily driver for many people.

Manjaro’s Unstable branch is actually Arch Stable, and from there on, we test everything more thoroughly in the Manjaro Testing branch before it percolates into Manjaro Stable.

@Cookiehead

I’ve heard stories about people breaking their system when doing a -Syu or anything because Manjaro tried using the AUR to download packages.

pacman does not offer any access to the AUR. pamac does, but that’s a different package manager, and as you say, AUR access is disabled by default. So people who want to enable the AUR will be doing so at their own risk.

@Cookiehead

Will I have to be careful about installing any package from the command line to make sure it doesn’t come from any incompatible sources, or can I just use pacman/pamac without worrying?

That question denotes an XY problem.

First of all, everything that you install from the official repositories is compatible, because it’ll have been tested by the Manjaro community, and by the Arch community before it even arrived in Manjaro Unstable.

Secondly, there is a reason as to why you sometimes need to update your system by way of the command line, as opposed to via a GUI — the GUI in question being either pamac-manager or octopi.

If you only want to install a few packages, or there is a small update with fast-tracked packages — these are packages that are regularly updated because of security considerations or urgent bug fixes — then it’s perfectly okay to use a graphical package manager. For bundled updates — I’ll get into this a little farther down — however, it is always safest to completely log out of your graphical environment, switch over to a tty, and run the update process from there.

Large updates are always bundled together in Manjaro, and this is true for both the Testing and Stable branches. Each bundled update comes with a dedicated thread under the Announcements category of the forum. The first post of that thread always details the changes that the update brings, and the second post lists the potential problems and how to work around them. It is imperative that people monitor said category and read these announcement threads.

As the matter of fact, there has been another Stable Updates thread today — just click on the link and see for yourself.

However, Manjaro is not necessarily a suitable distribution for everyone, and some people are better off not even using GNU/Linux in general. Not to toot my own horn, but I’ve written a short essay about this, which you can find below.

[Consideration] Is Manjaro the right distribution for you?

Manjaro is NOT suitable for absolute beginners No, it’s not. And we — as the helpful community members of this forum — regularly have to explain this to the newcomers. Or at least, if we get the chance, because it is not exactly unheard of that a vocal newbie throws it out there themselves in a fit of frustration — if not arrogance or entitlement, because there’s a lot of that going round as well. So why is Manjaro not a distribution for absolute beginners? 1. Manjaro is a rolling-release d…

Also, alongside the Wiki — and the excellent Arch Wiki — we also do have a very elaborate Tutorials section, in which you can find a great wealth of member-contributed resources. Take a look around in there as well.

Lastly, I will say this. With the disclaimer that I’m not exactly the average user — but then again, I also run a much more specialized and customized setup than most people here — I installed Manjaro on this computer over five years ago, and I’ve never had to reinstall. I’ve always faithfully and conscientiously kept my system updated and maintained, and Manjaro is my daily driver. I don’t use or have any other operating systems on my computer, and this is my production machine.

[manyroads]

I personally prefer using my automobile for driving…

[anon77480351]

How do you deal with pacnew files when you get the car out of the workshop and the glove compartment is full of them?

[Cookiehead]

Thanks for the detailed information.
I know some things about Linux in general, so not a complete newbie
I’ll install it on real hardware and see how it goes.

[davidmiller]

Manjaro is stable enough for daily use. By default, the AUR is disabled, so you won’t accidentally install packages from there. Use pacman or pamac for package management without worrying about incompatible sources. Just be cautious with updates and read update announcements to avoid potential issues.