Is Manjaro Stable and Reliable?

HI
I am a Web Developer and I Use LAMP Stack. 2 days ago I switch From Ubuntu to manjaro Because According to Google Manjaro is the top Distro For Developers. Here is My question
IS Manjaro Stable and Reliable
This meaning i was setting Up My Lamp Stack and everything was fine untell I try to install php8.0
i followed a manjaro forum guide and installed yay and AUR after that before The Installion I got This

Warning: Use the AUR at your own risk!

No support will be provided by the Manjaro team for any issues that may arise relating to software installations from the AUR.

With Manjaro updates, AUR packages might stop working. This is not a Manjaro issue

You Have Been Warned

So here is the whole summary is manjaro stable because I donā€™t want my system broken every second day
Thank You Have a Great Day

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In short:

Iā€™d say itā€™s as stable and reliable as youā€™d want it.

a Bit longer:
The warning you got from the AUR is because AUR Packages arenā€™t created by Manjaro developers themselves. If itā€™ll help you, think of an Ubuntu PPA. Itā€™s better, but I guess somewhat comparable. AUR staands for Arch User Repository (AFAIK anyway) and the Manjaro Team does not take responsibility there. It can be, relatively easily, used to install malware, and possibly more.

In general, itā€™s safe though. Keep an eye on your system, read the Update Announcements, and most importantly know that itā€™s a rolling release. You have to be on top of it and itā€™s master, otherwise itā€™ll quickly get the better of you. Itā€™s not Ubuntu and shouldnā€™t be compared.

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Wellā€¦ Yes and no. Manjaro is by far the most reliable and stable of all rolling release distributions. BUT it is not free from bugs, even critical system breaking bugs. I have experienced them myself in a couple of occassion. On the other hand, if something critical is occuring, I have received help to solve the problems here in the forum within hours. I am using Manjaro as my everyday OS and I am more than satisfied. It beats Windows, Ubuntu or other Distros by miles, especially because of the AUR! The multitude of apps there is superior to all other software stores.

You have to decide yourself: Do you want to use a distro which is always in the frontspot concerning newest drivers, software and Desktop Environemnts? Then Manjaro is the way to go. Do you want to have a rock-solid and stable environment, then probably fall back to Ubuntu.

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Been on manjaro for 8 months and itā€™s never been "broken ". Yes thereā€™s been bugs and hiccups with updates (not many) but theyā€™ve soon been fixed. The only time my system has been unbootable is when itā€™s been my own doing

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Manjaro is stable - solid - what ever you like to name it.

The intent of the message is to paint a clear picture of the userā€™s responsibility.

Manjaro can be compared to a car - your dealer or the actual vendor of said car will tell you it is rock solid it just works hour after hour - mile after mile.

But letā€™s imagine you are the tinker type - you install a boob-boom sound system - install extra lights - flashing green and blue under neath - you rebuild the car to dance using hydraulic - then the vendor issues a critical update to the computer controlling the injection system and suddenly everything breaks down.

That is what happens to some Manjaro users after an update.

Is this an issue of Manjaro? Or is it caused by the owner?

But as I mentioned in the referenced thread - environments under heavy development should be considered more prone to issues if - more likely when - you tinker with the system.

My personal experience is K:I:S:S

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I use Manjaro since 2019 and never had a gigantic breakage,sure a little breakage here and there but was very small not to a point it make the system unusable,and the majority of problem i had was because of using AUR software.

Remember to make backups with Timeshift as always,i always make backup before an upgrade but until this day,i didnā€™t needed to restore a snapshot,but take precautions anyway.

Also remember to check and merge accordly your pacnews after an update if any.

Some tips after installation:

Why would you install php8.0 from AUR? The version in official repos is 8.0.2-1.

Iā€™m assuming you are installing lamp stack to test your applications locally? For this, Manjaro can be a good fit. However, do note that whatever servers your code is going to run in the end are going to be quite dissimilar to your development system. Most code is going to be hosted on Red hat, Debian or Ubuntu based servers. So, if you know what infrastructure your company uses, you can get some great synergy by running Fedora or Ubuntu for your development machine. These are also great choices in themselves.

However, I have found that doing developement and tinkering in general is simpler and easier in Manjaro and other Arch-based systems. So you are going to have easy time developing, but might have to take some extra time ensuring compatibility when moving to production.

Stable is a relative term. Runing on Manjaro stable, your system will not be broken every second day. If you take good care of it, it will not be broken at all. HOWEVER

  • Languages and libraries are updated to their latest versions, which may impact your developement. To avoid this issue, use venvs and things like that to avoid relying on the system installed languages.
  • Updates can sometimes require manual intervention. We do our best to avoid this, but sometimes it happens.
3 Likes

Excellent advice. Thank you! :+1:

Hi, I am a long time Kubuntu user, and I switched to Manjaro because (K)Ubuntu did not work on my new laptop, because the buntu distro does not have the recent kernel and drivers needed for my new laptop.
I tried several distros, and Manjaro was the only one that gave me a well functioning system on my new Asus TUF gaming laptop.

When I compare Manjaro to Kubuntu, I must say that Kubuntu wins on stability though.
With Manjaro, in the few months I used it, I already had 3 problems of certain things no longer working after an update, something I never experienced in the 10+ years I used Kubuntu.

On the other hand, the problems I experienced were quickly solved with the help of the Manjaro and Arch forums. There is definitely more technical knowledge available in the Manjaro/Arch forums than in the Kubuntu forum.
Also thanks to AUR, there is more software available in Manjaro, compared to Kubuntu.
Software I needed to download and install manually in Kubuntu, is available in AUR, and Graphics drivers are also easier to install than in Kubuntu.

So for me Manjaro is a keeper, even with the possible problems after updates.

But as someone else already posted, it is best to do your development work on the same environment that your customer uses (Redhat, Debian, Buntu) to ensure it works correctly on their systems.

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The warning about AUR means that some AUR packages might need to be re-installed (re-compiled) after some regular Manjaro updates.
As for stability with regard to userā€™s hardware, it much depends on Linux kernel. For instance, some Ubuntu kernels have bugs that are fixed upstream, and since Manjaro uses basically upstream kernels, those bugs are non-existent there, but it is a common thing that upstream kernels bring new bugs, which otherwise wouldnā€™t have been introduced to Ubuntu kernels. In Manjaro we mitigate this with installing a few kernel series, in Ubuntu one might want to install Xanmodā€™s or Ubuntu kernel-team kernels.

And yeah, this is a 100% correct way to go in Manjaro:

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Well, I think Manjaro is stable, as it works well on one of my laptops most of the time. For about two years, I have only met some problems several times, and most of them were caused by the newly released Linux kernels. So, I think Manjaro is reliable for daily usages. However, the packages obtained from AUR are not as reliable as those from the official repository, for they were just configured and uploaded by amateurs like you and me, and some of them might not be tested. I do not suggest you to use the AUR packages for important affairs, in that most of them are even not upgraded with the systemā€™s updatings.

If you really are a Linux user and have been here quite a long time, then Manjaro is the best distro you will ever try. But if you come from Windows expecting to cover your needs the same way yo did it before, then your experience will be as with every other Linux distributiono around there.
I also use my computer for developing (not PHP, but Python) and Iā€™m very satisfied. I work on a large local company and every process is integrated to the enviroment (VPN and Active Directory specially). Iā€™ve never had a breakage or something similar (Iā€™m on stable branch). If you read carefoully before updating, taking into account every ā€œKnown issues and solutionsā€ section, then you will be fine. Thereā€™s also a very friendly and accurate guide for updating the system on Tutorials, just follow it. And regarding AUR, you will find very good stuff but also garbage and duplicated packages. Read the last comments, check popularity and votes. Get involved with the process trying to understand the PKGBUILD script and check dependencies before installing. At last, if you are still skeptical, use Timeshift. Itā€™s the most powefull and lighter backup system tool for Linux. Good luck!

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What do you mean by ā€˜stableā€™ and ā€˜reliableā€™?
Oh, coming from Debian, you mean ā€˜stableā€™ like a dinosaur fossil?
Or coming from Ubuntu you mean ā€˜stable as long as you donā€™t mind very old versions of plasma with many missing bitsā€™.

Use Timeshift - daily updates - then everything is solid. I had 2 issues in the last six months - one needed me to play with kernels to get it to boot (20 minutes solution - installed linux59, mkinitcpio then remove linux 54, mkinitcpio, then install linux54 and remove linux59 then do update-grub) and the other was me learning that sometimes stuff needs rebuilding (Plex stopped working until I reinstalled).

In 6 months I lost less than one hour. When Iā€™m lazy to fix, I can reinstall from USB in about 6 minutes, then restore my Timeshift in about 15 minutes and be back up running.

Personally (so far) I had no problems with AUR exept occasionally having to reinstall (Plex, for example) and far less issues than I had using PPAā€™s with Mint.

Oh, and I have zero snaps installed - which is nice.
Currently running 5.4.95-1-MANJARO with Plasma 5.20-5/Qt 5.15.2
Seems stable as a rock.

The most reliable way of development is self contained images via virtual machines, apache friends, bitnami and others as the development environment is not effected by your current system, this is for any OS, a simple google will give many options.

Hi so sorry To reply to all of you this Late So I just bought a computer for gaming and Install Manjaro With Window 10 as a Dual boot and I am Going To thinker With It For Some Time Before I make a Switch

So install Manjaro Gnome 21.0 and after Installing I did not get The Welcome Screen is That Going to be A problem in the Future however I set up my development Environment I everything Work fine

Thank in Advance

Hi Sohail,

Iā€™d like to take your question in a different direction. The OS you are running depends allot on the hardware you are running. Can you let us know information like

  • What laptop or Desktop you are using.
  • What the hardware configuration is (e.g. from terminal run ā€˜inxi -bā€™.
  • What devices you are connecting to it.

I know you are configuring to develop with a LAMP Stack. But can you list some of the software you have on your daily driver (because I am like you and stability is King when you are building and testing.

On my end (as I am QA) Stability is defined quite differently.

Many people run <sudo pacman -Syyu> then:

(1) Make sure all packages are installed.

(2) Review output for changed configuration files which need to be manually merged.

(3) Reboot the system and check for errors in the logs.

This does not mean an application is not broken, that I cannot change to a different wifi, or control my screen resolution. Iā€™ve had my growing pains with Manjaro knowing our Arch brothers getting new builds faster has a good and bad effect (as we trade instances where something is not working in Manjaro but not in Arch because we are a couple packages behind). Ofcourse this goes both ways (just read the Gnome 40 growing pains).

That being said for my work machine my regiment is:

(1) Donā€™t apply you Manjaro updates till the release has hit atleast 15 days. Usually I only apply 1 release a month (if no security issue).

(2) Read through the stable comments for known issues.

(3) Read through the Arch and Endeavor forms to see if any issues related to my hardware\software.

(4) Backup my system with Timeshift.before applying any update.

(5) Where possible I also apply on 1 of my two systems so I can go through my daily workflows and watch for issues.

Keep in mind around here Quality is judged very differently (like when you watch a youtube reviewer singing the praises of a distro they use for 3 days) then hop hop hop.

On a side note I was on Ubuntu for many years before going to Antergos and Manjaro. If I was to build a development machine today (knowing I am on a Thinkpad with little hardware changes) I would also consider Fedora as it releases in a more integrated fashion.

Good luck.