Hello,
If the Manjaro team decides in their new version to remove some of the packages that existed in the previous versions and or change it with another package, will these changes be available from Pamac for old users?(automatically remove and change packages with new one) , or we have to the get the new ISO file and reinstall whole manjaro?
It might install the new one but wonât remove the old/already existing one as many users might use that particular application.
A simple system update would suffice.
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Tnx so for example if they decide to remove one of kde apps in their new iso, How does this change apply to older users? I mean, do they put a button through the Pamac update menu for the user to delete it?
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Nope! Thereâs no such button. One way you can achieve this is by going through the announcement thread of that particular update to see if some application is dropped or not.
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If a package is renamed due to changes in packaging, then the update process will alert you to that and will ask you to confirm the replacement of the old package with the new one.
If a package is removed from the ISO, then that does not yet mean that the package will also be removed from the repository. And even if that is the case, then you might still find the package in the AUR. Either way, nothing will ever be removed from your system automatically.
Manjaro is a rolling-release distribution. You install it once and keep it updated. There is never a need to reinstall, barring a change in the hardware or a serious bug between the keyboard and the chair. 
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Are all distroes like that? Because for a normal user like me, when I do not have time to check the announcements of new versions, it is a little annoying, and on the other hand, I like to have the latest changes of Manjaro easily.
No distro that I know of will ever remove a package from your computer. But not all distros are rolling releases. Fixed-point releases often need to be upgraded by freshly installing the system.
Manjaro is a rolling release, so after updating you will always be on the latest version â or at least, for the branch youâre using, i.e. Stable, Testing or Unstable.
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AFAIK Manjaro has several meta-packages â packages without actual content, they only list dependencies so they are automatically installed â for managing some default applications. Keeping those installed might automatically install novelties.
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And another thing to mention is also that if you have modified/customized any of the system-wide configuration files, and a package upgrade comes with a new configuration file, then this new configuration file will not overwrite the one that youâve changed yourself.
Instead, the new configuration file will be saved with a .pacnew filename suffix. It is then up to you to merge the files together if necessary â for which several tools exist, both in the standard repositories and in the AUR, e.g. pacnew-chaser (from the AUR).
Similarly, if you remove a package that had a modified configuration file, then this file will be preserved with a .pacsave filename suffix.
The best advice I can give you: regularly log on at the forum and subscribe to notifications for the branch youâre using, e.g. #announcements:stable-updates if youâre on x86-64. The announcement thread always warns you of possible gotchas and how to deal with them.
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You donât need to check announcements, however sometimes there is bugs that cannot be resolved at packaging level and you can check how to fix them in the announcements or by community members with the same issue, those might brake your system or not, overall it should be safe to blindly update if you are not using Proprietary Nvidia drivers, you also donât need to update all the time once a month will do the job.
If a package is removed from the Manjaro repo, it still exists in your system and is marked as an alien package (as from AUR). If itâs present in AUR, it will keep updating, if you have AUR enabled. If the package is not in AUR, it will stay in your system and wonât be updated. If the package is somehow changed - like name of the package, it will be done in the update - you will be asked if you agree to change package X to package Y. You obviously have to agree, otherwise your system wonât update.
So there is no need to worry. This is so convenient, that every package that was installed from AUR, if it appears in Manjaro repo, it will be updated from repo. If it will be deleted from repo, it will be updated from AUR. You may not even see the difference. This is what happened with Vivaldi package for me. It was initially in AUR, I installed and didnât even notice when it was added to Manjaro repo, and now it updates from repo. In other way it also worked, some dropped packages update from AUR now. And there are some old AUR packages that were removed from AUR (some printer drivers to an old Brother model), but I still have it installed and working - although there is some danger that such old packages, may break with time. Obviously, drivers will work correctly for many, many years, but regular packages need to be complied against updated libraries and depended on packages, and if they are not, they may stop working.
If you donât use proprietary Nvidia drivers, you donât need to update them all the time; once a month should plenty.