Hi Bill!
I am at least as age-enhanced as you. I date back to CP/M and used some UNIX systems in the early and mid-80s.
Like you, I am new to Manjaro, although I come from other Linux distros. For me, Manjaro is a puzzle to solve as an alternative to crosswords. Something to work with to keep the mind sharp.
It is helpful to understand that Linux in general, and Manjaro in particular, is a process, not a product. It is the difference between preparing and cooking your own meal and going to McDonald’s. Yes, you are fed either way, but the experience is far different. (Even if you are preparing and cooking a burger.)
In your CD example, very few people around here would think to use their PC as a CD player. I use CDs only as a distribution medium. It goes in the CD drive one time, and one time only. It is ripped and stored on the PC, then the CD goes on a shelf never to be handled again. I have recently outgrown the 4TB SSD where I keep my music and replaced it with an 8TB one.
Once on the computer, I can play it any way I want and in any combination with other music. Better still, I can (and do) mess with it in any number of audio editing programs to modify it to my tastes and preferences. I do not blithely accept it as served. The tools available to do this, and the results achievable, are truly astonishing. As is the learning curve.
The end result is the same—music is emitted from my speakers—but the process is vastly different from simply shoving a disk in the drive and expecting the tunes to flow. It’s a process, not a product. Thus, reasonable expectations are different here.
I am hoping you’ll come to see this as I do—as problems to be solved, previously unavailable options to be explored, and a toolkit you can use towards those ends.
If however, you prefer a product to be used in blind obedience to the restrictive choices it offers you, then perhaps Manjaro is not for you. It is a Linux for tinkerers. That seems to be the expectation here.
