What is the best Arch distribution

Hi,

I have been using Kubuntu or Ubuntu for most of my 15 years in using Linux. I want to try something different and like the idea of having more updated applications.

What is the best Arch based distribution for someone coming from Kubuntu? I use Plasma and like to think of myself as an intermediate Linux user, but do not have a lot of time to fix issues.

In my quick reading EndeavorOS seems like a good choice to try first. They promote a good community and it looks like a distribution that tries to be like Arch, but easier to setup. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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I am currently on EndeavourOS and have been for almost a year now. I chose Cinnamon because I don’t like KDE or GNOME at all. The best distro, the best anything is the one you like best and what meets your needs. Nobody can tell you that except yourself. I will say though that I haven’t had any issues on EndeavourOS. I update everyday using YAY. Honestly I would miss the AUR if I ever switched back to Fedora or anything else none Ubuntu. This is what I am running:

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I think Endeavor or Manjaro are good first Arch distros.

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I have used Manjaro a bit and mostly enjoy it. But at times it feels a bit too heavy, that it automatically installs everything.

The whole advantage of Arch is that you can trim it down to the stuff you need, and I think Manjaro looses this in trying to be all things to all people.

Why use a Arch distro over Ubuntu or Fedora if you aren’t taking advantage of its strengths.

Intending to give Endeavour OS a go. Hoping Endeavour runs a bit lighter.

Personally I don’t bother with arch based distros and just use arch.
I don’t find the install that complicated and if you don’t distrohop you don’t need to do it again.
(Barring critical failures)

For security and recoverability from problems with updates just use btrfs and snapshots. That way even if an update broke something you can just roll-back to before the update.
However I can’t remember the last time an update caused a significant problem.

I judge Arch-based distros by the amount of “customization”. If you can sudo pacman -Rns the “custom” packages, remove the “custom” repositories (leaving only canonical Arch repositories) and the system or (non AUR) stuff breaks, then your Arch-based distribution has strayed too far from the light and it is undeserving of recommendation to people asking about Arch.


I’ll also recommend EndeavourOS, which I believe to be the premier Arch install easy mode.

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This is almost the same as what’s the best distro. Depends on what you want.

I use Garuda because it’s been customized in a way I like and some of the rough edges have been sanded down a bit. And my gaming computer has nvidia which garuda plays with nicely.

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Plus 1. :+1:

Though if I remember correctly Manjaro offers a good Plasma spin as by the DLN community. I have no experience with it because the only Arch derivative I personally touch is Endeavour.

TLDR. You have to try them and see for yourself. Nothing beats self experience aka distro hopping. :wink:

Lol, almost the same reason I run Garunda. It plays nicely with AMD video cards and vulkan just works right out of the box.