Manjaro

Manjaro was first released on 10 July 2011. GNOME Shell support was dropped with the release of version 0.8.3 in 2012. However, efforts within Arch Linux made it possible to restart the Cinnamon/GNOME edition as a community edition. An official release offering the GNOME desktop environment was reinstated in March 2017. Manjaro 15.09, codenamed Bellatrix and formerly known as 0.9.0, was released on 27 September 2015 with the new Calamares installer and updated packages. However, in November 2017 a semi-official community project "manjaro32", based on archlinux32, continued i686 support. In September 2019, the Manjaro GmbH & Co. KG company was founded. ''It's FOSS'' website stated the company was formed '... to effectively engage in commercial agreements, form partnerships, and offer professional services'. ==Official editions==

For x86-64 processors, Manjaro offers downloads configured with one of three desktops: • Manjaro Plasma, featuring Manjaro's own dark Plasma theme and the latest KDE Plasma 6, apps and frameworks. • Manjaro Xfce, featuring Manjaro's own dark theme and the Xfce desktop. ==Features==

Manjaro comes with both a CLI and a graphical installer. The rolling release model means that users do not need to upgrade/reinstall the whole system to keep it all up-to-date inline with the latest release. Package management is handled by Pacman via the command line (terminal) and via front-end GUI package manager tools like the pre-installed Pamac. It can be configured as either a stable system (default) or bleeding edge, in line with Arch. Manjaro includes its own GUI settings manager where options like language, drivers, and kernel version can be configured. Certain commonly used Arch utilities, such as the Arch Build System (ABS), are available but have alternate implementations in Manjaro. Manjaro Architect is a CLI net installer that allows users to choose their own kernel versions, drivers, and desktop environments during the install process. Both the official and the community edition's desktop environments are available for selection. For GUI-based installations, Manjaro uses the GUI installer Calamares. ==Release history==

The 0.8.x series releases were the last versions of Manjaro to use a version number. The desktop environments offered, as well as the number of programs bundled into each separate release, have varied in different releases. Manjaro typically includes the latest versions of supported desktop environments. ==Relation to Arch Linux==

The main difference compared to Arch Linux is the repositories. Manjaro uses three sets of repositories: • Unstable: contains the most up to date Arch Linux packages. Unstable is synced several times a day with Arch package releases. • Testing: contains packages from the unstable repositories after they have been tested by users. • Stable: contains only packages that are deemed stable by the development team, which can mean a delay of a few weeks before getting major upgrades. , package updates derived from the Arch Linux stable branch to the Manjaro stable branch typically have a lag of a few weeks. ==Derivatives==

Two defunct distributions were developed in cooperation with Manjaro:. • Netrunner Rolling, a variant of the Debian-based Netrunner distribution by Blue Systems. The first version of Netrunner Rolling was 2014.04, which was based on Manjaro 0.8.9 KDE. It was released in 2014. The last released version was Netrunner Rolling 2019.04. • The Sonar GNU/Linux project aimed to provide a barrier-free Linux to people who required assistive technology for computer use, with support for GNOME and MATE desktops. The first version was released in February 2015 and the last in 2016. The Sonar project was discontinued in 2017. == Hardware ==

Although Manjaro can be installed on most systems, some vendors sell computers with Manjaro pre-installed on them. Suppliers of computers pre-installed with Manjaro include StarLabs Systems, Tuxedo Computers, manjarocomputer.eu and Pine64. Manjaro with Plasma Mobile desktop environment is the default operating system on PinePhone, an ARM-based smartphone released by Pine64. ==Reception==

Over the years, Manjaro Linux has been recognized as a desktop easy to set up and use, suitable for both beginners and experienced users. It is recommended as an easy and friendly way to install and maintain a cutting-edge Arch-derived distribution. Some reviewers find appeal in the large range of contributed software available in the AUR, which has a reputation for being kept up to date from upstream resources. Others highlight the wide selection of official and community editions with different desktop environments. Very early versions of Manjaro had a reputation for crashing and for installation difficulties, but this was reported to have improved with later versions, and by 2014 was, according to Jesse Smith of DistroWatch, "proving to be probably the most polished child of Arch Linux I have used to date. The distribution is not only easy to set up, but it has a friendly feel, complete with a nice graphical package manager, quality system installer and helpful welcome screen. Manjaro comes with lots of useful software and multimedia support." Smith did a review of Manjaro 17.0.2 Xfce in July 2017, and observed that it did "a lot of things well". He went on to extol some of the notable features as part of his conclusion: ==Notes==