Manjaro to EndeavourOS experiences

I still like Manjaro, even though I decided to stop using it and convert all my machines to EndeavourOS (and it could have been vanilla Arch, too, there’s little difference, which is one of the reasons I like Endeavour so much).

I genuinely think that Manjaro is the best distro currently in existence. It has most of the benefits of a pure Arch system, but also curated and well-maintained repos that make for a very low-maintenance, low-effort system. Sure, Manjaro’s default installations are a bit bloated, and contain “malware” like snapd, but it’s not at all difficult to debloat Manjaro (at least it’s easier than getting everything to work on a pure Arch system, especially on older or poorly supported hardware). I’ve been using Manjaro for about a year on all of my computers and it has been a really enjoyable experience.

The reason I decided to switch to EndeavourOS is the fact I don’t want to be dependent on the whims of the Manjaro Team, especially now that they decided to part ways with @jonathon, who was their loudest voice of reason whenever they made questionable or unpopular decisions (like with the "Free"Office debacle). This is not bashing Manjaro. I love Manjaro, I just lost confidence in the ability of its devs to make good long-term decisions. I dislike the direction of wannabe corporatism that the distro is heading towards: it is as if Manjaro GmbH is trying to out-Canonical Canonical. So, my decision to switch away from Manjaro is one that I perceive to bring me more long-term independence: it has nothing to do with the present quality of Manjaro, which I think is still very high.

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