Manjaro vs EndeavourOS: Arch Easy

The Arch Dilemma

Arch Linux is great, but the manual installation puts off a lot of people. Manjaro and EndeavourOS solve this differently.

Manjaro maintains its own repos with delayed updates and a full out-of-the-box experience. EndeavourOS gives you a graphical Arch installer and then gets out of your way.

Manjaro

Manjaro is the more opinionated option. It ships with a polished desktop, hardware detection, and its own package repositories:

# Manjaro uses pacman but with its own repos
sudo pacman -Syu

# Manjaro's settings manager for kernel and drivers
manjaro-settings-manager

Key Differences from Arch

• Delayed packages — Manjaro holds packages for 1-2 weeks after Arch releases them, adding their own testing
• Hardware detection — MHWD automatically installs appropriate drivers
• Multiple editions — XFCE (flagship), KDE, GNOME, and community editions
• Own repos — not directly compatible with Arch repos

The delayed package model is controversial. It means you're running a quasi-rolling release that's always slightly behind Arch, which can cause compatibility issues with AUR packages that expect current Arch versions.

EndeavourOS

EndeavourOS is "Arch with an installer." After installation, you're essentially running vanilla Arch with a few helper scripts:

# EndeavourOS uses Arch repos directly
sudo pacman -Syu

# EOS-specific tools
yay -S eos-welcome

Key Differences from Arch

• Calamares installer — graphical installation with partition manager
• Arch repos — uses official Arch repositories, not custom ones
• AUR helper (yay) pre-installed
• Minimal additions — just a few EOS-specific packages and configs
• Online and offline install options

Head-to-Head

Which to Choose?

Choose Manjaro if: - You want a polished desktop without configuration - You prefer slightly delayed, tested updates - You don't plan to use the AUR heavily - You value graphical tools for system management

Choose EndeavourOS if: - You want to learn Arch without the manual install - You want current Arch packages and full AUR compatibility - You plan to customize everything yourself - You prefer the Arch Wiki as your documentation

My Take

EndeavourOS is the better option for most people. It gives you real Arch with training wheels for the install, then takes the training wheels off. You learn Arch concepts, use Arch documentation, and benefit from Arch's ecosystem directly.

Manjaro is fine if you just want a working desktop and don't care about Arch compatibility. But at that point, you might be better served by Fedora — which is more polished and has a larger community.

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