Note: I don’t know if I’m posting this in the right community, I joined Lemmy recently.
I use KDE Neon on my desktop, and I recently decided to install Linux on my laptop. I don’t want to install KDE Neon onto my laptop though, because it only has fairly up to date software through Flatpak (at least for me).
Is there a good distro with very up to date software that doesn’t require me to check on it often, and that I can probably make it work within 15 days? (I have the list of apps I need.) I prefer an Arch-based distro that lets me remove a lot of distro specific customization. However, if there is some other distro “base” that has software up to date like Arch and the AUR, please also let me know.
(I tried Arch already, but it seems to be too hard for me to configure, and it has multiple weird issues for me, so I don’t really want to use it.)
Edit 1: (Late edit because lemmy.world was down for the day) I am going to try out Fedora KDE, Endeavour KDE, and Manjaro KDE out. Might also check out Kinoite. Will update after I have tested each.
I’m gonna vouch for EndeavourOS on this one. It’s Arch based but it has very sane defaults. It’s the spiritual successor to Antergos.
ease of use and up to date software
I prefer an Arch-based distro
How about Manjaro then? Looks like the perfect match for you.
I used Manjaro for several years but it requires so much manual intervention on updates that don’t work. Just straight arch or endeavor would be easier in the long run imo. I use tumbleweed on my current main computer though.
Other people have already said this in other comments on other posts, but in short Manjaro breaks easier than Arch because it ships stable older packages, but combines it with unstable new packages. The AUR can easily break on Manjaro, and ironically the same is true in reverse. Manjaro has broken the AUR before and they’ve let the SSL certificates expire, multiple times. The devs even suggested users to change their system clock back as a temporary fix. You’d probably be better off learning Arch itself or use Endeavor OS, although I personally haven’t tried it.
Personally I’ve had good experiences with Garuda lite (despite the terrible looking website). Btrfs + snapper built in with GRUB integration, vanilla KDE by default, plus a few GUI utilities for basic functions. Nothing you can’t do yourself but it’s quick and easy to set up and has some some nice bits and bobs.
Endeavouros would be recommended if you like arch , if you want an rolling relase you could try Opensuse Tumbleweed, or fairly updated but stable then Fedora.
Check out distrobox. Allows you to run any distro in a container and use the apps on your system like they are native.
