Preface#
In the end, reality defeated my enthusiasm. In order to free up space on my hard drive, I deleted all the snapshots and then debugged a seemingly normal program. This program required a package, and during the process of downloading the package, I didn't notice that I had downloaded a corrupted package. After finishing my meal, my computer's fan had already taken off. It was my own negligence, although this abnormal package didn't cause any major damage, it almost completely destroyed my configuration files. Instead of rewriting the configuration files, I decided to reinstall the system, which would make it clean. In order to start using it as soon as possible, I naturally wouldn't install Arch Linux again, but the Arch-based software sources and maintenance rules deeply attracted me, so I decided to try Manjaro Linux again.
Installation#
The installation process went smoothly, thanks to the GUI. It only took a few simple steps and it was done.
It's worth mentioning that AMD graphics cards are comfortable on Linux without needing drivers, unlike my previous machine with an NVIDIA graphics card, which was difficult to deal with. The closed-source drivers have strong performance but have compatibility issues, including but not limited to: not compatible with old graphics cards, no boot animation, random black screens, random glitches, desktop environment crashes, etc. Although the open-source drivers have very good compatibility, their performance is very poor. In my opinion, NVIDIA card users are still in a dilemma. I wonder how NVIDIA is progressing with open-sourcing their GPU drivers.
Writing Configuration Files#
Manjaro is still more suitable for leisure. Many configuration options don't require any effort, such as networking and Bluetooth. Although they are one-time tasks, not having to configure them saves a lot of trouble. The KDE suite is comfortable!
Although my previous desktop environment was also KDE, I didn't have the software KDE Connect installed. This time, I have the whole KDE suite, and after using it, I feel comfortable. It not only supports cross-platform usage but is also quite good. As long as your devices are on the same network, it works.
It supports the following features:
- File transfer between phone and computer
- Phone notifications pushed to the computer
- Computer notifications pushed to the phone
- Phone calls pushed to the computer
- View computer/phone status, including but not limited to: signal strength, battery level
- With its SMS function, you can send and receive text messages on the computer
Just the first feature alone already attracts me. Now I don't need tools like QQ/WeChat to transfer files between my phone and computer.
Conclusion#
You may ask, why don't you use Debian-based Linux systems like Ubuntu/Deepin?
Because of AUR (Arch User Repository). Almost all the packages available on Linux are available in AUR, making it convenient to manage. If it were a Debian-based system, using third-party software sources would require adding PPAs, which is troublesome because I don't want to remember so many PPA addresses and deal with the tedious key adding. In this regard, Debian-based systems can't compare. Personally, I think Arch-based systems are more suitable for desktop systems compared to Debian-based systems. After all, Debian-based systems have poor dependency handling and crash upon rebooting. Arch-based systems may seem wild, but they are actually more stable than Ubuntu desktop editions. Ubuntu is really not durable for playing around.
From my personal experience, Debian and its derivative distributions are great for beginners! However, Debian's dependencies are prone to explosions. There are conflicts between existing dependencies and required packages, and this conflict problem has never been resolved well. You may ask, does Arch solve this problem?
Arch doesn't solve this problem, but its rolling release model and related software distribution strategies can alleviate this problem. After all, if you don't update, there won't be any packages available. This ensures that everyone has a relatively consistent dependency environment, unlike Debian-based systems where the dependency versions vary greatly. After all, if you don't update, it won't affect your ability to download new packages. However, I also look forward to the dependency coexistence solution of Gentoo Linux being promoted in other Linux distributions. I think this solution is great. Alternatively, there is the package distribution model of AppImage, which includes its own dependencies. Personally, I think this is also very good.
If I still have the desire to tinker, maybe I will try Gentoo Linux. After all, some of its features and characteristics are also attracting me.