Allero

EndeavourOS is essentially Arch with bells and whistles.

Manjaro has a lot of things done differently.

Yes, Manjaro didn't have a stellar reputation in the past, but currently it's amazing and I'm more than happy to have it as my daily driver for over a year now. Best Linux experience overall.

(And yes, I can install and operate Arch)

True; however, Debian's update schedule is its blessing AND a curse, and old packets may result in lacking features (which can be frustrating) and lackluster performance in certain applications. And while you can use Flatpaks for some of it, system tools are not installed this way, and sandboxing brings its own set of issues.

That's not to say Debian is bad on desktop - Debian 12 is great and it runs on my laptop and I couldn't be happier - but the limitations are there.

Also, as far as I'm aware, Mint does modify Ubuntu to exclude some of Canonical's "features"

Anyway, if you want a sleek up-to-date system that is completely independent of Ubuntu, Manjaro remains a solid pick. Rolling release means you'll get the latest and greatest, and packet retention means you don't have to dip into unstable territory that is the domain of pure Arch.

Debian for work, Mint for work and games, Manjaro for latest & greatest of Linux (and games) without headache.

Arch for those who love pain and micromanagement.

I use Arch, btw

(But it's Manjaro)

For the record, there's nothing wrong with Manjaro either, it doesn't deserve the Internet hate it often gets and I'm happy to use it as my daily driver.

Never actually missed important dependencies in AUR.

So you might give Arch or derivatives a spin. Warning: Arch relies on you knowing what you're doing. You can bork something by doing it the wrong way. Manjaro helps, but has its own issues - mainly, you better not use AUR unless you actually need it.

Due to some old school terminal things. Add shift to shortcut combinations, such as Ctrl+Shift+V to paste.

I do remember facing that issue in my early Linux days, so fair enough. Hopefully, now it's super rare and it was able to fix in a single command.

What did you expect of a FEDiverse

Windows settings are notoriously confusing, and absolute majority of things can currently be resolved in various Linux environments via GUI.

I honestly don't remember when I last opened the terminal. Using Manjaro KDE on my main machine right now.

Linux be like

Type of fortified (i.e. with added spirits) wine flavored with herbs