Linux Mint 19.1 Vs Manjaro 18 | Which is the Best Linux Distro?

Published: 17 March 2019
on channel: Linux Tex
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In this video, we will be comparing Linux Mint 19.1 and Manjaro 18 side by side and in depth. we will be having a look at the user interface, performance, stability, software availability, gaming and many more aspects of Linux Mint and Manjaro.

Manjaro and Mint have always been in the top 5 Linux distros since forever. And they rightly deserve to be. They both are highly polished, dependable and provide a great computing experience. They both have a fan following that is in millions.
But they both are very different from each other. One is a stability-focused distro with a life cycle of 5 years and the other is a bleeding edge distro which pushes updates, pretty much every day.

So, how do they compare against each other? Which among them is the best? Which among them is more suitable FOR You? Linux Mint or Manjaro. Let's find out.

Manjaro offers all the desktop environments but XFCE has always been its main desktop. At the very first look, you can see that the XFCE desktop is customized extensively to suit the Manjaro branding. The functionality in XFCE desktop is boosted by features taken from other desktops here. Manjaro desktop promotes a distraction-free, productivity-oriented environment by cutting down all the glittery stuff.
The desktop is minimal and very fast. By default, you'll find everything you need here with no unnecessary bloat.
A number of amazing wallpapers are included by default. I'm really loving what's in here.
All in all, it's XFCE, but it looks really good. Top points for Manjaro desktop.


Linux Mint, on the other hand, is famous for its homegrown Cinnamon desktop. Cinnamon is one of the most loved desktop environments. And looking at it, it's quite clear why.
Cinnamon desktop is highly intuitive, elegant and just so gorgeous to look at. The menu is organized and accessible. Unlike GNOME desktop, the menu does not cut the users workflow. Controlling your computer is really easy. Linux Mint's interface is quite amazing.

Cinnamon is also highly customizable with a wide range of themes and additional widgets called spices. The effects and animations are there, but not so much that they distract you from your work.
I really love working on the cinnamon desktop, it has this homely feel to it.

Now at a glance, Mint and Manjaro desktops might look rather similar. But there is a huge difference in the underlying technologies used to build Manjaro's Xfce and Mint's Cinnamon.
Xfce is a very lightweight desktop built with 2 main aims, to be extremely fast and low on system resources. Cinnamon, on the other hand, was derived from GNOME 3, which is not exactly known for being lightweight. Cinnamon looks much more polished to the eye. It's just so smooth. But XFCE is visibly faster at launching applications and window controls.
Side by side, you can notice a snappy performance on manjaro's part when compared against Linux Mint.

Although Manjaro is based on Arch Linux, it has it's own software repositories. And these repositories contain a huge number of packages. And these packages are relatively newer. You pretty much get the latest of all the Linux software. On top of this, you get the amazing Arch User repositories or the AUR. Now AUR is probably the biggest pool of Linux software. It is community maintained and has pretty much anything and everything you need. So Manjaro's software availability is top notch.

Moving to Linux Mint, mint is based on Ubuntu and being based on Ubuntu means access to the huge Ubuntu software repositories and the PPAs.

The Ubuntu software repositories are huge and contain a very large number of software. Pretty much anything you need can be installed directly through the Ubuntu Repositories. And the software that are not available in the official Ubuntu repositories are brought to you through the use of PPAs. PPAs are maintained by the software developers or the maintainer themselves, which you can generally trust and install from.

Almost all the developers support Ubuntu by providing either a PPA or .deb installers. Which can be installed on Linux Mint too.

As I installed a couple of games on Manjaro, I noticed a consistent screen tearing on my screen while gaming. While everything was butter smooth on Linux Mint.
Now, I do know that this is an NVIDIA card and XFCE issue and not a Manjaro specific issue. But I still was disappointed by that.
And Steam officially supports only Ubuntu, so either Ubuntu or Ubuntu based distros like Linux Mint should be preferred for gaming on Linux as steam games are tested and optimized for Ubuntu.


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