»Ya, bitch, tell us something we don’t already know!«

Ok ok, but I mean it. This time for realz. Maybe it’s the first real heatwave this spring season melted my brainz or system imminent stupidity but I did something that could only be considered as pretty useless, senseless, needless, brainless and, yes, stupid.

What did I do? I played with my 2 test computers, the netbook OrcNet and my secondary desktop, the Thinker. Of course I installed Linux distros on them. That’s not stupid but rather clever. But what I did was much more than just installing some random distros on my machines but … Tadaa! I installed Manjaro MATE.

»But, hey Orcs, don’t you have Manjaro with MATE desktop running on your production machine already? Didn’t you say it’s a pretty boring and bland system once you know your way around?«

Yes, I did, and yes, it is indeed so.

»So why the fuck did you put the same bland workhorse now on all your computer things? Don’t you wanna  be sexy anymore?«

Oh yes, I guess I’m still super sexy. You don’t know how this setup came to pass and why I made it so. You remember I said I was stupid, right. So here goes:

Me, super fancy, trying to install other – hopefully even better – Arch based Linuxes on my 2 test machines … and failing. Failing like there’s no tomorrow. Yes, it doesn’t just happen to the best of us but to the most stupid cows as well. Antergos installs ok, as always but the MATE DE is so badly and lovelessly implemented – even in the latest version of Antergos – that I just gave up on it. Of course if I wanted Cinnamon or any other DE Antergos comes highly recommended. But as I’m not just stupid but very stubborn as well I don’t wanna live with Cinnamon but I want my spunky yet humble MATE. And as Antergos won’t give it to me straight … pfff byebye.

Next candidate: Archbang. Okay, installation is a pita … and what did I end up with? Archbang only comes with one very primitive desktop environment, Openbox. Brrrr, shiver. 😦 No way, José.

Last realistic alternative, is the Architect Linux Installer. That’s a very cool thing, very very cool. Architect isn’t a full distro at all but just a simplified installer, so that even stupid moos like Orca will end up with a real original vanilla Arch distro. And yes, indeed, after some trial end error and with the help of some YouTube videos, I always manage to get that thing installed on my machine. No degree in computer sciences necessary. But then. But then the real trouble starts as this system is soooo plain and empty, you’ve gotta teach it everything. Naaaw, not for me. I need some luxuries and ceature comforts. So, yes, in the end the good old Manjaro is the way to go.

Ok, here’s a Golden Protip for y’alls: Once you’re bored with Linux Lite (my absolute recommendation for when you start with Linux) and feel ready to tackle the more heavyweight distros, look no further than Manjaro. It has everything as you get the goodness and speed of Arch Linux but paired with the luxury and ease of use of Linux Mint. So, after some experimentation and frustration with Manjaro’s competitors I decided to just stick with the original.

But no fear, it won’t be for long. At least on thinker I’ll go on test other distros but OrcNet as a serious working computer for when I travel will stay on Manjaro for now.

The weird thing is that my production machine is on an older desktop, MATE 1.10, compared to the 1.12 versions that I installed today. Apart from that all 3 machines are on the same level: same 4.3.0-1 kernel, same  TESTING repo, same updates. But somehow one is stuck with the same desktop after installation. Gotta ask my Linux guruine why that is so.