Hey, no panic! I only just stumbled about OBRevenge like last night and installed it like half an hour ago. So the internal jury is still out if I shall recommend OBR for you guys … or better not. So far I’ve still not figured it out completely but got a good first impression. Until I can make up my mind perhaps you should watch some YT video:

What I can tell you right now is that OBR is Arch-based, so rolling and always up-to-date. Also it’s very fast and lightweight (Open Box) without being to uncomfortable. The developer seems to have stolen assembled a nice collection of softwares for your everyday uses. The repo ain’t very big but you’ll find the best possible open source programs for most uses. I rather like that attempt: Right after the baby-easy installation (using Manjaro’s Calamares installer) and the first update OBR is empty like a fresh Windows install but the small repo is so cleverly set up, you can browse thru, check the stuff you want/need and install it all at once with a single mouseclick.

All further stuff you can simply get from the Arch repositories. So the initial sparseness of OBR isn’t really a problem. You can get old on this system because, as usual in Arch, you can configure everything just the way you want it so the system will grow with you and get from easy peasy to nerdy geeky should you so wish. Also as usual in Arch you can test OBR out from the live medium and see if everything works fine on your hardware before installing the shit on your valuable computer.

I have my reservations when I have to deal with super lightweight desktop environments like Open Box, never liked the uncomfyness just too save some MB of RAM. Fortunately both my desktops can handle the modern full-sized heavy distros without any problems. But my little netbook is a bit laggy so I’m always on the hunt for a nice lightweight and fast system without having to live with stone-age tools. And OBR seems to sit smackbang in that void. Let me test it a little longer and then come up with my final verdict.

But I do dare stating already that OBR can be called a beginners friendly system. Even tho OBR belongs to the infamously geeky Arch family I see no hurdles for new users and the welcome screen is really very helpful for getting you set up in a matter of minutes.