Manjaro remains a bi-polar distro. On one hand, it's a unique project, with unique features, its own identity, true and independent effort to be a first-class system, constant improvement, and a level of quality that is starting to approach serious pro stuff. On the other hand, it's plagued with totally random issues that have no place in a wider-reach user-facing product. Nerds be nerds, fine, but ordinary folks cannot and will not do any trickery to get things working and running.
That said, Manjaro Linux 20.1.2 Mikah plus Plasma delivers a reasonable desktop experience. Considering my newfound extra-jaded approach and significantly less tolerance than what I used to dedicate to reviews in the past, this is a pretty solid result. Overall, you get a lot of goodies. My one fear is - how long will the awesome last before it gets ruined by some unnecessary bug? Can Manjaro go only up from here?
So far, looking at the range of distros released in the last several months, Mikah is one of the more successful contenders. Now, looking back several years, there were and are better and stronger and smarter choices for the average user out there, but when the sky is all gray and gloomy, a ray of sunshine on the horizon means a lot. Well, I hope the Manjaro team can turn this effort in a meaningful and long-lasting endeavor that delivers a seamless experience. We're not there yet of course - better application management, more robust updates and fewer nerd-in-the-middle stuff must be satisfied. That said, in the current Tux landscape, Manjaro 20 is a fairly solid offering. And I go back to my cave and its stalagmites of shed tears.
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