Our verdict

Manjaro takes Arch Linux, which expects you to assemble the system yourself, and gives you a normal graphical installer and a normal desktop. The official editions are KDE Plasma, Xfce and GNOME, currently at version 26.1.0, with Cinnamon and others maintained by volunteers. The Plasma edition is the familiar one for a Windows user, with a menu button and taskbar where you expect.

It is a rolling release, so there are no versions to upgrade between. Manjaro holds new packages back for a period of testing before passing them on, which makes it steadier than Arch itself, but it is still a system where an update can occasionally cause a problem you have to fix.

The honest warning is about neglect. A machine left without updates for several months becomes awkward to bring current, and that is exactly what casual users do. Manjaro publishes no official memory or disk requirements, so the figures here are a conservative estimate for a Plasma desktop rather than an official number. If you want new software with fewer conditions, look at Fedora. If you want none of this to be your problem, Linux Mint.

Best for: Confident tinkerers, Gaming PCs, People who want new software without Arch's setup.

What's good

New software and drivers arrive quickly, which helps on recent hardware
Updates are held back and tested before release, unlike plain Arch
Graphical tools for drivers and kernels, so less is left to typing
Access to a very large community software collection

What to know first

Rolling updates mean occasional breakage, and you must apply them regularly
Skipping updates for months causes real problems, which is a trap for casual users
Community software is unreviewed and can pull in trouble
Not the one to start with in your first month off Windows

The details

Memory (RAM) needed

4 GB minimum, 8 GB comfortable

Disk space needed

30 GB

Desktop look

KDE Plasma (also: GNOME, Xfce, Cinnamon)

Updates

Constant small updates, always the newest

Supported for

Ongoing, no fixed end

Built on

Arch Linux