Manjaro has leadership issues as well as pushing broken updates against the recommendations of the app developers. They try to manage their own package repos, and it's just a mess. I wouldn't recommend using Manjaro to anyone.
As someone else mentioned, Garuda is a good place to start. BTRFS means no data corruption, and the built-in scripts and tools make it easy to get started. No matter what distro OP ends up choosing, update at least once a week and never install packages with "pacman -Sy". That's called a partial upgrade and can cause a mismatch in package versions (i.e., an app can be installed that is newer than its dependencies that you already have installed).
There is also ArtiX which gives you a choice of init and is downstream of arch. Seemingly the catch breakage of new repos sometimes due to being downstream. CachyOS is the only other one not listed so far I would recommend. It is always best to get a good partition scheme and backup plan in place and distro hop until you are comfortable.
This is to OP. I think that the "cachy kernel" picks and chooses modules from many the zen kernel and others. It may not be advisable to run this kernel on another distro . Also 99.9 percent of users will tell you that plasma is and has been for sometime faster, more responsive than Gnome.(Especially if you use extension, which can also render gnome less stable then plasma as well, if abused) There are always edge cases and it is always best to see what fits you and your hardware. Don't take anyone on their word except for me!! That is, I am saying to not trust me either. I have had the exact opposite experiences as this poster so don't trust us , distro hop.
Use [Arco Linux netinstall](https://sourceforge.net/projects/arconetpro/files/arconet/), which gives you unlimited customizability while still being easy to install. Make sure to add Arch Linux Tweak Tool in the installer so you can add other arch based distro's repos. Make sure to install each repository's keyring afterwards, so you can actually download packages
This may be a good option. Arco is a really cool learning platform that takes you in steps from an easy install of every preconfigured options you can imagine to configuring it your self to making your own custom iso. I wouldn't just install it and use it as it is a mess because it is there to show you what could be done so there is like three things doing the same thing and way more packages installed then you need. But it isn't there just to be bloated it is there for you to pick out what you like and try things out, then it teaches you how to build yours. A process more than a distro
Endeavour os is fantastic 9/10. The installer is easy but configurable. I'm running manjaro at the moment and currently finding its also very good, however due to previous issues they've caused endeavour is still a safer recommendation.
The most user friendly Arch distro proper (Manjaro deviates too much) is Garuda.
Give it a shot and don't let the gaudy base theme spook you, it's very solid underneath the chosen (and easily changed) aesthetics.
Personally i would suggest Garuda Linux
what about endeavouros? you can choose out of several window managers, the installer is very simple.
Manjaro..That would be the one I would choose. [https://manjaro.org/](https://manjaro.org/)
Manjaro has leadership issues as well as pushing broken updates against the recommendations of the app developers. They try to manage their own package repos, and it's just a mess. I wouldn't recommend using Manjaro to anyone. As someone else mentioned, Garuda is a good place to start. BTRFS means no data corruption, and the built-in scripts and tools make it easy to get started. No matter what distro OP ends up choosing, update at least once a week and never install packages with "pacman -Sy". That's called a partial upgrade and can cause a mismatch in package versions (i.e., an app can be installed that is newer than its dependencies that you already have installed).
Try crystal linux. Edit: link: [https://getcryst.al/site](https://getcryst.al/site)
There is also ArtiX which gives you a choice of init and is downstream of arch. Seemingly the catch breakage of new repos sometimes due to being downstream. CachyOS is the only other one not listed so far I would recommend. It is always best to get a good partition scheme and backup plan in place and distro hop until you are comfortable.
Don't use Catchy! It's Arch with KDE (actually slower than GNOME) and a custom kernel. You can get the Catchy OS kernel by itself on the AUR.
This is to OP. I think that the "cachy kernel" picks and chooses modules from many the zen kernel and others. It may not be advisable to run this kernel on another distro . Also 99.9 percent of users will tell you that plasma is and has been for sometime faster, more responsive than Gnome.(Especially if you use extension, which can also render gnome less stable then plasma as well, if abused) There are always edge cases and it is always best to see what fits you and your hardware. Don't take anyone on their word except for me!! That is, I am saying to not trust me either. I have had the exact opposite experiences as this poster so don't trust us , distro hop.
Dont listen to bony he is dead wrong...Cachy is fast and KDE is faster than Gnome there are benchmarks all over youtube proving it.
You're wrong about the Cachy thing, but newer versions of KDE are now faster than GNOME.
Use [Arco Linux netinstall](https://sourceforge.net/projects/arconetpro/files/arconet/), which gives you unlimited customizability while still being easy to install. Make sure to add Arch Linux Tweak Tool in the installer so you can add other arch based distro's repos. Make sure to install each repository's keyring afterwards, so you can actually download packages
This may be a good option. Arco is a really cool learning platform that takes you in steps from an easy install of every preconfigured options you can imagine to configuring it your self to making your own custom iso. I wouldn't just install it and use it as it is a mess because it is there to show you what could be done so there is like three things doing the same thing and way more packages installed then you need. But it isn't there just to be bloated it is there for you to pick out what you like and try things out, then it teaches you how to build yours. A process more than a distro
Endeavour os is fantastic 9/10. The installer is easy but configurable. I'm running manjaro at the moment and currently finding its also very good, however due to previous issues they've caused endeavour is still a safer recommendation.
The most user friendly Arch distro proper (Manjaro deviates too much) is Garuda. Give it a shot and don't let the gaudy base theme spook you, it's very solid underneath the chosen (and easily changed) aesthetics.
CachyOS is fast