I just realized that Manjaro is currently on the top of the Distrowatch list. Well, this rank is based on hits counted by Distrowatch. From my perspective, this mean that Manjaro is now getting more and more popular. It beats Ubuntu and Linux Mint that dominated the list in last few months (or years). The new version of Manjaro 18 is still in development stage, by the time I wrote this article. I write this post on top of Manjaro 18.0 Beta 2 GNOME edition, and I do enjoy using this new Manjaro 18.0 on my DELL Precision laptop series. I run it via Live USB created using Etcher from Windows 10 machine.
Manjaro 18.0 Desktop
Except the wallpaper, I love how the new Manjaro Desktop look. It comes with Gnome Shell version 3.28.2 and Linux Kernel 4.17.5. Everything looks pretty good. The Adapta-Maia and Papirus Adapta Maia icon theme looks match each other.
This Linux Desktop works very well on Full HD resolution on my laptop. The icons, application window shadow and other details are looks great. To be honest, I don’t like the application launcher on Gnome. It’s not handy and need more click or steps to open all installed applications. But fortunately, Manjaro 18.0 provide the traditional menu by default. On the top left screen, the traditional menu is available. While on the bottom left, we can use the new Gnome app launcher.
Microsoft Office Online on Manjaro
As I mentioned before, Manjaro 18.0 brings Microsoft Office Online on board. Open Source fanatics won’t like this decision. But for me personally, it is a good move from Manjaro team to include the best office suite on their distribution. Microsoft Office is one of the best office suite and currently no open source software that close to it.
You will need to sign in using Microsoft account in order to use Microsoft Office online. And also, a good internet connection is needed to run this program properly. If you don’t like this option, Manjaro 18.0 also provides LibreOffice suite.
Ready to take action? get your own copy of Manjaro 18.0 now. But please note that this is still in Beta and could be contains errors. So please do not install it on a production machine.
Installed Applications
There are not many applications that packed into the ISO file. You will have some pretty basic software such as Firefox, LibreOffice, Transmission. It comes with Microsoft Office Online and Skype for your productive activities.
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