I don't work for Manjaro, so I don't know more than the public info either. But I guess after all the legal stuff is settled? Last update they where in the final stages of setting up the non-profit. They need to finish that to be able to transfer ownership I'd suppose.
cambionn
joined 3 years ago
If you check the link I posted (which is the non-discussion thread that explained the situation) it has the updates. Most come from dennis1248. On Matrix he also confirmed those are the latest updates, altrough that was a while back already. I don't check that Matrix chat that often. So while the owner (Phil) hasn't replied publicly since, there are updates from the people who started the manifest about what's happening behind the scenes since.
Last update I know of was the one late June, mentioning nearly finishing all the legal paperwork for setting up the non-profit entity (where they updated us before to take longer than expected due to the complexity of writing legal stuff taking longer than expected).
Outside of what Hamsda said (to which I've added some context), the thing with Manjaro is also that it's target is easy usage which attracts beginners. Now that isn't bad per se (it was my first distro too, and I still run it on some machines. I'm not a hater) but it does become a thing when those people go to Arch-related spaces (like the Arch forum or the AUR comment section) asking Arch-people for help.
For one, Manjaro isn't Arch. It may be based on it, but it also has it's differences. It's better to ask on the Manjaro forums. Why some Manjaro users go bother the Arch forums I never understood. The Manjaro forum is very helpful, quick to react, and more appropiate. No reason to divert really...
And secondary, Arch is a distro aimed at more advanced users and has a "know the basics, read the documentation, understand it, and try stuff yourself. And if you thén still don't know you can ask" expectation. Since Manjaro attracts beginners, the questions they ask are often not only about a different distro, but on the level Arch expects you to be able to figure it out yourself making it rather a nuicance (after all, they're asking beginner questions in a space for advanced users). Manjaro users doing that somewhat regularily gave it a bad reputation.
The "internal struggle" was actually related to the rest and (hopefully) sorted out the other issues.
The tl;dr is that Manjaro was setup as a company with one owner who often didn't do what he was supposed to and no one else had access to do it. This caused issues like the SSL stuff but also other things. Obviously this made quite some volunteers leave over time, but as the distro itself is actually quite nice also a bunch didn't want to give up that easily. Those pretty much gave that one person the choice to transfer the distro to a new to-be-made non-profit (leaving only the commercial activities in the company) or they would leave (and likely fork it or something). He agreed and they're now in the legal process of setting up the non-profit, where important things will not be in the hands of a single person.
So all with all it was a bit messy, but it seems they got it sorted out now. That should also prevent issues like they've seen in the past. So with that I wouldn't recommend against the distro. I still have it on some secundairy systems, where my main one (I need to say this naturally) got switched during the drama to run Arch (btw).
You can read more here: https://forum.manjaro.org/t/manjaro-2-0-manifesto/186171
It also works well for the "new to Linux but interested in it and tech-saffy enough to learn quickly" people. For those it's an easier and fuller start-up than an install with the archinstall script that they can use right away while learning along the way. It makes it a good beginner distro for die-hard nerds, but I wouldn't recommend it for those not interested or tech-saffy enough to handle such an approach.
But yeah, I agree the main users are those who like the Archiness but want something that "just works" most of the time. Not necesarrily because they can't maintain it otherwise, but because they don't want too. The first group I mentioned can transfer into this one over time, while at other times switching to Arch itself or more thinker-friendly Archbased distros.
That group is relatively big however, big enough to create some market at least. It's why I still run it on many secundairy devices, less maintaining but keeps working. At the same time I know some who run it on their production machines for that, while thinkinger with Arch on secundary devices. Once they got a setup they like enough and figured it's exact requirements, they alter Manjaro to it.
I guess something like SteamOS is better for Archi but for nontech-savvy people. I can give it to my niece and she can use it, but due to it being immutable (unless purposely turning that off) and getting updates from Valve she won't break it easily. That is; OS-wise. While actually running the games tends to "just work" most of the time, the times it doesn't are too often and the thinkering then needed too complex to make it suitable for that group of people.