r/EndeavourOS • u/Natural-Addendum-554 • Sep 07 '26
Discussion As someone who has gotten into Linux like a week ago why isnt Endeavour OS why isnt it recommended to beginners?
I have tried it out and its not even that hard to use, its really easy to use in my opinion, with Plasma KDE it looks way more windows like than Mint Cinnamon. It doesnt have any bloatware, it isnt hard to install like Arch, so i just dont get why it isnt recommended to beginners its like the perfect os. Like i saw people were saying its not for beginners before installing it, i was kind of scared but i really wanted to try it. After trying it people shouldnt scare beginners like me from using it, its really easy to use
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u/TwiKing 🦉Noctalia+🌒Umbriel Sep 07 '26 edited Sep 07 '26
EOS is in a weird spot. It's not pure DIY as Arch, but it's not as bleeding edge or hard branded as much as CachyOS for games/performance. EOS is a nice quick start to Arch with a minimal base to pretty much get anyone started.
It was my first distro and it's so cute that I couldn't give it up. I added in the CachyOS repos too, that way I have access to all the cutting edge gaming apps and don't have to worry about ever using the Arch User Repos. I can test out more kernels also!
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u/steve_o314 Sep 07 '26
It is bleeding edge though. It uses the Arch repos and you can add the AUR. The EOS repos are only for like 10 of the custom apps the EOS team uses for the distro.
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u/mastershake2013 Sep 08 '26
Can you elaborate on how Cachy improves gaming? I mainly use steam, but on occasion it does have problems. Meaning a game just won't run regardless of my various attempts to fix the problem.
And I haven't had a lot of luck with Heroic Games Launcher or Lutris. Half the time the games will work using those, half the time there's some WINE error that is difficult for a newb to solve. Or it will just crash on launch and say nothing... you know the drill.
Does catchy make any improvement in these areas, or are you just talking about getting higher FPS in games?
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u/TwiKing 🦉Noctalia+🌒Umbriel Sep 09 '26
Cachy has a gaming meta package and also cachy settings automatically optimizes games and the system. There is also the SCX Kernel manager like Cake scheduler to further optimize frame rate and responsiveness.
https://wiki.cachyos.org/features/cachyos_settings/
https://dashboard.cachyos.org/package/cachyos/any/cachyos-gaming-meta
https://wiki.cachyos.org/configuration/gaming/
Very useful for someone new and wants to just grab everything they need at once.
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u/drifter129 Sep 07 '26
It kind of depends on who you class as a beginner. If you work with computers or have extensive experience with operating systems then no problem. If you're someone who is more of a general computer user with little computer knowledge and no inclination to learn then endeavouros (or any arch based distro) should be avoided. The whole ethos of endeavouros is to use the cli to perform basic actions and some people are just not comfortable doing that. Also installing packages from the AUR is not recommended unless you know what you are doing. This might be unavoidable as the arch repos are just not as extensive as other Debian based distros.
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u/zardvark Sep 07 '26
Endeavour is among my favorite distros, but it is dependent on the Arch repository and the AUR. Endeavour is going to break because Arch periodically breaks. In my experience it broke +/- once a year and it takes some Linux experience / skill to know how to fix it. Also, there has been constant DDOS and malware attacks against Arch, or late, so that is an additional pain point.
Note that the Arch devs are excellent about quickly fixing any dilemmas on their side, but that's of course after the ship has sailed and your installation is hosed.
You can somewhat mitigate the breakage dilemma by using the BTRFS file system and Snapper and configuring it such that you can easily roll your system back in times of trouble, but this is an extra level of complication that is not appropriate for a Linux noob to undertake.
Newcomers are better off, IMHO, with a distro which presents less drama, until they are able to acquire some basic Linux skills. And, the more intermediate distros like Arch and Arch-based distros are better left for later.
But, that's my recommendation, you do you. After all, I agree, there is a lot to like about Endeavour.
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u/SuAlfons Sep 07 '26 edited Sep 07 '26
Same.
While I could always get it fixed, I eventually switched to Fedora.
But would definitely go back to EndeavourOS if somehow Fedora became unwieldy.
I'd say, EndeavourOS is "running Arch after installing Ubuntu". It's for the beginner who is a PC enthusiast. Who already knows a bit about partitions, how certain things work in unixiod OSes. It's not so much a beginner's OS for Joe Average who calls the Chrome icon "the Internet" and barely can install a new mouse on their Windows PC.
Being able to describe a problem, knowing your hardware and be willing to read some text-guides are pretty much a given when running Arch derivates.Just like you don't have to be a mechanic to drive a car, many people today successfully use computers they cannot setup themselves. That's not bad or to be made fun of, we can be grateful computer technology became so accessible.
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u/DW_Hydro Sep 07 '26
Endeavour is not specially hard but it still NEED to use the terminal and search for stuff to get your system doing what you want.
I had to install a mesa driver to play my games on Endeavour, and I know that is a minor thing since it was on Pacman repos but begginers by default are AFFRAID of the terminal.
That simple thing can mate them looking for an easier out-of-the-box distro, and if you go with Arch-based, you have Cachy.
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u/sephy009 Sep 07 '26
People don't like reading or doing terminal commands. Congrats, you're more advanced than the vast majority of computer users.
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u/HeavyMetalBluegrass Sep 07 '26
Installation is the easy part. It's still Arch based so it's rolling release which could introduce new issues. Routine updating is also needed.
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u/Bruceplanet Sep 07 '26
I agree I spent several months distro hopping before Gemini recommended EndeavourOS and I think it brilliant it does everything I want easily. It's quick and easy to install and looks brilliant. Recommend to everyone recently.
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u/JVinos Tiling WM Sep 07 '26
Because Endeavour OS, even with Calamares installer, the custom KDE Plasma environment, the wrapper scripts and the bash conpletition, it's just Arch. The more you use it, the more you'll get into the problems and hurdles Arch users have.
So it is a good distro for someone who has the time to thinker and solve his problem but doesn't want to go through the Arch installation of the wiki. It is not a good distro for people who want things to work and not disrupt their work.
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u/SleepyGuyy Sep 07 '26
I would argue Endeavor is quite underrated as a distro. It's excellent and rock solid.
Only things going against it are that it's Arch, so you have to handle AUR packages. Thats not ideal for beginners.
Other issue is it offers so many desktop environments and many of those are quite bare bones and not beginner friendly. Just have to stick with Plasma, Gnome, or XFCE mostly.
But otherwise I think it should be recommended more. Cachy gets recommended so much and I found it unstable.
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u/Natural-Addendum-554 Sep 07 '26
Same for me i tried Cachy but it came with bugs/glitches sadly, It was easier than Endeavour for sure but it isnt worth it for how unstable it is
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u/Optimal69 Sep 07 '26
You never recommend arch or gentoo to beginners. If they want more, they can always come down here.
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u/Astro-2004 Sep 07 '26
At this point I'm with you. RN arch is extremely popular and there are more users tha use Arch or derived. So finding help in forums or social network is not that hard.
And EOS is the perfect balance of simplicity and built-in software. It just works. At this point I think that people shouldn't choose only between debian or RHEL based as the starting point.
It's worth to know that rolling release have their caveats when updating. But EOS brought me less issues or simpler issues than Ubuntu or Fedora.
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u/elemen0hpe Sep 07 '26
It's probably because you read and followed wikis. As you progress and start making simple script backup your dotfiles and create a separate partition for timeshift to backup if you screw it up. Get familiar with terminal, grub and other bootloader. Git familiar using git docker troubleshooting and Google search for what an error meaning n how to recover. Oh and stay away from installing packages from AUR. Repo for now, if you know why read the logs. Have fun friend.
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u/samplekaudio Tiling WM Sep 07 '26
The terminal is scary to many people. Which is fine.
I think it's actually better for everyone if prospective users aren't herded towards DIY distros. It sets them up for failure, it leads people to develop bad habits, and it degrades the overall quality of discussion online (just look at the Arch subreddit).
Of course that doesn't apply to everyone. If someone is willing to do an online search and look for a solution themselves before asking for help, are generally comfortable with computers, etc, then it's probably no big deal. But those people were already self-selecting.
I like EOS because it has an installer but after that it gets out of your way and works 99% like vanilla Arch.
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u/Powerful-Cabinet-260 Sep 07 '26
I know jackshit about computer but EOS is the best os I've ever had to deal with. Its so simple with kde I've got my own little rice and everything, I think it's the fear of anything arch related that people don't wanna touch on, when the most complicated thing you do is look up the forums for minor troubleshooting sometimes and have to update it every now and then
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u/studiocrash KDE Plasma Sep 07 '26
Mostly I don’t recommend it to beginners because there’s no full fledged GUI package manager like Gnome Software or Discover. To properly run EOS as a daily driver, it requires the use of pacman or yay in the terminal, which will be scary to new users.
Also, it doesn’t have Timeshift preinstalled and configured with sane defaults. This would be very good for a new user to have.
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u/Natural-Addendum-554 Sep 07 '26
I did install Timeshift before but i havent really configured it at all. I should configure it
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u/beatbox9 Sep 07 '26
The "beginner" thing is just a remnant from another era around 10-20 years ago, that still lives in the echo chamber of the internet among noobs.
The Linux ecosystem has matured a lot since then; and if anything Mint is sort of stuck in the past and I would argue even worse today for beginners than many other distros.
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u/DiscoMilk Sep 07 '26
Been running it for 2 years now after a lot of distro hopping. It's perfect for me.
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u/mastershake2013 Sep 07 '26
Updates on arch aren't fun. In my experience you'll get update breakages several times a year, which is something you have to go and repair. Manually.
Then there's having to confirm 15 things and answer 10 questions just to update. Whole thing needs to be better imo
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u/LivingLegend844 Sep 08 '26
I use EOS for a little more than a year on my main PC, never an update has broken anything. I use vanilla Arch on another PC, and never had an update break anything.
I update weekly and sometimes bi-weekly if necessary. I have timeshift with timeshift-autosnap and grub-btrfs and I never had to revert to a previous snapshot.
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u/mastershake2013 Sep 08 '26
The update itself didn't break anything, the update process broke. Twice it has needed me to go in and delete files manually. Sometimes the PGP has expired and that was a hassle for a new user. I update once or twice per week.
The files I had to replace manually might have been the fault of Librewolf. In fact I think this was a problem caused by the Librewolf developers. But still, I want the update process to delete the old Librewolf files for me, not complain that there's a problem and make me do it. I want it to be smarter.
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u/CarryOnRTW Sep 08 '26
BTRFS snapshots make these rare events a trivial recovery. In 2 years I only needed it once and it was user error on my part.
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u/mastershake2013 Sep 08 '26
The instances I'm talking about don't require doing any kind of recovery. The update will just say something like "Can't update Librewolf... something wrong with x package". I forgot exactly what it said but that's basically it.
And until you deal with it, librewolf is never getting updated. I had to go in and manually remove files so that the updater didn't see them. Then it would install the new updated librewolf files. This has happened a couple other times, on other programs too. The Bash even said "Manual intervention required". I remember that part specifically.
I understand that this might be the fault of those developers, and not that of arch or the arch updater. But I'd still like it to be smarter, and just delete the necessary files itself, and just perform the update. If I have some kind of big bad problem from that, I can always just go roll back the files myself. Pretty much 100% of the time, I just want the update. I don't care about keeping some old backlog of files as a "just in case". Which I'm assuming is why the updater won't just wipe them for you, disregarding the error, and install the newer version of librewolf regardless of any error.
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u/CarryOnRTW Sep 09 '26
Sounds like someone maintaining an AUR package messed up the PKGBUILD. So you could still use the app, you just couldn't access the latest bleeding edge version until the dev fixed the PKGBUILD.
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u/mastershake2013 Sep 09 '26
But if never happened. I kept waiting and waiting, and eventually I just fixed it myself. So you can get stuck with this. That's why I wanted the updater to be smarter and say "Eh I'll take care of it, if I just delete that crap it will default to downloading the new one". Which is what happened after I deleted the problem files, then suddenly it all worked fine. It just updated me to the newest version like nothing had ever happened. Might be too much to ask though. Might have to wait until torvalds somehow integrates his won ai into it, so it can detect problems like that and just fix them for you.
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u/SouXx Sep 07 '26
Tbh I think it's gate keeping but I guess it depends on your general skill level and the apps you need to use. For most users the only new thing is doing updates regularly. Browser and the office tool of your choice works the same on eos as it does on Ubuntu.
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u/LexCarman GNOME Sep 07 '26
EOS is a great entry point for Arch based distros. It is kinda the eye of the larger Arch hurricane, and tends to get lost in the storm. Arch purists tend to be the loudest in the room. But EOS' community isn't like that and is extremely newbie friendly ime.
To be fair, Arch is still the most complex of the major distro chains. But if you are patient and open to learn, just like you learned windows/mac as a kid/teen, it's very possible.
(Also, the money Valve continues to sink into it's Arch based SteamOS, the more the community becomes enriched. Valve has made Arch a good horse to back)
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u/ccrider92 Sep 07 '26
I installed EndeavourOS today for fun. Added a SSD to my old potato and wanted to have some fun. Used mint for a couple of years and EOS is definitely different. I’ve only messed with it for a couple of hours but things I’ve noticed so far that I think would be a turn off for a beginner:
1. )Not much software to start with. Like very bare bones which I’m sure it alright with some people but new users are gonna want a lot when they initially install. I mean what’s the point of a computer if there aren’t applications that you can use to improve your daily life? So I was surprised by the lack of “bloatware” considering the size of the image. Oh, and no package manager with GUI, which brings me to
2.) lots of time spent in the terminal. Easy these days to use google though so this can be overlooked. And with AI? No problem to be had. Never had issues with running a terminal. Til today.
3.). I had two issues that kept coming up while installing software. First one was I had a process that kept freezing during software installation, the terminal asked me to press enter to resume, I’d press enter and the shell would close. And I’d have to restart the installs again. Tried looking up a fix and that brings me to
4.) just my luck that their site is experiencing issues. And there isn’t much of a community like other distros so 3rd party sites aren’t in abundance. So haven’t really been able to mess with EOS like I wanted to. I’ll mess with it for another day or so, try out another DE or two. But something magical better happen or I’m hopping soon.
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u/SitEnee Sep 07 '26
Main thing that comes to mind is AUR. If you’re new unsuspecting user, and can’t read PKGBUILD, you can get infected by malware.
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u/steve_o314 Sep 07 '26
Vanilla Arch isn’t for beginners. Any Arch base will be fine for beginners. Vanilla Arch doesn’t have any helper gui’s to help with anything. Every Arch base has helper gui’s.
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u/Slackeee_ Sep 07 '26
Because it is Arch with some extra packages, branding and some pre-configuration.
It still takes the knowledge you need to maintain an Arch system, especially including being able to determine if a package on AUR might be malicious by reading and understanding the PKGBUILD file.
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u/Big_Mc-Large-Huge Sep 07 '26
IMO: a true beginner distro needs a gui package manager. If you need the command line, it ain’t beginner
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u/full_bars Sep 08 '26
I do recommend it to beginners all the time, especially those who have expressed an interest in arch
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u/SaltyBooze Sep 08 '26
there are traditions in the linux community...
people love to recomment debian based distros for newcomers, because they're supposedly "easier".
being a casual gamer, i just enjoy how my 8 bit controller works in arch distros ootb without having to fuss over, and unfortunatelly it wasn't recognized on my friend's mint distro without fuss.
but i do miss (sometimes) how easy it was to both exchange kernels and graphics drivers in both mint and pikaos.
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u/Better-Quote1060 Sep 10 '26
It's beginner to be an arch user not to be a noob friendly linux user
It still assumes you have the basics
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u/bubbybumble Sep 12 '26
Idk why I got recommended this since I don't use EOS and never have, but from an outside perspective it looks obsolete because archinstall exists, which is I guess a bit trickier but it's right after booting into the CLI live image basically.
As for beginners, the bleeding edge of arch is a downside. The upside of arch would be the learning experience, but you also miss out on a lot of that during the setup as well. If they're going to set and forget, I feel a more stable distro makes more sense.
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u/Consistent_While_483 16d ago
Creo que es de las mejores distros. Super accesible si es tu primera distro y extremadamente útil si requieres entornos de desarrollo configurables. Quiero mucho a EOS 🏴☠️💜
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