More TROMjaro Thoughts
This post is a little later than I wanted it to be, because where I live just got buried under 24" +/- of snow and I haven't had internet for a couple of days. So, here we go:Disclaimer: The day after I downloaded and installed TROMjaro, a new ISO was released. I downloaded and installed that new ISO because some changes were made and I wanted to be as current as possible for this post.
1: TROMjaro is not a beginner's distro. There are some things that need to be set up after install, and if you don't know how to go about it or where to find the setting before hand, you're going to have a bad time. CUPS for using your printer is a prime example. Like most things ARCH/ ARCH based, this is an RTFM moment.
2: TROMjaro is pretty privacy foused. Not on the level of Whonix or Tails OS (obviously), but the preinstalled software is all centered around not collecting any of your data. Even the customized Firefox is configured to block all ads, most tracking cookies, and browser fingerprinting. If that isn't enough, there is a preinstalled VPN that is beyond simple to use.
3: This distro is seriously snappy and light weight. None of the customization done to XFCE lags it down. Processor and RAM loads for daily usage on my machine are around 10% or less, which is actually pretty incredible considering I'm running a Ryzen 5 and 8 gigs of RAM on an HP Pavilion business class laptop with built in graphics.
4: There is NO BLOAT. "Out of the box", TROMjaro doesn't give you a bunch of useless software to clean out because you aren't going to use it. That's pretty much unheard of with most distros.
5: Speaking of software.... Between the Add/remove software app that has the AUR, Chaotic AUR, and Flatpak already enabled and set up, as well as TROM's Trade Free Software web app, it's pretty much impossible to not find the software you need for your specific use case. It's almost impossible to find any other distro that does all that work for you, though.
6: This distro is gorgeous. Seriously. Out of the box, the theming makes TROMjaro a pleasure to look at. The only things I've changed are switching to a different pre-installed wallpaper,and the Mac OS layout.
7: The Layout Switcher is one of the coolest things I've seen from a distro in a long time. I usually spend a bunch of time customizing a desktop environment to my liking after installing a distro. For the first time since I switched to Linux ( some time around Windows 8 - 8.1) , I haven't had to do that. Which is awesome.
8: "The Trade Free Apps" has got to be one of the best curated FOSS repositories I have ever seen. Currently there are 700+ pieces of software there, from video editors to matrix clients, none which collect data or have any telemetry. It's truly incredible.
I'd Like to be able to say "Now on to all the bad things about TROMjaro", but I can't. At least, not yet. I haven't had anything that I would consider a major issue. A lot of work has obviously gone in to the development of TROMjaro, and it shows. I think I've found my new permanent daily driver distro,