manjaro vs arch on Pinephone?

[dieselnutjob]

My understanding in the PC world is that Manjaro is a version of Arch with a more user friendly installer, and a few weeks lag with packages (and therefore a few weeks more testing).

Basically this would appear to make Manjaro a more stable (due to extra testing) version of Arch.

Is the same true with Pinephone images?  The installer bit is irrelevant because both are just images that flashed on with dd.

If I stick with Manjaro phosh am I just getting what was Arch phosh a few weeks earlier or is it not that simple?

[ryo]

My understanding is that Manjaro ARM is made by the Manjaro team themselves while the Arch build is just an unofficial port by the community, so there might be some minor differences in the case of the PinePhone.
Though I wouldn't think so considering that an ARM version of Arch has been around for 2 decades already, so all you need to do is to pre-package it with the right kernel, PinePhone specific drivers, and slap Phosh on top, and you've got Arch running on a PinePhone.

When it comes to PC, Manjaro is indeed the more user friendly one while Arch is the one that's less bloated.
Manjaro puts quite a lot of bloatware out of the box which I really don't like.
They pre-package it with Steam, which probably most people don't even need, and Steam is major spyware on its own.
You can still uninstall it, so no problem.
The bigger concern is that they immediately include 4 or 5 completely different package managers: pacman, pamac, Flatpack, Snapd, and a GUI version depending on the DE you're using, and then you need yay (used to be yaourt) to access the AUR repository.
So Manjaro has become pretty much a plate of spaghetti.

[bcnaz]

I have a copy of each running on a few of my test phones ATM. Just a few comments:

The Phosh/ Manjaro OS seems to function fairly well, though it does "look" a bit more like a Google or Microsoft product.

While the Phosh/Arch does "Look" more like a Linux project, and they are careful to not ship too many "Extras". (add what you want)

They most likely do run the same kernels. (possibly the main difference would be the release dates, but they are most likely close there)
but, I think they are both just "based" on Arch, the Arch we see on the Pine phone is not directly connected to Arch.

Personally I like the lean Arch version more, but that is just my choice.