Hey fellow Linux enthusiasts! I’ve been using Manjaro for a while now and have relied heavily on the AUR (Arch User Repository) for its extensive package collection. However, I’ve encountered a particular package that hasn’t seen updates in months, which has me exploring alternatives. Can anyone recommend an exhaustive package manager that’s as user-friendly and comprehensive as the AUR? I’d love to hear your suggestions and experiences with other package managers on Manjaro. Thanks in advance for your insights!
I woukd suggest the Nix package manager. Its repository, Nixpkgs, is larger than the AUR, so I guess it would work.
That’s not true
Nixpkgs was, last I checked, larger than the AUR.
Accoding to repology.org as of now, 18th September 2023:
By total number of packaged projects:
nix (nixpkgs): 86,732
AUR: 74,315
By number of non-unique packaged projects:
nix (nixpkgs): 68,902
AUR: 37,152
By number of projects with up to date packages:
nix (nixpkgs): 57,085
AUR: 22,386
Nixpkgs includes all the packages that the base repos in Arch does, as well as much of the stuff you’d find in the AUR, which doesn’t generally include base packages unless there’s a variant someone wants to post.
Comparing it would be like taking core + extras + mutilib + AUR, and I’m pretty sure that would be a very different number.
I don’t know, looking at the number of non-unique packaged projects, I think if you do the math, you get pretty much the same number of packages. I have only ever found 2 packages that I used on Arch that are not available on NixOS, Nitroshare and nwg-look. For a tiling window manager user that uses some pretty niche packages, I think that’s pretty, pretty good, eh?