Gonna go with Manjaro. I can't, for the life of me, understand why it gets the support it does. It's not fantastic to begin with, with an apparently incompetent management team. Add in that all the theming is flat and lifeless, and I'm just confused.
I mean, any Arch derived distro with an "easy installer" kinda confuses me. Archinstall is fairly easy to use (although a bit ugly), and most other Arch based distros seem to miss what I see as the main point of Arch: getting to know and personalize your system. So things like Endeavor, Xero, etc. Don't make a lot of sense to me either. But at least they're not effectively accidentally DDOSing the AUR...
Oh, I totally agree. If I was going to recommend an Arch derivative with an easier installer, Endeavor would be the one.
I still think, though, if you're looking for an "easy way to install Arch," you're gonna be happier with a different distro. Fedora or OpenSuse Tumbleweed maybe.
One good reason to have distros like EndeavourOS is if you have to use an Enterprise WiFi network while installing Arch. Pain in the ass to get iwd to work with them.
Manjaro is arch with a more user-friendly installer.
A lot of people prefer the simple flat themeing of Manjaro over windows-inspired distros, or busy distros that try to pack in excess animations and 3D icons that don't have the same clean look.
Archinstall scares a lot of regular users, and they just want to start with a GUI and some basic apps, because they can alter what they need later.
Okay. Then use Endeavor. Easy to install, good tools, and not run by people who've let their SSL cert lapse 4 times.
But honestly, if you can't deal with Arch install, I have to wonder if you wouldn't be better off with something other than Arch and Arch based distros. Generally speaking, Arch based distros require more command line and config file editing.
I just don't think Arch and Arch based distros are a good fit for beginners. If you're intimidated by a TUI installer, you should start somewhere else. Fedora has a... usable installer and great GUI tools, for instance.
I'm not judging or bashing on anyone. But it's like trying to learn how to knit by starting with a sweater. You're in over your head before you even get started.
Manjaro is NOT Arch with a user-friendly installer. Once you have installed Manjaro, the system you have is not Arch. Which leads to one of the biggest problems with Manjaro—that it uses the AUR but is totally incompatible with it. Manjaro has its own kernels. Manjaro has its own package repositories. Manjaro uses its own configurations. The crappy management and governance of Manjaro screws all of this up from time to time.