EndeavourOS, or vanilla Arch Linux by using the Archinstall script that comes with the iso file (or the old fashioned way of following the Arch Wiki and doing it manually through the command line, if you’re up for it). Personally, I’d go with Endeavour. Not only because I’m lazy, it’s rock solid in general, and easy to install via the GUI installer (by comparison, the Archinstall interface is…passable, IMO), Archinstall can sometimes fail, and it can be…weird with what it leavws out (ex: I tried Archinall and XFCE once. Still had to install the user dictionaries post installation. Never found out if it still does that in the newer iso’s).

Do keep in mind that Endeavour is on the light-ish side, you might need to install a couple of things to make it feel more feature complete, and also you’ll have to use the terminal for updating the system, installing stuff, and maintanance–tho nothing is stopping you from grabbing Pamac of the AUR (which is set up and ready to go on first boot) and doing stuff through there instead like you did in Manjaro.

If you like Manjaro but wish it would stop breaking, try EndevourOS ( EOS ).

EOS does not have graphical package management. Try pacseek ( yay -S pacseek ). You can install pamac but please do not. It brings Manjaro levels of quality with it.

If you want a rolling release, I suggest going with openSUSE Tumbleweed. The installer allows you to pick & choose what you do/don’t want/need, and has a great rollback system in case an update causes problems.

Otherwise, I would suggest Fedora. Stays very current, and the in-place upgrade process is very seamless at this point.

openSUSE Tumbleweed

It’s rolling like Arch/Manjaro/EndeavorOS, but it feels a lot more professionally maintained (SUSE employees work on it off hours AFAIK). It’s an RPM distro like Fedora, so you may have luck with RPMs you find in the wild.

It has a user repository like Arch, but instead of building locally, packages are built on their servers against their base, so things tend to just work. I’ve had issues with packages not compiling from the AUR because the author didn’t list all dependencies (easy mistake), but I haven’t had that issue on openSUSE.

openSUSE also configures snapper, which does BTRFS snapshots, meaning if an upgrade goes bad, you can just roll it back and try again on a different day. On Arch/Manjaro, if you don’t have snapshots configured, you have to manually rollback packages, which can be a pain (I used to keep a known good NVIDIA driver around just in case).

If you want to stick with Arch based distros then Endeavour otherwise openSUSE Tumbleweed.

Linux Mint to be honest. It’s super stable, looks great, has 3 desktops to choose from, is powered by Ubuntu but without snaps, really snappy because RAM usage is low.

I’d avoid Arch or Arch based distros if you don’t want to always tinker with the system to keep it running.

I think Fedora best fits your needs.

I was having the same problems a while back with Manjaro. Have a look at EndeavorOS. I’ve been using that for a long time now.

Arch and Arch-based distributions (like Manjaro, EndeavourOS, Garuda ecc.) will teach you to do maintenance to your OS to keep it working: they’re powered by bleeding edge packages and those for sure break way more often than other distros.
If you ever get tired of this thing, Debian is the exact opposite side of the spectrum: you have older software in your repositories but that’s very well tested and it will hardly ever break. And if you ever need the latest applications, there’s always Flathub.
This is the peaceful life I chose for myself.

(Manjaro keeps breaking itself for a laugth)

Are you perhaps using the AUR more than you should on a Manjaro installation? Just for your information; because Manjaro holds back packages for a couple of weeks, any package from the AUR might conflict with those ‘outdated’ packages and thus cause some breakage. If you really need those packages, then you should consider container solutions like Distrobox to resolve this. Note that trying things like installing a custom kernel won’t work through Distrobox.

So the main options probably consist of:

• Just plain Arch; archinstall has made it a lot easier to install. Furthermore, after everything is set and done, it can literally be Manjaro without outdated packages and less bugs etc, or actually whatever you would like your Linux installation to be. Setting up is the most daunting part though. Fortunately, the Arch Wiki does an excellent job in providing a resource at every set of the journey. Recommended if you’re not scared of setting up your system from a blank slate.

• Any other Arch-based distro, really. There are a ton of recommendations found in the other comments and there’s even more if you check out Distrowatch for Arch-based distros. If you kinda know what you’d want from a future system, but can’t be bothered with setting it up directly from Arch, then this might be recommended based on the specifics of your demands and to what degree existing distros align to that. For whatever it’s worth, I think Garuda Linux is an interesting option for those that want to move on from Manjaro. Similary to Manjaro, it’s opinionated on how your system is/should be configured. That’s why it’s also one of the few Arch-based distros (like Manjaro) that offers -out of the box- the means to rollback to a working system whenever anything unfortunate befalls your system, Garuda achieves this through coming pre-configured with Btrfs+Snapper. It should be noted, though, that Garuda is considered bloated by some. However only you can decide for yourself if their offering is bloated to you or not. So check out its Xfce edition -or any that sound interesting to you- for yourself, if you’re interested. If you think it’s interesting, but are still too much bothered by the bloat, then perhaps their Lite versions are more to your liking.

There are a lot of options beyond Arch-based distros. However, as I don’t know what made you gravitate towards Manjaro in the first place and what you’ve come to (dis)like since, it’s hard to pinpoint what exactly you’d like. If the AUR has been your main reason for using Manjaro in the first place, then it’s important to note that Distrobox also grants access to the AUR from any of the other popular distros out there. So you’re not confined to just using Arch(-based distros) unless you really need some custom kernel that is somehow only available in the AUR.

• If you checked out Manjaro for its unsuccessful attempt at providing a stable rolling release, then you should check out the most successful attempt with openSUSE Tumbleweed. It has a respectable amount of packages and enables users through OBS (OpenSUSE Build Service) to extend this significantly. Its installer offers the option to go for a minimal installation.
• If rolling release has scarred you, but you still want up-to-date packages, then consider Fedora. Huge community, AUR-like repo in COPR and once again a very respectable amount of packages make it definitely worth a mention. It offers the so-called Fedora Everything ISO (Network Installer) that acts as the installer for minimal systems.

Fedora’s XFCE spin if you’re happy with your current desktop environment. If you want to try a different Desktop, try the standard Workstation version, or the KDE spin if you’re really into customization. Stable, up to date, and easy to maintain

Either Fedora Silverblue or Kinoite would be great for you.

Manjaro breaking itself pushed me to arch and i’ve never been happier

I can personally recommend Arco Linux as a great system to learn Arch. They have thousands of YouTube videos on various topics and a great forum for help. Biggest drawback is their website which can be a bit hard to navigate.

If you’re not a technical person, Fedora. I’d choose GNOME (ie the default) or KDE Plasma Wayland though. Wayland is far more secure than X(org), and that’s what XFCE uses.