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The only thing missing from Arch distros is a clean gui for installing shit from the repos or AUR.
Octopi is cluttered and not very UX friendly imo.
What's wrong with Pamac?
I mostly ever use Octopi if I can't think of the spelling of the name of an app I want, it's terrible for exploration.
Otherwise, I just command line my installs, it makes me feel cool and pacman goes waka waka waka.
There's shelly which i've seen some people gush over (and it's included on fresh installs today) but i'd rather have clunky octopi myself. At least I have learned how to use it.
I think people want a good graphical representation of an app store page with screenshots or something, but that's just not much of a priority for some reason in parts of linux land. AUR doesn't even have screenshots and the arch package guidelines don't even mention anything like it. Normal people are going to want this kind of experience though.
Never heard of Shelly. And yea, I was inferring having an app listing front end similar to bazaar.
Edit:
just looked at some screenshots of Shelly and it’s just the same shit as octopi. I want a front end with screenshot, categories, icons, etc.
It’s got a catchy name, that’s why.
Always glad to see more options. I've been rocking Manjaro for years and plan to keep on it, but if it ever goes belly-up then there will always be something else to pivot to.
With the Advent of Shelly a lot of the Special Sauce scripts and front ends these Arch base distros used to have to make them more user friendly. Have largely become Irrelevant in many cases. They're not completely useless. But for many of the most common and basic tasks such as upgrading and installing it's awesome. Cachy really reminds me of mandrake back in the day though. It's the complete package. Ease and power all in one.
this post was submitted on 29 May 2026
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