 Visitor Reviews |
|
Reader supplied reviews for Garuda Linux
Average rating
8.5 from 284 review(s)
Version: 260115
Rating: 10
Date: 2026-02-05
Votes: 1
|
I recently tried many Linux distros, Ubuntu 25.10, Fedora KDE 43, PopOS 24.04 Cosmic, CachyOS 260124 & Linux Mint 22.3. They are all good and very usable, except PopOS, which still has long way to go. But after I tried Garuda Mokka since last weekend, it's now become my main OS.
The installer ISO is well built and easy to use. The only thing missed is no auto detection of time zone, even with WIFI conneced.
I'm not new to Garuda. I tried the dr460nized edition a few year ago and gave up because it was too heavy to my taste. This time the Mokka edition is really impressive. It reaches a good balance of style and performance. I like the similarity to MacOS. I only need to make minor adjustment to get a system which I like to use. All apps I use now look beautiful and run fast as well. In my view, this is the best Linux distro for now.
|
Version: 260115
Rating: 10
Date: 2026-02-04
Votes: 1
|
I'll be direct: 'If Garuda continues like this, excellent, it will certainly occupy the position of the most important distro, because everything works well and without disappointment.
I was encountering several small insurmountable difficulties when using just one distro. Issues with real-time audio routing, and sometimes simple functioning of AppImage, installation of other types of packaging. Anyway, Garuda in the Mokka version is exceptional. I don't need to configure anything, I just install the application and dependencies, and everything really works. Congratulations to the team, and may users flock to this distro that has proven to be very professional, stable, and secure.
As time goes by, everything matters—small details that show how much attention and care are put into maintaining the distro. I know it's laborious, and in Linux, things tend to focus more on results, but Mokka never disappoints. Since I started using it, I've only reinstalled because in a game I like, the NVIDIA driver caused malfunction in that game, but it was a widespread issue across all distros that used that driver version. Use it without fear because it's Arch, it works fully, and because it's well-made, beautiful, and well-maintained.
|
Version: 260115
Rating: 9
Date: 2026-01-25
Votes: 0
|
TL;DR: Garuda is opinionated but honest about it. Clear desktop choices, Arch underneath, strong community, and a few rough edges that mostly come from ambitious defaults and specific hardware setups.
One thing Garuda does very well is being explicit on its downloads page. Each ISO clearly states the desktop environment and focus, so you know exactly what you are installing. There is no ambiguity or “one ISO fits all” approach. That straightforwardness sets the tone early and helps avoid mismatched expectations, especially compared to distros that hide major differences behind a single installer ✔️.
In daily use, Garuda feels like Arch with guardrails. Under the heavy theming and gaming-oriented defaults, it behaves like a normal Arch system. When issues come up, standard Arch tools and documentation apply, which makes debugging predictable rather than frustrating. Most fixes do not require distro-specific magic, just familiarity with pacman, systemd, and initramfs tooling.
On my setup, a GMKtec M5 Pro with a Ryzen 5700U iGPU, the main problems I encountered were around bootloader installation, initramfs generation with dracut, and later GPU-related issues like transparency effects, high GPU usage, and video decoding causing system-wide lag. None of these felt unsolvable, but they did highlight how Garuda’s aggressive defaults can amplify hardware quirks ❌. Once adjusted, the system became stable and usable.
What really balances this out is the community. The Garuda community is fast, helpful, and pragmatic. Installation and hardware issues are taken seriously, and responses tend to be actionable rather than dismissive.
In my opinion, Garuda is best for users who want Arch power with guidance, performance tuning, and a clear desktop choice, and who are comfortable doing a bit of hands-on fixing when needed (like any Linux distro).
|
Version: 260115
Rating: 10
Date: 2026-01-22
Votes: 12
|
So, I decided to make the Switch from Windows about 3 years ago and have been distro hopping ever since. I came across Garuda Dragonised edition about 6 months ago and haven't felt the need to move on. I love the Cyberpunk aesthetic tho I have tweaked some of it to tone it down a little.
Performance wise, I'm running an AMD 7800X3D and RTX4080Super and I've had no issues with install or performance. For gaming, I use Steam for everything game related, including Battle.net and I have no issues to report, every works well, faster than Windows 11 in most cases.
I've had issues with CachyOS and games being in some weird colour mode that I could never get to the bottom of, happy to report no such issues with Garuda.
Pros
Great aesthetic (apart from the Dragon head wallpaper which is god awful (and easily changed))
Works flawlessly on modern hardware
Garuda-Update for simple update compatibility and system health checker
Lots of tools to cover all gamers needs
Easy install process for NVIDIA owners
Great tools for kernel swapping (can use CachyOS BORE kernel or ZEN3/4/5 optimized kernels)
Cons
Gaming edition gives you all the gaming tools, even ones you might not want (Lutris, Bottles, Linux games etc)
HDR is still tricky to get working properly but this is a KDE/Linux thing rather than Garuda specific
|
Version: 251103
Rating: 9
Date: 2026-01-13
Votes: 0
|
I really enjoy Garuda on my gaming PC its the linux distro for the gamer that just wants to pick up and go. If you want the Windows simplicity with a slight learning curve you can definitely handle this Operating System. Ive seen some complain about the Chaotic-AUR. So im saying it now it came with it. The only real downside is it does take awhile to get used to the window management especially if your not used to MAC.
Pros
- easy install
- Will pick up and run right out the box
- Has a Garuda maintenance GUI for updates and cleaning
- Community support
- Arch Linux
- Snapshots (awesome if new)
Cons
- Arch Linux
- Over opinionated Desktop (not my con but most people who hate it this is why)
- Chaotic-AUR (same as above once again not my issue)
- Learning curve (if new)
- sucks in VM (for testing)
If you do find that the desktop is too cyberpunk for you try the other versions first I think CachyOS will always top Garuda in speed but not convenience. EndeavourOS is the better everyday Operating system overall.
|
Version: 251103
Rating: 9
Date: 2026-01-05
Votes: 0
|
I have been running a version of Garuda for a few years now on my G14 laptop with only minor issues. The mokka edition has a chill vibe to counter the dr460nized gaming edition. The gaming is getting better all the time, protondb makes it easy to see what games are compatable and the community gives tweaks. I love arch based distros as fixes for things tend to happen very quickly. After ditching windows 11 I was distro hopping; bazzite, nobara, pop os, manjaro, ubunto, fedora, etc. but settling upon Garuda was the answer. Everything just worked.
|
Version: 251103
Rating: 10
Date: 2026-01-03
Votes: 0
|
Switched over as a long time Mint flavor user. Garuda cinnamon is my first Arch based distro. I simply do not see myself going back.
I encourage every linux user from power users to casual users to check out a Garuda flavor. This is my main distro on my professional needs and works well.
Garuda, Arch'ın gücünü ve performansını, hiçbir zorluğu olmadan sunuyor. Kararlı, hızlı, güncellemeler sorunsuz çalışıyor, bakımı çok kolay. En önemlisi, performansı ve verimliliği ön planda tutarken EĞLENCELİ bir dağıtım.
Positives:
-the rolling updates
-I use their browser version: FireDragon
-Forums can be helpful
-I like the dragonized theme, but some maynot.
-Different installs: KDE plasma/dragon, cinnamon, Gnome, etc.
|
Version: 251103
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-12-23
Votes: 19
|
Great performance with graphical utilities that provide ease of use. Arch based rolling release schedule means Garuda stays on the bleeding edge and stays compatible with new hardware. The Chaotic AUR makes software procurement convenient and dead simple. I've been using Linux for 25 years and daily driving Garuda dr460nized gaming edition for about 5 years now and the high gaming performance paired with a visually stunning KDE Plasma desktop environment and convenient graphical tools makes this my distro of choice.
|
Version: 201205
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-12-15
Votes: 6
|
Switched over as a long time debian flavor user. Garuda is my first Arch based distro. I simply do not see myself going back.
Garuda is the power and performance of Arch without an of the hassles. Stable, fast, updates work, super low maintenance.Most importantly it is a FUN distro while keeping performance and productivity centerstage.
Dragonized KDE gaming edition works right out of the box for gaming and productivity. I encourage every linux user from power users to casual users to check out a Garuda flavor. This is my main distro on my professional needs and works well.
|
Version: 251103
Rating: 8
Date: 2025-12-05
Votes: 2
|
This was my first serious linux experience. I can say that this distro is good for my needs(gaming). I didnt know there was a built in snapshot feature. It saved me more than once thanks for the devs for putting that in. Garuda Rani and System Maintenance apps are really great too.
I did not know what was AUR when I first started using it. After using it its really nice however there's a few errors here and there. Easily solvable though. But to be fair, AUR should be avaiable on all arch based distros to my knowledge.
About gaming which is the main point of this distro, I had to make a few tweaks for some games and some games run a tad bit clunky but overall good performance I'd say.
Overall, use it at some point.
|
Version: 251103
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-11-12
Votes: 17
|
After trying many distros and spending a long time with Manjaro (manjaro was good but not as good as Garuda is ;-) ), I finally found a distro that perfectly meets my needs. This includes, among other things, the btrfs filesystem and the snapshots that are already included by default, allowing me to revert to a previous state should something unexpectedly go wrong during an update or similar event. The very helpful and friendly forum here is also fantastic, and I would like to express my sincere thanks to them as well.
|
Version: 251002
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-10-29
Votes: 24
|
I moved from Windows to Linux in 2024 and have tried several distros, of which Garuda has been the enduring favorite. I've been using Garuda Linux on my primary desktop PC for almost a full year now and wanted to review.
I first got curious about Garuda purely because of the name. "Garuda Linux" just sounds cool and fun to me. This may be cliche, and I might have a bit of a chip on my shoulder in that I believe many people try a bit too hard to appear as normal and unassuming as possible, whereas I would prefer choosing to stand out a little bit sometimes. This is an OS I am choosing for personal home use after all, not for deployment at work, so being fun and having some flair is appreciated.
The install is effortless even without consulting reference material, and the system loads stock with useful features. Snapshots are immediately available, very simple to configure and easy to rollback to if needed. The Garuda Rani system assistant GUI is very helpful to Linux newcomers and is convenient even after I know my way around the CLI. I've read comments that Garuda is bloated, but I suppose I am not too picky. The packages included on first install have not offended me - but my attitude is perhaps tainted by a lifetime of using Microsoft which has so much bloat that any Linux distro choice at all won't feel bloated to me.
The visuals are nice by default. I know some folks are turned off by garish gamer color schemes, but for me, I don't necessarily agree. My physical hardware and peripherals are all very drab gray & black, and my office furnishings are similarly neutral colors with some hardwoods for accent. So why not have a splash of vibrant color just in my screens? A few "loud" neon icons fit nicely for me. I honestly made very few changes from the default theme as I truly enjoy Garuda's presentation as-is.
Performance is great for me. I have not diligently measured or compared performance across different distros to make any definitive claims that Garuda is better or worse than alternative choices regarding performance, but I have no complaint with how my desktop or my games run on Garuda, and I have not found any specific examples of games that stand out as running worse than I'd expect them to. Having no complaints, I feel no drive to seek improvement elsewhere. Everything on the desktop feels snappy and my system resources are very available.
Stability & compatibility have been remarkable this past year. My peers warned me, saying things I'll paraphrase like, "you chose a niche gamer distro based on Arch, this is going to break and you're going to have so many headaches," but that has simply not been the reality at all. I update and handle my merges weekly and have truly not encountered significant issues or strange bothersome quirks. I successfully use this machine to do everything I ever used Windows for, as a sort of person who games, consumes media, writes, etc. I even had VR working when I had the desire to play around with my old VR headset, and I figured that if anything would have been a point of trouble, it would've been VR. I recall so many more games crashing to desktop in Windows, or updates failing and rolling back in Windows - this may be a low bar to compare against, but Garuda sure beats Windows in this regard.
Documentation and community are excellent here as well. The archwiki is highly educational and relevant here, and the Garuda forums are full of both information to read & active people to interact with.
Garuda is a great choice. I'm glad it fits me so well.
|
Version: 251002
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-10-29
Votes: 0
|
I've been using Garuda Dr460nized edition for few months now and everything feels very good. Rami is easy to use and gaming tools make gaming super convinient. Almost all my accessories were plug&play (except Lacie hdd, but quick arch search and it was fixed). KDE Plasma desktop is nice looking and easy to use.
Little gpu issues when gaming (usage low, stuttering etc.), but seriously doubt that it has more to do with nvidia gpu (laptop 3070) than the distro.
True rating would be 8.7, but 9 was the closest.
I've previously used mainly windows but have tinkered with Pop_os, Ubuntu (old laptop), Mint and Fedora. Compared to these I can confidently say Garuda is way ahead.
Probably next I could try Cachy and Bazzite.
Feels good to be free of windows after all these years. Gaming was the last thing missing from me daily driving linux and that doesn't seem to be the case anymore. All games work after installing.
|
Version: 251002
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-10-13
Votes: 3
|
User friendly with active development.
Lots of GUI tools for people who are not used to the terminal. There are now a ton of editions - Mokka being the latest one without the pre-installed software that their Dr460nized edition comes from. However you still get to choose to install a lot of things just with the GUI if you want to.
The use of GUI is optional btw, you can just ignore them once you get used to them.
Great distro for people who need a rolling release model due to their hardware, but are only just starting out. I feel this is like Bazzite but on Arch.
|
Version: 251002
Rating: 1
Date: 2025-10-12
Votes: 0
|
Like a lot of others have said better, this has been a pretty bloated, slow system that has a bit of crashes and lockups of the system.
Garuda is overloaded with programs that basically for me, cripple my system. I would think there were a lot of programs running when you boot to the desktop because of the taxation on my CPU, but not really- so what is all of the processor usage and RAM usage for?
I couldn’t figure that out, which isn’t good first off. I don’t think I need to be overweighted with so many programs that I’m not going to use- I know I can uninstall them, but like how Windows is with the bloatware, instead, the developers here bloated up the system, it just keeps eating up more and more RAM than you think it would need, and that is every version!
I don’t think the developers take it seriously to introduce bug fixes, patches, etc., because all I see with each version is more bloat, more instability and more resource usage.
AVOID!
|
Version: 251002
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-10-09
Votes: 6
|
People use Arch because they want to configure the system themselves. I also wanted to do that and installed arch first. But I didn't like the troubleshooting and instability (specifically, cosmic DE broke afiter an update and then I decided to install another distro)
Garuda is the distro which has all benefits of Arch but everything works out of the box! I installed the cosmic edition and it was nice. I was able to set up in just 1 day! I regret all those days configuring my system on Arch.
One notable feature is the BTRFS snapshots (it's like macOS's time machine thing). Finally, I don't need to worry about an update bricking my system!
I liked how Garuda came with a dedicated system assistant. It is not that much of a benefit for me but it might be good for people who hate terminals.
In conclusion: Garuda is like linux mint but Arch-based and kind-of gamer themed! I would recommend this to a linux noob with no hesitation!
|
Version: 250907
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-09-07
Votes: 0
|
A youtuber named Unfa was very positive over music production on linux. As someone having a windows home studio I was curious so I took my old windows 8 laptop and started distrohopping.
Getting Ardour and the plugins working was not easy at all untill I tried Garuda.
Suddenly everything worked out of the box. Ardour , bitwig and reaper all worked.Lv2 vst, vst3 and clap plugins downloaded from octopi appeared in the daws with a working gui. Midi controllers, even my 20 years old digital piano, were reconized. And what impressed me the most was that the latency of the zen kernel was so low that you can use the daws without an audio interface and using the pc internal sound card.
(I only tested midi, for electric guitar you would still need an audio interface)
The quality of the music production software is not as good as the windows software, but if you want to start making music on a laptop, this is a very cheap way to start and see if you like it.
My overall impression of garuda is very positive . It was easy to install and I liked the bold colour choices.
One negative point is that I didn’t get my xbox 360 wireless controller connected to the system.
I know that garuda is a gaming distro but I would say: Try garuda for music production.
|
Version: 250801
Rating: 8
Date: 2025-08-26
Votes: 1
|
I have been using it now for 1.5 years. I have both of my kids, my boss and my nephew on it as well. Yes, there is a learning curve but I find it works well with all of the things that I'm trying to do. I have been able to use OBS-Studio, Discord, Steam and every game I have tried so far in my library. Some of the newer games may need some configuration initially, but stuff works pretty well out of the box. There is so much open source software that almost every need I come across has some kind of solution or work-around. Grok has been helpful where I needed some hand-holding from time to time. The kids are able to play games, do schoolwork, listen to music and they're miles ahead of their classmates in terms of computer savvy for having to solve some of their own issues.
While I haven't had to ask questions on the forum directly, I often find answers to issues I come across in the forum. We're all using Dragonized-gaming garuda and aside from cosmetic changes, I'm still using the interface it installs with. HDR seems to work pretty well. Performance is excellent. I'm running an ASUS Dark Hero with an 5900x, 24GB ram and a Nvidia 3080. I'm able to play Stalker 2 at maxed resolution and it works quite well. Valheim gave me a little trouble when using cross-play with a Windows user, but we worked through it and that now works as well.
With the kids, I pretty much dropped them in the deep end and said learn to swim. They belly-ached a bit but when they committed to working through problems and with a little guidance from me, they're already using others' tutorials on how to run the games that THEY want to use, even something like Roblox (yes, I know), which isn't supposed to work on Linux. I would like to take credit for them being so clever but the truth is that Garuda is just that good and relatively intuitive. I have to use M$ at work, but now I don't have to worry about big brother inside at home.
Overall, I recommend highly.
|
Version: 250801
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-08-24
Votes: 0
|
In my twilightish years I've become less focused on performance per SE and moreso one astherica and performance. Garuda fills both niches very well.
Kde plasma has been surprisingly pleasant astherically and resource usage wise. I have an i3 quad core 8gb, 250gbssd. I can run all the games that I want to play, swtor, gzdoom, secret world legends. It has copious amounts of icandy, enough to make my nephews eyes pop. So, all around great distro. I just hope Arch can get the ddos situation under control.
|
Version: 250801
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-08-20
Votes: 0
|
I've been living and breathing Linux my whole life. I distro-hop for fun—tried a ton just to see what makes each one tick. Started with the .rpm family, eventually settled on .deb, but always had that itch to poke at Arch. A couple of years ago I finally did, kicking the tires with Garuda KDE Dragonized out of pure curiosity. One look and I was hooked—Garuda’s been my go-to ever since.
I’m not a pro, just a tinkerer, so sooner or later I break things. Last time I managed to nuke something so badly that even the awesome Garuda forum and Telegram crew couldn’t save me. Did a reinstall, toyed with the idea of jumping to another distro, but… nah. Garuda ticks all my boxes: btrfs, Timeshift, systemd, rolling release—you name it. I’m back on Garuda again, this time on the Mokka edition. It’s gorgeous and I’m loving every minute of it. Great work, team!
|
Version: 250801
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-08-19
Votes: 3
|
I found garuda by incident and started with the KDE Dragonized edition. Everything worked out of the box and even Settings, other distros struggled with, worked flawelessly. E. g. my 49" monitor did not run under Mint, Manjaro and another one I do not remember. but garuda recognized it and it simply worked.
Running games - > easy peasy.
I removed one star, because I installed hyprland edition
a few months ago and was disappointed. Tje live ISO looked nice and worked smoothly, but the installed distro got a blank hyprland without any config. And another issue was running ?Jkools Arch Hyperland" installation script on KDE Edition which lead to unusable rofi tools. But I do not know what caused this problem, do I do not blame garuda nor the script ;-)
Conclusion: I would recommend this even to beginners
|
Version: 250308
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-07-22
Votes: 17
|
Awesome distro and no more Bluetooth issues. Was having some issues using fedora and fedora based distros and bluetooth and now with Garuda linux no more bluetooth issues.
Plus I can get games to work and even install gog galaxy and get it to work.
Also support on the Garuda support forum is amazing and they are super friendly. I just love how kind they are and how helpful they are when you do have issue. So the few issues I have had were all resolved with the help of the good people at the support forum.
I just love how stable this distro is and how easy it is to use and get things up and running.
|
Version: 250308
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-06-28
Votes: 12
|
Amazing, 10/10! I'm using Garuda LInux Broadwing, Soaring release.
It's the first distro that I found where my DaVinci Speed Editor works via Bluetooth with DaVinci Resolve Studio.
Previously I was on Pop!_OS 22.04 and even though I could connect the Speed Editor to the laptop via bluetooth, DaVinci Resolve wasn't seeing it. It was only working if connected on usb.
Installing DaVinci Resolve Studio was the easiest thing ever. And it has the menu bar working!
The only gotcha with DaVinci on Garuda is that after installing, I had to remove a few libs:
/opt/resolve/libs/libglib-2.0.so*
/opt/resolve/libs/libgio-2.0.so*
/opt/resolve/libs/libgmodule-2.0.so*
There's also an amazing article dedicated to DaVinci Resolve on ArchWiki
Oh, and I needed to create a custom desktop file to launch resolve with `env LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME=iHD QT_AUTO_SCREEN_SCALE_FACTOR=1 /opt/resolve/bin/resolve`
Without this, the scaling is terrible on high dpi screens on Linux in general.
Installing PixInsight was also very very easy. Just run the `.run` file. But it has to be done through the terminal, just like the Linux installation instructions say on the Pleiades Astrophoto website. So that's a 10/10.
The support on the garudalinux forum is fenomenal! I had some trouble due to my specific hardware configuration, but a lot of people jumped in and helped me.
In the end there is an issue where if I connect my external monitor over HDMI, it makes the system very very slow when I try to play youtube videos. I get 10fps or so and everything else is slowing down.
But if I connect the display via usb-c, then the videos work ok.
For anyone interested, my hardware is:
Laptop: Asus Zenbook Pro Duo UX582HS
CPU: intel i9 11900H
GPU: RTX 3080, 8Gb
RAM: 32 GB
External display: Asus ProArt PA279CV, 4k. Luckily it has an USB-C input.
For a Linux system, Garuda is 10/10 in my book, but I still need a virtual machine or something for Affinity Photo and CaptureOne though.
|
Version: 250308
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-06-26
Votes: 13
|
Garuda basically saved me from Windows. I feel very lucky that I found it and tried it when I decided to completely leave Windows. A little over 2 years ago, I made the switch. After about 6 months of wonderful luck on my desktop, I decided to put Linux on my laptop as well. I chose a different distro because I was worried about a rolling release model on a computer I didn't use every day. Unfortunately though, my Laptop had an Nvidia GPU (which I know can be tricky on Linux) that I never could get to work. Eventually my laptop also stopped being able to successfully install updates. I spent some time troubleshooting the issues, got the updates to work again after some effort, but never was able to get the dGPU to work properly. Eventually, I decided I was going to try other distros on my laptop, and started with Garuda since, at that point, it had been running every day on my desktop for over a year without a single issue. Garuda just worked out of the box. GPU was working, fully accelerated gaming was possible again. It's been on my laptop for about 8 months, no issues with updates or drivers. I have ran into less problems with Garuda Linux in the last 2 years, on 2 machines, than I was accustomed to on Windows.
Pros:
-garuda-update is royalty. Chef's kiss. I didn't realize how good running updates could be before this.
-powerful and up-to-date Arch based system.
-Chaotic AUR has most everything you're likely to need.
-very good balance of "hand holding" through the install process and daily use. It doesn't get in your way, but will warn you if you might be doing something dumb.
-btrfs snapshots
Cons:
-Some of the default choices in the Dragonized edition are not my cup of tea. Easily fixable.
-Some software developed for Linux is only released as .deb or .rpm, which is not as straightforward to get working in something based on Arch.
|
Version: 250308
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-05-31
Votes: 12
|
I used Garuda KDE Lite, a Fast, Polished, Arch-Based Distro That Just Works.
Garuda KDE Lite pleasantly surprised me. Like other user-friendly distributions (Mint, Ubuntu, MX Linux), it automatically detects and enables all core hardware components out of the box. However, as this is the Lite edition, a few things—like Bluetooth support and power profile management—need to be installed manually. Once that's done, though, everything works perfectly without any further tweaking.
Installation is fast, the interface is clean, and most importantly, I haven’t had to troubleshoot a single thing after setup.
Garuda uses Btrfs with automatic system snapshots on every package installation or system update. These are integrated into the boot menu via GRUB, giving you the option to roll back if something goes wrong. It’s a smart, confidence-inspiring feature—and even better, I never actually had to use it !!!
Software availability is another highlight. Garuda enables the Chaotic-AUR repository by default, giving you access to an enormous range of up-to-date packages, easily installed through the included graphical tools.
It also provides an excellent suite of configuration and maintenance utilities: kernel management, language and locale settings, user accounts, date/time adjustments, and more—all accessible through a user-friendly interface.
Overall, it feels like a "do-it-all" distro—modern, responsive, and tailored to users who want power without the pain.
The only downside specific to the KDE Lite edition is the missing Bluetooth and power-profile support out of the box. This seems intentional, probably targeting desktop users rather than laptops. Still, the installation is easy and safe, so it’s hardly a dealbreaker.
Rating: 10/10 — A sleek, Arch-based system that’s both powerful and hassle-free.
|
Version: 250308
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-05-28
Votes: 8
|
I installed Garuda in my HP ProBook 450 15.6 inch G9 Notebook back in 2024-08-22. I was amazed that everything was working perfectly. Audio was perfect, the screen was perfect, the camera was fine. In my surprise, even the fingerprint sensor was detected and working fine. I have installed all the software I needed using octopi and never needed anything that wasn't in the repos or under paru. I have used snapper a couple of times when I messed things up, and it is a great tool. I cannot give less than 10.
|
Version: 250308
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-05-22
Votes: 4
|
garuda is my fun distribution i use it for non-critical applications like browse youtube and tinker around. my office machine runs mint. the latest mokka version is great except the rani software, it just won't work on my machine. running a amd 5700g with 16gb ram. seems like i am the only one with this problem since i cannot find anything related to it.
plasma 6 has matured greatly and fontmanager works now, it is possible to deactivate the non-needed noto-fonts!
garuda is great i rate it 9 out of 10.
|
Version: 240428
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-04-18
Votes: 33
|
Ventoy is definitely convenient for multiboot setups, but unfortunately, it doesn’t always work smoothly across all Linux distributions. I ran into issues myself. On Arch-based distros like Garuda, booting from a Ventoy USB gets stuck during the systemd boot sequence — those lines of logs that show services being started and checked before reaching the desktop. It just freezes there, with no clear error.
On Fedora and other Red Hat-based distros, it’s even worse: the system suddenly shuts down completely, as if the power was cut — despite the hardware being fine.
When I switched to using balenaEtcher or a simple USB Image Writer (just writing one ISO per USB), all these distros booted up and worked normally. So while Ventoy is powerful and flexible, it seems there are still some bugs or incompatibilities, especially with certain kernel/init system combos. Definitely something to consider if you run into similar issues.
|
Version: 250308
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-04-08
Votes: 46
|
In my opinion, Garuda Mokka in this version is impeccable for audio/video production. It provides ease and plug'n'play connectivity, while other Arch-based distros require a series of erratic configurations that generate tremendous frustration and insecurity, or do not offer an updated store with the most requested and used applications.
Garuda offers options to be installed according to each person's taste and needs. In addition, it brings stability only found in distros with Debian or Fedora.
I hope it does not change and keeps its systemd flexible and elastic enough to meet audio and video needs.
Congratulations to the developers.
|
Version: 250308
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-03-22
Votes: 31
|
I love Garuda Linux! I use an intel laptop, and all the drivers work out of the box. Then, it automatically updated packages and it did not come with any useless apps. The Dragonized theme is great, but it uses the MacOS layout instead of the windows layout, so I tinkered with it. I love KDE and its version was great. Nothing went wrong with my ZSH configs and my apps. I thought it was a great experience. It also has full support for the AUR and has fast mirrors by default. Installation was easy and the Btrfs snapshot feature was nice. It has the same repositories as Arch, with the addition of Chaotic-AUR, and Garuda repositories, so it works like Arch unlike Manjaro. Manjaro uses slower-to-update repositories and is buggy. Garuda is not buggy at all. Again, no distro is perfect, and Garuda has its issues. Firstly, it does not have Flatpak in its assistant, and Flatpak is great. Also, FireDragon browser does not support extention sync unless you put an override text in the config, which connects it to Mozilla. However, FireDragon is a great browser and it is so customizable! Overall, I think Garuda Linux is the best distro, so I rate it a Strong 9.
|
Version: 250308
Rating: 2
Date: 2025-03-22
Votes: 0
|
I've struggled 20 hours failing to install Garuda from ventoy only to find it's not possible but with Grub option! Now once installed the OS and after 4h of searching how to start Heroic stil found nothing. Seems to be installed but have no idea of how to start it. I installed Garuda because I like the Plasma Themes and colors but this OS it's not for new users of Linux. I stood on Linux Mint one month and everything was perfect, my games and all my needed software, perfect. The only reason I moved to Garuda was the awesome theme (dragonized) but now I have to abandon it since I prefer to enjoy my life not to spend 3h searching how to start an application and found no help in all the frikin internet. I do not recommend this for someone whit 30 years in Windows and 1 month in Linux. Maybe in 5 or more years the developers would think also in new users I don't know.... and for now I don't care either since Linux Mint is so perfect for everybody and everything.
|
Version: 250308
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-03-21
Votes: 14
|
Bouncing back and forth between Debian and Arch for the better part of 3 years now. KDE is the only DE I truly enjoy besides Awesome but thats a WM. I had gotten tired of waiting for Debian to get KDE6 upgraded however, that will not be until Trixie. I could of went unstable but thats just it....unstable. Which brings me to Garuda specifically Mokka. What a sight, beautiful isn't even the word. It is also so far solid. I have it installed in VM and a Lenovo mini with an AMD A10-9700e with 16GB Ram. Its surprisingly fast. The desktop is MACish and I am not complaining and recently I have switched to a MACBOOK AIR as my daily driver. I would rather a LINUX arm based laptop, soon enough. The included revamped installers are quick and easy to use. Better then pounding at the terminal. This is a great distro and I am going to install on a few other machines. Keep it up!!
|
Version: 240428
Rating: 6
Date: 2025-03-17
Votes: 1
|
The first impression was really good. I like the design, boot time is fast and AUR serves a lot of packages.
BUT: I couldn't get my sim racing setup up and running. Tried the AUR package first with hid-fanatecff and then built it by myself... No chance to get it running.
After 3 months, the next update destroyed the system completely. Had to install everything again. But to be honest, I want a stable distro and nothing like Arch, which breaks after a few months. So I changed and went to Nobara.
|
Version: 250308
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-03-14
Votes: 9
|
I tried Garuda KDE Lite in Virtualbox to test and it has been so amazing that I installed to my desktop immediately. I have to admit I was a little intimidated at first being that it's Arch based, but I've never had a distro that was so easy to install my software back on. Rani and the setup assistant make it an absolute breeze! Only thing I had to manually install was Mullvad, but even that was really easy. I chose the Xanmod kernel and it's blazing fast! Absolutely stopped me from distro hopping, finally! Amazing work on their part!
|
Version: 250308
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-03-11
Votes: 0
|
Regata OS is a Linux distribution tailored for gamers, offering several features that enhance the gaming experience:
Game Access: This feature provides users with easy access to a vast library of games, including titles like Grand Theft Auto V, Overwatch, The Sims 4, and Battlefield 1, even if they don't have native Linux versions.
Regata Software Store: A user-friendly platform that hosts a wide variety of both open-source and proprietary software, simplifying the installation process for users.
Performance Enhancements: Regata OS includes Feral Interactive's GameMode, which is automatically enabled during gameplay to optimize system performance. Additionally, it supports AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) technology, helping boost frame rates while delivering high-resolution experiences.
Hybrid Graphics Support: For laptops with hybrid graphics setups, Regata OS provides the PRIME Settings tool. This utility allows users to manage and configure applications to run with the dedicated GPU, ensuring optimal performance for demanding software.
I tested several games and works perfect included PoE2.
|
Version: 250308
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-03-10
Votes: 12
|
Maybe the most user friendly Arch distro. Tried Endeavour and as a noob I still struggled to set-up triple boot. I know I know, "three OS'es what kind of mad man needs that!". Some of us really enjoy distro hopping. And the fact that Garuda took care of making a triple boot menu so easily says something about the distro. I have been dual-booting windows and Zorin for the last 8+ months. Only booting into windows for gaming. Still converting everything to steam proton etc....
Zorin is amazing, I like it even better than Mint. But I was looking for a certain snappiness and the next "level" in Linux. That;s how I landed at Garuda Hyprland. A tiling windows manager is such a refreshing OS experience. It feels fast, shiny and for an Arch distro, most things work. Take work with a bit of salt ofcourse, it's Arch after all; go to Zorin for that. The Garuda suite of applications go a long way to help new Arch users. As a side note I still have to try Rani, but that's exactly the philosophy Garuda is going for: Make Arch usable.
I really dig the Garuda UI elements. It's fun and uinque. For people that prefer a more tone downed desktop, look at their different options like "Garuda Mokka,- Garuda Gnome...." Purists will say Garuda is bloated, but those people wear "programmer socks". So absolutely give Garuda a Try.
|
Version: 250308
Rating: 8
Date: 2025-03-09
Votes: 2
|
The website is sparse on information especially the new Rani they are bragging puts everything in one place. Thing is the program is a huge white rectangle with nothing in it, the gui is not showing except for a blank white rectangle. The website has nothing helpful to help me except bragging about their programs and when I searched for Rani I got nothing, I used a search engine also and nothing. I might head over to YouTube and leave a complaint in the comments since the websites got nothing showing at all except advertising the new great Rani that doesn't work. Now for the plus great install, fast and it seems fast but a lot of hand holding with the apps like everyone is a total newb.
|
Version: 240428
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-02-09
Votes: 17
|
After distrohopping between Mint, Kubuntu and Endeavour, landing on Garuda after a literal coinflip between it and going back to Mint has been a blessing. I've been right at home with how my necessities for gaming come pre-installed alongside being able to tinker freely whenever I'm bored thanks to it being Arch based.
Two of the few (and arguably biggest) negatives about this is the wallet that shows up on startup, I've recently found KWalletManager which sorts this but not having that as default puts a bit of a sour taste in my mouth
Another is nextcloud (which I believe is only a part of the Dr460nized edition) and how it prompts a login every time I open the file manager even after disabling it to start on boot, this required it to be uninstalled.
Other than those its been a really smooth and streamlined experience. Would recommend.
|
Version: 240428
Rating: 10
Date: 2024-12-26
Votes: 33
|
Installed on my main computer, I7-14700, with nvidia 4060 card. I had no problems with install. Makes archLinux pretty easy to use and I use the plasma 6 DE. I use it mostly for browsing, old games, programming, and music creation.
Positives:
-the rolling updates
-I use their browser version: FireDragon
-Forums can be helpful
-I like the dragonized theme, but some maynot.
-Different installs: KDE plasma/dragon, cinnamon, Gnome, etc.
Negatives:
-Some people really dislike archlinux
-rolling updates inherently can cause problems you'll need to fix
|
Version: 240428
Rating: 10
Date: 2024-11-15
Votes: 33
|
Garuda Linux is a solid choice if you're dealing with an old or low-spec PC. Even though it's based on Arch Linux, which is usually for more cutting-edge setups, Garuda is optimized so well that it can actually make old machines run like a charm. With lightweight desktop environments like LXQt or i3, it won’t bog down your system. Plus, it’s ready to go right out of the box with performance tweaks, so you don’t have to mess around — just install and watch your old PC speed up! garuda best linux on me
|
Version: 240428
Rating: 9
Date: 2024-10-03
Votes: 19
|
When I got a "new" used laptop I thought, will I install Bunsenlabs on it like I had on my old one, or will I use the opportunity to distro-hop? Well, distro-hopping it was. I went looking for a /beautiful/ linux distro and obviously Garuda Linux, DR460NIZED edition, made it to the top of the shortlist. As I set about installing it, I was amazed at how everything just seemed to work out of the box. Nice point and click interfaces for setting everything up - I didn't even need to go into the command line or dig through oodles of text config files in order to get it up and running. It really is an operating system as it should be: it just works. I mean, I do like to fiddle around with stuff (I've been casually using Linux since the mid 1990s) but for the most part, I want my electronics to just work without /needing/ to faff around with it a lot just to keep it working. In other words: in my world, faffing about should be consensual. And somehow the Garuda folks have managed to wrestle Arch Linux, a notoriously faffy distro, into an "it just works" package with sleek neon graphics. I never give a 10/10 because there's always room for improvement, so the next best ting it is: 9/10.
|
Version: 240428
Rating: 9
Date: 2024-09-04
Votes: 10
|
Amazing distro. Providing a unique feel and with Pacman, making many programs available in a simple, fast setup is a god send. The only 2 things that I see as an issue: 1) KDEWallet always popping up. There is a work around by downloading and installing the KDEWallet manager. But that leads to the other issue 2) The default package installer needs a bit of help. On initial setup it is broken on many devices and must be fixed via terminal. From there everything seems to be pretty sound. Love the layout and the interface, and how easy it is to get many programs working with little effort.
|
Version: 240428
Rating: 10
Date: 2024-07-21
Votes: 34
|
I've been using Garuda off and on for a few years and I really like it. Of course I could just run the Base Arch distro but Garuda has enough things on first load and configs to where there's less tinkering to get back into Steam and whatever games you want to play.
Installation is fairly easy and usage is easy as well. They've really done a great job at a stable Arch Distro.
Most of the games that I play (Elite Dangerous, Star Citizen, State of Decay 2 and Tribes 3 Rivals) works flawlessly pretty much out of the box with minimal tweaking. Always check protondb to see if there is any special tweaks you need for your game.
|
Version: 240428
Rating: 9
Date: 2024-07-07
Votes: 3
|
I have been running Garuda for 18 months now. It has worked flawlessly, over 800 updates later. Until a update in April when only LTS-kernel works. Something happened with it when it is about to load the GUI for KDE so computer locks up. But I guess that is what you have to expect from a bleeding edge distro. I am surprised though that it lasted so long.
That aside, gaming works very nice. I use Heroic games for my GOG games and Steam. It is as easy as to install and play games in Windows. I have tested games like Baldurs Gate 3, Fallout 4 and Divinity Origin 2 on heroic games and Starfield on Steam. Just install and run, no tweaking whatsoever is needed.Well, except activating proton on Steam of course, but that is just a click in settings.
Since the update broke I have tested Nobara, Heroic games works fine, but Steam seem to need some tinkering for Starfield, So I stick to Garuda for now. Atleast until the LTS-kernel breaks.
|
Version: 240428
Rating: 10
Date: 2024-06-04
Votes: 15
|
I have distro hopped a moderate amount over the past few months, I have tried Fedora, Manjaro, Kubuntu, and Endeavour OS, but after I landed on Garuda Linux, I've felt right at home ever since! Fast, reliable, and awesome gaming performance! I would definitely recommend this Linux distro to new and advanced users alike. It is quite versatile for gaming, and general purpose use cases. The multiple desktop environment choices are also quite appealing if you get bored with one. Also the wallpapers are amazing! The artists behind them deserve a lot of credit for them! And always remember, with Garuda Linux, you still get to say , "I use Arch btw!". (Hey that rymed! XD)
|
Version: 240428
Rating: 9
Date: 2024-05-30
Votes: 6
|
I have been using Garuda Linux exclusively since 2020. This is the first distro that stopped me from distro hopping. The forum has been very helpful. The people there are pleasant and helpful. I wish that I knew more to give back. I have had to reinstall my system once because of my own errors. A word of warning "Never update your system with low disk space, Never". The distro itself has been rock solid.
I only give this a 9 because there is always something better. I just haven't found it. In the last month or two I have started to distro hop a bit and have yet to find something that peaks my interest.
|
Version: 240428
Rating: 9
Date: 2024-05-16
Votes: 4
|
I run EndeavourOS before switching to Garuda Linux. Since EndeavourOS is my first Arch-based Linux distro, setting up KDE Lite edition is easier (at least for me since I have prior experience) than EndeavourOS, since you'll be guided by GUI, and the GUI will do the terminal command for you, which is super convenient.
Chaotic-aur which is enabled by default really saves my time as AUR's softwares were pre-compiled. OBS from Arch-repo is not pre-installed with server browser, hence I need to grab OBS from AUR instead. Since everything is pre-compiled in chaotic-aur, I didn't have to wait for 30 minutes just to 'build' a software.
At first I didn't want to use btrfs because I heard that it affect CPU usage which I assume gonna affect my gameplay. Turns out, it didn't affect my experience at all. Game that took a very long time to launch (Killing Floor 2) launch slightly faster, combined with power of zen kernel and game tweak from Garuda repo, my game experience here is significantly (only slightly but noticeable) better than ext4 on EndeavourOS.
My only grip is 'yay' is not installed by default unlike in EOS, so you have to installed it manually and it only tooks a very minimal effort.
|
Version: 231029
Rating: 4
Date: 2024-05-14
Votes: 3
|
Looks good.
That's about it.
Installation took two attempts on a new, unused HD. with the first attempt failing to unpack a file from an HP USB stick.
Updates went well as far as authorising them, after that it all fell apart.
All attempts to download PGP keys for the key-ring failed. So no updates could be applied.
I love the look of this OS but unfortunately, that is all I could do with it.
So its back to MX for me.
I can't think of what else to write to use up the minimum no. of required characters so keep cash and screw the NWO.
|
Version: 240428
Rating: 10
Date: 2024-05-04
Votes: 10
|
All in all Garuda is for me most likely the best "just works" Distro out there.
The most important positive point for me is the "garuda-assistant" which saves hours of reading the Arch Wiki and manual tinkering with configs and packages. The second big thing is the fully preconfigured btrfs-Snapshot-thing. It really helps you out when "breaking things which you then can not repair". Just boot into the snapshot, roll back, start over. Of course, you can configure that with snapper tools also for any other distro which installs to btrfs, but Garuda saves you all the work there.
Looking for convenience this is definitely a top pick. Before I used EndeavourOS - which was also really good, but I don't look back.
The negatives are there but not really a major problem: I like KDE but I dislike the appleish workflow they call "Dr460nized". But - as KDE is: You can get rid of stuff. In the Garuda forum is a how to in the FAQ-section. Also for me the forum is another minus: All my own activities there were quite "underwhelming" for me. Even with an extensive problem report I got mostly useless or arrogant (at least that is as what I recognized it) responses.
But - Dr460nized, de-Dr460nized, picking another flavor and knowing how to use Arch Wiki, Garuda is an extraordinary Distribution, which I also would call beginner-friendly. Well at least all Linux newbies I am befriended with are asking not much for help there. And my support times are quite less than when they were using Ubuntu.
The only thing I am still waiting for is a Garuda with root on ZFS. ;)
|
Version: 231029
Rating: 10
Date: 2024-04-27
Votes: 5
|
I don't know why this great Arch Linux based version lags behind EndeavourOS or the unstable Manjaro, but I think they need a few more DE maintainers.
They've reduced the number of variants offered, not because they just want to cater to the mainstream, but because they simply don't have the support staff for the extravagant desktop interfaces.
I'm looking forward to the next version and hope Nvidia doesn't crash on KDE's Plasma 6.
I have tested a few DE's and they all work fine as long as there is no Nvidia GPU in use. Before you buy the next hardware, please check if the hardware is compatible with Linux. Do not blame any distribution for incompatible hardware drivers, it is the fault of the proprietary software that is provided.
|
Version: 231029
Rating: 10
Date: 2024-04-25
Votes: 8
|
The best out of the box Distro for me it comes with the most features you would want for a ez from windows to linux experience even much more then linux mint. This distro comes with btrfs and the ability to revert to a previous state in seconds much like system restore on windows but this works and system restore on windows dousnt.
It has a great welcome screen with basically everything you need and options to install additional software you might need for gaming and productivity. All requirements for gaming are already included.
the only thing you might like or not like is the gaming theme it comes with. but you can easily change it for something else.
For me this was a huge upgrade compared to manjaro and linux mint that i previously used.
Manjaro broke on me a few times as it dousnt vanilla support AUR packages.
i need AUR packages to get things going.
On Garuda it was a breeze to get advanced features like CoreCtrl and Openrazer to work while i found it alot more difficult on manjaro. and not as ez on mint either.
For me Garuda is the best noob proof arch like Linux experience with access to the AUR and the latest software and updates.
It became my daily driver right after installing it.
|
Version: 231029
Rating: 4
Date: 2024-04-16
Votes: 0
|
We downloaded the iso because the Linux seemed to have desirable features, including:
Cinnamon desktop
Arch Linux (for yay and pacman)
Not the current version of QuickTime (which will force you to use IPv6)
NVidia GPU support
Recent Linux kernel
Test was on an Asus ROG Strix
20 GB RAM
1.8 GB NVME
AMD Ryzen 8 cores
NVidia GEForce RTX
We put the .iso on a DVD.
It booted! That's something.
If you select NVidia drivers, you'll never see what's going on.
If you select generic video drivers, during the install, you see the installation gets hung up for over an hour on Manjaro Hardware Detection Tool (MHDT).
Bottom line: We were unable to load and use this Linux on this Asus ROG Strix laptop.
|
Version: 231029
Rating: 10
Date: 2024-04-01
Votes: 6
|
Having utilized Arch Linux as my primary operating system for a year, I encountered frequent maintenance challenges. Seeking an Arch-based alternative with a more seamless user experience, I stumbled upon Garuda Linux. It's been my preferred distribution for another year now, and I've found it remarkably stable. Unlike Arch, Garuda requires minimal user intervention and offers a robust out-of-the-box experience. Its streamlined functionality has spared me the headaches of constant troubleshooting, allowing me to focus on my tasks without disruptions. Overall, Garuda Linux has proven to be an excellent choice for users familiar with Arch who desire a hassle-free computing environment.
|
Version: 231029
Rating: 10
Date: 2024-02-17
Votes: 4
|
I have been trying a bunch of distros, but Garuda KDE is hands down the best I have come across so far.
- A modern stack
- Frequent but fast updates
- Nice tools
- It really looks awesome!
- It's geared towards desktop use and works well for gaming
- Timeshift with automatic snapshots to rollback in case an update has gone wrong
- Built on Arch
ArchWiki provides lot of great information in addition to the Garuda Forum.
What more could you ask for.
|
Version: 231029
Rating: 9
Date: 2024-02-11
Votes: 0
|
i love this im a new user to linux and have been distro hopping from mint to debian to fedora
this one i will keep. I watched a few you tube videos and off i go . it updates my desktop looks great
its fast installed the browser that i like and the programs that i like to use . awesome distro
its not hard to learn so a new user can learn it fast, just watch you tube and take a few notes
it has not crashed and have had no problems at all so far its been a couple weeks so far.
install was easy try it you may like it
|
Version: 231029
Rating: 8
Date: 2024-02-07
Votes: 6
|
Pros:
*As a ricer, the desktop is awesome.
*The installation was flawless and fast.
*I like the updating process.
*The zen kernel was also a feature that I liked.
*The learning curve was not difficult or lengthy
*Overall impressive distribution with many desktop versions available
Cons:
*Support is geared toward the more experienced user
*The versions have gone from 12 in the beginning, to the present offering of 7 versions.
This shows that the development team(s) are continually readjusting their concentration
to those versions that are the more tenable and popular to Garuda Users and potential users.
However this may require the loyal user that was using a now discontinued version, to switch to an offered version of
Garuda Linux, or find "their version" in another distro.
Overall:
*Garuda Linux is a beautiful distribution that appears to be geared to the experienced user.
Suggestion(s):
*Provide a more robust guide for new users of Linux, and perhaps a more empathetic attitude in the forum, as all of us
were a noobie, once.
Note: The above is a representation of my opinion, which I reserve only for myself.
|
Version: 231029
Rating: 9
Date: 2024-02-07
Votes: 0
|
Rolling updates are outstanding. Very much like having nearly always the latest software on a daily basis. Have been using for at least 2 years now? and it just works. Only 1 minor update issue I can remember which was quickly solved with a google search. Performance is excellent, have gotten Minecraft bedrock going for my daughter and I, haven't installed many other "windows" titles to date, but am planning to install Flight Sim shortly to practice approach maneuvers. Will update review with observations when I have an opinion.
|
Version: 231029
Rating: 3
Date: 2024-02-04
Votes: 2
|
The latest version as of February 4th 2024.
I very much wanted to test this distro for a full month before writing a review here, but I just couldn't take it anymore. The strange eye candy can be changed with the usual configuration tweaks we see in most WMs, so I did manage to undo all the odd font-on-page settings etc.
But the rest of it is just way beyond my sensibilities. Why on Earth would anyone want to use a browser ("FireDragon") that routinely elicits security errors from email and banking sites, no matter how the settings are in the browser preferences area, is beyond me. Also the OS updating functionality seems okay as we invoke it from command line, but next we get errors from apps and settings applets (rebooting did cure one of them, but left several more).
I appreciate their endeavors with this, and I see it's used, or cat least clicked on in Distrowatch, by a lot of people, so perhaps enough to cause feedback on all these issues (and more too numerous to mention).
|
Version: 231029
Rating: 10
Date: 2024-02-04
Votes: 4
|
Near perfect distro for all types, from the boot menu to live install and on. This distro is exactly what alot of people have been looking
for im sure, including pacman for default manager and having the complete out of the box beauty it comes with on the dragonized
KDE Plasma version, post-install setup screens with awesome background and windows managing setup, already narrowing down
the games/apps and etc. most people would be installing anyway and my favorite being the retroarch full install already avail with
cores and updated (pain on almost every distro i've tried out) theres so much more to this that you just have to see for yourself but
this is literally the only review i've done and thats because of how perfect this distro was and continues to be, if i had to name a con
it would simply be that its not easy to just switch the window buttons from left to right side like normal and also using any other
window theme is hit or miss if the window being maximized will actually show buttons at all but honestly thats nit-pickin and if you
just allow yourself to get use to it, its not a big deal.. Been on this distro for over a year now so hoping with KDE Plasma 6 coming
soon that Garuda has plans to do some new updates as well or just some polishing here and there to make this distro even more
amazing. Anyway wether you've been on Linux for decades or switching from another OS and looking for your very first - Garuda OS
definitely has everything covered and gives a basic learning curve to linux as well, try every environment because they all look great
on Garuda and have their pros/cons but regardless you'll be hard pressed to find a better KDE Plasma DE with this much out of the
box goodness!
|
Version: 231029
Rating: 10
Date: 2024-01-17
Votes: 1
|
Very good Arch based system, so easy to install and use. XFCE is so nice in this distribution. Lots of software and all the custom tools make everything so simple, unlike Arch which can be painful for less experienced users.
The performance of my system is so good now, unlike slow and bloted Windows or even Ubuntu. Garuda has given my old computer life for many more years to come. Media playback is all supported from a fresh install for me also, I had no issues playing any files or music I put at it.
|
Version: 231029
Rating: 10
Date: 2024-01-09
Votes: 1
|
Great arch-based distro. Switched over from openSUSE and noticed a MAJOR performance gain in games, easy to setup and install, and has a very useful snapper tool to use in case something goes wrong (which it never did for me and it's been a year since I installed it). The only con however, is the lack of a system file checker for NTFS file systems, so you NEED Windows to run chkdsk /f if you need to repair a NTFS drive. One of the best distros I've ever used, and imo completelly destroys Windows 10 with it's out of the box experience, WINE ready to be used etc
|
Version: 231029
Rating: 10
Date: 2024-01-07
Votes: 0
|
I highly recommend Garuda.
Installation is easy, and fast. It has a beautiful desktop environment.
The pacman package manager is amazing. It is easy and fast to install and remove packages.
The forum has a very active community, so if you need help, someone is there.
The system takes a snapshot every time you update, so a buggy update is not the end of the world.
It comes with the fish shell pre-installed and configured, the Kate text editor (which I love to use to write code), and krita (the best art program I've ever seen).
I run the recommended non-gaming version on my cheapo from walmart laptop and it is my favorite distro.
|
Version: 231029
Rating: 9
Date: 2024-01-03
Votes: 4
|
Used Garuda for a few months then came crawling back when EndeavourOS ended up with lots of instabilities on my hardware.
Their "Dragonized Gaming" edition is definitely overkill and not really necessary.
To say nothing of how gaudy their custom theme is.
Docking points for that being their recommended version.
When I used that edition, I found myself spending too long uninstalling applications I didn't want and ended up having to take extra steps when their "Garuda Gamer" software failed to handle removal of unused dependencies.
After leaving EndeavourOS, I returned to Garuda's "KDE Lite" edition.
For being the version they don't recommend, it's actually the one I would consider perfect.
It was the Garuda experience I was looking for: only adding what I needed rather than removing what I didn't need.
It includes all the core applications you actually need to help set up and maintain your system.
From there you can install the (few) packages and applications you need for gaming or productivity without going overkill.
Once the dust settled, it's been a rock solid and stable experience.
I added the KDE applications I use right from the Discover store, but otherwise I handle just about all my updates and package downloads from Pacman.
Definitely a beginner friendly experience while still requiring just enough of the "Linux way" to ensure the user "gets it":
You get your software from a package manager, not random downloads from the internet.
Only thing I wish were different were out-of-the-box support for Flatpaks.
But FWIW, I haven't needed to use Flatpaks given the wealth of software provided by the official repos and the AUR.
And support for Flatpaks is easy enough to install if you ever need it.
For a first-time Linux user, it might be confusing to have both Discover and Pacman installed at the same time, so maybe it's not a great "first" distro but definitely worth checking out if you really like KDE Plasma, really want the Arch-based rolling release model, and want a stable desktop that doesn't ask you to do fiddly troubleshooting.
While not exactly perfect, the KDE Lite edition fits me and my preferences perfectly.
It's the best I've had out of all the distros I've tried, with Manjaro coming in a close second.
|
Version: 231029
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-11-27
Votes: 8
|
One of the best distro have used . Some say it has large amount of useless stuff but no it just makes the super easy for beginners even though it is arch based. I dont know why some people say updates broke the system but i have been using garuda linux for more than 2 years it never broke. If i have to say what makes it so easy it is that it has all necessary features for to install at a single click on garuda welcome . In garuda welcome you can install any gaming need on Garuda gamer . I have tried arch linux and many other distros but garuda is by far most easy and user friendly. It is fast and consumes less ram (1.5 - 1.7gb) well it takes mre ram than arch linux but it has various optimisation which makes it great for lower specs pcs (my computer have processor i3 5005 and fucking 4 gb ram if it works on my pc then it can work on more or less any pc.
|
Version: 231029
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-11-13
Votes: 33
|
Great distro. The community is transparent about its design choices and strategy.
Developers are really focused on getting the best updates out there.
Anyone looking for the latest and greatest, yet stable should look no further.
I'd say Garuda is the most polished and most stable Arch based distro available for desktop hardware.
Pros:
+Blazing fast performance
+Uses latest Zen kernels
+Has robust repositories so you are not going to get errors with your system & pacman
+Nicely polished desktop environments. Made to look sleek and modern. Lots of options.
+Best Kde Plasma implementation to date with a dock.
Cons:
+Might have too many updates for some users. Then I'd go with something like Linux Mint.
Highly recommended OS for the modern PC / workstation setup.
|
Version: 231029
Rating: 9
Date: 2023-11-09
Votes: 3
|
Since moving over from MX, the learning curve with Garuda was a bit steep. Yet, over time, I was able to figure things out and get it the way I wanted without too much blood involved. I really like the look and feel of the system and the way things are presented. I have noticed, over time, that little problems seem to pop up but the forums (and search engines) have a wealth of answers to just about anything I might encounter. Yes, the system is a bit heavy on resources and I was fully expecting that. I have an older laptop that chugs along with only the fans screaming at me to remind me the power of the distro. I'm running 2 extra monitors for a total of 3 screens and the look is smooth. I have suggested this distro to others I work with and they are loving it as much as me. It's definitely a great daily driver with everything packed into it that you could possibly need. The only thing I can complain about it is the updating as I don't get a notification an update is available until the system sees I am seriously out of date and I'll finally get a nagging pop up telling me so. I know I can go in and update manually, but I tend to forget. Other distros do it for me in the background, so maybe I'm not seeing where to change that.
|
Version: 230501
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-09-20
Votes: 20
|
Garuda Linux Cinnamon Edition is my absolute favorite Linux distribution. It's fast, reliable, and incredibly customizable. I've been using it for over a year now, and I've never had a single problem with it.
Here are some of the things I love about Garuda Linux Cinnamon Edition:
Speed: Garuda Linux is one of the fastest Linux distributions I've ever used. It boots up in seconds, and applications open almost instantly.
Reliability: Garuda Linux is also incredibly reliable. I've never had a system crash or freeze on me.
Customizability: Garuda Linux is incredibly customizable. You can change every aspect of the system to your liking, from the desktop environment to the system icons.
Cinnamon desktop environment: The Cinnamon desktop environment is my favorite desktop environment for Linux. It's simple, elegant, and easy to use.
Community: Garuda Linux has a large and active community. If you have any questions or problems, you can usually get help from the Garuda Linux forum or IRC channel.
Overall, I highly recommend Garuda Linux Cinnamon Edition to anyone looking for a fast, reliable, and customizable Linux distribution. It's the perfect distribution for both new and experienced users alike.
Here are some additional thoughts from my personal experience as a Garuda Linux Cinnamon Edition user:
I love the fact that Garuda Linux comes with a variety of pre-installed software, including a web browser, office suite, media player, and development tools. This means that I can start using my system right away without having to install any additional software.
I also appreciate the fact that Garuda Linux is a rolling release distribution. This means that I will always have the latest software installed on my system.
Finally, I love the Garuda Linux community. They are always willing to help users, and they are very passionate about the distribution.
If you are looking for a new Linux distribution, I highly recommend Garuda Linux Cinnamon Edition. It's a great choice for both new and experienced users alike.
|
Version: 230501
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-09-06
Votes: 3
|
Best linux distribution all around. Iḿ using the KDE plasma version. Excellent desktop environment. Using a very fast fule system btrs. Very responsive system. File operations like copy are very quick even with thousands and big files. Auto update very easy and keeps rolling updates. Garuda Setup Assistant is great. You can re-installed all packages with just a mouse click. You can install components like Networking/printing, Virtual Machines, Gaming, audio, multimedia, and many more with just a click.
|
Version: 230501
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-09-02
Votes: 4
|
Love it! I returned back to linux after not having used it for several years. Previously I was running Sabayon which was responsive, looked great and was easy to use so I wanted something along the same vein as Sabayon and Garuda has not dissapointed.
Garuda looks great, it's responsive, great app availability, hardware compatability has not been an issue and it has now made its way on to my sons laptop and like me he absolutely loves it.
|
Version: 230501
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-08-30
Votes: 4
|
I have been using Garuda since years now. IMHO it has grown so well now, that any person who wants to switch to Linux can skip Ubuntu/Mint and directly start with Arch-based Garuda. It is absolutely noob friendly, everything has a good-looking GUI interface, don't have to fiddle much with the terminal. Pretty much all the things a normal person may need comes pre-installed or there is a good-looking GUI to install it. Other distros may boast about their GUI too, but they look obsolete and basic. Garuda have their own repositories and update script which is now pretty good at making sure Arch doesn't break the system. Their forums immediately have fixes or workarounds. Any critical update, and we are notified by a neat disappearing message in the top right corner. A lot of Arch based distros are bare-bones, not far from Arch itself. Garuda feels like it was truly worked upon by its developers. It has a bunch of tools pre-installed and configured for things such as backup, restoring system snapshot, maintenance of storage-delete junk. Usually Linux-world feels like a desolate land, not true with Garuda. They have active and friendly moderators on their forums, unlike the notoriety of Arch.
Like another comment said, ArcoLinux is another friendly alternative. It goes a step further since Erik Dubois, the creator of Arco, makes regular YouTube videos/tutorials for current issues, updates, what's new etc. But unfortunately yes their website looks like it is a time capsule from 50 years ago. A lot of useful, practical information on there, but good luck finding it. To make matters more confusing they have like 6 websites. But this review is about Garuda so the thing that makes Garuda better than Arco, is how it looks and feels out of the box. The experience... Arco is like a well built house that lacks furnishing, it expects the home-owner to decorate it. Garuda is like a pre-furnished home, with all the modern amenities, ready to move! Arco used to have a brother-distro called Hefftor Linux which was beautiful like Garuda but it seems to have died.
Don't be scared of the Arch tag while you are either on Arco or Garuda. If your PC/laptop is capable - try Garuda Dragonized KDE, if it is older hardware get Arco XFCE. And there's a Garuda version for Kali Linux lovers as well.
|
Version: 230501
Rating: 1
Date: 2023-08-30
Votes: 0
|
DO NOT USE THIS OS.
This OS will break. It's not a matter of IF, but when. Problems are so insidious that TimeShift will not work.
A list of problems I've had(this isn't the complete list):
1) Good luck getting Wayland and Nvidia to work. I managed to after a couple days. Long story short it's due to their package curation and odd paths they use.
2) The glitch with the black bar on the dock is far more serious than just visual. It leads to problems with not hiding or showing properly, along with crashes.
3) Network just stopped working suddenly, no updates, nothing.
4) Systems built in Python is wonky as hell, to add packages you need to do a bit of hacking. I'm not sure why, nothing really uses it. Perhaps the Garuda Update does. Yes, I'm aware you should be working in a virtualenv.
4) Major problems with the shell. Good luck even figuring out what shell you're using, editing the RC file, the list goes on. What in the heck...
5) There are some serious problems with everything from xorg, to rc files. You're in for some serious pain trying to fix them.
I could go on and on. You can just try the OS yourself if your a masochist. Anyways, I'm writing this review from another OS because Garuda broke so hard. I'm done fixing it. Your OS should work. This OS offers you nothing and a huge problem.
DO NOT USE THIS OS.
|
Version: 230501
Rating: 9
Date: 2023-08-28
Votes: 0
|
GARUDA is the MXLinux of Arch. The tweak tools are amazing especially for someone new to Arch. I used to be an EndeavourOS fan but it is so close to Arch that one might as well use Arch. Meanwhile, Garuda adds a layer of abstraction installing stuff like latest Nvidia drivers, Zram and Brtfs. ArcoLinux is another candidate but their website is a hideous labyrinth of muddy quagmires.
I am a window manager person. Although I like to tweak around with my wm I don't want to use my own version of WM as a daily driver. I am still learning many things like installing Kvantum or lxapperance for theming. Heck I don't know how to install nvidia or make changes to the DKM. So I keep one distro for learning and another for production.
In the learning distro I can play around with installing things like bluetooth manager, q5ct, imwheel, clipboard etc etc. the production distro should work !
I found Garuda Hyprland to be that place. I know I will grow out of it in a few months but for now Garuda does the job for me.
|
Version: 230501
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-07-27
Votes: 4
|
My heart has always been with Arch and its derivatives, but my head has always been with Debian/Ubuntu and its derivatives for stability. However, Ubuntu and its old kernel doesn't work well on my Lenovo Idea Flex 5 with Irisxe graphics card.The screen had little white sparkles with ubuntu; with Garuda that does not happen.
I think Garuda is the "linux mint" of Arch. I consider it better than ArcoLinux because it comes with more wizards for a linux newbie. I am not new to Linux, sometimes I set up distros from scratch, but when I have to work I like that the distro has everything.
There are many who complain that it has a bright and tacky style. My goodness: today you can change the theme and icons in a minute in Linux, especially in Cinnamon or kde.
I feel that the distro is modern, it is designed to be easy to use, and I don't care that it is "bloated": I need proprietary software to work, what can we do?
Regarding Arch, it is the best derivative in my opinion, well above Manjaro or Arcolinux.
I've had it installed on his desktop "lxqt" for months now and it has given me no problems. If you want stability, disable Caothic Aur and install flatpaks. It's not that difficult either.
Good job, friends!!
|
Version: 230501
Rating: 5
Date: 2023-07-15
Votes: 0
|
An average Arch based distro, I don't see this offering anything noteworthy to the existing pool. At a pinch, maybe the bold colours out of the box, but nothing else.
The installation worked fine, the DE worked, my laptop hardware was recognised and worked. Unfortunately, that is as as much as I can say, it didn't blow me away and it didn't cause me pain.
The colour palette is cool, the iconography is a little adolescent but functional, the installation is handled by Calamares, it defaults BTRFS, the assistant tool is much like the assistant apps you get with every other distro it is functional but offers nothing new, it includes Chaotic AUR by default (not sure this is the right choice).
Yeah, I can't say what sets this distro apart from the rest, aside from the colours.
|
Version: 230501
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-07-14
Votes: 0
|
After an accidental stumbling on a second-hand budget-friendly HP 255 G7 Laptop on eBay, I decided to embark on a new Linux adventure. And what better companion than Garuda KDE Lite!
Garuda KDE Lite is like a breath of fresh air for those seeking a rock-solid Linux distro without compromising on performance. With its minimalistic design, this feather-light Linux flavor effortlessly zips through my daily tasks, making it an ideal choice for common use.
Installation was a breeze - smooth as silk. Within a few clicks, Garuda KDE Lite took over my system, leaving virtually no trace of the previous Windows occupant. It was a relief to witness an operating system that doesn't eat up valuable system resources but instead, optimizes them like a true Linux champ!
The KDE desktop environment, with its sleek and modern appearance, adds a touch of elegance to my computing experience. Its intuitive nature ensures that even Linux newbies, like me, can swiftly adapt to its offerings. While not cluttered with unnecessary bloatware, Garuda KDE Lite equips users with all essential tools and applications - ensuring a productive workflow.
I was truly impressed by the speed and responsiveness of this distro. Even with my modest AMD A4-9125 processor and 4GB RAM, Garuda KDE Lite never skips a beat. Multitasking became second nature, as applications seamlessly launch and switch, allowing me to effortlessly handle my daily tasks without any hiccups.
The inclusion of a 128GB SSD with this budget laptop further enhances Garuda KDE Lite's performance prowess. The snappy boot times and rapid application loading are a testament to the power of this combination.
While I'm not a hardcore gamer, I appreciate that Garuda KDE Lite focuses on delivering a smooth and reliable computing experience, tailored for common daily use. It may not be the go-to distro for gaming enthusiasts, but for everyone else seeking a hassle-free, dependable Linux environment, Garuda KDE Lite shines brightly.
Garuda KDE Lite has definitely won me over with its winning combination of speed, stability, and user-friendly design. It proves that a budget laptop coupled with a well-optimized Linux distro doesn't have to compromise on quality.
In conclusion, if you're seeking an affordable Linux distro that delivers an impressive performance out of the box without compromising your wallet, give Garuda KDE Lite a try. It's the perfect companion for those who want to take flight with Linux on a budget!
5/5 stars to the Garuda Linux Team!!!
|
Version: 230501
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-07-07
Votes: 0
|
As someone with a notable history in breaking every Linux distro I’ve ever used, I can say Garuda has all the best measures put in place to keep my computer up and running no matter what I do to it. It has BTRFS with built in automatic snapshots configured automatically as soon as you install it, no setup required, and you can access and boot into snapshots from the bootloader without having to boot into your actual OS. Once you boot into the snapshot, a popup asks you if you want to restore this snapshot. If you select yes, it prompts you to reboot, and then that’s it, its seriously that easy.
I use the dragonized gaming edition. The dragonized desktop definitely won’t be for everyone, you either like it or you don’t, I love it though. Lots of cool effects and a very attractive and sleek terminal. If it doesn’t seem like your kinda vibe, that’s fine because they have a massive selection of desktop environments to choose from otherwise.
Garuda has a fantastic user experience with graphical tools to accomplish any task. From installing packages, to modifying boot options, to switching kernels, to managing drivers, it’s all so easy with the built in apps. The one-click system update even refreshes your mirror lists automatically.
Needless to say, I like Garuda a lot.
|
Version: 230501
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-07-05
Votes: 2
|
Great Arch-based distro with very helpful tooling and sane defaults (BTRFS with snapshots, etc). Been using Garuda as my daily driver OS for almost 2 years now with only very minimal issues (which were easily resolved and/or rolled back). Very few other distros I've tried have had a comparable level of "indestructibility" (and I like to break things), package availability (although this is becoming less relevant thanks to the efforts of projects like DistroBox, etc), and overall system stability.
|
Version: 230501
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-07-03
Votes: 2
|
Garuda is my new favourite distro. I actually use the Cinnamon variant, as I've never been a fan of Gnome or KDE, and I think many people dismiss Garuda as just a distro with a really fancy looking KDE theme. But under the hood, I find it is the best and easiest Arch based distro around.
Specifically, I like that by default you have BTRFS with snapshots (easy recovery from broken updates), Zen Kernel, Pipewire, ZRAM for swap and access to both the standard and Chaotic AUR. So you essentially get an optimal workstation/gaming Arch install, that can be setup in minutes. Also comes with various useful configuration features to safe time/effort.
I would still suggest a raw Linux beginner start with Mint. But for someone with a bit of Linux experience, who wants a really solid base Arch install, I think Garuda is the best there is.
|
Version: 230501
Rating: 1
Date: 2023-06-28
Votes: 0
|
After 2 months of use, complete system crash, "smb samba is out" impossible to restart from backups,
I am very disappointed because the gamer version was excellent and excellent performance,
I will no longer install rolling releases because the daily updates are very heavy
I had the same problems as with Manjaro, too many updates end up causing crashes in my opinion, I will stay on stable versions
Very very disappointed with Arch-based systems, I'm going back to Debian with Bodhi Linux, too bad my second experience with Arch ended badly
|
Version: 230501
Rating: 9
Date: 2023-06-26
Votes: 5
|
As a casual gamer with reasonably powerful hardware, I can only say that Garuda is the best distro I could test so far. Many meta-packages are already pre-installed and the Garuda wizard offers many more useful download options. I especially like the automatic snaps with BTRFS.
All my games run flawlessly and with smooth performance. (most of them under Steam and Proton)
I use the Garuda GNOME Edition with the following hardware:
MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D
AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT
32 GB RAM Kingston Fury Beast 3600
2 TB Kingston FURY Renegade SSD NVMe PCIe 4.0
CORSAIR Hydro Series H100i PRO liquid CPU cooler
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the team at Garuda for this fine Arch-based distro. I would be very happy about a less fancy KDE version with support. ;)
|
Version: 230501
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-06-18
Votes: 4
|
As a Linux end-user with basic knowledge, I recently had the opportunity to test the latest version of Garuda Linux Xfce on my older second-hand laptop. I must say, I was thoroughly impressed with this Arch-based distro and how well it performed, even on my aging hardware. Garuda Linux Xfce has certainly stood out to me as one of the most user-friendly Arch distros I have come across during my distro-hopping journeys.
One of the most significant highlights of Garuda Linux Xfce is the installation process. I found it to be a breeze, and one of the quickest and most straightforward installations I have performed. The installation guide is incredibly detailed, and the entire process took me less than 20 minutes to complete. Overall, the installation process was hassle-free, and I found it to be a great start to my experience with the system.
Moving on to the desktop environment, I was delighted with the sleek and customizable Xfce desktop environment. Not only does it look great, but it is also highly customizable. Garuda Linux Xfce includes numerous pre-installed themes and plugins, making it easy for me to tailor my desktop according to my personal preferences. The system also uses the Garuda Welcome application, which provides new users with useful tips and information to help them get started with the system.
In terms of performance, Garuda Linux Xfce did not disappoint either. Even when I was running multiple applications at the same time, I noticed no significant lag or slow performance. The system's speed and effectiveness exceeded my expectations, and I was pleased with how smoothly everything ran. Garuda Linux Xfce is an excellent option for those who are looking for a lightweight and dependable system that performs well, even on older hardware.
Apart from its exceptional performance, the Garuda forum is quite possibly one of the friendliest Linux communities I have come across. The community is always willing to lend a helping hand and answer any questions I had along the way. Their knowledge and expertise were a fantastic resource that added even more value to my experience using Garuda Linux Xfce. Overall, the friendly and supportive community only adds to Garuda Linux Xfce's appeal as a top-notch Arch-based distro.
In conclusion, I strongly recommend Garuda Linux Xfce to anyone searching for a user-friendly, lightweight, and high-performing Arch-based distro. Garuda Linux Xfce is an excellent choice for new Linux users as well, thanks to its intuitive installation and plethora of pre-installed themes and plugins. I believe Garuda Linux Xfce stands out in the ever-growing world of Linux distributions as a system that prioritizes simplicity and user convenience without sacrificing performance.
Kudos to the Garuda Team & community!!!
|
Version: 230501
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-05-30
Votes: 1
|
Best arch base distro. Beats by a few kilometers others.
KDE dragonized with oxygen and original kde icons is better for us. This distro is tweaking tools paradise with late dock taskbar on top. Grab pamac package manager in kde assistant after fresh install. Grub update is very good in boot options. Best place for new machines. Dual boot btrfs works fine with debian. 10/10
Operating System: Garuda Linux
KDE Plasma Version: 5.27.5
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.106.0
Qt Version: 5.15.9
Kernel Version: 6.4.0-rc4-1-mainline (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
|
Version: 230501
Rating: 9
Date: 2023-05-30
Votes: 6
|
Best arch base distro.
Best support for nvidia drivers.
I personally use the minimalist "KDE lite" version without bloatware, using low resources and I'm very impressioned for its stability.
I use Linux in an old hardware (HP Zbook 15, G2) and I find that pretty much all of the Garuda tweaks makes the difference.
Mayor distros in their development are failing to drop support for old hardware so there are often small system crashes and slower performance, this is not the case with Garuda that runs super smooth.
I love Xerolinux, I love Fedora, I love Pop Os, I love Mint...I loved Manjaro, I like Mx, but definitely the always fresh Garuda wins hands off.
|
Version: 230501
Rating: 9
Date: 2023-05-26
Votes: 3
|
Using Garuda KDE. Looks tricker than it is although probably not a good choice till you've used Linux for a bit. If you feel confident with a Ubuntu or Mint or MX Linux you could have a go at this.
The welcome window is full of actually useful things,the Setup Assistant and Garuda Assistant will let you set things up and then look after them easily. The other tools are useful too and easy to guess what does what. Instead of processes running in GUIs you click and then watch it all happen in a terminal. Fun and a bit educational.
Dolphin file manager comes set up so it's simple to use root without the terminal, directly editing root files for example, simpler than on any other distro I know, so though it is a terminal centred distro you don't have to use terminal commands to get lots done.
I've found it solid and stable, more so than other Arch distros I've tried recently which seem suddenly to be a bit flaky on my hardware.
Lots of documentation and comprehensive forums, I admit turning number lock off permanently was beyond me, I've a funny laptop about number lock, but a quick search found the solution.
And I think it's a good looking distro.
|
Version: 230501
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-05-14
Votes: 9
|
It works great.
Easy Distro Install
Easy Software Install
Easy Update Process
Attractive
Fast/Responsive
You will find distros that are better on any one item above, but I don't recall a distro I've experimented with recently that does as good at ALL of the above. Well done guys (developers).
Is a refreshing variation with excellent performance and compatibility (even games). I've been using linux for a while, but am an average user with average abilities and it was easy to setup and use.
Cheers
|
Version: 230501
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-05-13
Votes: 8
|
It is an amazing disro for Arch users. Takes away all the hasle to build up ur system with bugs. This distro is the best Arch based distro ever. Just try it once, you will only gain, no loss. The only cons i can even think is that this distro need improvement to lessen its boot up time. Thats all! There is practically no issues with this distro. I have tried so many distros Arch based and frankly speaking I hate Arch for its unpredictable behaviour for last 6 Months, so I useally use fedora based or debian based distro mostly, but Garuda changed this perseption of mine. Highly recommended. It just works!
They have an awesome community to help you out if you find any trouble. Great work Garuda team! The fourm is so convinent that I have fallen in love with it.
|
Version: 230501
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-05-06
Votes: 7
|
Simply , GARUDA Linux is the BEST of the Distros.
Smooth , alwais Fresh , Latest software and newest Kernel @ ~!!~
i LOVE it !!
he awesome Garuda Community's Forum I left Windows a year ago and i'm never going back! This support services can solve pretty much any issue that occurs and you easily find solutions in archived threads. The Dragonized Garuda flavor works very well, it's beautiful and you can customize or tweak pretty much everything as you like. With the easy GUI installer you can add I think it's up to 6 different package managers so you will find all the software you'll desire.
|
Version: 230305
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-04-18
Votes: 2
|
I have tried many arch based distros and this is by far superior to all of them combined. All the gui's are beautiful and it runs so smooth. If you are looking for a nice arch based distro, look no further. The installer is Calamaris but its a much improved version over Manjaro or Arco. The amount of customization one can do is amazing. The wallpapers are so nice, you can tell a professional web dev or design guru had their hands on it as well. I give it 10 out of 10, hands down the best. ~nacho cheddah, Atlanta, USA
|
Version: 230305
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-04-11
Votes: 0
|
I'm using Garuda for more than a year, now I use Garuda Raptor, I'm very happy with it, good community, pleasant design, comes already with FISH Shell, obviously it has BASH, you have just to type it on the terminal, it's Arch, you can use AUR repository, you can find some answers on the Arch and Manjaro communities as well, nothing to complain, I'm Brazilian, I use the English version from an Indian distro :)
I think it could comes already with "perl-rename" as well as "rename" both are very usefull, I had to install it.
Long live to Garuda, one day I want to see it as top 5! They deserve it.
|
Version: 230305
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-04-10
Votes: 1
|
After years of distrohopping with mediocre attempts learning and use Linux I found Garuda, which instantly seduced me with it's gorgeous design. Thanks to Arch Wiki and the awesome Garuda Community's Forum I left Windows a year ago and i'm never going back! This support services can solve pretty much any issue that occurs and you easily find solutions in archived threads. The Dragonized Garuda flavor works very well, it's beautiful and you can customize or tweak pretty much everything as you like. With the easy GUI installer you can add I think it's up to 6 different package managers so you will find all the software you'll desire.
Garuda made Linux fun and easy to use, anything is possible, you choose how to utilize it, just GUI or maybe some hardcore CLI ;-)
|
Version: 230305
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-04-05
Votes: 3
|
Garuda Linux is probably the best Arch based distro to try if you're looking for something that just works without much hassle. It's now my daily driver. After using Ubuntu, I went to Linux Mint (also very good) because I wanted something with a fair amount of stability. However, I quickly got bored and wanted something that was a little more up to date. Garuda has newer packages, but the team keeps everything working so there is a good amount of stability and I'm not too worried that my computer isn't going to just crash after every update. That combination is perfect for me.
|
Version: 230305
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-03-19
Votes: 1
|
Garuda Linux is an excellent Linux distribution that offers a unique and highly customizable user experience. One of the standout features of Garuda Linux is its visually appealing and modern KDE Plasma desktop environment. The interface is highly customizable, with various preconfigured desktop layouts that cater to different user needs. The distribution also comes with a vast collection of pre-installed software, including multimedia players, office applications, web browsers, and gaming tools.
One of the biggest advantages of Garuda Linux is its optimized performance. The use of the Linux-zen kernel and zram module results in faster application launch times and reduced system stutter, making the distribution highly responsive and efficient. Additionally, the Garuda Linux team has put a lot of effort into optimizing the distribution for gaming, making it an excellent choice for gamers.
The installation process is straightforward, with a graphical installer that guides users through the setup process. Furthermore, the distribution offers an easy-to-use graphical utility called Garuda Assistant, which helps users manage system settings, including kernel updates, backup and restore, and power management.
The Garuda Linux community is vibrant and helpful, with an active forum and wiki that provide extensive documentation and support for users. The distribution's rolling release model means that users always have access to the latest software updates, making Garuda Linux an excellent choice for users who want to stay on the cutting edge of software development.
In conclusion, Garuda Linux is an excellent choice for users who want a highly customizable, visually appealing, and performance-focused Linux distribution. The optimized performance, extensive software collection, and helpful community make Garuda Linux an excellent option for users with varying levels of experience.
|
Version: 230305
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-03-12
Votes: 0
|
This is the best distro that I have tried. Previously I have used ubuntu, mint, fedora, majaro. But none of them provide such cool looking OS. It is also good in performance Very much better than win 11. Being based on arch is another advantage its always upto date and I love AUR.
If you have latest gen machine with good specs then garuda is simply the best. Many distros I tried just produced random gliches and crashes on my new machine. Its zen kernel and tweaks work very well.
I am using this since 9 months. I am very much impressed and satisfied with garuda..
|
Version: 211128
Rating: 9
Date: 2023-03-12
Votes: 0
|
Unless you're looking for a minimalist Arch-based install, then this is probably going to be the easiest Arch-based distro to use right out of the box. I'm pretty new to Arch-based distros and I was hopping around trying a few out. While I've been using Linux for a few years, I'm no super user by any means. I do some gaming, mainly on Steam, and it has worked beautifully with one exception: after a reboot it doesn't recognize my Xbox 360 wired controller. I type in sudo modprobe xpad into the terminal and that usually fixed it. It's been about the only necessary time where I've actually needed to use the terminal, not just because I wanted to. If my Steam games still don't pick it up, then I just unplug it and plug it back in and it's fixed. There has been one or two times updating has resulted in a partial upgrade. I just wait about two days, and try it again. The Garuda team usually has whatever happened fixed by then, at least I assume it's them. Outside of those two issues, everything from Nvidia drivers to my spaz-tastic printer has worked right out of the box. It's been my daily driver for about 2-3 months now and it's been fantastic. I have no idea which numerical version I'm using, but it's the dr460nized gaming edition.
|
Version: 230305
Rating: 5
Date: 2023-03-10
Votes: 2
|
"Garuda" is certainly beautiful full of colors and innovative...
The good ends for me there...
I don't know if it's because of KDE but it's super messy and not easy at all even with the assistants...
So many trials and failures this distro is totally unstable for me why?
despite my multiple installation attempts after a completely updated fresh system and despite a reboot, it was impossible to install the proprietary GPU drivers and the slightest installation of an application, it crashed constantly on reboot...
Whether it's with the assistant supposed to simplify everything or with the command lines typed in "Terminal" it's a complete failure for me and no, it's surely not better (and by far) than "Manjaro" (which I recommend) I am certainly not an expert programmer but I am not a beginner either I have been experimenting with Linux for 20 years...
I know that my pc configuration is not at all recent but usually I don't have so many problems at all trying to install Linux distros certainly the interface is very nice but I do not recommend "Garuda" at all if you don't have a NASA pc.
|
Version: 230305
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-03-06
Votes: 0
|
Garuda Linux is probably the best Arch based distro to try if you're looking for something that just works without much hassle. It's now my daily driver. After using Ubuntu, I went to Linux Mint (also very good) because I wanted something with a fair amount of stability. However, I quickly got bored and wanted something that was a little more up to date. Garuda has newer packages, but the team keeps everything working so there is a good amount of stability and I'm not too worried that my computer isn't going to just crash after every update. That combination is perfect for me.
|
Version: 221019
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-03-01
Votes: 1
|
Performs better than Manjaro.
Even with KDE, Garuda does not suffer the same glitchy behaviors and oddities that Manjaro KDE has. This is likely because Garuda follows upstream Arch package releases, instead of an arbitrary "curated" package update process.
Too many issues with Manjaro, from broken packages, dependency clashes, and AUR mismatch with expected libraries on the system.
Garuda is like Arch Linux, but with a great installer, default performance tweaks, a smooth and polished theme, and tools to maintain and customize your system. Manjaro sadly fails in this attempt. Not to mention, the Garuda community and leadership is leagues above Manjaro, which has a history of controversy and denigrating other users of the community. It's now a running joke in the Linux desktop world. "What did Manjaro terribly mess up this week?"
If you want an Arch-based distro, definitively check out Garuda!
|
Version: 221019
Rating: 9
Date: 2023-02-20
Votes: 0
|
Garuda Linux is very customizable, even though it has the KDE Plasma desktop enviroment. I like it first of all because it's easy to use, from the installation to whatever you wanna do. I also appreciate that it has the "Garuda Welcome" app, because i'm a Linux Gamer and i can easily access the stuff i need. One of my favourite things it's that you don't have to do all of those messy things to install Wine. I swear that before this i had Ubuntu, and like 1 year after i discovered how to install Wine. In this distro, you just open Garuda Welcome, select Garuda Gamer, check Wine and see the PC do all the rest. Even if it's based on Arch, it's not hard to understand. The fish shell is very nice and user-friendly even for users who come from Windows or MacOS (Macintosh, OS X). I think it's a great way to introduce people to linux but even a good way fol Gurus to keep this. I like it and according to me it's the best linux distro, but it's my opinion only. I would suggest this to anyone.
|
Version: 201205
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-02-17
Votes: 1
|
Maybe 3 months isnt a realistic time frame to evaluate stability on a bleeding edge distro, but anyway, my mind blows on how stable Garuda is given that I had great prejudices against Arch-based distros. I thought Arch would be difficult and one had to tinker alot in the terminal to do anything. And all I have heard about bleeding edge rolling releases, that it was more usual than not that something got borked with updates. I have had nada, everything just works. And I look for updates almost every day. It is MX-linux class stability imo.
I do have a fairly powerful computer with new components (z790 i7 13700 32GB RAM) I guess since Garuda is bleeding edge I have not had any of the minor cosmetic issues I have had with MX-linux and others, with KDE Plasma especially.
It came as a pleasant surprice for me that suddenly I was able to install Windows 11 and dualboot without problems, Garuda boot menu finds W11 at boot after I installed Windows 11.( I do have both OS´s on separate SSD´s though)
Performance is awesome, everything is fast as lightning. For example I see no difference between chrome based browsers and Firefox. In other distros and windows Firefox has always been maybe a second slower on startup and slightly, slightly slower in rendering web pages.And thats is with 27 extensions.
But I notice there is a price to pay for the fastness. I do get slightly higher temp on GPU when doing ordinary stuff like browsing and watching videos compared to Windowsand Mx-linux. In windows I have a temperature of 31-33 celcius on CPU and 34 on GPU, in garuda the temperature hovers around 43-45 on GPU and ~40 on CPU. But that is of course not a big issue.
I have tested alot of installs to test different apps, if I dont want them I just use the backup tool on BTRFS (Snapper) to reboot and the new install never existed. I have yet to have any problems with that. It gives me flashbacks to the awesome tool I used in Windows many years ago: Firstdefense ISR. I know it is a completely another way technically, but the feeling of security when you can boot back as if nothing ever happened.
Anyways. Garuda is definately my daily driver now.
|
Version: 221019
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-02-08
Votes: 0
|
Used Manjaro Gnome since December 2021 and got problems the last months (Firefox crashes often @ Browser-Gaming with Intel UHD750, missing Hardware-Acceleration H.264/H.265 with AMD graphics card), so looking for another Arch based distro.
Pure Arch isn`t mine as I´m no terminal expert, so decided to give Garuda Gnome a chance. Looks really nice ootb (only installed "Dock from Dash"), easy to install, btrfs + snapper configurated by default ... and until now no issues. Happy with my new daily driver!
|
|
Latest Reviews
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 260115
Rating: 10
Date: 2026-02-05
Votes: 1
|
I recently tried many Linux distros, Ubuntu 25.10, Fedora KDE 43, PopOS 24.04 Cosmic, CachyOS 260124 & Linux Mint 22.3. They are all good and very usable, except PopOS, which still has long way to go. But after I tried Garuda Mokka since last weekend, it's now become my main OS.
The installer ISO is well built and easy to use. The only thing missed is no auto detection of time zone, even with WIFI conneced.
I'm not new to Garuda. I tried the dr460nized edition a few year ago and gave up because it was too heavy to my taste. This time the Mokka edition is really impressive. It reaches a good balance of style and performance. I like the similarity to MacOS. I only need to make minor adjustment to get a system which I like to use. All apps I use now look beautiful and run fast as well. In my view, this is the best Linux distro for now.
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 260115
Rating: 10
Date: 2026-02-04
Votes: 1
|
I'll be direct: 'If Garuda continues like this, excellent, it will certainly occupy the position of the most important distro, because everything works well and without disappointment.
I was encountering several small insurmountable difficulties when using just one distro. Issues with real-time audio routing, and sometimes simple functioning of AppImage, installation of other types of packaging. Anyway, Garuda in the Mokka version is exceptional. I don't need to configure anything, I just install the application and dependencies, and everything really works. Congratulations to the team, and may users flock to this distro that has proven to be very professional, stable, and secure.
As time goes by, everything matters—small details that show how much attention and care are put into maintaining the distro. I know it's laborious, and in Linux, things tend to focus more on results, but Mokka never disappoints. Since I started using it, I've only reinstalled because in a game I like, the NVIDIA driver caused malfunction in that game, but it was a widespread issue across all distros that used that driver version. Use it without fear because it's Arch, it works fully, and because it's well-made, beautiful, and well-maintained.
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 260115
Rating: 9
Date: 2026-01-25
Votes: 0
|
TL;DR: Garuda is opinionated but honest about it. Clear desktop choices, Arch underneath, strong community, and a few rough edges that mostly come from ambitious defaults and specific hardware setups.
One thing Garuda does very well is being explicit on its downloads page. Each ISO clearly states the desktop environment and focus, so you know exactly what you are installing. There is no ambiguity or “one ISO fits all” approach. That straightforwardness sets the tone early and helps avoid mismatched expectations, especially compared to distros that hide major differences behind a single installer ✔️.
In daily use, Garuda feels like Arch with guardrails. Under the heavy theming and gaming-oriented defaults, it behaves like a normal Arch system. When issues come up, standard Arch tools and documentation apply, which makes debugging predictable rather than frustrating. Most fixes do not require distro-specific magic, just familiarity with pacman, systemd, and initramfs tooling.
On my setup, a GMKtec M5 Pro with a Ryzen 5700U iGPU, the main problems I encountered were around bootloader installation, initramfs generation with dracut, and later GPU-related issues like transparency effects, high GPU usage, and video decoding causing system-wide lag. None of these felt unsolvable, but they did highlight how Garuda’s aggressive defaults can amplify hardware quirks ❌. Once adjusted, the system became stable and usable.
What really balances this out is the community. The Garuda community is fast, helpful, and pragmatic. Installation and hardware issues are taken seriously, and responses tend to be actionable rather than dismissive.
In my opinion, Garuda is best for users who want Arch power with guidance, performance tuning, and a clear desktop choice, and who are comfortable doing a bit of hands-on fixing when needed (like any Linux distro).
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 260115
Rating: 10
Date: 2026-01-22
Votes: 12
|
So, I decided to make the Switch from Windows about 3 years ago and have been distro hopping ever since. I came across Garuda Dragonised edition about 6 months ago and haven't felt the need to move on. I love the Cyberpunk aesthetic tho I have tweaked some of it to tone it down a little.
Performance wise, I'm running an AMD 7800X3D and RTX4080Super and I've had no issues with install or performance. For gaming, I use Steam for everything game related, including Battle.net and I have no issues to report, every works well, faster than Windows 11 in most cases.
I've had issues with CachyOS and games being in some weird colour mode that I could never get to the bottom of, happy to report no such issues with Garuda.
Pros
Great aesthetic (apart from the Dragon head wallpaper which is god awful (and easily changed))
Works flawlessly on modern hardware
Garuda-Update for simple update compatibility and system health checker
Lots of tools to cover all gamers needs
Easy install process for NVIDIA owners
Great tools for kernel swapping (can use CachyOS BORE kernel or ZEN3/4/5 optimized kernels)
Cons
Gaming edition gives you all the gaming tools, even ones you might not want (Lutris, Bottles, Linux games etc)
HDR is still tricky to get working properly but this is a KDE/Linux thing rather than Garuda specific
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 251103
Rating: 9
Date: 2026-01-13
Votes: 0
|
I really enjoy Garuda on my gaming PC its the linux distro for the gamer that just wants to pick up and go. If you want the Windows simplicity with a slight learning curve you can definitely handle this Operating System. Ive seen some complain about the Chaotic-AUR. So im saying it now it came with it. The only real downside is it does take awhile to get used to the window management especially if your not used to MAC.
Pros
- easy install
- Will pick up and run right out the box
- Has a Garuda maintenance GUI for updates and cleaning
- Community support
- Arch Linux
- Snapshots (awesome if new)
Cons
- Arch Linux
- Over opinionated Desktop (not my con but most people who hate it this is why)
- Chaotic-AUR (same as above once again not my issue)
- Learning curve (if new)
- sucks in VM (for testing)
If you do find that the desktop is too cyberpunk for you try the other versions first I think CachyOS will always top Garuda in speed but not convenience. EndeavourOS is the better everyday Operating system overall.
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 251103
Rating: 9
Date: 2026-01-05
Votes: 0
|
I have been running a version of Garuda for a few years now on my G14 laptop with only minor issues. The mokka edition has a chill vibe to counter the dr460nized gaming edition. The gaming is getting better all the time, protondb makes it easy to see what games are compatable and the community gives tweaks. I love arch based distros as fixes for things tend to happen very quickly. After ditching windows 11 I was distro hopping; bazzite, nobara, pop os, manjaro, ubunto, fedora, etc. but settling upon Garuda was the answer. Everything just worked.
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 251103
Rating: 10
Date: 2026-01-03
Votes: 0
|
Switched over as a long time Mint flavor user. Garuda cinnamon is my first Arch based distro. I simply do not see myself going back.
I encourage every linux user from power users to casual users to check out a Garuda flavor. This is my main distro on my professional needs and works well.
Garuda, Arch'ın gücünü ve performansını, hiçbir zorluğu olmadan sunuyor. Kararlı, hızlı, güncellemeler sorunsuz çalışıyor, bakımı çok kolay. En önemlisi, performansı ve verimliliği ön planda tutarken EĞLENCELİ bir dağıtım.
Positives:
-the rolling updates
-I use their browser version: FireDragon
-Forums can be helpful
-I like the dragonized theme, but some maynot.
-Different installs: KDE plasma/dragon, cinnamon, Gnome, etc.
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 251103
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-12-23
Votes: 19
|
Great performance with graphical utilities that provide ease of use. Arch based rolling release schedule means Garuda stays on the bleeding edge and stays compatible with new hardware. The Chaotic AUR makes software procurement convenient and dead simple. I've been using Linux for 25 years and daily driving Garuda dr460nized gaming edition for about 5 years now and the high gaming performance paired with a visually stunning KDE Plasma desktop environment and convenient graphical tools makes this my distro of choice.
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 201205
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-12-15
Votes: 6
|
Switched over as a long time debian flavor user. Garuda is my first Arch based distro. I simply do not see myself going back.
Garuda is the power and performance of Arch without an of the hassles. Stable, fast, updates work, super low maintenance.Most importantly it is a FUN distro while keeping performance and productivity centerstage.
Dragonized KDE gaming edition works right out of the box for gaming and productivity. I encourage every linux user from power users to casual users to check out a Garuda flavor. This is my main distro on my professional needs and works well.
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 251103
Rating: 8
Date: 2025-12-05
Votes: 2
|
This was my first serious linux experience. I can say that this distro is good for my needs(gaming). I didnt know there was a built in snapshot feature. It saved me more than once thanks for the devs for putting that in. Garuda Rani and System Maintenance apps are really great too.
I did not know what was AUR when I first started using it. After using it its really nice however there's a few errors here and there. Easily solvable though. But to be fair, AUR should be avaiable on all arch based distros to my knowledge.
About gaming which is the main point of this distro, I had to make a few tweaks for some games and some games run a tad bit clunky but overall good performance I'd say.
Overall, use it at some point.
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 251103
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-11-12
Votes: 17
|
After trying many distros and spending a long time with Manjaro (manjaro was good but not as good as Garuda is ;-) ), I finally found a distro that perfectly meets my needs. This includes, among other things, the btrfs filesystem and the snapshots that are already included by default, allowing me to revert to a previous state should something unexpectedly go wrong during an update or similar event. The very helpful and friendly forum here is also fantastic, and I would like to express my sincere thanks to them as well.
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 251002
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-10-29
Votes: 0
|
I've been using Garuda Dr460nized edition for few months now and everything feels very good. Rami is easy to use and gaming tools make gaming super convinient. Almost all my accessories were plug&play (except Lacie hdd, but quick arch search and it was fixed). KDE Plasma desktop is nice looking and easy to use.
Little gpu issues when gaming (usage low, stuttering etc.), but seriously doubt that it has more to do with nvidia gpu (laptop 3070) than the distro.
True rating would be 8.7, but 9 was the closest.
I've previously used mainly windows but have tinkered with Pop_os, Ubuntu (old laptop), Mint and Fedora. Compared to these I can confidently say Garuda is way ahead.
Probably next I could try Cachy and Bazzite.
Feels good to be free of windows after all these years. Gaming was the last thing missing from me daily driving linux and that doesn't seem to be the case anymore. All games work after installing.
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 251002
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-10-29
Votes: 24
|
I moved from Windows to Linux in 2024 and have tried several distros, of which Garuda has been the enduring favorite. I've been using Garuda Linux on my primary desktop PC for almost a full year now and wanted to review.
I first got curious about Garuda purely because of the name. "Garuda Linux" just sounds cool and fun to me. This may be cliche, and I might have a bit of a chip on my shoulder in that I believe many people try a bit too hard to appear as normal and unassuming as possible, whereas I would prefer choosing to stand out a little bit sometimes. This is an OS I am choosing for personal home use after all, not for deployment at work, so being fun and having some flair is appreciated.
The install is effortless even without consulting reference material, and the system loads stock with useful features. Snapshots are immediately available, very simple to configure and easy to rollback to if needed. The Garuda Rani system assistant GUI is very helpful to Linux newcomers and is convenient even after I know my way around the CLI. I've read comments that Garuda is bloated, but I suppose I am not too picky. The packages included on first install have not offended me - but my attitude is perhaps tainted by a lifetime of using Microsoft which has so much bloat that any Linux distro choice at all won't feel bloated to me.
The visuals are nice by default. I know some folks are turned off by garish gamer color schemes, but for me, I don't necessarily agree. My physical hardware and peripherals are all very drab gray & black, and my office furnishings are similarly neutral colors with some hardwoods for accent. So why not have a splash of vibrant color just in my screens? A few "loud" neon icons fit nicely for me. I honestly made very few changes from the default theme as I truly enjoy Garuda's presentation as-is.
Performance is great for me. I have not diligently measured or compared performance across different distros to make any definitive claims that Garuda is better or worse than alternative choices regarding performance, but I have no complaint with how my desktop or my games run on Garuda, and I have not found any specific examples of games that stand out as running worse than I'd expect them to. Having no complaints, I feel no drive to seek improvement elsewhere. Everything on the desktop feels snappy and my system resources are very available.
Stability & compatibility have been remarkable this past year. My peers warned me, saying things I'll paraphrase like, "you chose a niche gamer distro based on Arch, this is going to break and you're going to have so many headaches," but that has simply not been the reality at all. I update and handle my merges weekly and have truly not encountered significant issues or strange bothersome quirks. I successfully use this machine to do everything I ever used Windows for, as a sort of person who games, consumes media, writes, etc. I even had VR working when I had the desire to play around with my old VR headset, and I figured that if anything would have been a point of trouble, it would've been VR. I recall so many more games crashing to desktop in Windows, or updates failing and rolling back in Windows - this may be a low bar to compare against, but Garuda sure beats Windows in this regard.
Documentation and community are excellent here as well. The archwiki is highly educational and relevant here, and the Garuda forums are full of both information to read & active people to interact with.
Garuda is a great choice. I'm glad it fits me so well.
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 251002
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-10-13
Votes: 3
|
User friendly with active development.
Lots of GUI tools for people who are not used to the terminal. There are now a ton of editions - Mokka being the latest one without the pre-installed software that their Dr460nized edition comes from. However you still get to choose to install a lot of things just with the GUI if you want to.
The use of GUI is optional btw, you can just ignore them once you get used to them.
Great distro for people who need a rolling release model due to their hardware, but are only just starting out. I feel this is like Bazzite but on Arch.
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 251002
Rating: 1
Date: 2025-10-12
Votes: 0
|
Like a lot of others have said better, this has been a pretty bloated, slow system that has a bit of crashes and lockups of the system.
Garuda is overloaded with programs that basically for me, cripple my system. I would think there were a lot of programs running when you boot to the desktop because of the taxation on my CPU, but not really- so what is all of the processor usage and RAM usage for?
I couldn’t figure that out, which isn’t good first off. I don’t think I need to be overweighted with so many programs that I’m not going to use- I know I can uninstall them, but like how Windows is with the bloatware, instead, the developers here bloated up the system, it just keeps eating up more and more RAM than you think it would need, and that is every version!
I don’t think the developers take it seriously to introduce bug fixes, patches, etc., because all I see with each version is more bloat, more instability and more resource usage.
AVOID!
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 251002
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-10-09
Votes: 6
|
People use Arch because they want to configure the system themselves. I also wanted to do that and installed arch first. But I didn't like the troubleshooting and instability (specifically, cosmic DE broke afiter an update and then I decided to install another distro)
Garuda is the distro which has all benefits of Arch but everything works out of the box! I installed the cosmic edition and it was nice. I was able to set up in just 1 day! I regret all those days configuring my system on Arch.
One notable feature is the BTRFS snapshots (it's like macOS's time machine thing). Finally, I don't need to worry about an update bricking my system!
I liked how Garuda came with a dedicated system assistant. It is not that much of a benefit for me but it might be good for people who hate terminals.
In conclusion: Garuda is like linux mint but Arch-based and kind-of gamer themed! I would recommend this to a linux noob with no hesitation!
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 250907
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-09-07
Votes: 0
|
A youtuber named Unfa was very positive over music production on linux. As someone having a windows home studio I was curious so I took my old windows 8 laptop and started distrohopping.
Getting Ardour and the plugins working was not easy at all untill I tried Garuda.
Suddenly everything worked out of the box. Ardour , bitwig and reaper all worked.Lv2 vst, vst3 and clap plugins downloaded from octopi appeared in the daws with a working gui. Midi controllers, even my 20 years old digital piano, were reconized. And what impressed me the most was that the latency of the zen kernel was so low that you can use the daws without an audio interface and using the pc internal sound card.
(I only tested midi, for electric guitar you would still need an audio interface)
The quality of the music production software is not as good as the windows software, but if you want to start making music on a laptop, this is a very cheap way to start and see if you like it.
My overall impression of garuda is very positive . It was easy to install and I liked the bold colour choices.
One negative point is that I didn’t get my xbox 360 wireless controller connected to the system.
I know that garuda is a gaming distro but I would say: Try garuda for music production.
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 250801
Rating: 8
Date: 2025-08-26
Votes: 1
|
I have been using it now for 1.5 years. I have both of my kids, my boss and my nephew on it as well. Yes, there is a learning curve but I find it works well with all of the things that I'm trying to do. I have been able to use OBS-Studio, Discord, Steam and every game I have tried so far in my library. Some of the newer games may need some configuration initially, but stuff works pretty well out of the box. There is so much open source software that almost every need I come across has some kind of solution or work-around. Grok has been helpful where I needed some hand-holding from time to time. The kids are able to play games, do schoolwork, listen to music and they're miles ahead of their classmates in terms of computer savvy for having to solve some of their own issues.
While I haven't had to ask questions on the forum directly, I often find answers to issues I come across in the forum. We're all using Dragonized-gaming garuda and aside from cosmetic changes, I'm still using the interface it installs with. HDR seems to work pretty well. Performance is excellent. I'm running an ASUS Dark Hero with an 5900x, 24GB ram and a Nvidia 3080. I'm able to play Stalker 2 at maxed resolution and it works quite well. Valheim gave me a little trouble when using cross-play with a Windows user, but we worked through it and that now works as well.
With the kids, I pretty much dropped them in the deep end and said learn to swim. They belly-ached a bit but when they committed to working through problems and with a little guidance from me, they're already using others' tutorials on how to run the games that THEY want to use, even something like Roblox (yes, I know), which isn't supposed to work on Linux. I would like to take credit for them being so clever but the truth is that Garuda is just that good and relatively intuitive. I have to use M$ at work, but now I don't have to worry about big brother inside at home.
Overall, I recommend highly.
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 250801
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-08-24
Votes: 0
|
In my twilightish years I've become less focused on performance per SE and moreso one astherica and performance. Garuda fills both niches very well.
Kde plasma has been surprisingly pleasant astherically and resource usage wise. I have an i3 quad core 8gb, 250gbssd. I can run all the games that I want to play, swtor, gzdoom, secret world legends. It has copious amounts of icandy, enough to make my nephews eyes pop. So, all around great distro. I just hope Arch can get the ddos situation under control.
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 250801
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-08-20
Votes: 0
|
I've been living and breathing Linux my whole life. I distro-hop for fun—tried a ton just to see what makes each one tick. Started with the .rpm family, eventually settled on .deb, but always had that itch to poke at Arch. A couple of years ago I finally did, kicking the tires with Garuda KDE Dragonized out of pure curiosity. One look and I was hooked—Garuda’s been my go-to ever since.
I’m not a pro, just a tinkerer, so sooner or later I break things. Last time I managed to nuke something so badly that even the awesome Garuda forum and Telegram crew couldn’t save me. Did a reinstall, toyed with the idea of jumping to another distro, but… nah. Garuda ticks all my boxes: btrfs, Timeshift, systemd, rolling release—you name it. I’m back on Garuda again, this time on the Mokka edition. It’s gorgeous and I’m loving every minute of it. Great work, team!
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 250801
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-08-19
Votes: 3
|
I found garuda by incident and started with the KDE Dragonized edition. Everything worked out of the box and even Settings, other distros struggled with, worked flawelessly. E. g. my 49" monitor did not run under Mint, Manjaro and another one I do not remember. but garuda recognized it and it simply worked.
Running games - > easy peasy.
I removed one star, because I installed hyprland edition
a few months ago and was disappointed. Tje live ISO looked nice and worked smoothly, but the installed distro got a blank hyprland without any config. And another issue was running ?Jkools Arch Hyperland" installation script on KDE Edition which lead to unusable rofi tools. But I do not know what caused this problem, do I do not blame garuda nor the script ;-)
Conclusion: I would recommend this even to beginners
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 250308
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-07-22
Votes: 17
|
Awesome distro and no more Bluetooth issues. Was having some issues using fedora and fedora based distros and bluetooth and now with Garuda linux no more bluetooth issues.
Plus I can get games to work and even install gog galaxy and get it to work.
Also support on the Garuda support forum is amazing and they are super friendly. I just love how kind they are and how helpful they are when you do have issue. So the few issues I have had were all resolved with the help of the good people at the support forum.
I just love how stable this distro is and how easy it is to use and get things up and running.
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 250308
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-06-28
Votes: 12
|
Amazing, 10/10! I'm using Garuda LInux Broadwing, Soaring release.
It's the first distro that I found where my DaVinci Speed Editor works via Bluetooth with DaVinci Resolve Studio.
Previously I was on Pop!_OS 22.04 and even though I could connect the Speed Editor to the laptop via bluetooth, DaVinci Resolve wasn't seeing it. It was only working if connected on usb.
Installing DaVinci Resolve Studio was the easiest thing ever. And it has the menu bar working!
The only gotcha with DaVinci on Garuda is that after installing, I had to remove a few libs:
/opt/resolve/libs/libglib-2.0.so*
/opt/resolve/libs/libgio-2.0.so*
/opt/resolve/libs/libgmodule-2.0.so*
There's also an amazing article dedicated to DaVinci Resolve on ArchWiki
Oh, and I needed to create a custom desktop file to launch resolve with `env LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME=iHD QT_AUTO_SCREEN_SCALE_FACTOR=1 /opt/resolve/bin/resolve`
Without this, the scaling is terrible on high dpi screens on Linux in general.
Installing PixInsight was also very very easy. Just run the `.run` file. But it has to be done through the terminal, just like the Linux installation instructions say on the Pleiades Astrophoto website. So that's a 10/10.
The support on the garudalinux forum is fenomenal! I had some trouble due to my specific hardware configuration, but a lot of people jumped in and helped me.
In the end there is an issue where if I connect my external monitor over HDMI, it makes the system very very slow when I try to play youtube videos. I get 10fps or so and everything else is slowing down.
But if I connect the display via usb-c, then the videos work ok.
For anyone interested, my hardware is:
Laptop: Asus Zenbook Pro Duo UX582HS
CPU: intel i9 11900H
GPU: RTX 3080, 8Gb
RAM: 32 GB
External display: Asus ProArt PA279CV, 4k. Luckily it has an USB-C input.
For a Linux system, Garuda is 10/10 in my book, but I still need a virtual machine or something for Affinity Photo and CaptureOne though.
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 250308
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-06-26
Votes: 13
|
Garuda basically saved me from Windows. I feel very lucky that I found it and tried it when I decided to completely leave Windows. A little over 2 years ago, I made the switch. After about 6 months of wonderful luck on my desktop, I decided to put Linux on my laptop as well. I chose a different distro because I was worried about a rolling release model on a computer I didn't use every day. Unfortunately though, my Laptop had an Nvidia GPU (which I know can be tricky on Linux) that I never could get to work. Eventually my laptop also stopped being able to successfully install updates. I spent some time troubleshooting the issues, got the updates to work again after some effort, but never was able to get the dGPU to work properly. Eventually, I decided I was going to try other distros on my laptop, and started with Garuda since, at that point, it had been running every day on my desktop for over a year without a single issue. Garuda just worked out of the box. GPU was working, fully accelerated gaming was possible again. It's been on my laptop for about 8 months, no issues with updates or drivers. I have ran into less problems with Garuda Linux in the last 2 years, on 2 machines, than I was accustomed to on Windows.
Pros:
-garuda-update is royalty. Chef's kiss. I didn't realize how good running updates could be before this.
-powerful and up-to-date Arch based system.
-Chaotic AUR has most everything you're likely to need.
-very good balance of "hand holding" through the install process and daily use. It doesn't get in your way, but will warn you if you might be doing something dumb.
-btrfs snapshots
Cons:
-Some of the default choices in the Dragonized edition are not my cup of tea. Easily fixable.
-Some software developed for Linux is only released as .deb or .rpm, which is not as straightforward to get working in something based on Arch.
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 250308
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-05-31
Votes: 12
|
I used Garuda KDE Lite, a Fast, Polished, Arch-Based Distro That Just Works.
Garuda KDE Lite pleasantly surprised me. Like other user-friendly distributions (Mint, Ubuntu, MX Linux), it automatically detects and enables all core hardware components out of the box. However, as this is the Lite edition, a few things—like Bluetooth support and power profile management—need to be installed manually. Once that's done, though, everything works perfectly without any further tweaking.
Installation is fast, the interface is clean, and most importantly, I haven’t had to troubleshoot a single thing after setup.
Garuda uses Btrfs with automatic system snapshots on every package installation or system update. These are integrated into the boot menu via GRUB, giving you the option to roll back if something goes wrong. It’s a smart, confidence-inspiring feature—and even better, I never actually had to use it !!!
Software availability is another highlight. Garuda enables the Chaotic-AUR repository by default, giving you access to an enormous range of up-to-date packages, easily installed through the included graphical tools.
It also provides an excellent suite of configuration and maintenance utilities: kernel management, language and locale settings, user accounts, date/time adjustments, and more—all accessible through a user-friendly interface.
Overall, it feels like a "do-it-all" distro—modern, responsive, and tailored to users who want power without the pain.
The only downside specific to the KDE Lite edition is the missing Bluetooth and power-profile support out of the box. This seems intentional, probably targeting desktop users rather than laptops. Still, the installation is easy and safe, so it’s hardly a dealbreaker.
Rating: 10/10 — A sleek, Arch-based system that’s both powerful and hassle-free.
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 250308
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-05-28
Votes: 8
|
I installed Garuda in my HP ProBook 450 15.6 inch G9 Notebook back in 2024-08-22. I was amazed that everything was working perfectly. Audio was perfect, the screen was perfect, the camera was fine. In my surprise, even the fingerprint sensor was detected and working fine. I have installed all the software I needed using octopi and never needed anything that wasn't in the repos or under paru. I have used snapper a couple of times when I messed things up, and it is a great tool. I cannot give less than 10.
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 250308
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-05-22
Votes: 4
|
garuda is my fun distribution i use it for non-critical applications like browse youtube and tinker around. my office machine runs mint. the latest mokka version is great except the rani software, it just won't work on my machine. running a amd 5700g with 16gb ram. seems like i am the only one with this problem since i cannot find anything related to it.
plasma 6 has matured greatly and fontmanager works now, it is possible to deactivate the non-needed noto-fonts!
garuda is great i rate it 9 out of 10.
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 240428
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-04-18
Votes: 33
|
Ventoy is definitely convenient for multiboot setups, but unfortunately, it doesn’t always work smoothly across all Linux distributions. I ran into issues myself. On Arch-based distros like Garuda, booting from a Ventoy USB gets stuck during the systemd boot sequence — those lines of logs that show services being started and checked before reaching the desktop. It just freezes there, with no clear error.
On Fedora and other Red Hat-based distros, it’s even worse: the system suddenly shuts down completely, as if the power was cut — despite the hardware being fine.
When I switched to using balenaEtcher or a simple USB Image Writer (just writing one ISO per USB), all these distros booted up and worked normally. So while Ventoy is powerful and flexible, it seems there are still some bugs or incompatibilities, especially with certain kernel/init system combos. Definitely something to consider if you run into similar issues.
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 250308
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-04-08
Votes: 46
|
In my opinion, Garuda Mokka in this version is impeccable for audio/video production. It provides ease and plug'n'play connectivity, while other Arch-based distros require a series of erratic configurations that generate tremendous frustration and insecurity, or do not offer an updated store with the most requested and used applications.
Garuda offers options to be installed according to each person's taste and needs. In addition, it brings stability only found in distros with Debian or Fedora.
I hope it does not change and keeps its systemd flexible and elastic enough to meet audio and video needs.
Congratulations to the developers.
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 250308
Rating: 2
Date: 2025-03-22
Votes: 0
|
I've struggled 20 hours failing to install Garuda from ventoy only to find it's not possible but with Grub option! Now once installed the OS and after 4h of searching how to start Heroic stil found nothing. Seems to be installed but have no idea of how to start it. I installed Garuda because I like the Plasma Themes and colors but this OS it's not for new users of Linux. I stood on Linux Mint one month and everything was perfect, my games and all my needed software, perfect. The only reason I moved to Garuda was the awesome theme (dragonized) but now I have to abandon it since I prefer to enjoy my life not to spend 3h searching how to start an application and found no help in all the frikin internet. I do not recommend this for someone whit 30 years in Windows and 1 month in Linux. Maybe in 5 or more years the developers would think also in new users I don't know.... and for now I don't care either since Linux Mint is so perfect for everybody and everything.
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 250308
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-03-22
Votes: 31
|
I love Garuda Linux! I use an intel laptop, and all the drivers work out of the box. Then, it automatically updated packages and it did not come with any useless apps. The Dragonized theme is great, but it uses the MacOS layout instead of the windows layout, so I tinkered with it. I love KDE and its version was great. Nothing went wrong with my ZSH configs and my apps. I thought it was a great experience. It also has full support for the AUR and has fast mirrors by default. Installation was easy and the Btrfs snapshot feature was nice. It has the same repositories as Arch, with the addition of Chaotic-AUR, and Garuda repositories, so it works like Arch unlike Manjaro. Manjaro uses slower-to-update repositories and is buggy. Garuda is not buggy at all. Again, no distro is perfect, and Garuda has its issues. Firstly, it does not have Flatpak in its assistant, and Flatpak is great. Also, FireDragon browser does not support extention sync unless you put an override text in the config, which connects it to Mozilla. However, FireDragon is a great browser and it is so customizable! Overall, I think Garuda Linux is the best distro, so I rate it a Strong 9.
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 250308
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-03-21
Votes: 14
|
Bouncing back and forth between Debian and Arch for the better part of 3 years now. KDE is the only DE I truly enjoy besides Awesome but thats a WM. I had gotten tired of waiting for Debian to get KDE6 upgraded however, that will not be until Trixie. I could of went unstable but thats just it....unstable. Which brings me to Garuda specifically Mokka. What a sight, beautiful isn't even the word. It is also so far solid. I have it installed in VM and a Lenovo mini with an AMD A10-9700e with 16GB Ram. Its surprisingly fast. The desktop is MACish and I am not complaining and recently I have switched to a MACBOOK AIR as my daily driver. I would rather a LINUX arm based laptop, soon enough. The included revamped installers are quick and easy to use. Better then pounding at the terminal. This is a great distro and I am going to install on a few other machines. Keep it up!!
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 240428
Rating: 6
Date: 2025-03-17
Votes: 1
|
The first impression was really good. I like the design, boot time is fast and AUR serves a lot of packages.
BUT: I couldn't get my sim racing setup up and running. Tried the AUR package first with hid-fanatecff and then built it by myself... No chance to get it running.
After 3 months, the next update destroyed the system completely. Had to install everything again. But to be honest, I want a stable distro and nothing like Arch, which breaks after a few months. So I changed and went to Nobara.
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 250308
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-03-14
Votes: 9
|
I tried Garuda KDE Lite in Virtualbox to test and it has been so amazing that I installed to my desktop immediately. I have to admit I was a little intimidated at first being that it's Arch based, but I've never had a distro that was so easy to install my software back on. Rani and the setup assistant make it an absolute breeze! Only thing I had to manually install was Mullvad, but even that was really easy. I chose the Xanmod kernel and it's blazing fast! Absolutely stopped me from distro hopping, finally! Amazing work on their part!
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 250308
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-03-11
Votes: 0
|
Regata OS is a Linux distribution tailored for gamers, offering several features that enhance the gaming experience:
Game Access: This feature provides users with easy access to a vast library of games, including titles like Grand Theft Auto V, Overwatch, The Sims 4, and Battlefield 1, even if they don't have native Linux versions.
Regata Software Store: A user-friendly platform that hosts a wide variety of both open-source and proprietary software, simplifying the installation process for users.
Performance Enhancements: Regata OS includes Feral Interactive's GameMode, which is automatically enabled during gameplay to optimize system performance. Additionally, it supports AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) technology, helping boost frame rates while delivering high-resolution experiences.
Hybrid Graphics Support: For laptops with hybrid graphics setups, Regata OS provides the PRIME Settings tool. This utility allows users to manage and configure applications to run with the dedicated GPU, ensuring optimal performance for demanding software.
I tested several games and works perfect included PoE2.
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 250308
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-03-10
Votes: 12
|
Maybe the most user friendly Arch distro. Tried Endeavour and as a noob I still struggled to set-up triple boot. I know I know, "three OS'es what kind of mad man needs that!". Some of us really enjoy distro hopping. And the fact that Garuda took care of making a triple boot menu so easily says something about the distro. I have been dual-booting windows and Zorin for the last 8+ months. Only booting into windows for gaming. Still converting everything to steam proton etc....
Zorin is amazing, I like it even better than Mint. But I was looking for a certain snappiness and the next "level" in Linux. That;s how I landed at Garuda Hyprland. A tiling windows manager is such a refreshing OS experience. It feels fast, shiny and for an Arch distro, most things work. Take work with a bit of salt ofcourse, it's Arch after all; go to Zorin for that. The Garuda suite of applications go a long way to help new Arch users. As a side note I still have to try Rani, but that's exactly the philosophy Garuda is going for: Make Arch usable.
I really dig the Garuda UI elements. It's fun and uinque. For people that prefer a more tone downed desktop, look at their different options like "Garuda Mokka,- Garuda Gnome...." Purists will say Garuda is bloated, but those people wear "programmer socks". So absolutely give Garuda a Try.
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 250308
Rating: 8
Date: 2025-03-09
Votes: 2
|
The website is sparse on information especially the new Rani they are bragging puts everything in one place. Thing is the program is a huge white rectangle with nothing in it, the gui is not showing except for a blank white rectangle. The website has nothing helpful to help me except bragging about their programs and when I searched for Rani I got nothing, I used a search engine also and nothing. I might head over to YouTube and leave a complaint in the comments since the websites got nothing showing at all except advertising the new great Rani that doesn't work. Now for the plus great install, fast and it seems fast but a lot of hand holding with the apps like everyone is a total newb.
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 240428
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-02-09
Votes: 17
|
After distrohopping between Mint, Kubuntu and Endeavour, landing on Garuda after a literal coinflip between it and going back to Mint has been a blessing. I've been right at home with how my necessities for gaming come pre-installed alongside being able to tinker freely whenever I'm bored thanks to it being Arch based.
Two of the few (and arguably biggest) negatives about this is the wallet that shows up on startup, I've recently found KWalletManager which sorts this but not having that as default puts a bit of a sour taste in my mouth
Another is nextcloud (which I believe is only a part of the Dr460nized edition) and how it prompts a login every time I open the file manager even after disabling it to start on boot, this required it to be uninstalled.
Other than those its been a really smooth and streamlined experience. Would recommend.
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 240428
Rating: 10
Date: 2024-12-26
Votes: 33
|
Installed on my main computer, I7-14700, with nvidia 4060 card. I had no problems with install. Makes archLinux pretty easy to use and I use the plasma 6 DE. I use it mostly for browsing, old games, programming, and music creation.
Positives:
-the rolling updates
-I use their browser version: FireDragon
-Forums can be helpful
-I like the dragonized theme, but some maynot.
-Different installs: KDE plasma/dragon, cinnamon, Gnome, etc.
Negatives:
-Some people really dislike archlinux
-rolling updates inherently can cause problems you'll need to fix
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 240428
Rating: 10
Date: 2024-11-15
Votes: 33
|
Garuda Linux is a solid choice if you're dealing with an old or low-spec PC. Even though it's based on Arch Linux, which is usually for more cutting-edge setups, Garuda is optimized so well that it can actually make old machines run like a charm. With lightweight desktop environments like LXQt or i3, it won’t bog down your system. Plus, it’s ready to go right out of the box with performance tweaks, so you don’t have to mess around — just install and watch your old PC speed up! garuda best linux on me
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 240428
Rating: 9
Date: 2024-10-03
Votes: 19
|
When I got a "new" used laptop I thought, will I install Bunsenlabs on it like I had on my old one, or will I use the opportunity to distro-hop? Well, distro-hopping it was. I went looking for a /beautiful/ linux distro and obviously Garuda Linux, DR460NIZED edition, made it to the top of the shortlist. As I set about installing it, I was amazed at how everything just seemed to work out of the box. Nice point and click interfaces for setting everything up - I didn't even need to go into the command line or dig through oodles of text config files in order to get it up and running. It really is an operating system as it should be: it just works. I mean, I do like to fiddle around with stuff (I've been casually using Linux since the mid 1990s) but for the most part, I want my electronics to just work without /needing/ to faff around with it a lot just to keep it working. In other words: in my world, faffing about should be consensual. And somehow the Garuda folks have managed to wrestle Arch Linux, a notoriously faffy distro, into an "it just works" package with sleek neon graphics. I never give a 10/10 because there's always room for improvement, so the next best ting it is: 9/10.
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 240428
Rating: 9
Date: 2024-09-04
Votes: 10
|
Amazing distro. Providing a unique feel and with Pacman, making many programs available in a simple, fast setup is a god send. The only 2 things that I see as an issue: 1) KDEWallet always popping up. There is a work around by downloading and installing the KDEWallet manager. But that leads to the other issue 2) The default package installer needs a bit of help. On initial setup it is broken on many devices and must be fixed via terminal. From there everything seems to be pretty sound. Love the layout and the interface, and how easy it is to get many programs working with little effort.
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 240428
Rating: 10
Date: 2024-07-21
Votes: 34
|
I've been using Garuda off and on for a few years and I really like it. Of course I could just run the Base Arch distro but Garuda has enough things on first load and configs to where there's less tinkering to get back into Steam and whatever games you want to play.
Installation is fairly easy and usage is easy as well. They've really done a great job at a stable Arch Distro.
Most of the games that I play (Elite Dangerous, Star Citizen, State of Decay 2 and Tribes 3 Rivals) works flawlessly pretty much out of the box with minimal tweaking. Always check protondb to see if there is any special tweaks you need for your game.
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 240428
Rating: 9
Date: 2024-07-07
Votes: 3
|
I have been running Garuda for 18 months now. It has worked flawlessly, over 800 updates later. Until a update in April when only LTS-kernel works. Something happened with it when it is about to load the GUI for KDE so computer locks up. But I guess that is what you have to expect from a bleeding edge distro. I am surprised though that it lasted so long.
That aside, gaming works very nice. I use Heroic games for my GOG games and Steam. It is as easy as to install and play games in Windows. I have tested games like Baldurs Gate 3, Fallout 4 and Divinity Origin 2 on heroic games and Starfield on Steam. Just install and run, no tweaking whatsoever is needed.Well, except activating proton on Steam of course, but that is just a click in settings.
Since the update broke I have tested Nobara, Heroic games works fine, but Steam seem to need some tinkering for Starfield, So I stick to Garuda for now. Atleast until the LTS-kernel breaks.
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 240428
Rating: 10
Date: 2024-06-04
Votes: 15
|
I have distro hopped a moderate amount over the past few months, I have tried Fedora, Manjaro, Kubuntu, and Endeavour OS, but after I landed on Garuda Linux, I've felt right at home ever since! Fast, reliable, and awesome gaming performance! I would definitely recommend this Linux distro to new and advanced users alike. It is quite versatile for gaming, and general purpose use cases. The multiple desktop environment choices are also quite appealing if you get bored with one. Also the wallpapers are amazing! The artists behind them deserve a lot of credit for them! And always remember, with Garuda Linux, you still get to say , "I use Arch btw!". (Hey that rymed! XD)
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 240428
Rating: 9
Date: 2024-05-30
Votes: 6
|
I have been using Garuda Linux exclusively since 2020. This is the first distro that stopped me from distro hopping. The forum has been very helpful. The people there are pleasant and helpful. I wish that I knew more to give back. I have had to reinstall my system once because of my own errors. A word of warning "Never update your system with low disk space, Never". The distro itself has been rock solid.
I only give this a 9 because there is always something better. I just haven't found it. In the last month or two I have started to distro hop a bit and have yet to find something that peaks my interest.
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 240428
Rating: 9
Date: 2024-05-16
Votes: 4
|
I run EndeavourOS before switching to Garuda Linux. Since EndeavourOS is my first Arch-based Linux distro, setting up KDE Lite edition is easier (at least for me since I have prior experience) than EndeavourOS, since you'll be guided by GUI, and the GUI will do the terminal command for you, which is super convenient.
Chaotic-aur which is enabled by default really saves my time as AUR's softwares were pre-compiled. OBS from Arch-repo is not pre-installed with server browser, hence I need to grab OBS from AUR instead. Since everything is pre-compiled in chaotic-aur, I didn't have to wait for 30 minutes just to 'build' a software.
At first I didn't want to use btrfs because I heard that it affect CPU usage which I assume gonna affect my gameplay. Turns out, it didn't affect my experience at all. Game that took a very long time to launch (Killing Floor 2) launch slightly faster, combined with power of zen kernel and game tweak from Garuda repo, my game experience here is significantly (only slightly but noticeable) better than ext4 on EndeavourOS.
My only grip is 'yay' is not installed by default unlike in EOS, so you have to installed it manually and it only tooks a very minimal effort.
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 231029
Rating: 4
Date: 2024-05-14
Votes: 3
|
Looks good.
That's about it.
Installation took two attempts on a new, unused HD. with the first attempt failing to unpack a file from an HP USB stick.
Updates went well as far as authorising them, after that it all fell apart.
All attempts to download PGP keys for the key-ring failed. So no updates could be applied.
I love the look of this OS but unfortunately, that is all I could do with it.
So its back to MX for me.
I can't think of what else to write to use up the minimum no. of required characters so keep cash and screw the NWO.
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 240428
Rating: 10
Date: 2024-05-04
Votes: 10
|
All in all Garuda is for me most likely the best "just works" Distro out there.
The most important positive point for me is the "garuda-assistant" which saves hours of reading the Arch Wiki and manual tinkering with configs and packages. The second big thing is the fully preconfigured btrfs-Snapshot-thing. It really helps you out when "breaking things which you then can not repair". Just boot into the snapshot, roll back, start over. Of course, you can configure that with snapper tools also for any other distro which installs to btrfs, but Garuda saves you all the work there.
Looking for convenience this is definitely a top pick. Before I used EndeavourOS - which was also really good, but I don't look back.
The negatives are there but not really a major problem: I like KDE but I dislike the appleish workflow they call "Dr460nized". But - as KDE is: You can get rid of stuff. In the Garuda forum is a how to in the FAQ-section. Also for me the forum is another minus: All my own activities there were quite "underwhelming" for me. Even with an extensive problem report I got mostly useless or arrogant (at least that is as what I recognized it) responses.
But - Dr460nized, de-Dr460nized, picking another flavor and knowing how to use Arch Wiki, Garuda is an extraordinary Distribution, which I also would call beginner-friendly. Well at least all Linux newbies I am befriended with are asking not much for help there. And my support times are quite less than when they were using Ubuntu.
The only thing I am still waiting for is a Garuda with root on ZFS. ;)
|
Project: Garuda Linux
Version: 231029
Rating: 10
Date: 2024-04-27
Votes: 5
|
I don't know why this great Arch Linux based version lags behind EndeavourOS or the unstable Manjaro, but I think they need a few more DE maintainers.
They've reduced the number of variants offered, not because they just want to cater to the mainstream, but because they simply don't have the support staff for the extravagant desktop interfaces.
I'm looking forward to the next version and hope Nvidia doesn't crash on KDE's Plasma 6.
I have tested a few DE's and they all work fine as long as there is no Nvidia GPU in use. Before you buy the next hardware, please check if the hardware is compatible with Linux. Do not blame any distribution for incompatible hardware drivers, it is the fault of the proprietary software that is provided.
|
|
|
| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
|
|
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
bc1qxes3k2wq3uqzr074tkwwjmwfe63z70gwzfu4lx 
lnurl1dp68gurn8ghj7ampd3kx2ar0veekzar0wd5xjtnrdakj7tnhv4kxctttdehhwm30d3h82unvwqhhxarpw3jkc7tzw4ex6cfexyfua2nr 
86fA3qPTeQtNb2k1vLwEQaAp3XxkvvvXt69gSG5LGunXXikK9koPWZaRQgfFPBPWhMgXjPjccy9LA9xRFchPWQAnPvxh5Le