Artix Linux

Reader supplied reviews for Artix Linux Average rating 9.2 from 213 review(s) Please select a rating in the range of 1-10. Please write at least a few sentences about the distribution while limiting your review to 4080 characters. What are your thoughts on Artix Linux? Please include a few pros and a few cons, along with your overall impression of the operating system. Our FAQ page has tips on writing a good mini-review. Version: -- 2025040720240823202308142022071320210726202002102018100420170808 Rating:    -- 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 out of 10 Your review (minimum 250 words): Past reviews - sort by: DateVotes Version: 20250407 Rating: 1 Date: 2026-02-06 Votes: 4 Artix is a pretty interesting distro because it's genuinely one of the few Arch derivatives that offers a real technical difference, not just a visual remix. Being able to remove systemd from your system entirely, or at least almost entirely, is a big selling point. That said, I've run into far more issues on Artix than I ever did on Arch. Packages here tend to break with a relatively high frequency, sometimes even affecting the init system itself, which is, to some extent, an expected side effect when you support multiple init systems. You also won't find every package that exists in the Arch repos, and while you can add Arch's repositories to fill that gap, that's not exactly a great idea in many scenarios. Sooner or later you'll run into unsatisfied dependencies, since a package that's already updated on Arch might still be lagging behind on Artix. I've also seen weird situations where pacman reports an available update, but when you try to install it you get "file not found" errors because the package failed to build on the server side, yet somehow still made it into the database as if it were fine. Just today an elogind update landed that completely breaks user services on OpenRC, which I use, leaving downgrade as the only way to restore normal behavior, and that's just a mess. Problems happen everywhere, of course, but on Artix it sometimes feels like there's a lack of testing and polish in certain areas, and that made the experience pretty unpleasant for me. I hope it's just a rough phase, but right now it's a hard no for the sake of my sanity. Was this review helpful? Yes No Version: 20250407 Rating: 10 Date: 2026-02-05 Votes: 2 The sharp-edged cousin of Arch who abandoned systemd and never looked back is Artix Linux. It retains the rolling-release power and do-it-yourself mentality while giving you genuine control over the heartbeat of your system via OpenRC, runit, or S6. Personally I prefer OpenRC. It's quick, tidy, and refreshingly honest. You are in charge of everything, for better or worse, and nothing is bloated or hidden. Artix appeals to users who are concerned about the functionality of their operating system because it aims to be free rather than nice. Was this review helpful? Yes No Version: 20250407 Rating: 10 Date: 2026-02-03 Votes: 2 Artix + OpenRC + suckless software suite (dwm, st, dmenu + Steam works like a charm. No issues what so ever. Installing it without a livecd by using the base version ISO is simple. Grab your phone, check the Artix guide, and if in doubt you can always ask an LLM for some support. Mind you... it's an LLM and it sometimes hallucinates, but if you read attentively and push-back when in doubt it's honestly better than asking around. The main appeal of such a setup is the simplicity. This allows anyone to install and maintain their system without depending on anyone else. Code base is small so if something breaks you are familiar enough that you will feel empowered to fix it on your own. THAT is the reason why you should switch out of wayland, systemd, kde, gnome, etc. At least, in my opinion. Was this review helpful? Yes No See all 213 reader reviews of Artix Linux...