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Garuda Linux, a Rolling Release distribution based on Arch Linux
Meet Garuda Linux, a Rolling Release distribution based on Arch Linux. Check out the details
of this distro and find out where to download it.
Garuda Linux is a Rolling Release (continuous update) distribution based on the Arch Linux
operating system. But unlike Arch Linux, Garuda Linux comes with a graphical installer (Calamares)
for easy installation and other advanced graphical tools to manage your system.
Garuda is a performance-oriented distro with many tweaks to improve performance. Some of
the many tweaks include the use of zram, a performance CPU governor, along with custom
memory management software. This addition has also strived to provide
stability to the system including the Timeshift backup utility.
According to its official website , it is:
“A Rolling Release distribution based on Arch Linux that ensures you always get the
latest software updates. Furthermore, it has an additional repository in the Arch Linux
repositories, which makes it easier for us not to have to install the system through
the terminal (CLI).”
Among the main features highlighted by its creators are the following:
Use of a Zen Kernel : Which gives it greater speed and greater responsiveness, as it is
optimized for daily use on the desktop and in multimedia and gaming areas. Its incorporation
and use was the result of a collaborative effort by kernel hackers to provide the best
possible Linux kernel for an everyday operating system.
Ease of use : Offers modern Terminal Applications (CLI), such as “Micro” which is an easy-to-use
and intuitive terminal-based text editor, pre-determined in the Operating System, as
it allows you to take advantage of the potential of modern terminals. In addition, it offers
several GUI tools to manage out-of-the-box system configuration for easy startup.
Always Free : Its developers promise that Garuda Linux will always be completely free.
Since then, they have created it to be a free and open operating system based on GNU / Linux,
which above all is easy to use, beautiful and offers high performance.
Other features that may be briefly mentioned are:
Use BTRFS as the default file system with zstd compression.
Allows the programming and execution of automatic Snapshots through the Timeshift application.
It has a user-friendly installation process, based on the use of the Calamares installer,
which is easy to use and speeds up the installation process.
It offers the following Desktop Environments and Window Managers for your installation
and use: KDE Plasma, GNOME, Xfce, Cinnamon, MATE, LXQt-kwin, Wayfire, Qtile, BSPWM and
i3wm. In KDE Plasma Desktop Environment, it comes
with an excellent combination of carefully selected desktop themes, an attractive look
and beautiful ready-to-use blur effects. It incorporates various graphical user interfaces
(GUI) for various functions such as: package management (Pamac), driver and kernel management
(Garuda Settings Manager), management of various common tasks (Garuda Assistant), management
of boot option options GRUB (Garuda Boot Options), network connection management and hotspot
creation (Garuda Network Assistant) and finally one for installing game software (Garuda Gamer).
Download and try Garuda Linux For your download, this impressive and beautiful
«Distro Rolling Release» which is based on Arch Linux offers, a simple download section
, from where you can easily download the appropriate ISO, ie the ISO with Desktop Environment and
Windows Managers preferably, among the existing ones: KDE Plasma, GNOME, Xfce, Cinnamon, MATE,
LXQt-kwin, Wayfire, Qtile, BSPWM and i3wm.
:: More ::
The Linux operating system is many things to many users. It is not a one-size-must-fit-all
computing platform like Microsoft and Apple provide.
A prime example of Linux’s wide range of functionalities is easily found in Garuda
Linux. Not typically available in mainstream distributions, its large assortment of desktop
offerings will challenge your computing passions.
Developers released the latest version of Garuda Linux, aka Hawk Eagle, on April 9.
But not all of the collection of desktop offerings are available, at least yet, in this latest
version. Although you can still get those that are not in the previous release of Serpent
Eagle from January of this year.
Garuda Linux, based in India, is an Arch-based rolling distribution. Linux distributions
give you one of two maintenance options. Rolling releases come piecemeal — but often — so
you never have to install a complete system upgrade once or twice a year when developers
issue traditional major point releases. Arch-based Linux systems push the rolling method.
Normally, I do not favor Arch-based Linux distros. But I use rolling update distros
on nearly all of my office computers. Arch’s rather rigid design philosophies usually make
Arch finicky to install and maintain. Arch systems require a working knowledge of how
Linux works under the hood. That puts new users at a disadvantage. But Garuda is an
exception to that barrier.
Garuda Linux comes with the Calamares graphical installer for easy installation. Plus, Garuda
Linux comes with other advanced graphical tools for system management. For instance,
the standard Arch package management tool called Pacman has a text-based interface.
It uses simple compressed files as a package format that users need to hand tweak at times.
Enter Pamac, a graphical user interface (GUI) that takes over the package management routines.
Garuda Linux also includes a GUI tool called Garuda Assistant to handle various common
tasks like managing drivers and kernels and other GUI tools to manage GRUB boot options
and network and hotspot creation. If you are a gamer, you will love the GUI that installs
curated gaming software.
First Impressions I especially like Garuda’s performance-oriented
design with many performance enhancements. These include tweaks such as the performance
CPU governor Zram and custom memory management software.
I also like what makes Garuda Linux different from other general-purpose Linux systems.
Take, for instance, the Linux-zen feature that provides a faster, more responsive Linux
kernel that is optimized for desktop, multimedia, and gaming. Overall, the Linux-zen feature
brings a faster, more responsive Linux kernel that is optimized for desktop, multimedia,
and gaming.
From a technical standpoint, Garuda Linux is a very modern OS. It uses the BTRFS filesystem
with zstd compression. BTRFS is a storage format that combines a file system based on
the copy-on-write (COW) principle with logical volume management.
By comparison to the more widely used Ext4 file system, BTRFS is designed for high-capacity
and high-performance storage servers. The Ext4 filesystem was designed to be a simple
local filesystem. That gives BTRFS advanced features beyond that of Ext4.
Another easy-to-use maintenance tool bundled with the default installation is the Timeshift
backup utility. Set it up for what you want to be backed up and how often and forget it.
Timeshift runs automatically, capturing snapshots of your system at the intervals you set. Should
something go wrong with an update or errant application setting, it is easy to install
a previous snapshot to get up and running without missing a beat. Your saved settings
and data are never at risk.
Desktop Delights This distro is an exceptional choice that
offers numerous desktop options. Some of them are not available in other distro choices.
You can download and install a version of Garuda Linux that comes with nearly every
desktop variation. The list includes KDE, Xfce, GNOME, LXQt-kwin, Cinnamon, MATE, Wayfire,
Qtile, BSPWM, and i3wm desktops.
The large collection of desktops — technically, some of them are window managers rather than
complete environments — seems like an alphabet soup of computer jargon. But it is well worth
checking them out by using the live session ISOs. You will find lots of surprises.
For instance, the KDE version is particularly interesting. It is about as standard as you
can get. That said, Garuda’s developers put unique spit and polish into this KDE iteration
that makes it artistically noteworthy by design.
Another very intriguing desktop option is a flavor I had not stumbled upon prior to
discovering Garuda Linux. Wayfire, an open-source project is a fast and eye-pleasing computing
environment. It is a Wayland compositor that creates a customizable, extendable, and lightweight
environment without sacrificing its appearance.
If you are familiar with the Compiz display of yesteryear, Wayfire brings much of that
glitz and glitter back to your monitor. I am talking superior eye candy the likes of
wobbly windows, over-the-top window animations, and the rotating 3D cube. The Wayfire environment
does all of this without subjecting your system’s resources to a starvation diet.
Wayfire is a 3D floating Wayland compositor using wlroots. In non-computerese, that is
a modular Wayland compositor library. A Wayland compositor is similar to compositing window
managers in the less modern but still prolific X11 computing world that many distros still
run. The Wayland software coordinates all of your input and output devices and manages
all of your opened applications.
Garuda Viewing Options To be frank, not all of these desktop options
are for everyone. But the beauty of Linux is the freedom to try different options. Sometimes
you will stumble on something that piques your interest and serves your computing routine
better than your current Linux platform does. This is one of the attractions I find with
Garuda Linux.
Here is a quick rundown on each option:
The dr460nized edition is the standard KDE version of Garuda Linux. It has a dark, blurry,
and fully immersive Plasma experience. The workflow is Mac-like with the app menu on
right into the top bar.
The Dragonized Gaming Edition has the same tweaks and appearance but comes preinstalled
with additional software that Linux gamers might need, such as game launchers and video-centric
tools.
The Dragonized BlackArch Edition is a penetration testing distribution based on Arch Linux that
provides a concentration on cybersecurity tools. It is an open-source distro created
especially for penetration testers and security researchers and has more than 2,600 tools
available in the repository.
Garuda’s Xfce edition is a lightweight desktop environment that is fast and does not consume
a lot of system resources. The lightweight design does not detract from its performance.
Another lightweight desktop option is Garuda’s LXQT-Kwin edition. The combination of the
QT environment with the KDE window manager gives you some surprising visual treatments.
Garuda Linux also gives you additional choices that you will not find in most distro offerings.
The Qtile edition has a dynamic window manager that is easy to customize. Its use of the
‘jgmenu’ makes it convenient to launch applications without remembering key bindings.
Garuda BSPWM or Binary Space Partition Window Manager is a minimalist yet modern-looking
tiling window manager that displays windows as the leaves of a full binary tree.
The Garuda i3WM edition is a lightweight window manager with a small memory footprint. You
operate it exclusively with the keyboard. Garuda’s developers added an easy configuration
with LXappearance to handle GTK themes. They also include a cheat sheet to get you started.
Garuda Linux’s Barebones KDE edition is for advanced users. It does not come with
extra software and functionalities. You get only the bare minimum of packages needed to
get started. You also do not get any support for Barebones editions from the developers.
If you are a fan of the classic GNOME desktop, Gartuda’s Garuda GNOME version will not
disappoint. It offers a modern desktop environment with an emphasis on ease of use.
Bottom Line The minimum requirement for Garuda Linux is
30 GB storage space with 4 GB RAM and a 64-bit system. The recommended requirements, however,
provide much better performance. These are 40 GB storage space with 8 GB RAM running
a video card with OpenGL 3.3 or better.
The Garuda distro is optimized for performance on real hardware. Installing Garuda in virtual
machines might result in a bad experience.
Oftentimes, there are two parts to evaluating Linux distros. One is the design and feature
sets that make a particular Linux distribution unique from other offerings. The other is
how the desktop environment contributes to or weakens the user’s computing experience.
Rest assured that Garuda Linux covers both of those factors. Not every desktop flavor
will be a winning choice. But Garuda’s overall performance and design along with its wide
range of environments can eliminate distro-hopping to find your best fit.
My only real disappointment with this latest Garuda Linux release is that most of the background
images are dark and moody. But each flavor still has the Garuda uniqueness that performs
solidly.
One caution to consider is that some of the less commonly used window manager options
will take getting used to using. But computing is always about learning curves and adjusting
to new processes.
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