• Helix
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    4 years ago

    Which hype? It seems like yet another Arch-based distribution. TL,DW?

    Quoting from their main page:

    Garuda Linux is a rolling release distro based on Arch Linux, which ensures always getting the latest software updates.

    We only use one extra repo on top of Arch Linux repos, placing us very close to Arch Linux without having to install the system with CLI.

    We make the install process simple by using the Calamares installer, which is both fast and easy to use.

    With handpicked desktop themes, appealing shell look, and beautiful blur effects out of the box, Garuda Linux never lets you down.

    So, it’s an installer for Arch Linux? I really liked Antergos back in the days, but Antergos fell flat on custom installations. In my experience, NixOS does installations best since you just tell it where the stuff lies and it’s being installed however you want it. Especially encryption is nowhere to be found on Garudo’s main page and a killer feature for me. Can someone add their experiences with Garudo+encryption?

    BTRFS as the default filesystem with zstd compression.

    Why does it need compression? Modern SSDs are pretty fast already and the additional cost of CPU usage is pretty high in most applications. There’s a reason zstd is not activated by default in the Kernel.

    Automatic snapshots out of the box using Timeshift. You can access 5 recent snapshots directly from GRUB. While being a rolling release distro, our goal is to ensure that your system will not be left in an unbootable state after a problematic update. Thus, we use the BTRFS filesystem integrated with Timeshift, which employs an automatic snapshot feature, backing up the system configuration before each update.*

    Uh, nice! That sounds like it could be interesting for newbies who need to roll back when they hit a regression or misconfigure their system.

    GUI for package management (Pamac)

    Well, whoever needs that one. If I know what to install I can just use pacman -Syu packagename, if I don’t, pamac won’t help me either.

    GUI for managing drivers and kernels (Garuda Settings Manager)

    That’s a new one. Is it available for “plain” Arch? I really don’t like downstream solutions too specific to make it to upstream. The AUR description reads like this:

    aur/garuda-settings-manager-kcm-git r16.011593f-1 (+3 0.02)
    Garuda Linux System Settings Tool (KCM for Plasma 5) (manjaro settings manager ported to work with arch standards and limited to only dkms drivers)

    Just like all the other Garuda-branded tools, they seem to have used Manjaro and themed it nicely. Why not use Manjaro then? What does Garuda really offer over Manjaro?

    • Halce
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      4 years ago

      Garuda has pure Arch repos, and does not delay updates.

      • Helix
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        4 years ago

        that sounds like a major advantage compared to Manjaro. It’s basically one of the spiritual successors to Antergos then. 👍

        • onlooker
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          4 years ago

          The spiritual successor would be EndeavourOS though, wouldn’t it? It’s literally an offshoot of Antergos developed by Antergos’ (former) community.

          • Helix
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            4 years ago

            ah, nice. I’ll correct my comment to say it’s a spiritual successor, not the spiritual successor 😉

    • Halce
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      4 years ago

      Looks nice visually, but the theming and widgets are over the top to the point of consuming a large amount of memory at idle. Good out-of-the-box for gamers tho.

      For a more lean Arch, EndeavourOS, ArchLabs, or InstantOS would be a better choice.

      • Helix
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        4 years ago

        consuming a large amount of memory at idle. Good out-of-the-box for gamers

        These two statements kind of contradict each other.

        For a more lean Arch, EndeavourOS, ArchLabs, or InstantOS would be a better choice.

        Why exactly?

        Which of these have the Calamares installer, which installers do they use? Can they install LUKS on LVM? archinstall can’t currently, sadly.

        For me, I used plain Arch Linux, since my “advanced” or “unusual” use case of having encryption for my home drive but no encryption for my games seems to be too niche to consider most of the time. However, this gives me the most flexibility in terms of file systems, partition layout and performance…

        • Halce
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          4 years ago

          EndeavourOS has Calamares. And Garuda too of course.

        • Halce
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          4 years ago

          What I mean is Garuda has a lot of gaming stuff pre-installed, like Steam client, Wine and the 32bit libraries repo’s enabled already by default, which consumes some memory, but games need them to run.

    • joojmachine
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      4 years ago

      Also that one extra repo they use, looks like something little that doesn’t affect the experience much, but just take a look at it, it’s the chaotic-AUR, and it is BEAUTIFUL (at least if you don’t like compiling stuff).

      They have a lot of packages missing from Arch’s official repos and that are inconvenient to compile from source or the AUR, like the Nighly versions of Firefox and Ungoogled Chromium or a FUCKTON of different kernels, like all the tkg stuff. I’m still using it on my Arch install even after I moved away from Garuda, it’s just that good. Could use some more mirrors tho.