Artix Linux

Reader supplied reviews for Artix Linux Average rating 9.2 from 248 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: -- 202604022025040720240823202308142022071320210726202002102018100420170808 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: 20260402 Rating: 9 Date: 2026-07-18 Country: United States Votes: 3 Honestly got into Artix because no SystemD and I needed to install an Arch-based distro in a hurry. It's now my daily driver for the past 6 months and has been reliable enough as far as Arch-based distros go. Pros: It's Arch, without SystemD. Artix has an official GUI installer which is way easier than ArchInstall for simple installations. Spinning it up on a computer without having write a whole install script or type in a bunch of terminal commands requires much less brainpower and is nice when life gets busy. And SystemD is too huge, so less bloat when it's gone. Plus it's Arch-based, having access to the Arch repos and AUR is useful, although you could certainly get by with just the Artix repos as the big stuff like desktops, web browsing, office work, gaming, is already in the main repos. The real highlights of Artix tho are access to XLibre, other init systems, and other software that you can't get in Arch real easily. Cons: It's Arch, without SystemD. You have to deal with Arch's subpar package quality, upgrades breaking when you don't expect, etc. Plus AUR is pretty risky to use since the build scripts assume you're on Arch, sometimes they won't work on Artix because the package versions are different. Also although SystemD is bloated, some stuff that is really handy like systemd-nspawn is missing, so certain things like building clean chroots is much harder than on Arch. And without SystemD you do have to write your own init scripts sometimes which can be annoying, although now there's the Artix user repo of init scripts for common stuff and if anything is uncommon, I usually start with init scripts from Alpine or Gentoo and touch them up for Artix. You also have to run the old-school Unix commands instead of timedatectl or whatever SystemD already duplicates so any 3rd party installers/scripts that rely on SystemD are obviously not going to work, but what did you expect from Artix? And it's nice to know how to use the old-school Unix commands anyways, learn Linux instead of SystemD you know? Unfortunately you don't get access to Gnome or login managers that need SystemD but if you really need those, Arch probably isn't the best choice for you anyways. Verdict: basically Arch for people who have grown up from the "btw I use Arch" phase and want a path away from SystemD and custom installation scripts. You can also switch from Artix to Arch or back from the same installation if you are a terminal wizard which most Archers become at some point. I like that it lowers the floor for some things like installation and raises the ceiling for others like init systems. Props to Artix devs for refining the Arch experience. Was this review helpful? Yes No Version: 20260402 Rating: 10 Date: 2026-07-15 Country: France Votes: 4 I like Artix, rolling release without systemd. It is the best option for those who want to work with a different init other than systemd. I've used dinit (future best init ?), runit (lighter and faster), and OpenRC (I think the most followed). I don’t use Flatpak or Snap, and rarely AUR ... After years with Manjaro, Artix became my favorite distro. Cinnamon, my favorite desktop choice, has become lightweight with Artix! But for the old PCs, the lightest and most feature-rich one remains Mate. Of course, LXDE remains the simplest and lightest, but does not suit everyone. For those who want to avoid the command line and solve dependency problems, I install Pamac right after installing this excellent OS. Thus, I use Artix with the same ease as Manjaro. Was this review helpful? Yes No Version: 20260402 Rating: 4 Date: 2026-07-09 Country: New Zealand Votes: 10 There's a reason I normally steer clear of Arch derivatives. installed Artix out of curiosity, its systemd free so I thought lets see what its like. Downloaded the OpenRC version with Plasma. Booted fine but warned me to install in off line mode as on line was experimental. Why offer on line then? Installed fine but after using syu to update the system I immediately had problems installing UFW firewall, something I've never experienced with Arch. I spent time trying to resolve this issue with no success. Even commands and solutions that were supposed to work, didn't. I tried resetting my system and Artix failed to boot. What can i say, I'm well and truly "out". This project, at least in my experience needs a lot of work before I could recommend it to anyone. Its hardly the only systemd free linux distro either. Maybe I'll come back in a few years when its hopefully matured. Was this review helpful? Yes No See all 248 reader reviews of Artix Linux...