Artix Linux

Reader supplied reviews for Artix Linux Average rating 9.3 from 183 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: -- 2025031020240823202308142022071320210726202002102018100420170808 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: 20250310 Rating: 10 Date: 2025-03-16 Votes: 3 Artix Linux is like Arch Linux’s rebellious sibling who decided, “Nah, I don’t need systemd.” And honestly? I kinda respect that. It’s fast. Like, really fast. Boot times are snappy, the system feels lean, and you’re not running a ton of background services you didn’t ask for. You get all the good stuff from Arch—rolling updates, the AUR (which is a treasure trove), and total control over your system—but without systemd lurking in the background. That said, Artix isn’t for the faint of heart. You have to pick your init system (OpenRC, runit, or s6), and while it’s not that hard, it’s definitely a bit more hands-on than your average Arch install. If you don’t mind getting your hands dirty, though, it’s a rock-solid, no-bloat, do-exactly-what-you-want kind of distro. Would I daily drive it? If I was deep into the anti-systemd life, absolutely. But even as a casual Arch fan, Artix has a weird charm that makes me want to stick around. Was this review helpful? Yes No Version: 20250310 Rating: 10 Date: 2025-03-15 Votes: 6 Long-time Linux user here, I've distro-hopped very few times. My last time was in 2017 - from Arch - when Artix was launched. This distro brought back the good, ol' feeling that Arch of yore used to give, before the adoption of systemd. That said, I would recommend the dinit versions for people who switch from systemd, as it's syntax and service files are very alike; but that's where the similarities end. Some hints about the 4 inits currently supported by Artix: 1. OpenRC, developed by Gentoo, is the first one supported, from the days of Arch-OpenRC. OpenRC is modern, fast and reliable. It can parallelize service starting at boot, ensuring full dependency management, and has built-in service supervision. The latest release supports user services. It's the init of choice for veterans. 2. Runit is the second one adopted, rudimentary and bare-bones. It's liked a lot by minimalists, boots fast and once you set up your system, you won't deal with it any more. It's an init system and not a fully-fledged service manager, but it does its job well. Considered by its author feature-complete and bug-free, its development is kinda frozen (but still received an update last month). For people who like it KISS. 3. S6, the third one in line, boots the fastest of all. I mean, FAST: it drops a console login prompt immediately after initramfs decompression. It does daemon supervision and has a complex service management. For tinkerers. 4. Dinit, the latest one, is the second-fastest booter, makes new users feel at home and offers anything you'd expect from a modern init system. For systemd escapees (or survivors). Switching between init systems is a breeze, literally an one-liner in console. The offered variety of installation ISOs from Artix is enough to cover every need and you can find the most popular desktop environments in all init combinations. Advanced users would choose the base ISOs, but if you really want to carry around a do-it-all, run-everywhere live Linux USB stick, you should get a community edition which contains a full office suite (Libreoffice), image, graphics, sound, music and video players and editors, internet and networking applications, advanced system tools and game managers/launchers. And all that in the best dark theme in the market. What's not to like? Was this review helpful? Yes No Version: 20240823 Rating: 10 Date: 2025-03-10 Votes: 7 I've been on linux for about 5 years now, and 3 of those years are on Artix. Yup, 3 years on one install. I recently tried to distrohop, so that streak is broken, but I just went right back to Artix after 2 weeks. The community is mostly helpful, and non-political, which is refreshing af. Four inits to choose from (OpenRC, Runit, Dinit, s6). I prefer Runit from my time on Void, but it's nice to have that choice. Solid repos. I rarely have to dig into the Arch repo, or Chaotic AUR for things I need. The choice to go total minimal or start with a Desktop Environment from an installer. Why non-systemd: Ever occasionally have a service not running? You need to check the status and set it back to up? That's why. I've never had to do that in my years on Runit. I set it once, and literally never touch it again unless I want to turn it off. Was this review helpful? Yes No See all 183 reader reviews of Artix Linux...