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Garuda Linux RSS Feed DistroWatch.com: Garuda Linux

Garuda Linux


Last Update: 2025-11-08 00:50 UTC


Garuda Linux is a rolling distribution based on the Arch Linux operating system. Unlike Arch Linux, Garuda Linux comes with a graphical installer (Calamares) for easy installation, and other advanced graphical tools for managing your system. Garuda is a performance-oriented distro with many performance enhancing tweaks. Some of the many tweaks include using zram, a performance CPU governor, along with custom memory management software. Garuda Linux has striven to provide system stability by including the Timeshift backup utility.

Popularity (hits per day): 12 months: 20 (443), 6 months: 20 (475), 3 months: 23 (512), 4 weeks: 29 (490), 1 week: 42 (473)

Average visitor rating: 8.4/10 from 273 review(s).


Garuda Summary
Distribution Garuda Linux
Home Page https://garudalinux.org/
Mailing Lists --
User Forums https://forum.garudalinux.org/
Alternative User Forums
Documentation https://garudalinux.org/installation
Screenshots DistroWatch Gallery
Screencasts
Download Mirrors https://garudalinux.org/editions
Bug Tracker https://gitlab.com/groups/garuda-linux/-/issues
Related Websites GitLab
Reviews 2025: The New Stack
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2022: DistroWatchDebugPoint
2021:
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Where To Donate, Buy or Try DonateThe Linux Shop

Recent Related News and Releases
  Releases announcements with download links and checksums:
 • 2025-03-08: Distribution Release: Garuda Linux 250308
 • 2024-04-29: Distribution Release: Garuda Linux 240428
 • 2023-10-30: Distribution Release: Garuda Linux 231029
 • 2023-03-06: Distribution Release: Garuda Linux 230305
 • 2020-10-10: Distribution Release: Garuda Linux 201007
 • 2020-09-01: Distribution Release: Garuda Linux 200831
 • More Garuda releases...

  Headlines:
 • 2025-03-11 Garuda experiments with new COSMIC edition
 • More Garuda headlines...

Table Notes and Explanations

(Please refer to the table below.)
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  • To compare the software in this project to the software available in other distributions, please see our Compare Packages page.
  • Notes: In case where multiple versions of a package are shipped with a distribution, only the default version appears in the table. For indication about the GNOME version, please check the "nautilus" and "gnome-shell" packages. The Apache web server is listed as "httpd" and the Linux kernel is listed as "linux". The KDE desktop is represented by the "plasma-desktop" package and the Xfce desktop by the "xfdesktop" package.
  • Colour scheme: green text = latest stable version, red text = development or beta version. The function determining beta versions is not 100% reliable due to a wide variety of versioning schemes.
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Feature 251103 240428 231029 221019 211128 201205
Release Date 2025-11-03 2024-04-28 2023-10-29 2022-10-19 2021-11-28 2020-12-06
End Of Life            
Price (US$) Free Free Free Free Free Free
Image Size (MB) 2700-4700 1600-5000 1600-5000 1600-5000 1600-5000 1600-5000
Free Download ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO
Installation Calamares Calamares Calamares Calamares Calamares Calamares
Default Desktop Cinnamon, GNOME, Hyprland, i3, KDE Plasma, Mokka, Sway, Xfce Cinnamon, GNOME, i3, KDE Plasma, Qtile, Sway, Xfce Cinnamon, GNOME, i3, KDE Plasma, Qtile, Sway, Xfce bspwm, Cinnamon, GNOME, i3, KDE Plasma, LXQt, Qtile, Sway, Wayfire, Xfce bspwm, GNOME, i3, KDE Plasma, LXQt, Qtile, Sway, Wayfire, Xfce bspwm, Cinnamon, Deepin, GNOME, i3, KDE Plasma, LXQt, MATE, RecBox, UKUI, Wayfire, Xfce
Package Management Pacman Pacman Pacman Pacman Pacman Pacman
Release Model Rolling Rolling Rolling Rolling Rolling Rolling
Office Suite -- -- -- -- -- LibreOffice
Processor Architecture x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64
Init Software systemd systemd systemd systemd systemd systemd
Journaled File Systems Btrfs, ext4, JFS, XFS Btrfs, ext4, JFS, ReiserFS, XFS Btrfs, ext4, JFS, ReiserFS, XFS Btrfs, ext4, JFS, ReiserFS, XFS Btrfs, ext4, JFS, ReiserFS, XFS Btrfs, ext4, JFS, ReiserFS, XFS
Multilingual en en en en en en
Asian Language Support -- -- -- -- -- --
Full Package List 251103 240428 231029 221019 211128 201205
Package 251103 240428 231029 221019 211128 201205
alsa-lib (1.2.14) 1.2.14 1.2.11 1.2.10 1.2.7.2 1.2.5.1 1.2.4
amdgpu (25.0.0) 25.0.0 19.1.0 19.1.0 19.1.0 19.1.0 19.1.0
apparmor (4.1.2) -- -- -- -- -- 3.0.0
apt (3.1.12) -- -- -- -- -- --
bash (5.3) 5.3 5.2 5.1 5.1 5.1 5.0
bind (9.20.15) 9.20.15 9.18.26 9.18.19 9.18.7 9.16.23 9.16.8
chromium (142.0.7444.134) -- -- -- -- 96.0.4664.45 --
cinnamon (6.4.13) 6.4.13 6.0.4 5.8.4 5.4.12 -- 4.8.0
cups (2.4.14) -- -- -- -- -- 2.3.3
e2fsprogs (1.47.3) 1.47.3 1.47.0 1.47.0 1.46.5 1.46.4 1.45.6
ffmpeg (8.0) 8.0 6.1.1 6.0 5.1.2 4.4.1 4.3.1
firefox (145.0) 144.0.2 125.0.2 119.0 106.0 94.0.2 83.0
flatpak (1.16.1) -- -- -- -- -- 1.9.2
freetype (2.14.1) 2.14.1 2.13.2 2.13.2 2.12.1 2.11.0 2.10.4
gcc (15.2.0) 15.2.1 13.2.1 13.2.1 12.2.0 11.1.0 10.2.0
gimp (3.0.6) -- -- -- -- -- 2.10.22
git (2.51.2) 2.51.2 2.44.0 2.42.0 2.38.0 2.34.1 2.29.2
glibc (2.42) 2.42 2.39 2.38 2.36 2.33 2.32
gnome-shell (49.1) 49.0 46.1 45.0 42.5 41.1 3.38.2
grub (2.12) 2.14rc1 2.12 2.12rc1 2.06 2.06 2.04
gtk (4.20.2) 4.20.2 4.14.3 4.12.3 4.8.1 4.4.1 3.24.23
httpd (2.4.65) -- -- -- -- -- 2.4.46
inkscape (1.4.2) -- -- -- -- -- 1.0.1
kmod (34.2) 34.2 32 31 30 29 27
krita (5.2.13) -- -- -- -- -- 4.4.1
LibreOffice (25.8.2) -- -- -- -- -- 7.0.3
Package 251103 240428 231029 221019 211128 201205
libselinux (3.9) -- -- -- -- -- --
linux (6.17.7) 6.17.6 6.6.29 6.1.60 6.0.2 5.12.3 5.9.12
mariadb (12.0.2) -- -- -- -- -- --
mate-desktop (1.28.2) -- -- -- 1.26.0 -- 1.24.1
mesa (25.2.6) 25.2.6 24.0.5 23.2.1 22.2.1 21.2.5 20.2.3
mysql (9.5.0) -- -- -- -- -- --
nautilus (49.1) 49.1 46.1 -- 42.2 41.1 3.38.2
NVIDIA (580.105.08) -- 550.76.3 525.60.11 520.56.06 495.44 --
openjdk (25) -- 22.0.1 21u35 18.0.2.1 17.0.1 14.0.2
openssh (10.2p1) 10.2p1 9.7p1 9.5p1 9.0p1 8.8p1 8.4p1
openssl (3.6.0) 3.6.0 3.2.1 3.1.4 1.1.1q 1.1.1l 1.1.1h
perl (5.42.0) 5.42.0 5.38.2 5.38.0 5.36.0 5.34.0 5.32.0
php (8.4.14) -- -- -- -- -- --
plasma-desktop (6.5.2) 6.4.5 6.0.4 5.27.9 5.26.1 5.23.3 5.20.4
postfix (3.10.5) -- -- -- -- -- --
postgresql (18.0) -- -- -- -- 13.4 --
Python (3.14.0) 3.13.7 3.12.3 3.11.5 3.10.8 3.9.9 3.9.0
qt (6.10.0) 6.10.0 6.7.0 6.6.0 6.4.0 5.15.2 5.15.2
samba (4.23.3) 4.23.2 4.20.0 4.19.2 4.17.0 4.15.2 4.13.2
systemd (258.2) 258.1 255.5 254.5 251.6 249.7 247.1
thunderbird (144.0.1) 144.0.1 115.10.1 115.4.1 102.3.3 -- 78.4.3
vim (9.1) 9.1 9.1 9.0 9.0 8.2 8.2
vlc (3.0.21) 3.0.21 3.0.20 3.0.19 3.0.17.4 -- 3.0.11.1
wayland (1.24.0) 1.24.0 1.22.0 1.22.0 1.21.0 1.19.0 1.18.0
xfdesktop (4.20.1) 4.20.1 4.18.1 4.18.1 4.16.1 4.16.0 4.14.3
xorg-server (21.1.20) 21.1.20 21.1.13 21.1.9 21.1.4 21.1.1 1.20.10

Reader Ratings
Reader supplied reviews for Garuda Linux

Average rating
8.4
from 273 review(s)



What are your thoughts on Garuda Linux?
Please include a few pros and a few cons, along with your overall impression of the operating system.
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Past reviews - sort by:

Version: 251002
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-10-29
Votes: 14


I moved from Windows to Linux in 2024 and have tried several distros, of which Garuda has been the enduring favorite. I've been using Garuda Linux on my primary desktop PC for almost a full year now and wanted to review.

I first got curious about Garuda purely because of the name. "Garuda Linux" just sounds cool and fun to me. This may be cliche, and I might have a bit of a chip on my shoulder in that I believe many people try a bit too hard to appear as normal and unassuming as possible, whereas I would prefer choosing to stand out a little bit sometimes. This is an OS I am choosing for personal home use after all, not for deployment at work, so being fun and having some flair is appreciated.

The install is effortless even without consulting reference material, and the system loads stock with useful features. Snapshots are immediately available, very simple to configure and easy to rollback to if needed. The Garuda Rani system assistant GUI is very helpful to Linux newcomers and is convenient even after I know my way around the CLI. I've read comments that Garuda is bloated, but I suppose I am not too picky. The packages included on first install have not offended me - but my attitude is perhaps tainted by a lifetime of using Microsoft which has so much bloat that any Linux distro choice at all won't feel bloated to me.

The visuals are nice by default. I know some folks are turned off by garish gamer color schemes, but for me, I don't necessarily agree. My physical hardware and peripherals are all very drab gray & black, and my office furnishings are similarly neutral colors with some hardwoods for accent. So why not have a splash of vibrant color just in my screens? A few "loud" neon icons fit nicely for me. I honestly made very few changes from the default theme as I truly enjoy Garuda's presentation as-is.

Performance is great for me. I have not diligently measured or compared performance across different distros to make any definitive claims that Garuda is better or worse than alternative choices regarding performance, but I have no complaint with how my desktop or my games run on Garuda, and I have not found any specific examples of games that stand out as running worse than I'd expect them to. Having no complaints, I feel no drive to seek improvement elsewhere. Everything on the desktop feels snappy and my system resources are very available.

Stability & compatibility have been remarkable this past year. My peers warned me, saying things I'll paraphrase like, "you chose a niche gamer distro based on Arch, this is going to break and you're going to have so many headaches," but that has simply not been the reality at all. I update and handle my merges weekly and have truly not encountered significant issues or strange bothersome quirks. I successfully use this machine to do everything I ever used Windows for, as a sort of person who games, consumes media, writes, etc. I even had VR working when I had the desire to play around with my old VR headset, and I figured that if anything would have been a point of trouble, it would've been VR. I recall so many more games crashing to desktop in Windows, or updates failing and rolling back in Windows - this may be a low bar to compare against, but Garuda sure beats Windows in this regard.

Documentation and community are excellent here as well. The archwiki is highly educational and relevant here, and the Garuda forums are full of both information to read & active people to interact with.

Garuda is a great choice. I'm glad it fits me so well.


Was this review helpful? Yes No
Version: 251002
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-10-29
Votes: 1


I've been using Garuda Dr460nized edition for few months now and everything feels very good. Rami is easy to use and gaming tools make gaming super convinient. Almost all my accessories were plug&play (except Lacie hdd, but quick arch search and it was fixed). KDE Plasma desktop is nice looking and easy to use.

Little gpu issues when gaming (usage low, stuttering etc.), but seriously doubt that it has more to do with nvidia gpu (laptop 3070) than the distro.

True rating would be 8.7, but 9 was the closest.

I've previously used mainly windows but have tinkered with Pop_os, Ubuntu (old laptop), Mint and Fedora. Compared to these I can confidently say Garuda is way ahead.

Probably next I could try Cachy and Bazzite.

Feels good to be free of windows after all these years. Gaming was the last thing missing from me daily driving linux and that doesn't seem to be the case anymore. All games work after installing.


Was this review helpful? Yes No
Version: 251002
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-10-13
Votes: 3


User friendly with active development.

Lots of GUI tools for people who are not used to the terminal. There are now a ton of editions - Mokka being the latest one without the pre-installed software that their Dr460nized edition comes from. However you still get to choose to install a lot of things just with the GUI if you want to.

The use of GUI is optional btw, you can just ignore them once you get used to them.

Great distro for people who need a rolling release model due to their hardware, but are only just starting out. I feel this is like Bazzite but on Arch.


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See all 273 reader reviews of Garuda Linux...



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