Garuda Linux

Reader supplied reviews for Garuda Linux Average rating 8.5 from 284 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 Garuda 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: -- 260115251103240428231029221019211128201205 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: 260115 Rating: 10 Date: 2026-02-05 Votes: 4 I recently tried many Linux distros, Ubuntu 25.10, Fedora KDE 43, PopOS 24.04 Cosmic, CachyOS 260124 & Linux Mint 22.3. They are all good and very usable, except PopOS, which still has long way to go. But after I tried Garuda Mokka since last weekend, it's now become my main OS. The installer ISO is well built and easy to use. The only thing missed is no auto detection of time zone, even with WIFI conneced. I'm not new to Garuda. I tried the dr460nized edition a few year ago and gave up because it was too heavy to my taste. This time the Mokka edition is really impressive. It reaches a good balance of style and performance. I like the similarity to MacOS. I only need to make minor adjustment to get a system which I like to use. All apps I use now look beautiful and run fast as well. In my view, this is the best Linux distro for now. Was this review helpful? Yes No Version: 260115 Rating: 10 Date: 2026-02-04 Votes: 1 I'll be direct: 'If Garuda continues like this, excellent, it will certainly occupy the position of the most important distro, because everything works well and without disappointment. I was encountering several small insurmountable difficulties when using just one distro. Issues with real-time audio routing, and sometimes simple functioning of AppImage, installation of other types of packaging. Anyway, Garuda in the Mokka version is exceptional. I don't need to configure anything, I just install the application and dependencies, and everything really works. Congratulations to the team, and may users flock to this distro that has proven to be very professional, stable, and secure. As time goes by, everything matters—small details that show how much attention and care are put into maintaining the distro. I know it's laborious, and in Linux, things tend to focus more on results, but Mokka never disappoints. Since I started using it, I've only reinstalled because in a game I like, the NVIDIA driver caused malfunction in that game, but it was a widespread issue across all distros that used that driver version. Use it without fear because it's Arch, it works fully, and because it's well-made, beautiful, and well-maintained. Was this review helpful? Yes No Version: 260115 Rating: 9 Date: 2026-01-25 Votes: 0 TL;DR: Garuda is opinionated but honest about it. Clear desktop choices, Arch underneath, strong community, and a few rough edges that mostly come from ambitious defaults and specific hardware setups. One thing Garuda does very well is being explicit on its downloads page. Each ISO clearly states the desktop environment and focus, so you know exactly what you are installing. There is no ambiguity or “one ISO fits all” approach. That straightforwardness sets the tone early and helps avoid mismatched expectations, especially compared to distros that hide major differences behind a single installer ✔️. In daily use, Garuda feels like Arch with guardrails. Under the heavy theming and gaming-oriented defaults, it behaves like a normal Arch system. When issues come up, standard Arch tools and documentation apply, which makes debugging predictable rather than frustrating. Most fixes do not require distro-specific magic, just familiarity with pacman, systemd, and initramfs tooling. On my setup, a GMKtec M5 Pro with a Ryzen 5700U iGPU, the main problems I encountered were around bootloader installation, initramfs generation with dracut, and later GPU-related issues like transparency effects, high GPU usage, and video decoding causing system-wide lag. None of these felt unsolvable, but they did highlight how Garuda’s aggressive defaults can amplify hardware quirks ❌. Once adjusted, the system became stable and usable. What really balances this out is the community. The Garuda community is fast, helpful, and pragmatic. Installation and hardware issues are taken seriously, and responses tend to be actionable rather than dismissive. In my opinion, Garuda is best for users who want Arch power with guidance, performance tuning, and a clear desktop choice, and who are comfortable doing a bit of hands-on fixing when needed (like any Linux distro). Was this review helpful? Yes No See all 284 reader reviews of Garuda Linux...