Its been the only distro in 20 years to survive the "coming back to gentoo". Meaning, I love distro hopping and trying different distros, but I always come back to gentoo. So far.... Garuda is still "default boot distro"
Also I really like the defaults/ideas that Garuda has as a distro. Its very similar to what I do myself.
Finally, I have trust on the Garuda team, and haven't had any issue with "specific garuda packages" or chaotic-aur generally.
Take a heart felt congratulations, you (the garuda team) should be proud of yourselves and your work !!
Here we go again, another lowball review on Distrowatch:
Version: 220329 Rating: 3 Date: 2022-04-13 Votes: 0 A very bloated distro.
Installs too much by default and later on bricked the OS because I was uninstalling pre-installed games. I personally don’t like when a distro installs so many applications with no option to change that but to remove all the applications manually. Outside of the extreme bloat, the distro is okay. The design is in my eyes the only reason to install it if you want something, that looks good out of the box. For me at some point it was too much and I am not even a “boomer”. I would recommend skipping this one though because other “just works” distos do what Garuda has but better.
I am done with this distro I have seen too much.
Funny how even after creating this thread none of the disgruntled users actually have the integrity to post here on our forum before scurrying off to Distrowatch to lambaste Garuda. How pathetic that these reviewers don’t have the nerve to post here, where their claims can actually be refuted.
Straight off to distrowatch to post a negative review where they know nobody can challenge their claims.
I'm not a beginner with Linux, I've experimented with Fedora, Debian and various other distros since my youth, however Garuda is my first Arch-based distro. Had some issues, of course, but these were mostly my own fault caused by my inexperience (had to reinstall two times ) and the support team here was always very helpful and kind.
In the end, I've bought second SSD for it. Can't get rid of Windows because of my work, but everything important to me (e-mails, PGP keys, SSH keys) is in Garuda.
Keep up the good work!
EDIT: Will definitely post this on Distrowatch, too.
These are toxic stupid linux elitists, who have just installed arch linux (may be through someone else’s script) and after watching wrong reviews from YT peoples they make dubious posts on garuda through other platforms
If no user in this forum is saying that garuda is too much bloat or really mention any problem like that ,then its clear that they are those toxic linux users who just want to be a part of the movement but don’t want to learn any technical skills
Personally i feel that their brains are bloat
And as much bloat that they can’t even learn something new
Garuda is still 7th in the Distrowatch TOP List.
Hence I wouldn’t bother. Being in the top 10 might attract haters and idiots in general. Maybe those are fanboys from any other distro. I wouldn’t even connect them to ArchLinux in general.
And according to some of those “reviews” I’d ask myself if they are even using any Distro LOL
I would recommend skipping this one though because other “just works” distos do what Garuda has but better.
This sentence makes no sense to me. I can tell you how often Ubuntu breaks after/during an upgrade. And it is considered a “Just works” distro and is even based on the super stable Debian Distro. Same with Mint (although it broke less often to me).
Garuda is Arch based and Arch is definately a Distro where you need to invest way more care to keep it running. Considering those points Garuda is: rolling release and super stable to me.
I had more issues with Ubuntu in the first weeks (and after every major upgrade) than I have with Garuda. Whether I like Garuda or not, those are the facts based on my experience.
EDIT: Just checked (out of curiosity) the Gentoo page of Distro watch. … yeah you’ll find idiots there as well. Just found one who might have compiled his stuff on a potato. Is talking about days of compilig. Gee, why do ppl run with Pentium III these days? Coppermine Core with 866Mhz!? Even the WebKit just needs about 30mins on my Ryzen 5800X. If you’re living in the pampas then you might have a longer download time
Experienced Linux users that understood how Arch works usually left stellar reviews of Garuda there in the past.
This is not entirely true, and a little dishonest. How do you know this? Data? Share please.
I have never left a review on Distrowatch, but I would also downvote because of the overall friction between myself and some of the core community members. There are better things to do like replying to hostile comments than downvoting on some nebulous website that I could care less about.
I picked Garuda because I don’t have the time for the hardcore experience of Arch, but I want the freedoms. I was hoping that the community would have this mantra, but this is not the case. This community is actually very much like the Arch community, which is counterintuitive; I would pick Arch if I wanted this kind of community not Garuda. Note that this doesn’t cover the entire community, I have had some really nice back-n-fourth with many of its core members.
Epos Vox a big YouTube also had problems in the Garuda community, and some of the members shunned him to Fedora. Jesus. How? Why?
I would have left a long time ago if it wasn’t for the amazing optimization of Garuda. I have even considered just dropping of, but it is just too hard. Sometimes I do get stuck, and I want to document my problems for everyone else. That inner itch of curiousity and sharing I guess.
Yes, we are a lot like Arch in that we expect users to do their homework.
This is a technical forum. We are here to provide technical assistance, not teach basic search skills. The user is expected to know how to use a search engine.
It is not an opinion. It is a fact. When you automate several parts of the Arch experience, you should expect users that are less experienced.
I don't know what technical means, but it has no inherent "do your homework" annotation. To say that we don't do our homework is also unfair, we are learning, it takes time. This harsh mentality doesn't help. It makes the experience worse.
People need to relax. This is Arch not the LHC in Cern, OK... We are not solving the worlds biggest problems, we are having fun and automating our digital lives.
I don't need a cozy envrionment. I don't need you to do anything for me. I can take your harshness, but that is me. Most people probably can't take it. That is probably why you get downvoted.
Sometimes harshness is good, I agree, but it can be too much for a beginner.
Distrowatch does not keep stats on reviews as they do with rankings. It is not a dishonest assessment in the least. This is a personal assessment from reading all the Garuda reviews since it was first listed on DW.
I was the one who initially got Garuda listed on Distrowatch, so I have been watching the Garuda reviews since day one (long before any YouTube faux experts started pumping up Garuda).
When Garuda was only mostly known by word of mouth or reviews on Linux news related websites we were rated close to 9/10 on DW. Ever since the YouTube pundits started steering users completely unfamiliar with Linux to Garuda our rating on DW has started to nosedive.
I’m not surprised really, because most people who have no understanding of how Linux works frankly aren’t ready for an Arch based distro. Newbs will be newbs, and Arch is hard. There is a steep learning curve that most fresh off the boat from Windows are simply not ready for.
Not that it matters necessarily, but figured I'd share how I first discovered Garuda. This YouTube video was on my recommended and I thought wow this looks pretty cool. Then I learnt about many things such as the defaults and update alias and Garuda assistant. That hooked me ever since. I did have a period (regrettably) where I broke Garuda due to partition table edits and I hadn't backed up my partition table (I do that now obviously because screw that mess) so I ended up on Windows 10 for a while. Eventually got around to reinstalling Garuda after uni work as Microsoft office is on Windows only unless you pay for crossover and I worry about compatibility. Since reinstalling Garuda however, I only used Windows for Office as I have a dual boot setup due to integrated graphics meaning VMs aren't exactly amazing on my hardware. What I'm trying to say though is that I love this distro and the ease of use of the update alias, the rsync command I have for backup's and some of the other defaults and programs like btrfs assistant. I did give a good review on Distrowatch although I can't find my review lol. Easily my favourite distribution though.
I can understand why some are put off from the community in a sense though, personally I've not been the nicest of people to people that don't Google or follow templates. I'm usually patient and suggest showing the garuda-inxi or to use Google while others can sometimes be a little bit meaner lol. But I understand the project to a sense that if you can't Google your problems, then wtf are you doing running an arch based distro? But I also get the point of view that Garuda makes Arch easy so that Linux newbs regrettably go with Garuda before something Ubuntu or Debian based like Mint. Regardless though, long story short, I fscking love Garuda and I hope it stays around for a long time.
Edit: Forgot to post the video URL of how I discovered Garuda. Here it is anyway.
