I did install Garuda twice: The first time as I did register to the forum and write my presentation and i did not have luck: It did not start. And today after reading the announcement at distrowatch.com.
And today I discover this really fantastic distribution! It works fine and I am using it now.
I did install the version with the cinnamon environment as NEMO is my absoluterly prefered file AND TREE manager!
The installation would be very fast and your reach your objective with precision help by the 2 stage of offered post=installation.
The only one matter being unpleasant for me is were the snapshot I did not know how to make later as I did not have so much time to spend to the installation today morning.
The software I did already meet (I did not use all parts, of course!) is absolutely fresh and seems to work perfectly. The system is fast.
As I am absolutely newcomer in Arch derivates, I have probably to learn a lot before I can do all what I did do until now mainly in Debian derivates and ext4 systems...
Thank you very much to all the Garuda staff!
I goto Distrowatch all the time, sometimes expressly "to find a distro to test out." Boredom takes its victims. It's also handy when searching for Arch-based distributions when the Grand High Poohbahs of one chase me away to another.
Even when that's not the case, anything that devotes itself to Linux is just fine by me.
I would have to give the distro a solid 9/10 I love it and was using it for quite a while on my desktop. That being said, at the same time I was also using Endeavour on my laptop and kinda ended up liking it a little bit better. It was nothing that Garuda did wrong, but rather what they did right. I like that during the install I could deselect packages if I didn't want them to be installed out of the box. I get why that isn't the case for Garuda as it is trying to do something different, and I am ok with that. If it means anything I still like participating on the forum, and I use some bits and pieces from Garuda on Endeavour (like btrfs-assistant, and chaotic-aur)
Things I like about Garuda though are several of the out-of-the-box decisions such as btrfs, snapper, chaotic-aur, fish, and micro. I wasn't a big fan of firedragon (but in that same vein I have grown to not like Firefox at all) and I wasn't that big of a fan of the zen kernel only because it messed up an update on me once which never happened to me with the regular arch Linux kernel.
I just finished reading through this thread. There are some opinionated folks around here to say the least.
My distaste for DistroWatch dilutes my interest in going over and leaving a review. Any respectable distro though will serve a limited number of people's needs well, and Garuda does that for me. I like many of the defaults, and it has a pleasant level of automation while leaving me free and capable of doing what I want with it. Other distros serve others' needs better, and that's fine.
I'm not a developer, but I'd like to contribute where possible, to give back in return for the nearly one year I've spent benefiting from the project. Docs or copywriting would be the extent of it.
Very. Most problems have been because of myself.
Though, I have managed very well, I think!
If there would not be problems with multiplayer games (not Linux or Garuda thing), I would most probably leave the whole Windows egosystem behind...
Anyway, KDE Dragonized has been serving me well and now using LXQT-version on my old T61. Had to take out most of the animations etc.
But now it seems to be more useable.
Excellent work, do continue Garuda Team!
And I would really like to be able to buy mugs, sweaters etc. for support!
That’s a great idea!! I would buy a bunch too! If they were ever made…
On a scale of 0 to 10 I would say 7 out of 10. I agree with the first few posts which said that Garuda is bloated, at least the Gaming edition is. I'm fairly new to Garuda, but I have little experience with Ubuntu/MATE and Lubuntu, I spent quite some time to uninstall some of the preinstalled games and apps. Things like Telegram and NextCloud I don't use at all. You can't remove any of these with the Garuda Gamer/Setup Assistant screen, some of them you can remove with Discover. While other games like mariO and Frozen Bubble isn't even listed on Discover, I had to remove these with Octopi.
One post in the beginning says that Garuda is resource heavy? Well, so is Windows 10/11. Garuda Gaming Editon and Windows 10 (I had this installed before Garuda) uses the same amount of resources . The only difference is Garuda is faster. I enabled Swap during the installation, I'm not sure if that is a performance factor.
Everything else is fine. I got some Windows games installed on Heroic, some installed on Lutris, some installed on PlayOnLinux. I'm slowly going through my games to check whatever I can get working. I am fairly happy with Garuda.
Garuda made me leave the DistroHopping I started in GNU/Linux in late 2019 by 2020 at the beginning to try distributions to the madness some changed only the WallPaper others with configurations that seemed to me comfortable. But the first time I saw Garuda called my attention because it had its own repository and a file system new to me (BTRFS), at that time it had 8Gb of RAM and a hard drive, I found it extremely heavy but that's because I didn't understand how it worked. And once when installing for the second time I upgraded and I broke the system to upgrade but the Snapshot saved me but if I passed, and I realized that the system is so configured to be used Out the Box, because if you do an extra configuration such as installing the TLP broke me with the configuration Performace-Tweaks and uninstalling a program that was linked to other dependencies that depended on the configuration because I was breaking the system alone. At that time I think Garuda was less than a year old. But I opted for garuda at the end of 2020 by December and took it as my main OS but it is because I already had knowledge of server management, (Let's face it the more you learn in GNU/Linux you learn more server management you know your system and so on). I understood that BTRFS is a better file manager for me, that Arch as a base is very cool, that unused hardware is wasted and better control to build from scratch the configurations using your GitLab repos.
There is no one I am a student or computer student that we say why I really study ing. Chemistry. And they only teach us to use Excel with their office package, simulators, sequential programming and there. But with GNU/Linux in general I learned from calling my system to hack and as I opened the most, I realized what Huino is that Garuda is very active in Suto, I often see his configurations and new and new community.
In conclusion 2 years ago I would put Garuda 3/10 because I was a new user and I liked that my neofetch indicated that I started with <,500Mb of RAM and a beautiful wallpaper. And when I wanted to configure my desktop as an example to install another of how gnome with dragonizare plasma is a very bad idea if you do not do it, so when configuration for ootras ootras things by eujplo flus or flat planes.
Now I really go all 2021 and all 2022 so far and I give 9/10 and it is because the community has greatly improved, the maintainers including new tools for new users that are easy to handle suppository chaotic-aura aura aura aura aura aura aura aura aura aura aura aura aura aura aura aura aura aura aura aura aura aura aura aura aura aura aura Aura ara ara ares ares new Nuvos want to manage suppository chaotic-aura oura aura aura aura ara ara in.
POSDATA- Timement I am thinking of just installing a archbase and using only the necessary configades and software of Garuda. Unfortunately, my limited knowledge does not leave me as a handle but I try in my virtual machines, with this new version of Garuda Kde Lite it would be good to start corque the git the git and to the bad that produces a production can come out of a new error and sometimes not sometimes Do not reflect but for external things.
I am new to Garuda and as a Fedora user the first thing to hit me is how polished and smooth it is. I have only tried XFCE and no idea how the other DEs would work on my T440s with Intel i5 4210U. Weirdly everything just looks, works and feel better with Garuda compared to Fedora. I really like that they suggest useful software during initial setup. Time saver. I also use hibernate mode a lot and glad that it comes built in and it works fine. So yes I am quite baffled by the reviews you mentioned above. For me I am quite happy with Garuda so far and I give it 10. It has been able to handle to everything I throw at it.
Hi praise, considering you are comparing us against one of the largest and oldest distros out there (now owned by IBM).
Welcome to the Garuda community @ibenzawla.
Yes, hibernate mode is very useful. I use it often when I am doing homework and need to power my laptop for some time before returning back.
Welcome. @ibenzawla
It depends... how I would rate is based on two groupings so I'll have to give two ratings. This being based on the base Dr460nized edition.
For me: 9 - I tried a dozen of the top distros and this was the winner after testing for a month. Reason was it was the most complete to my taste and ready 'out of box'. It was also the one that felt the most 'zippy' and performed well for games with less fuss. (I also like the idea of default BTRFS, Zen Kernel, and ZRAM. (all those together 'out of box' being uncommon) Likely why it feels so 'zippy'.
Recommended to general users: 7 - Because of the nature of rolling release distros the rating has to take more of a negative impact. It's just the nature of the beast. Not because of quality or bugs so much as it's just plain easier to suddenly find yourself using a broke system or break it yourself vs an LTS release. I've even had some few issues with package management on this but those issues went away with the newer versions. (those people in those reviews were using older versions)
Another prime reason for lower rating is the inclusion of Latte, this really irks many general users that would prefer a more resource friendly default situation. (and to be honest I don't blame them... Latte has given me some theme headaches and is just plain wonky at times, but I sure like how it looks once I get it working... the way it merges with window titlebars is also cool; not sure if that's specific to Latte or not)
... and finally, tho it's why I like this distro... not sure I'd ever recommend a BTRFS, Zen Kernel, and ZRAM combo distro to a general user. (it's essentially a bit too 'bleeding edge' for most people)
Of course this being Linux, a user can adjust things how they want them after the install... but all the above relates to the review of the item 'as is' when you get it.
All in all, on a more personal review level... this distro has in fact become my primary driver to replace Windows on two systems here. (I dual boot on my third cause I still need Windows for some things.) I also have found that this distro is rock solid on installing and reinstalling... all various methods, drive locations, or types; on systems ranging in age from 2012 to present... not a single issue. Makes reinstalling in case of disaster easy as pie. (that's a big part of whether I like an operating system or not)
Anyways, hope this is helpful.
edit: For reference, don't read too much into the '7' rating... for me anything above a 6 means it's good and passed the test. (5 = 50/50 user call / 4 would = not recommended to anyone)
Hope you added this to distro watch
done 
--- "Thank you. Your rating has been submitted and will be reviewed for posting shortly."
Garuda is my first and only post on my new blog at the moment .
I like the style of your blog btw. The green colour really looks good and you got some cool older pictures of old machines there. Unrelated to your blog I know but figured I'd praise the layout haha
Thx @Grimy1928, it took me time to define the style I wanted but now I am satisfied with it and ready to publish more
I like your efforts as well. I noticed this on your blog:
there are some glitches, freezes or reboot needed from time to times
I have written a fairly comprehensive guide to help with those types of issues, (if you haven’t seen it yet):
Troubleshooting System Stutter, Lags, Freezes, and Hangs
I’m glad to see you are enjoying Garuda @KobraRocks . 
Seriously your Blog post is very well written and your web site style is amazing 
I am happy now. Reinstalled vanilla Dr460nized version, removed the Gaming Edition.
Things are more clean now, and boots faster. I broke Heroic Game Launcher, it only displayed the last few games. Everything else disappeared in the library, even the games that weren't installed. Minigalaxy did the same, only Lutris was working right.