Hello!
Some history/context:
I'm an 18-year-old Linux user from Argentina, that made the switch to Linux out of pleasure (also because of more security/privacy) a year ago. I previously used Linux (lubuntu) for some months out of necessity to revive an older but wonderful Toshiba Satelite from 2008, really great machine (the keyboard was the best I tried and the amount of ports was so cool.)
The past year i was gifted a more powerful laptop (Asus vivobook 14) and i really disliked everything about it's OS, Windows 10 (Chinese rip-off Toy UI, spyware, display bugs, all kinds of annoying notifications).
So i decided to switch. I spend most time on Kubuntu, but really grew tired of it and i started to distrohop (tried out practically everything) and im pretty certain Garuda is the new home.
Praise time!
Garuda is one of the most polished and powerful distros I ever tried (on par with openSUSE and Linux Mint).
Garuda is really straightforward, i can manage all of my system from Garuda Welcome, the performance is great with the zen kernel and having the btrfs file system so nicely integrated really assures me that it's going to work reliably.
Garuda team, you really did a great job at putting together a lot of great Linux features in a harmonious and easy to use way, that also teaches the user about Linux.
It really helps to keep my sanity, it's not fun to fight fedora to get some kind of decent GUI snapshots going (the fedora team did an awful job at implementing btrfs).
Using Garuda Cinnamon right now! Definitely will stick around here, this forum has that older internet's cozy feel.
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High praise, and welcome to the Garuda community.
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Great choice of distro. Welcome.
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If you enjoy the snappiness of Zen, then may I recommend giving the bore kernel a run? I feel like I have to recommend this to everyone because barely anyone knows or uses it lol. Regardless, welcome to the community! Nice to see someone closer to my age as a lot of people like tbg are a lot older than me and scared of social media
I'm 21 btw and been using Linux since I was 16 or 17 on and off. Started on Mint originally and I agree with everything you said about Garuda.
After a read, the bore kernel seems like a very good option, im going to test it and see if performance/batterylife changes (my amd cpu is supported by the new driver, i thought was already enabled and was disappointed lol)
GitHub - CachyOS/linux-cachyos: Archlinux Kernel based on different schedulers and some other performance improvements. (aur says that's the upstream url)
It is weird to see few people of our age group, as we were the first born with high power computers on almost every shape.
Older people do have a point in being cautious with social media, there are internal studies from facebook (lol) that list a huge amount of mental issues that come from prolonged use.
Thanks all for the welcomes 
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I’m not scared of it, I simply detest what it stands for, and it’s invasive nature. Kind of like some creepy dude peering through your curtains at night in a raincoat. No friggin Alexa for me either, or TV’s with voice control. Not going to happen, unugh, no way. 
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Yeah just felt like taking a dig cause I'm bored haha
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TV's with voice control? What have they done...
They can know your darkest secrets and use it to ransom you (both producers of the tech and intruders), imagine it gets out that you like hot ice cream, absolute doom.
Ice cream jokes aside (i know you like hot ice cream, i hacked the Amazon robodog of your neighbor, it doesn't lie), i completely agree with you.
Once companies start to get more creative with ways to spy, it's going to get really bad.
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Yeah Bore is a great kernel, if you like snappiness then it beats out Zen by a clear mile really. Just a recommendation though if you got time and like playing around with all that. And yeah it's definitely a different experience growing up with all this haha. My grandad is a smart guy and knows languages like cobalt but still calls me up when he needs help with his firestick. Oh and btw I detest social media too I just felt like being a dick. Only have Facebook because messenger. Well I have WhatsApp and telegram but not sure they count. Tiktok though makes me hate humanity however. Anyway have fun with Garuda lol, lots to do and see and learn. Got some awesome defaults like the snappiness value, zram and the aliases are worth a look at.
What's the phrase I've been hearing? That tech enthusiasts want smart homes and devices but cyber security experts will shoot the microwave if it acts out of place? Something like that haha. I don't trust smart devices but at the end of the day I ain't got anything to hide or that I mind sharing. There is a balance though I would like. Even my TV remote has Google assistant and Alexa built-in.
I wanted the best TV so again it's one of those things you have to settle for sometimes when you want a certain product. It is a smart TV though so of course it'll have voice assistants in the TV remote or TV itself. Just a balance of convenience and privacy again.
Are you also one of those guys that has to shave every millisecond possible off their boot time as well?
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Hey how's that related haha. But nah I'm not that crazy. I did disable some network service though because it's more for servers than desktop's but that's basically it.
NetworkManager-wait-online.service
This thing
You should have disabled a full 50% of your services. Your computer will start in half the time. Of course your computer will also be half borked. But hey, think of all the extra seconds you could add to your life time. 
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Never seen a forum transform into a chatroom, is the Garuda discord active?
It's really hard not to use social media, in my case we use Facebook Marketplace as a secondary way to make money and there's no good alternative.
Peer pressure is really tough, it gets to you. WhatsApp is Messenger 2 (also owned by Facebook).
Maybe you could try to remove the TV's microphone and keep it disconnected from internet (or even put linux on it, idk if possible.
A good thing about Arch distros is that testing things is easier, the AUR really helps and the chaotic AUR is great, and if something due to the testing sticks, updating is a fast process.
I heard that advanced thinkerers, that remove X and Wayland due to being bloated, use a thing called Void Linux, but mainly because it makes them feel empty inside 
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Lol I hear you. I just did what systemd blame said based on the most boot time and checked to see if it's safe to disable. Honestly I'm scared to poke around in the root directory incase I break something but then I remember we have snapshots so I say screw it
I do occasionally use the microphone to be honest when my phone isn't near so I can check the time or something. And yeah the discord I think is active although I joined but haven't really used it. I have an LG TV so it's pretty locked down anyway but it has a nice oled. I assume you're running x11 on your system but wayland really is good although a little buggy at time's. Depends also on if you have Nvidia or AMD card. And I hadn't heard much before about them being bloated in those terms but if you're worried about bloat then Garuda isn't exactly light if you use the dragonised build haha. Heard of void but not used it. Seems interesting though. Conversations should probably move to discord anyway from now on as this is just meant as an introduction. Couldn't help myself though as I needed an excuse to have a break from my boxing.
Generally we're not totally against OT banter on the forum, (as long as it's not on unresolved help threads). On help requests it's not a good idea, but in the community sub-forum it's just fine.
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Makes sense, imagine talking about puppies while a guy's pc is on fire.
Unfortunately, Cinnamon doesn't support Wayland for now (even mate has better support), but when on Gnome/KDE i use it as much as i can.
The Dragonized build manages to lag on my system on some animations.
Void is a rolling distro, the main difference I see is that it uses a different init system (systemd alternative) but I don't really know what else.
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