FB Posting on Oct 15th 2023
This is probably THE longest FB post that I have ever done, but it is a highly significant one for me as for so, so many years I have searched and longed for, the perfectly balanced FOSS (Free Open Source Software) computing operating system that I can firmly put my belief and trust in its reliability, performance, availability and security aspect for my computing environment. Though I have dabbled in a number of linux distros in the past, my all time Linux favourite was Ubuntu and then some, for very special purposes eg. Kali, Qubes, Tails, etc. But there was something missing about Ubuntu in that it wasn’t convincing enough for me to put all my bets on it as a strong alternative over my Windows/Mac setup.
Then about a week ago, in my search to ‘finetune’ my dual Windows/Linux booting sequences for my laptop & desktop, I chanced upon this distro via one of my nightly Googling excursions – I truly believed I may have FINALLY found THE Linux distro to totally get rid of my dependence on Windows and Mac desktop boxes, forever.
The Linux distro that I am referring to is called Garuda Linux. It is a derivative of Arch Linux, founded by Shrinivas Vishnu Kumbhar, an engineer from India, and is maintained by developers from all over the world.
For years Linux has seen rather slow adoption by mainstream computing beginners due to a litany of concerns; ie. Steeper Learning Curve (mostly command-line interfaces – CLI vs GUI), Software Compatibility, Hardware Compatibility, Lack of Standardization. But times they are a-changing, a lot has happened since in the Linux community, in which many developers have been constantly building and challenging these concerns to break down these Linux adoption barriers by the mass public.
Garuda Linux has in my honest opinion, covered every nuance of my own needs and wants in a computing OS suited for both personal and work environments (for a slew of devices eg. desktops, laptops, bootable USB thumb-drives, external SSDs, etc) from the performance, security, availability and compatibility perspective on both software and hardware aspects.
On Performance: Its not exactly a lightweight OS, it uses vram and the Zen kernel, which is optimized for higher workloads, meaning it might not run that efficiently on lower-end systems, but if installed on a properly capable machine, it will just work flawlessly. The minimum memory requirement at this time of writing is set at 4GB RAM + 30GB storage. Unused RAM are used by performance tweaks that might increase RAM usage, but improve performance overall. I installed it with Xfce – it is a fast, stable, and a highly customizable lightweight Linux desktop environment. It features a modern and intuitive user interface similar to traditional desktop environments, making it an excellent choice for users new to Linux.
On Aesthetics: Garuda is an easy-to-use rolling Linux distribution that not only focuses on performance but also the way it looks, it is highly customizable with a wide variety of themes and other options to choose from and to personalize. So now not only does it perform great, but it looks awesome too!
On Applications: Fact, everyone here uses Microsoft Office be it the latest 365 or the old Microsoft Office 2007, so naturally its important that we can get our hands on alternatives that can read/write in MS Office-format documents. For Linux, we have the alternate option of WPS Office. It is an integrated office suite that combines the functionality of Word, PDF, Excel, PowerPoint, and other tools into one powerful toolkit. This suite enables file sharing, editing, and merging multiple files. While WPS Office provides compatibility with Microsoft Office formats, it may have limitations in terms of integration with other third party software compared to other commercial office suites, which to me is a totally acceptable limitation. Interestingly, there was a rating review that gave Microsoft 365 a rating of 4.6/5 stars with 4,976 reviews with WPS Office rating at 4.4/5 stars with 285 reviews.
On Availability: Besides the Arch official repositories, Garuda Linux has 2 extra repositories, the Chaotic AUR and Garuda Linux repository. Chaotic-AUR has precompiled software choices out there out of the box ie. emulators, kernels, games, themes and other commonly used tools – around 2400 packages. I found a number of opensource applications for all kinds of stuff – productivity tools, communications, social media, utilities, graphics/media works, video/audio editing, even 2D/3D CAD design apps to boot, its mind blowing.
On Gaming: Because it uses the Zen Kernel instead of the regular Linux kernel, gaming performance is excellent on proper tech specs and it comes with ZRAM enabled by default. Now there are even proper opensource packages for your Nvidia graphic video boards too. If you’re looking for a gaming distro that’s highly customizable and easy to use, you can’t go wrong with Garuda Linux. What’s more, as my gaming activities has been somewhat whittled down to my one single Steam account, by installing a native Steam package from the AUR repository (Arch User Repository – one of its many opensource linux repositories that one can get free software applications from the Internet), I can easily install my Steam app package, login to my account and play my games on Steam.
On Security: Garuda creates a snapshot of your system every time you update that you can easily restore in the case of a catastrophic upgrade. Combine that with regular backups of personal files, and you will have an operating system that you can rely on for daily use and for the latest software. The OS filesystem is BTRFS; a modern, Copy-on-Write (CoW) filesystem for Linux, focusing on fault tolerance, repair and easy administration, with automatic snapshots configured right out of the box! (Woarrr..). Garuda is as much secure and privacy respecting as vanilla-based Arch Linux in general, which is also demonstrated by its default browser, Firedragon. For me, my preference is to use and rely on my secure-configured Firefox, Brave and Tor browsers to manage my online tasks and activities. Additionally in Linux, only local files and programs of users will be affected, as the normal user will not have access permission to all the files in the system. This leads to a reduced vulnerability effect of viruses and malware spreading into systems with Linux. As Linux users don’t have default root access, thus it is difficult to cause damage on the operating system. Linux by default, is developed in a highly process-oriented and engineered-process manner by opensource developer communities. The whole source code behind Linux is maintained by subsystem maintainers, in which each and every change is reviewed thoroughly. Thus, it is truly secured by design.
Incidentally, there is also a Linux OS hardening setup package option from AUR that one can download and apply to Garuda Linux.
Right, so what are the cons to Garuda Linux?
Cons: Smaller community: As a new Linux distribution that was initially released back in March 2020, Garuda Linux has a smaller community compared to some of the more established distributions. This could make it harder to find help or resources when you need it.
But as I have surmised, it has so far met with nearly all of my software needs, enough to make me productive to a point of not having to go back to Windows / Mac environment. Ever.