Garuda Linux

Garuda Linux is an Arch Linux-based, Linux distribution targeted towards gaming. It offers multiple desktop environments, but the KDE Plasma version is the default. The term Garuda, originating from Hinduism and Buddhism, is defined as a divine eagle-like sun bird and the king of birds.

Garuda Linux, being based on Arch Linux, features a rolling release update model using Pacman as its package manager.

History

Garuda Linux was released on 26 March 2020 by Shrinivas Vishnu Kumbhar, a university student from India and SGS from Germany.

Features

The operating system provides GUIs for all operations, instead of focusing on the command line like Arch Linux. Garuda Linux installation process is done with Calamares, a graphical installer. The bootloader used is GRUB. The distribution uses the btrfs file system by default which supports snapshots. The snapshots can be accessed from the bootloader and support compression. Garuda includes Manjaro's pamac GUI frontend for Pacman that allows for the installation of packages from pacman and Snap and Flatpak packages. Support for the AUR is provided by Chaotic-AUR. The command line can also be used. It also includes Garuda Settings Manager, a program for system settings such as the kernel, and Garuda Assistant for changing admin settings. The main theme of Garuda Linux is a custom KDE Plasma theme known as Dr460nized (dragonized) which resembles macOS.

Garuda Linux includes Garuda Gamer, a GUI offering easy installation of gaming related packages.

The rolling release model means system software components are updated during normal software updates, instead of a special software update having to be used.