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Garuda Linux, a user-friendly and gaming oriented GNU/Linux distribution based on Arch Linux, has a new ISO release that brings various improvements, new features, and updated components.
Garuda Linux 200831 is out now as the latest ISO snapshot of this rolling-release distribution for Linux gamers. You’ll find direct download links below if you just want to grab it and install it on your personal computer.
New features in this release include a revamped Welcome app with support for Adguard DNS, a new option for switching the GDM (GNOME Display Manager) login screen to Wayland, a new option to enable the HiDPI mode for 4K screens, as well as support for enabling and disabling the guest account.
The Network Assistant app has been improved as well in Garuda Linux 200831 and it now features buttons for restarting the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections, and supports detection of NetworkManager or Connman backends to allow you to start the networking service.
Another interesting addition is support for Snap and Flatpak apps. All editions support installation of Snap and Flatpak apps through the pamac-all GTK3 frontend for libalpm.
A little revamp of the look and feel doesn’t hurt anyone, so Garuda Linux now ships with a macOS Big Sur look-a-like theme called WhiteSur Dark, which is available for the KDE Plasma, GNOME and Xfce editions.
Other than that, the GNOME edition now comes with a simpler layout switcher, the Chaotic-AUR repo is now being used to automate the building of AUR (Arch User Repository) packages, Garuda-zsh-config now uses the Powerlevel10k theme, and Olivia music player is now being used in the KDE edition instead of VVAVE.
The GRUB bootloader now offers options to restart, shutdown, and setup UEFI firmware, and a new color scheme. Under the hood, Garuda Linux uses the latest Linux 5.8 kernel series, Mesa 20.1.6 graphics stack, and Nvidia 450.66 proprietary graphics driver.
Why use Garuda Linux for gaming? Because it offers easier installation for Linux newcomers who want to use Arch Linux but don’t want to go to all the trouble of installing it, comes with the Btrfs file system by default with Zstd compression and support for snapshots, uses the Zen Kernel, which is dubbed as the best Linux kernel possible for everyday systems, and promises all the tools needed for out-of-the-box Linux gaming.
Last updated 4 years ago
