Is Garuda Linux Good for Gaming? Find Out If It Is Right for You!

Okay, so I’ve been messing around with different Linux distros lately, trying to find the perfect one for gaming. I heard some good things about Garuda Linux, specifically this “Dragonized Gaming Edition” thing. So I decided to give it a whirl and see if it lived up to the hype.

First off, I grabbed the ISO for the Dragonized Gaming Edition from their website and burned it onto a USB drive. Booting it up, I was greeted with this super flashy, customized KDE Plasma desktop. It definitely had that “gamer” aesthetic going on, which I thought was pretty cool.

Installation was a breeze. Garuda uses this Calamares installer, which is pretty standard and easy to navigate. I chose the option for the gaming edition during the installation process, which saved me a bunch of time compared to setting things up manually. I liked that, it got me into the action faster. The installer even asked me what kind of desktop environment I wanted.

Once everything was installed and I rebooted, I started poking around. One of the first things I noticed was that Garuda comes with a ton of gaming-related apps pre-installed. Stuff like Steam, Lutris, and a bunch of other tools that I usually have to install myself. That was a nice touch, it saved me a bunch of hassle. I jumped right in and started installing some of my favorite games.

Performance-wise, I was pretty impressed. Games ran smoothly, and I didn’t experience any major issues. I know Garuda uses the Zen Kernel, which is supposed to be optimized for performance, and it definitely seemed like it was doing its job. They even have this BTRFS assistant thing, I guess that helps with the performance stuff too. Also, it has this “Pipewire” thing. I don’t even know what that is, but it came installed, so I guess it’s good for something.

One thing that really stood out to me was that it just worked out of the box. My Wi-Fi, my graphics drivers, everything just worked without me having to tinker around. I had tried some other distros before, and I always had to spend hours trying to get things like my Wi-Fi working properly. With Garuda, it was just plug and play. But I only did live USB testing. Maybe installing it is a different story, but I will try it sometime.

Some Downsides, Though

But it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. I did run into a few minor hiccups.

• For example, not every piece of software I wanted was available in Garuda’s repositories. I mean, they have a lot, but not everything. I had to do some digging to find certain programs, but I managed.
• Also, I get the feeling that Garuda is more geared towards people who are already somewhat familiar with Linux. If you’re a complete beginner, you might find it a bit overwhelming at first. I mean, I don’t really know what those “terminal” and “manpages” things are.

My Conclusion

Overall, I’d say Garuda Linux is a pretty solid choice for gaming. It’s got great out-of-the-box performance, a bunch of useful pre-installed tools, and it’s relatively easy to set up. Plus, it looks cool as heck. If you’re looking for a Linux distro that’s specifically designed with gaming in mind, Garuda is definitely worth checking out. But if you’re brand new to Linux, you might want to start with something a little more beginner-friendly. But hey, at least now I know there’s also this “Nobara Project” thing which is also optimized for gaming and based on Fedora. Maybe I will check it out later.

So, is Garuda Linux good for gaming? In my experience, yeah, it’s pretty darn good.