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Review: Artix 20260419
Quoting: DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD. —
When I began using Artix, I had high hopes for the project. The combination of multiple desktops, multiple init implementations, a friendly system installer, and a lightning quick boot process seemed like an excellent combination. At first, it was; I greatly enjoyed the live desktop environment, the low resource usage, and the easy system installer. It is not often I run the Cinnamon desktop outside of the Linux Mint family, and I enjoyed how easy it was to use and configure. The Cinnamon settings panel is unusually well organized and flexible.
Gradually, little problems seeped into the experience. I ran into a dependency conflict with pacman, the Web application would open to a blank, white page if its tabs had been closed the previous time the browser was used (which was both jarring and unhelpful in terms of navigation), and audio failed to work on my laptop. The default Artix platform is quite light, but the trade off is that it doesn't do much either, there aren't many applications included, which means we need to install several packages. This is a lengthy process when the distribution does not include a software centre. Though it happened only the once, it is never a fun time when the desktop stops responding and this tends to be rare in the Linux world.
On the whole, I think the audience for a project like Artix is probably small. It is geared to people who like Arch Linux and who are not afraid of using the command line, and who also would like to try different init systems. It seems to be for people who prefer efficiency of design over point-and-click conveniences and who like to build their systems from the foundation up, but who also want a graphical installer.
In short, I like the general design and idea of Artix. I like its lightweight nature and clean design. I like its flexibility. However, I am also aware that it may be more work and more focused on low-level technical details than some users (probably many users) are likely to want. It's worth a look, especially if you are curious about non-systemd init software, but prepared for the occasional bump in the road.