1 year already… time flies as they say…
I remember when I was looking for a new Linux distro, coming from Arch, I was looking for an Arch based, KDE/Plasma, distro… no, not you Manjaro, and Garuda seemed a little to bloated.
So what do I like, and don’t like about EOS?
Well, first things first, I have to point out that those are my personal opinion, and that you may not like what I like, and vice-versa.
Secundo, to give some context, here’s the environnement where EOS runs at;
- External SSD (to boot on any PC)
- Nvidia GeForce 1650 Ti and AMD iGPU
- Linux zen with KDE/Plasma
What I like:
-
ARM support
While I’ve never tried to run EOS on an ARM device, (though, I have a PI4, so I could try), the fact that there’s even support is nice. -
Choice
The ability to chose one from many DE’s, install/remove packages before the installation. -
Welcome
The welcome app which is really neat for those new to Arch (and the OS). -
Bloat
Now, everyone has their own definition of bloat… especially in the Linux world, but the ability to remove “bloat” before the system install is great, and along with the default KDE app, there’s just some EOS tools, that’s it. -
Stability
I’ll talk more about it later, but I’ve reinstalled the OS only once, but almost twice, which I consider stable.
What I don’t like:
-
EOS choices
Now, I’m someone who doesn’t usualy read the documentation, and if I do, only between the lines, so blame it on me, but spending 15-30 minutes after the install to discover that Bluetooth has been disabled (not just not turned off)… but I do give the security concern a valid point. -
Nvidia
Ah yes… I know, the N- word company has a pretty bad reputation in the Linux world, but bear with me.
Now, I might have already asked this in the forum, and I don’t remember the installation process, but spending at least 1 hour figuring out how to use the Nvidia drivers, instead ofnouveau, setting up Optimus-manager, fiddling with dkms stuff… I wish there would be just a button to choose which driver we could choose… wdym this article exists? Of course I read trough it (I didn’t, and I should have) -
SMB
This might be a KDE/Plasma “bug”, but when accessing my network drive hosted on a Debian machine, it asks me for the credentials, I enter them, but then I have to re-enter it every X seconds, simply closing the login works though… -
Stability
So here we are again.
So, the system’s pretty stable… in general… sometimes, waking from sleep doesn’t work, so I need to force a shutdown (and weird behaviour when the lid’s closed, if I’m on battery, etc.).
And especially in games (that use the Nvidia card).
Games like Minecraft Dungeons, Phasmophobia, and Minecraft Shaders work fine, they freeze up my external displays, and sometimes, complete system freezes. Like yesterday, I had to reboot the laptop 7 times, because I dared to Alt+Tab, or tried to take a screenshot. This issue also happens when using the GPU in Blender (when rendering for example)
Playing without shaders (on MC), or playing on the iGPU doesn’t cause any issue afaik.
Final thought
So there you have it.
Despite some of the issues I explained above, I still like the OS, and I also recommend it to people that are experienced with Linux.
I hope you keep doing a great work EOS team!