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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- EndeavorOS Ganymede is an Arch-based distribution.
- This take on Arch Linux offers a feature NVIDIA users will love.
- Ganymede can be installed and used for free.
Arch Linux is well known for being incredibly stable but also a bit too complex for the average bear. That’s why there are so many distributions that go a long way toward simplifying the Arch installation.
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One such Linux distribution is EndeavorOS. I’ve covered previous releases of EndeavorOS (such as Gemini) and found it to be beautiful, secure, stable, and reliable. The latest release, Ganymede, ups the ante on just about every front.
Especially graphics.
With the latest release, EndeavorOS has a very special trick up its sleeve.
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During OS installation, EndeavorOS Ganymede automatically detects the GPU on your system and installs the proper NVIDIA driver. This is a big step forward, as it means the user won’t have to install the necessary drivers to get the most out of the GPU. This, of course, only applies to NVIDIA graphics cards, which can be a bit trickier to deal with than those created by AMD.
Beyond that big-ticket item, what else is new?
You get kernel 6.17 (the latest stable release) and the latest version of KDE Plasma (6.5.3). You’ll also find that the built-in virtual keyboard (Maliit) has been replaced with the Qt 6 virtual keyboard (applies to KDE Plasma only). Other updates include:
- Mesa 25.2.7
- NVIDIA 580.105.08
- An improved Calamares installer
- Firefox 145
- brightnessctl replaces Xbacklight for the i3 desktop
With that said, I installed EndeavorOS Ganymede to see how it fared, and I was impressed.
First impressions
As per usual, the installation of EndeavorOS was point-and-click simple. A few quick clicks and typing out my name, username, and password, and the installation was off and running. Less than five minutes later, the OS was ready for me to log in.
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The first thing I noticed was the Welcome app (v25.11.1-1), which gives you quick access to all sorts of information, settings, tips, and more. From that app, I could easily update the native packages, change the display resolution, view logs for troubleshooting, catch up on some Arch news, browse applications for installation, and so much more.
The EndeavorOS Welcome app is quite welcome.
The EndeavorOS Welcome app should be a model for most Linux distributions.
Jack Wallen/ZDNET
I’ve grown accustomed to most Linux distributions shipping with dark themes, so one of the first things I always do is change to a light theme. Since I opted for the KDE Plasma desktop, this was very simple (System Settings > Colors & Themes > Global Theme).
When switching away from the default EndeavorOS theme, I was afraid I’d lose the elegant (and subtle) transparency found in the desktop menu and other bits. I was pleasantly surprised to see that effect transferred to the light theme.
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The next thing that caught my eye was the performance. I’ve grown accustomed to KDE Plasma outperforming many desktop environments, and EndeavorOS Ganymede goes a long way toward proving that point. Apps open instantly, animations are smooth, and windows move without jitter.
Speaking of apps, the one area where EndeavorOS Ganymede needs a bit of help is in the package manager GUI area. Out of the box, there is no GUI for installing applications, so I opted to install Octopi with the following command:
yay -S octopi
The installation isn’t exactly quick. Getting Octopi up and running takes a while and requires answering several questions and typing your user password a few times. The good news is that the above command is the only thing you need to run, and once Octopi is installed, you’ll have a much easier time adding applications to EndeavorOS.
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Octopi makes installing apps much easier on EndeavorOS.
Jack Wallen/ZDNET
Consider installing Octopi an absolute must.
One sharing caveat
One of the things I always test on Linux distributions is the ability to share files and folders over a LAN with Samba. To my surprise, Samba is broken in EndeavorOS Ganymede. I went through the usual steps to resolve the issues and had no luck. I purged the Samba install, reinstalled it, and still had no luck.
Turns out, the installation of Samba on EndeavorOS doesn’t include the smb.conf file, so you have to create one manually. After about thirty minutes of troubleshooting, I decided to give up on my effort to fix Samba and just claim it broken in EndeavorOS Ganymede.
In the end, if Samba is a must for you, I’d avoid Ganymede until the issue is resolved.
My conclusion
Other than Ganymede needing a package manager GUI and the Samba issue, I found the latest version of EndeavorOS to be a real treat to use. It’s fast, beautiful, stable, and relatively simple.
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More importantly, if you’ve found getting graphics working properly with Arch Linux and NVIDIA GPUs to be challenging, EndeavorOS Ganymede is a real game-changer.
If you’re interested in giving Ganymede a try, download an ISO, burn it to a USB drive, insert the drive into a spare machine, boot it, and install the latest version of EndeavorOS.