When comparing Windows 8.1 vs Garuda Linux, the Slant community recommends Garuda Linux for most people. In the question“What is the best laptop OS?” Garuda Linux is ranked 10th while Windows 8.1 is ranked 61st. The most important reason people chose Garuda Linux is:
Uses vram, and a zen kernel.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Hardware Compatibility
Windows has excellent x86-based compatibility, and has recently announced ARM compatibility as well.
Pro Familiar Windows Interface
As opposed to unfamiliar and purpose-built Linux distros, Windows still reigns supreme for sheer usability and ease of use.
Pro Customizable UI
There are many that can be used to customize the MetroTile screen and add custom tiles. Then, by adding custom tiles you can configure them to open any application or web page that you need. For example: Netflix, HBOGo or Steam.
Pro Super-fast
Uses vram, and a zen kernel.
Pro Themes
The dr460nized KDE theme is awesome.
Pro Easy entrance to Arch Linux
Filled to the brim with lots of quality-of-life changes and optimizations that are simple enough for long-time Windows, long-time Mac users, and Arch newbies to understand. Though, it also leads to bloat or not necessarily helpful extra software. If you're not into the "bloat" added in, try checking out the barebones version, you'll need to know a lot of things bout Arch to fully use barebones.
Pro Highly customized interface
You already have most of the customization done for you out of the box.
Pro Unused RAM is wasted RAM
It takes just a bit more RAM than Manjaro. Edit: This statement is only true if it helps the user and since this could be running on a low end machine this will not.
Cons
Con Expensive
You will need to purchase a Windows license.
Con Resource Intensive
In contrast to many dedicated solutions which can run on nearly anything, running a full Windows install requires decent hardware. This is not a lightweight solution.
Con Needs a lot of RAM
Minimum is 4GB, for most Linux distributions it's 2GB or less.