All Linux distributions carry some features of their own and that is what sets them apart from others. Endeavor OS is a unique Linux distribution based on Arch Linux. Endeavor OS is a simpler version of Arch Linux where you can use an arch-based Linux system without any complications.

Archlinux is one of the most popular GNU/Linux Operating systems that helps the user to create their PC the way they want, from the beginning of the installation it gives you the choice to select specific drivers, features, and applications as per your need and nothing else. All the software and the hardware that can be used are customizable.

Arch’s lightweight and minimalistic nature is the prime reason for its rising popularity in the tech community. Like other’s Arch, Linux doesn’t bring any preinstalled deamon or services when you install for the first time, It only installed the packages and services you choose for your need, and the rest of the systems are pretty clean. You can learn more about Arch Linux here.

However, Archlinux becomes a bit trickier during installation; due to all the customizations that needed to be done, especially when all those are to be done using the terminal commands. Terminal commands and some settings are known better by advanced Linux users. So, ArchLinux is generally not recommended for beginners.

That’s why the developers have created Endeavor OS with all those new Linux users in mind, which is easy to install and anyone can use it. Everything here is described graphically which makes it extremely user-friendly. Endeavour OS provides its GUI-based customization options. This will help both novice and advanced users to set up Archlinux in an easy way.

A brief history of Endeavour OS:

Endeavor Os, however, is not very old. It first debuted in 2019 and gained popularity in a very short time. Endeavor OS is the successor to Antergos which is another Linux-based distribution that was discontinued in 2019.

Antergos is a discontinued Arch-based Linux distribution. The default desktop environment here is GNOME but you can employ other desktop environments here like Cinnamon, MATE, KDE Plasma 5, Deepin, and Xfce.

The Galician word Antergos means ancestors who are chosen “to link the past with the present”. It was first released in July 2012 as Cinnarch and by June 2013 it was ranked among the top 40 most popular Linux distributions.

Due to the lack of time, the developers shut down the development but luckily a new group is coming up and continued the project and they named it Endeavour OS.

“Bryan Poerwoatmodjo” an Antergos moderator introduced an idea at a conference to develop a new system community to create a system that can replace Antergos.

Within a week other developers Johannes Kamprad, Fernando Omiechuk Frozi, and Manuel joined Bryan and discuss everything with the community and new development was begin with a new team.

Initially, they were working on a system called Antergos net-installer Cnchi but due to some technical glitches, it didn’t work out so they’re looking for a replacement for Cnchi and found Calamares. It’s a free and open-source system installer for the Linux operating system and has the same GUI support.

Now the team is working freely to create an open-source distribution and wanted to minimize the complexity of Arch Linux at the same time. Finally, they were able to create a GUI-based simplified version of Arch and in July 2019 they came up with the first-ever developer version of Endeavour OS.

Immediately the whole Linux community greeted them with love and Endeavour OS is become so popular in the Arch-based distribution.  After that, they started working on a net installer to give users various desktop environments. Moreover, users can also choose driver packages while installing the operating system.

Currently, they started to name their releases and the most recent version was EndeavourOS Atlantis neo-21.5  It’s a rolling release and combined with offline and online installers.

Hardware requirements to install Endeavour OS:

AS the EndeavourOS is all about different desktop environments and to install and run them smoothly you need sufficient RAM but for the default, Claamares desktop based on Xfce and other lightweight environments like LXQT, MATE, and i3 will run on lower configurations.

For Xfce, LXQT, MATE, i3 desktops:

• With at least 2 GB of RAM and 32 GB of internal storage, and a 64-bit compatible processor, access to the internet is optional for the offline installer but required in online mode.

For Cinnamon, KDE, Gnome, Budgie, and Deepin environments:

• 4 GB of RAM, Intel i3 or AMD ryzen 4-5 type 64-bit processor, SSD minimum 32GB, active internet connection for additional package download.

Top Features of Endeavour OS:

One of the biggest reasons you should consider Endeavour OS is the user interface choice. It gives you all the desktop environments in their vanilla flavor. You can’t do this on every Linux distribution.

All the desktop environments are provided in their stock form without any theming or modifications. Only the Xfce desktop comes with some theming. We also like to have this theme on all the other desktops too.

Here you have all the various tasks after installation and we recommend you to go through everyone they all are needed to build a solid base for your Endeavour OS.

Update Mirror:
If you want to update mirrors, then select the first option; the following window will appear on the screen.

Change Display manager:
If you’re not satisfied with the display settings then you have different options here to choose from.

Update Systems:

you can update your system with the latest version by clicking on this icon directly.

Xfce EndeavourOS Default Theme:

Here you have different theme options as well which will give you various looks and feel. If you want to switch from the Xfce theme to the EndeavourOS default theme, just hit the “Xfce EndeavourOS default theme” from the EndeavourOS main menu.

Add more apps:

From this welcome window, you can install or add more apps needed for your system. Just click on the add more apps and you have LibreOffice fresh, chromium, Bluetooth Blueberry or Blueman, Browsw AUR, or Arch packages options directly.

Additionally, If you click on the “EndeavourOS” icon located at the screen’s bottom-left corner, a launchpad of applications will appear similar to the Windows Start menu. Here you find all your favorite and recently used applications and all the accessories, development, multimedia, graphics, internet, settings, and system-related apps.

Although Endeavour OS is very minimalistic and you just have one or two apps preinstalled here like Firefox, Galculator, Thunar file manager, Icon browser, Ristretto image viewer, and others.

Desktop Environments:

GNOME and KDE both have pushed major updates recently and Arch Linux has brought both the updates to its users. And consequently, Endeavour OS gets them too.

GNOME 40:

Starting with GNOME, we get the latest GNOME 40 here which is entirely redesigned from the ground up. We get a new layout, new activities overview, an altered dock, and a whole new application grid. The desktop looks clean and the new GNOM 40 is pretty easy to use.

Now, with integrated workspaces and activities overview, there is a certain mechanism to use the new gnome. And the application grid is completely customizable too. These improvements are going to enhance your productivity on GNOME.

KDE Plasma:

Moving on to KDE Plasma, here too we see huge changes. We get Plasma 5.21 here. This is a major version bump from 5.20, bringing a completely reimagined menu and some important changes to the desktop.

Plasma on Endeavour OS is polished and stunningly beautiful as always. We get a new menu here which ditches the old bottom tabs and boosts a new layout entirely.

Firstly, this looks good on the eye. The subtle divisions and organized categories are pretty nice. We don’t think it’d take me more than a couple of days to get used to this

Another change that we appreciate is the polishing up of the top panel in applications. Previously, the title bar felt so out of place and disconnected in some applications because of the contrasting colors between the title bar and other bars at the top here. That has been fixed.

Plasma is a dazzling desktop that’s also super efficient with the resources. Additionally, Cinnamon, Mate, Budgie, and a few more desktop environments are available here.

ARM Support:

The latest release of Endeavour OS now can hold up ARM Support. It is an essential addition because ARM devices are light-weighted and utilize less power than x86 computers.

Nvidia Drivers support:

The Endeavour OS has pre-installed Nvidia drivers into its kernel so during installation it gets the drivers and installs them automatically saving lots of your time and headache.

Wide range of Packages:

Initially, the developers decided to use  Arch-based repositories for all the software packages. So, you can get the latest software packages directly on stream, and they are easy to maintain.

Like Apt and Debian package management tools used by Ubuntu Linux distributions and its derivatives, the Pacman is an Arch package management tool used to install and manage Endeavour operating system software. This helps you to install, update, search and remove packages like an APT manager.

Live Environments of Atlantis Neo 21.5:

Endeavour OS is a rolling release Linux distribution based on Arch Linux. EndeavourOS offers both off-line and online install options. The offline installer, Calamares, uses the Xfce desktop by default.

The offline option installs a fully themed Xfce and the online option provides you with the choice of seven different Desktop Environments Xfce, Mate, LXQt, LXDE, Cinnamon, Plasma, Gnome, Budgie, window manager Openbox, and tiling window managers i3-WM, BSPWM, Sway, and Qtile.

The live environment and the Xfce offline edition are shipping with…

Calamares 3.2.49.1

Calamares is an installer framework. By design, it is very customizable, to satisfy a wide variety of needs and use cases. Calamares aims to be easy, usable & beautiful while remaining independent of any particular Linux distribution.

Firefox 95.0.1

It’s a free and open-source web browser developed by Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. Firefox uses a Gecko rendering engine( A technique to convert HTML documents into a human interactive visual representation format) to display webpages in the browser.

Linux kernel 5.15.8

New OS features the latest Linux kernel version 5.15.8 and the latest NVIDIA drivers for better compatibility with newer hardware. The new kernel policy gives users a better stable system and only improves their hardware performance.

Mesa 21.3.1

Mesa, also calledMesa3D and The Mesa 3D Graphics Library is an open-source software implementation of OpenGL, Vulkan, and other graphics API specifications. Mesa translates these specifications to vendor-specific graphics hardware drivers.

Nvidia-dkms 495.46

NVIDIAbinary kernel module DKMS source. The NVIDIA binary driver provides optimized hardware acceleration of OpenGL/GLX/EGL/GLES applications via a direct-rendering X Server for graphics cards using NVIDIA chipsets.

Performance of Endeavour OS:

Arch-based distros are known to be on the faster side as far as performance is concerned. Endeavour OS is no exception and is responsive.

The default Endeavour installation is very lean and doesn’t come with any additional software. It stays true to the Arch principle of keeping it simple and letting the users worry about installing the software they need.

So out of the box, Endeavour OS is bloat-free. Compared to Windows 10, Endeavour feels more responsive to day-to-day tasks. App opening and switching are fluid here.

And Xfce desktop gives you a truly nimble experience and it looks good on Endeavour too, so if you want a performance-driven system, Endeavour OS+ Xfce is pure gold. The performance is good on gaming and other heavier tasks too.

Installation of Endeavour OS Atlantis Neo 21.5:

Endeavour OS ships with Calmares installer, which is one of the simplest and fastest Linux installers out there. Installing the OS takes around 15 to 20 minutes and the whole process is very beginner-friendly and easy to understand.

Endeavour OS also offers an option to install it without an internet connection, which is a rare thing in Arch-based distros. This is convenient for people with slow or unreliable internet connections.

If you choose the offline installation then you don’t get the other desktop environments and features by default Xfce will be installed For people with NVIDIA GPUs, you need to live boot with proprietary drivers and it will automatically install the latest NVIDIA drivers.

• Getting started with Endeavour is simple. Go over to endeavouros.com or Click here to download the ISO file.
• Flash the ISO onto a USB stick using Rufus then live boot using it and here you have the option to install Endeavour OS by default or you can try Endeavour OS if you want.
• The installation process is very simple and all the steps are very beginner-friendly. OS will be installed in around 15 to 20 minutes.
• With Endeavour GPU drivers will be already installed so you don’t need to mess around with them and if you have an Nvidia graphics card then you have to choose the second option during installation.
• First, you have to connect with your internet to install online and then click on start the installer, but you can choose the offline mode if you want to install the default Calamases Xfce desktop.
• When you click on the online installation then the process begins all the steps are well organized and you just have to choose one by one.
• After the Welcome screen you have to choose the location, keyboard for your preference, then select the disk, and either you need a fresh install or install Endeavour OS with another OS.
• Now the most important part here you have all the different desktop environments to choose from. Choose according to your need from Cinnamon, Mate, Xfce, KDE, GNOME, i3, Budgie, LXQT, LXDE, and other additional support.
• In the last step choose the Username/password and check in the summary of whatever you selected so far then click on next and choose to install and relax.
• Wait for the installation process to finish and then restart your machine after the reboot type your password now you have a brand new Endeavour desktop.

Below are some pictures of the installation process that might help…

Conclusion:

Endeavour OS is based on Arch Linux so it gets all the advantages of Arch like the newest of all the tech, vast software repositories, and new applications and hardware support. Arch Linux is a rolling release distribution that brings the latest stable releases of all the software to its users before any other Linux distro.

Endeavour OS inherits all these advantages from Arch Linux and unlike Arch, Endeavour OS is very easy to install and get started. All these new packages, advanced features, and routine updates do bring up some questions about the OS’s stability, but so far we don’t encounter any major issues.

Endeavour OS is a suitable computing system for students, software developers, and other day-to-day usages. It’s fresh and you’re getting a clean system. If you have been using a Linux distro for some time now and want to try out some more advanced distros, Endeavour OS is going to be a fantastic choice.

For people who have switched to Linux recently and have familiarized themselves with the basic workings of desktop Linux, Endeavour will provide the perfect next step. Because of the huge Arch software pool and Arch User repositories, Endeavour can be used as a starting base and build a system that is highly personalized for your work and style.

Endeavour OS does not come with a lot of software pre-installed. So you’ll sort of have to build it. And when you have to personalize a system to this degree, every installation becomes truly unique.