Bootloaders and Display Managers

If you launch a computer there's a little loading screen and then a log-in. Obviously Linux is no different and there's some options that all just do slightly different things.

The Bootloader

The bootloader is the first of the two. It's the loading screen that you see as your turn your computer on. Linux knows that you're likely dual-booting or that there's maybe things you want to do before loading in so bootloaders just let you extend functionality.

There's really just three that you need to think about.

Grub/Grub2

• The oldest bootloader
• Fast
• Reliable
• Has tons of themes (bootloaders can be customized and customizing Linux as a whole is referred to as ricing take obviously from the car community)

Limine

Think of Limine as a kind of suped-up Grub. It lets you do all the usual stuff like picking what OS to boot into or go into your BIOS (also known as UEFI settings) but also is built to integrate directly into Btrfs. What does this mean? That if you ever break something and want to quickly fix your computer by having both Btrfs and Limine installed you'll actually see all you most recent snapshots in a list that you can then pick from and quickly boot into. It's hard to understate how powerful this is and how many situations this could help alleviate which is why I recommend that anyone using Linux use Limine. It's the best choice hands down.

SystemD

If you've read the section on init systems you're probably wondering why SystemD is here. The reason being that SystemD also came with a bootloader when it was created. It's fast because it's essentially just a sprawling wall of text telling you that your computer and it's services are turning on but for a little extra speed you lose the ability to pick what OS to boot into, to boot into your BIOS, and the ability to boot from a snapshot.

Display Managers

Display managers are just the screen that you see when you first log-on. They're all functionally the same and they're determined more by DE's than anything else so they're mostly an after thought. they can be changed but it's recommended you use the one paired with your DE. They can be customized to varying degrees based on what the DE actually allows so if you want to customize heavily it's recommended you read into the general process for tweaking first.