Limine
Ranked 7 of 7 bootloaders by recommenders
Free bootloader that can boot into the last working btrfs snapshot, and is now the default in one installer. One critic reports a recent update broke Secure Boot signing.
Free bootloader that can boot into the last working btrfs snapshot, and is now the default in one installer. One critic reports a recent update broke Secure Boot signing.
6 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 83%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Rolls back to last working snapshot
“I chose to use Limine and btrfs so now if it gets borked by a bad package install/uninstall I can roll back pretty easily.”
Comment from 1 Jan 2026 in “Linux is good now; to feel like you actually own your PC, put Linux on it” “limine bootloader just lets you boot to the last working snapshot. Easy.”
Comment from 15 Sep 2026 in “Leaving Linux” Default in the installer
“love the fact that Limine is the default in the installer now”
Comment from 8 Feb 2026 in “CachyOS January 2026 Release”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
More complicated for users than GRUB
“continues getting more complicated for users than Grub”
Comment from 2 Jul 2026 in “Limine: Modern, secure, portable, multiprotocol bootloader and boot manager” Update broke Secure Boot signing
“Cachy pushed a Limine update last weekend without any testing. It broke everyone with secure boot signing.”
Comment from 8 Apr 2026 in “Veracrypt Project Update”
Other bootloaders people recommend
The four most recommended other bootloaders, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| systemd-boot | 14 | 0 | 100% | 7 | — | Approved |
| ZFSBootMenu | 13 | 2 | 87% | 8 | — | Approved |
| U-Boot | 9 | 3 | 75% | 5 | — | — |
| GNU GRUB | 9 | 24 | 27% | 5 | — | — |
| LimineThis page | 5 | 1 | 83% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
5 of the 6 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“limine bootloader just lets you boot to the last working snapshot. Easy.”
“continues getting more complicated for users than Grub”
“Cachy pushed a Limine update last weekend without any testing. It broke everyone with secure boot signing.”
“love the fact that Limine is the default in the installer now”
“I chose to use Limine and btrfs so now if it gets borked by a bad package install/uninstall I can roll back pretty easily.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.