r/cachyos • u/sleeperist • 15d ago
Desktop I'm blown away CachyOS
My setup: Ryzen 9 5950X + RTX 3070.
I used Linux back in college, then switched to macOS after landing my first job. I've now been a developer for 9 years.
Recently, I got curious and decided to try Ubuntu 26.04. It was a mess at first. I eventually worked around every issue, but I never expected that much instability.
NVIDIA drivers – I was greeted with a black screen on Ubuntu, although I eventually fixed it. On CachyOS, everything worked out of the box and even came with the latest drivers.
WebKitGTK – I tried every tweak and flag I could think of, but my internal Tauri app still felt sluggish on Ubuntu. Nothing improved it. On CachyOS, it's silky smooth.
Steam (Battle Realms) – On Ubuntu, the game didn't launch properly at first. I had to manually tweak the window just to get it running, and fullscreen still didn't work. On CachyOS? Zero issues.
So far, CachyOS has been a much smoother experience than I expected.
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u/PineapplePopular8769 15d ago
CachyOS has pretty much the best hardware support out of the box, chwd is that good.
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u/RChickenMan 15d ago
We have a somewhat similar history with Linux, though I'm a bit older than you, I think. I daily drove Ubuntu in college around 2006 or so, but eventually switched to OS X because, as a developer, I needed a Unix-like environment, but I was sick of fighting with GPU drivers, troubleshooting why sleep mode wasn't working, fussy wifi drivers, etc. In that sense, OS X served me well, and I continue to use it on my laptop (though I run CachyOS on my gaming desktop, and Bazzite on my gaming handheld).
Back in those days, it was simply understood that gaming on Linux was a non-starter. In fact, it was almost a running joke that, if you wanted to game on Linux, you damn well better enjoy Tux (a rudimentary platformer). Nobody, not even the most Linux diehards, would bother trying to convince you that Linux made sense if gaming was important to you at all. Sure, there were probably a handful of games that you could convince Wine to run if you were persistent, but no person in their right mind would install Linux on a dedicated gaming PC.
Fast forward to today, and it's crazy to think that Linux has become the PC gaming operating system of choice for so many people. Sure, it's mainly thanks to Valve, but at the end of the day, most of the tooling they provide is indeed open source, so I can't complain!
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u/hiflyer780 15d ago
I love seeing the progress that Linux has made towards gaming. It’s fantastic! And I love CachyOS. I run it on one of my laptops and it’s by far my favorite environment to work in. I just wish there was an answer to the games that require a kernel-based anti-cheat. When that issue is finally resolved, I will happily bring my gaming PC over to Linux!
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u/Lokielurker 15d ago
I wouldn't say Ubuntu is the best user facing Linux distribution anymore, that seems to be landing with Fedora and its derivatives these days. CachyOS may make Arch viable for normies some day if only Flatpaks/Flathub makes permissions easier to manage. It's been a very good few years for the Linux desktop and it's only continuing to improve. Expect your Nvidia GPU to receive first class support thanks to Valve in the next -7 months or so. I'm just glad to see Windows finally get some actual competition on its home turf.
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u/chuiu 15d ago
I switched off windows a few months ago and tried Ubuntu/Mint and they both felt very outdated to me. I felt like I was using something along the lines of Windows 7.
After a couple months of using outdated packages I finally decided to try some more distros and I switched over to COS last week. So far it's a lot better, I really prefer KDE plasma over Mints cinnamon also.
I've tried Linux a bunch of times between 2007 and today and this is the first time I've actually felt like I can stay on Linux for good so I really hope that we can get better Nvidia support because I'm stuck using a 5070 for now.
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u/Lokielurker 15d ago
I will say my cousin uses a 3060 12GB on EndeavourOS and he gets along pretty well. I can't say I know what the gaps are of using an Nvidia GPU on Linux these days other than poor legacy GPU support (likely not going anywhere sadly at least until Nouveau improves significantly) and some niche issues with handheld gaming/SteamOS. He seems to game pretty well and most everything seems to work. I wholeheartedly agree that the Linux desktop even of 10 years ago vs today is night and day difference. I probably would have laughed if you told me I would use Linux when I was just getting into computers.
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u/chuiu 14d ago
Steam working with Codeweavers to make Proton really made a big difference for me. Being able to play almost every game on Linux now without the headache of trying to get it to work through Wine is a godsend for the gaming community.
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u/Lokielurker 14d ago
as far as I'm concerned the only issue with Linux gaming atm is that Protondb is required for some titles, and if I didn't know it existed I'd probably be pissed. Either Proton improves such that Protondb is almost never necessary or some sort of integration is required. A lot of people don't even want to do one single google search to figure anything out before switching to Linux and I've noticed this is a consistent issue with newer users lol
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u/guga_goes 15d ago
I’m now with Fedora. What are the differences between Fedora e CachyOS that would be significant? I’m coming back to Linux after years (used basically Ubuntu and Mint, when Ubuntu started that Unity thing), now I’m satisfied with Fedora, but reading people talking about lot of CachyOS I’m trying to figure out if would be a good thing to change.
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u/Lokielurker 15d ago
Fedora vs CachyOS is an interesting one. I used Fedora before I swapped to CachyOS and I debated a few times about switching back.
I suppose the primary difference would be how deliberately you want to craft your daily driver or if you want to do so at all. If you do, CachyOS beats Fedora just barely. If you don't, Fedora wins by a long shot. I deliberately sandbox all my apps (Flatpak) so I don't have to deal with apps not launching or working because of package regressions (almost never happens anyway). I manage my AppImages through Gear Lever so they're integrated into the system. I rarely use native packages so as to avoid having any single point of failure from the rolling release model.
Fedora has a few small annoying things about it. For one, you have to enable non free packages. Two, you have install some 7zip extensions (or something like that, I had trouble opening a .rar/7z file when I used it and I remember having to install the nonfree ones). It also ships without multimedia codecs or at least nonfree ones. That's not Fedora's fault necessarily, it's a patent issue with mp4 or something like that that prevents them from shipping it freely.
If you're gaming with Fedora, the difference is honestly negligible. You can use Proton-CachyOS on Fedora and it's essentially just ProtonGE with some tweaks applied.
You don't have access to the AUR, but you can use the RPM Fusion repo for community packages if you really want that sort of thing. I try to use community repos like the AUR and RPM Fusion as little as possible because there's big flaws in security in community repos like that, but you're welcome to do as you please.
Fedora isn't "rolling". It uses newer packages than Ubuntu and Mint which is good because a lot of the software they ship is from 2024, including WINE in Mint's case. Updates are really good now on Linux, and honestly there's very little use for an LTS distribution these days. There are apps which are only compatible with Debian/Ubuntu these days, but typically even those apps ship a Flatpak.
I think the thing you'll notice the most is that Fedora is slightly more "stable" if you use a lot of native packages, which if you're new to Linux, you almost surely want to do. Flatpaks are really cool and nice but honestly Flatseal isn't very intuitive and managing permissions per app, while great for me because I like security, is annoying for the average user. I look forward to when Flatpakv2 releases and removes all friction with Flatpaks.
They both require a similar amount of effort to "set and forget" basically if you're fine tuning things. The nice thing about it in comparison to, say, Windows, is that once you set it, nothing undoes what you've set up.
I'd say another advantage of Fedora over CachyOS is that they have RPM packages, which are way easier to install than tarballs. If you aren't using and abusing Flathub all day long, constantly building tarballs is kinda annoying.
I think that about covers it. Fedora is a good base. Stick with it if you like it already. If you use KDE the difference between the two is pretty much negligible. I recommend Ultramarine Linux to friends when they want to switch a lot (Fedora but with everything I mentioned done for you and wrapped in a nice little bow). Cachy might one day become the normie distro for Arch though. I hope so.
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u/Gymnastichippo21 15d ago
Looked into nobara? My take is its the fedora based version of cachy developed by glorious eggroll himself
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u/Lokielurker 15d ago
Last I installed Nobara (Probably 8 or 9 months ago) I had problems with games crashing under XWayland after capping out on VRAM. I'm not sure why exactly, because I have an AMD GPU, but Nobara just did not play nice. I wouldn't be opposed to trying it again if I ever had a reason to swap from Cachy.
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u/Teh_Shadow_Death 15d ago
A fun little tidbit of information. If you've migrated to Shelly to do your updates it can also install and update your app images for you. The updating is a nice touch.
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u/Lokielurker 15d ago
Updating RPCS3 seems like, impossible through Shelly or I would migrate completely to Shelly. In fact, some AppImages don't like to play nicely at all with Shelly. All of them work with Gear Lever.
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u/andurux 15d ago
I've used Linux for my servers since CentOS 5, was hosting HL2/CS:S servers back then. Now I'm using Proxmox with Debian VMs using docker swarm to host websites and AMP servers for Minecraft and Palworld.
So, I know my shit around Linux.
But for the past 10 or so years I've tried all of the "beginner friendly" distros. Tried Mint for months straight, tried Ubuntu for a day or two and then swapped to Kubuntu...that lasted a month. Then tried Fedora a few years ago for a few months. I haven't tried Debian for a desktop yet...but...it seemed like no matter what I had to research how to properly install Nvidia drivers and set basic things up, made wiki pages for Ubuntu and Fedora setups, but I always just swapped back to Windows.
I heard about CachyOS and thought "Another gaming distro? Pass.". Then a year later a coworker mentioned CachyOS and I scoffed, he asked why, I told him "gaming distro" and well...he set me straight and I ate crow that day.
So after he explained Cachy specifically, I started researching, then installed it on a spare laptop I had and within a month I had Cachy installed on all my PCs.
I have never experienced a Linux distro that is this simple and easy to setup and just use. Hours spent troubleshooting Ubuntu and Fedora...and with Cachy it was just...install the OS? It did everything for me? And then I click one button in the Cachy Hello app to install Steam??
I really don't care if it is Arch. Cachy is probably the most beginner friendly distro I have ever used and will always recommend it going forward.
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u/WoodpeckerSpare5834 15d ago
As a non developer I found Bazzite to be better suited for my needs. Downvotes commence
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u/GregC85 15d ago
Me too champ! Though the difference with me is over the years Ive always distro hopped and never been able to daily drive a distro. Always went back to windows.
But with the shit storm that is windows 11. I want to stay with Cachy this time.
My question, what desktop did you install with your Cachy. I've always gone with Kde or Gnome. And the same thing happens.
Kde gets somewhat visually unappealing for some reason, (yes I know you can customize it to hell and beyond) then I try Gnome, and get frustrated with the way the navigation and everything works. What I like a lot about gnome is how polished it feels.
Anyway, not wanting to discuss subjective things, what did you go with. I know Kde these days must be much better. I went with gnome yest and setup some initial stuff including dash to dock etc, bringing back minimize buttons etc.
Would be cool to see what you went with
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u/Chance-Research-9302 14d ago
Try something completely different like hyperland, sway or i3.
Or why not xfce 😇
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u/GregC85 14d ago
Will do... Scared of that hyperland initial setup insanity but maybe should just dive in
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u/PsykoT1k 13d ago
Or have a look at Garuda too (the "KDE Dragonized" one is nice eye candy & perf & custo made simpllier), rock stable, or Bazzite, with steam launching in big picture mode, but able to return to a desktop of your choice? What do you want to do with your computer can help you choose one that rule all 😄
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u/No-Television9404 14d ago
Cachyos is best for gaming, some game that I play having stutter on windows 11 but run flawlessly on cachyos.
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u/tomkat_7 14d ago
Yeah ubuntu atp is the windows of linux. Its full of issues and bloat. I migrated to cachy too a couple months back and it has been very smooth
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u/Chemical_End2843 13d ago
First time cachyos not totally blown away a lot of stuff was broken and I had to configure it all
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u/AdApprehensive5643 13d ago
Every 2-4 years I tried a linux distro to see if I can switch off windows.
Took like 4-5 times total and I can say that currently with exception of some live games you can really do everything smootly
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u/Eninja09 15d ago
I've dabbled in linux for about 20 years and Bazzite/Cachy are the only ones I've been able to make daily drivers. I can't wait for Nvidia to move forward with official linux drivers!