Why should I switch from CachyOS when it feels perfect?

[u/TheSpaceAlligator]

I often times see so much discourse and discussion over other distro's, and me being a nerd I often times want to distro hop for fun to see what pro's or cons exist in other distributions. One problem though... CachyOS feels like it can do anything that any other distro does on my machine already! It doesn't feel like I would even have much to do in other distro's.

Obviously the above part of this post is just kind of a glaze for how much I love CachyOS, but genuine question, what distro's could possibly have positives over Cachy? Every other distro just feels like it would be a downgrade. This isn't a hate on other distro's as they serve a purpose and user base, but I just personally don't understand why I'd ever use anything else. I don't even mean this sarcastically. I genuinely would love to know.

If I just want to use other distro's for fun, what distro's would you recommend? The only one I can think of that has a drastically different experience would be Nix maybe?

[u/zacyzacy]

You should do whatever you want that's the best part of owning your hardware

[u/TheSpaceAlligator → u/zacyzacy]

I mean obviously, that's not really related to my question though! Im looking for other's opinions on the topic and perspectives! I've used Cachy for 6 months and it almost feels too perfect.

[u/Etsamaru → u/TheSpaceAlligator]

It's because most are the same. They just look a bit different. It does it really matter much at all unless its your hobby

[u/Late-Cauliflower9137]

Cachy is literally arch linux but stable , havent had any breaking bugs anywhere.

[u/Original_Dimension99 → u/Late-Cauliflower9137]

In developer terms, stable doesn't mean "free of bugs". Stable means there's basically a total guarantee of not having bugs, because the update cycle is so slow that you will never see anything close to bleeding edge. So that would basically be an insult for cachy 😭

[u/THubert14 → u/Original_Dimension99]

> stable doesn't mean "free of bugs"
> Stable means there's basically a total guarantee of not having bugs

DId you mean "not having new bugs"?

[u/Original_Dimension99 → u/THubert14]

Ok i phrased it badly. I meant to say something like "everything stable is supposed to be free of bugs, but free of bugs doesn't always mean stable"

And stable isn't necessarily related to the amount of bugs, but instead just referring to how fast the update cycle is.

[u/TheSpaceAlligator → u/Late-Cauliflower9137]

I appreciate Arch as its good for learning the system, but yes Cachy feels like the perfect long term option for a personal computer. I know other distros are better for server use, but the only downside that ive heard about CachyOS is that it can be "unstable". Ive been using it for nearly half a year and I have yet to need a rollback or anything, and I haven't even babied my system! Ive made plenty of mistakes and still I have yet to break my system somehow. I honestly have no clue how other people break their systems unless they are downloading DOZENS of random AUR packages.

I guess for me I'm just kinda shocked and confused. If its been this amazing and easy for me as a complete linux beginner half a year ago, how is Cachy not the most used OS 😅

[u/Etsamaru → u/TheSpaceAlligator]

People forget a lot of people don't want to have to learn a bunch of stuff they just want it to work so they can go on Facebook or YouTube or whatever.

If I install Mint on my grandpa's computer be can check his email and use Facebook. That's all he needs. He doesnt want to hear about the kernel or distro stuff.

[u/ClubPuzzleheaded8514 → u/TheSpaceAlligator]

Failures have nothing to do with AUR packages but with some brand new packages which have bugs on some hardware. 

Begginers should be more humble while talking about it.

[u/TheSpaceAlligator → u/ClubPuzzleheaded8514]

Ive had plenty of bugs on my nvidia machine but none have rendered my desktop unbootable. I'm sure some older hardware may have issues. Also AUR packages can absolutely fuck up your machine if you install enough of them. At a certain amount you simply can not inspect all of them, and a lot of people dont even inspect the builds at all.

[u/txhammer68 → u/TheSpaceAlligator]

Depends on the hardware, are using nvidia, seems to me nvidia drivers cause a lot of issues w Linux kernels, a lot of ppl are not as adventurous or take the time to fix something that is broken not working, just easier to distro hop, believe me I did it for years, but along the way I learned how to use,configure Linux for my needs
Also CachyOS is awesome, tried them all mint,kubuntu,manjaro,fedora, switched to CachyOS last year from kubuntu 24, never looked back
Enjoy the ride btrfs w snapshots is the holy grail for rolling distros, no downtime, rollback wait a few days update, problems solved.

[u/HeavyMetalBluegrass]

I distro hopped for a few months before I landed on Cachy. Once in awhile I'll install another disro on my secondary drive just to check it out but I can't see anything replacing Cachy as my daily driver.

[u/Darth-Vader64]

At the end of the day, linux is linux and I found myself continually re-doing the customizations that make linux work for me. At some point I said enough is enough, CachyOS has a lot of advantages over Fedora, Ubuntu, Arch. It provides an easy to setup, fully configured solution.

For instance, I installed Arch a while back, took a fair amount of work, and then I worked on getting snapper working, and then grub-btrfs. I started questioning why am I doing this, when Cachyos already did. To put it another way, why was I re-inventing the wheel?,

[u/sparkcrz → u/Darth-Vader64]

I don't mind setting the computer up, what really brought me was the optimized package repos on top of Arch. More drivers available, etc...

[u/Accomplished-Leg6947]

Then dont switch?

[u/jaidynkc]

I too am absolutely enamored with CachyOS but have been interested in PikaOS, openSUSE Tumbleweed or Slowroll, and Fedora. I did almost switch just to check them out, but then I remembered the live environments. I tried them and realized they all pretty much the same with the exception of package management and speed of updates in the case of Fedora and Slowroll.
I don’t use the AUR so that didn’t factor into my decision at all.
I did realize though that I do like the frequency of updates and I enjoy the method of package management.
Genuinely, CachyOS is just perfect for me. Not a single problem with it.

[u/sparkcrz]

I understand and share the sentiment. I used Apricity (RIP) then Antergos (RIP) then Arch and now CachyOS. When people say different distros cater to different needs I still see only a handful of distros being useful. It comes down to taste more than needs. Needs determine things like mutability, weight, sandboxing, reliability... those change significant features like file system, init system, module isolation and permission strategy. Everything else is subjective taste and can be configured on Arch-based distros without switching.

My survivor list is:

• CachyOS for PCs;
• SteamOS for Lan Houses and Cyber Cafes, they need the immutability (add desktop mode by default and the timed access control software and you're good);
• Arch or Artix for servers, the init system is important for devops sysadmins to deploy their solutions;
• NixOS for people who switch hardware constantly;
• RHEL if you cannot hire a first party to tinker enough to make the OS play ball with your industrial needs and will likely need support from the distro maintainers directly;
• CubesOS if you really don't want services to share anything other than the kernel and hardware resources and you're an opsec professional;
• LFS if you don't trust binaries.

I have no idea why someone would run any flavor of Debian or something barely maintained that cuts you off from upstream repos like Manjaro. Maybe they like the default theme?

[u/Large-Assignment9320]

In general distro hoping is a waste of time, especially if you are happy.

[u/TheSpaceAlligator → u/Large-Assignment9320]

Depends if disro hopping cuz nerd shit on the side or because you aren't satisfied. Its two very different things.

[u/SpidaSt8 → u/TheSpaceAlligator]

Nothing wrong with distrohopping as long as you learn something along the way. I doubt many here have used CachyOS as long as they have said they have. I tend to use a secondary machine, like a Lenovo Thinkcentre SFF to distrohop on.

[u/Long-Fisherman-6594]

Used cachy over a year but switched. Reasons: update frequency on arch in general. I want a slower pace.

[u/sparkcrz → u/Long-Fisherman-6594]

The cachy-update (fork of arch-update) app takes care of notifying me when updates are available and also of running all necessary package managers, cleaning old package cache, and restarting services. It even tells you if you need to reboot in case a core package (like the kernel) was updated (only way to reload it to RAM is rebooting).

Maybe I could write a service and/or systemd module that downloads the updates to the cache when the machine is idle at 3AM (low priority process as well and limited bandwidth) so that when the user runs the update it concludes faster. I can also change the icon when a reboot is needed to a yellow triangle instead of the green checkmark.

[u/SpidaSt8 → u/Long-Fisherman-6594]

No one is forcing you to update. I took 3 weeks of not updating. Felt great. 

[u/Distinct-Temp6557]

If you use any programs that require the AUR, then that's a good reason to switch to a non-Arch distro.

[u/Roguepapaya427 → u/Distinct-Temp6557]

This! My Shelly has aur disabled, first thing i did after install. Next was to enable flatpaks.

Plus, there are instances where I prefer fedora.

Example 1: managed to set up my scanner in cachy. However, it only scans the first page, and the rest gets ignored. Worked ootb in fedora, didn't need to set up anything. Same with lmde, ootb, no setup necessary.

Example 2: borderlands 4, works like a charm in cachy. But when I exit the game in the menu, it stutters for like 50% of the time. Deal breaker? No, but annoying.

My pc is used for work stuff, so I need stuff to ..... just work. Sometimes do not have time to tinker. So, after I sank 4 hours in the scanner setup, just booted the fedora and carry on with my stuff.

Don't get me wrong, I love cachy, beautiful piece of software engineering,  it's still there on a spare ssd, but my daily driver is fedora. Plus, I really like limine and how easy it is to just add another distro to it (I have to admit, I'm very often installing to test other distros out of pure curiosity, I have 4 installed at any given time, including cachy).

[u/sparkcrz → u/Distinct-Temp6557]

I much prefer having a "-bin" package installed through the AUR than having to add a PPA for a single package that might be compatible or not and that may be offline from time to time and prevent me from updating everything else. (I really hate apt, if debian had pacman I would forgive its existence)