 Visitor Reviews |
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Reader supplied reviews for CachyOS
Average rating
7.9 from 385 review(s)
Version: 251129
Rating: 10
Date: 2026-01-17
Votes: 4
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I have been a long-time user of both Windows and macOS, but transitioning to CachyOS has been a total game-changer for my workflow. With the combination of CachyOS and the Niri compositor, everything runs incredibly smoothly and feels significantly more responsive than any other setup I've tried.
One of the standout features is how user-friendly it is for gamers; it provides excellent default gaming packages out of the box, making it remarkably easy to set up Steam and start playing immediately without the usual Linux troubleshooting. The performance gains were so noticeable that I actually reformatted my entire disk and left the Windows platform for good. Furthermore, the documentation is exceptionally helpful and comprehensive, which made the transition feel seamless. If you are looking for a high-performance, Arch-based distribution that just works, I cannot recommend CachyOS enough.
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Version: 251129
Rating: 10
Date: 2026-01-13
Votes: 0
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Honestly, I can´t use other distros. The AUR and pacman are the most versatile package managers that I have used, everytime I try a non-arch distro I miss them, and why can´t I use other arch based distros? CachyOS has the least problem with my hardware. Using it on a acer nitro 5 an517-57, meaning impossible to disable nvidia optimus, as i use a dual monitor setup I get a lot of trouble. Other distros capped my second monitor refresh rate in half when using wayland, this also occured on CachyOS put changing to any cachyV4 kernel version fixed it. Even with this problem I used it for 1 month without regrets, then hopped to windows so i could play some siege, fortunately for me it got hacked and I was stuck seeing the agony of slowed down Firefox scroll bar on firefox or when watching 1440p videos, also the unresponsive file searcher. CachyOS KDE surpasses any use case of windows unless when you NEED Adobe software / MS Office and don´t want to bother creating a vm/container to run it. Also, updates didn´t break anything on my end, so no planned obsolesce like Microsoft does with Windows. Games run great, there is a "install all necessary game packages" wich makes it so fine, Its custom proton version fell snappier and more performant than other options. A really well rounded distro.
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Version: 251129
Rating: 10
Date: 2026-01-09
Votes: 1
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After being on Mint, Fedora Bazzite and CachyOs for two moths, I seriously found CachyOs to be the best distro i have ever used. It just works out of the box for my nvidia 5090, it just loads the latest NVIDIA drivers and updates it withought fuss, it recognizes my monitor, keyboard and mouse brands without issues. With fedora and Mint i have to go to the terminal to download the 5090 driver. As for system restore Cachy gives you Btfrs like Mints time shift, unfortunately Fedora gives you nothing. The gaming packages that come with Cachy is another plus. For gaming Cachy was the best, unilike bazzite which i used as well and had issues with. Seriously recommend this distro for beginners and advanced users alike. Its as easy as Mint, users often dismiss the cachy hello and this is where the Cachy team needs to spend some time to make the gui better so users can be more aware of. The cachy team should make the Cachy software installer the main one and remove octopi and the arch updater as users are confused and often mistake them for the official app store. I seriously wish the Cachy team all the success.
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Version: 251129
Rating: 10
Date: 2026-01-08
Votes: 2
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This is Arch, but it has more performance and convenience. The standout feature is the speed: CachyOS uses aggressively tuned kernels, including the BORE scheduler, which delivers a genuinely snappier feel especially on older hardware. Applications launch quicker, and the desktop just feels more responsive. The installer is very straightforward and easy to use. You get a smooth Calamares installer, followed by their excellent "CachyOS Setup" app. This application lets you configure drivers, select desktop environments (KDE Plasma is the flagship, and it's beautifully configured), and install curated packages or niche items like gaming tools with a few clicks.
You get all the power of Arch, access to the AUR, and rolling updates but without the manual setup grind. The documentation is community-driven and improving, though it can be sparse in some areas compared to more established distros. It’s not for absolute Linux newcomers, as you still need some terminal comfort for maintenance, but it’s perfect for tinkerers and performance seekers who want a cutting-edge, fast system without starting from absolute zero. For me, it hit the sweet spot between control and convenience.
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Version: 251129
Rating: 10
Date: 2026-01-06
Votes: 0
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For PC gamers who are technically minded, comfortable in their OS, like customisations and control, I wouldn't pick any other distribution, especially if you're new to Linux. It's a gentle introduction to using Arch Linux, and the opinions are all very much what you'd want, gaming optimised kernels, enhancements for the latest AMD CPUs, an updater CLI/GUI combo. Check recent benchmarks too, CachyOS usually tops the charts which proves its capability and that the changes are meaningful. I won't be going back to Windows
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Version: 251129
Rating: 1
Date: 2026-01-06
Votes: 0
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I often wonder about ridiculous claims, blazing fast, CatchyOS, ahem, that one burned itself very quickly.
CatchyOS has one very big catch, even running from memory it feels sluggish compared to antiX with ICEWM running live from ram. From SSD it is also noticeably slower, the test experience is now consigned to the land of loonies and legends.
To add in:
The distro is so slow, applications crash a lot of the time, and I had numerous lock-ups, one that was so bad, it broke grub and just really kept being a beta quality product. Releases are rushed out with no care at all, and as others have said, the community, wow, it’s toxic.
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Version: 251129
Rating: 10
Date: 2026-01-05
Votes: 0
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The best Linux distro I used. I was an Ubuntu user for a long time. I have a high end recent spec PC. Nvidia GPU. Ubuntu (24.04 LTS) would crash on a daily basis (Nvidia). I tried many distros to replace Ubuntu but, all had issues with Nvidia.The problems I had, fail to walk up from suspend. Wrong monitor resolution when it does suspend and walk up. Screen tesaring and artifacts. I finally heard of Cachyos. It fixed all my issues and it is so snappy. It seems that the latest Nvidia drivers and the customisation by the Cachyos team have managed to fix Nvidia issues.It is my first Arch based OS and I won't go back. Keep the good work guys.
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Version: 221230
Rating: 9
Date: 2026-01-03
Votes: 0
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This is my first and only distro I've used on my personal computer at home. I deleted Windows 6 months ago for this OS with KDE Plasma, and it's been a very easy transition with very few hiccups. I mostly use it for gaming, and there have been a few issues that popped up here and there, like randomly losing focus on my active game/window while playing a game (as if I had alt-tabbed out). But the solutions were't too difficult. I'd highly recommend this OS for gamers. I especially love how I can install the whole gaming package, including Steam proton, and Nvidia drivers all with one easy command prompt. That's faster than setting up steam on Windows.
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Version: 251129
Rating: 1
Date: 2026-01-03
Votes: 1
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Installed, but without an Internet connection due to not recognizing DHCP or my modem. Distros that I have used that recognize DHCP and Modem are: Ultramarine, GeckoLinux, Devuan, Mint, SolydXK, KDE Neon. So, if those distros install and recognize the internet connection, how is it that catchyos is so stupid? There is not much help online, at least none you can understand. The community has not been very helpful and it is a bit rough if you do not understand near immediately in the "help" they give and understand what to do if there are bugs and other problems- the developer “team” (1 person) is also the same way. For a casual user, It’s difficult when it implies the utility of the command line too much.
I do not recommend this.
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Version: 251129
Rating: 2
Date: 2026-01-03
Votes: 1
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It is an enthusiast distro that a lot of people coming from Windows should not be using. Based on Arch it does not hold your hand. Easy for non technical users to get caught with their pants down with security. No checking to see if packages will break your system.
I do like the performance boost but it is a tradeoff. Some apps and even games actually perform worse. Where others off minimal gains. Some do truly offer larger gains however. It really is your miles may vary.
If using an Arch distro I prefer either base Arch or EndeavourOS. Easy to use the CachyOS kernel if you want, but honestly no huge benefit.
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Version: 251129
Rating: 1
Date: 2026-01-03
Votes: 3
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Everyone told me coming from Windows to Linux, meant I should try catchy os. I was told how easy it was to use and how user friendly it was. I tried installing catchy os on every computer in the house (I have four). It is not easy or user friendly. It looks haphazardly put together, especially because of the use of minimalism and flat design as the UI. Asking for help meant needing to use the terminal for everything. I was instructed to use the terminal to change my desktop wallpaper. One of my computers would not boot no matter what I tried. Someone told me to edit the GRUB menu but since it would not boot and displayed a black screen, I could not do anything with it. I got it working on my desktop which was four years old, and it froze anytime it went into sleep mode. I tried disabling sleep mode, but the screen would still sometimes turn black. My laptop could not boot this and kept providing a kernel panic.
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Version: 251129
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-12-31
Votes: 0
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This is my third distro ever. Used Ubuntu very briefly in 2013 and Mint for a few months in 2018/2020.
My primary concern has been gaming performance on linux, and how it has evolved over time.
I decided to check in again in 2025, and the word was Arch based distros were doing best for games, and CachyOS and Endeavour were most friendly to Windows users. I tried CachyOS.
On CachyOS, everything I've played runs exceptionally well through Steam. Battle.net programs run via steam. This is currently achieved in a slightly inelegant way (installing Battle.net Launcher as a game in Steam), but all the games I played (SC2, D2R) function perfectly.
I have not tried anything from other platforms such as EA, though I read that they function well though HeroicLauncher or Lutris.
I tried Steam for Linux around 2013 and 2020. The performance in games vs Windows was pretty bad in 2013. In 2020 it was close but there was input lag issues in my experience. I am using the same hardware now as in 2020.
I am currently using a 360Hz monitor and the performance in games, to my eye, is now indistinguishable from the Win10 environment performance. Respsonse time to inputs feel exactly the same as they did in Windows10 the day before installing Cachy. I haven't tested any benchmarks because functionally I can't tell a difference.
I am quite satisfied with respect to modern game performance on CachyOS. Out of the box overclocking of the GPU with NVidia settings is nice to see now.
OS is quick in operation, very nice looking with Plasma Nord theme.
When I first tried Steam for Linux around 2013, there was one game that was Linux friendly in my library (TF2). Today I have a shared family library of over 1000 titles, and if I select 'only Linux compatible titles', only three titles out of 1000 are removed. All my old games that were not previously compatible now work.
Cons, with respect to gaming and the related programs, are superficial so far. After pressing the login button on the Battle.net Launcher, some visual corruption is sometimes seen in the login window before it signs in and switches to the main Battle.net program window.
After launching Starcraft 2 for the first time, it took a good minute or two to fully load in all the profile related data. I wasn't sure if the game was functioning properly, but once all the data was pulled it performed perfectly.
Every time I read Year of Linux, I shrug it off, but it is coming now. Given how much gaming drives the PC market, the parity that linux is reaching here is actually going to threaten Microsoft's market share before long. The only thing holding the gamers back has been the non functionality/performance of DirectX games.
i7 9900k 5.0Ghz
32gb ddr4
gigabyte nvidia rtx 2080 super
aorus z390 master
1 tb SSD
1440p 360hz monitor
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Version: 251129
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-12-30
Votes: 0
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Best distro of the year.
CachyOS is by far the best distro of 2025. Its fast, responsive and full of goodness. Your games will run smooth as butter. The discord is super helpful and people are very nice there too. The only small complaint i have is setting up a custom dns can be a bit of a struggle.
To start gaming, all you need is to install the "Game package" and you can start gaming with the best kernel tweaks and proton version out there. This also includes Steam and Lutris.
Its simply fantastic and i recommend it to everyone who want to play games the best way on Linux.
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Version: 251129
Rating: 4
Date: 2025-12-29
Votes: 2
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Not really a nice Distro but its getting a lot of downloads. Its not half as fast as the developers make it sound and a terrible installation process , not faster than most others that ive used over my 36 years of using Linux.
My test machines are very basic, 4th and 9th gen i7 with 16gb of memory and a SSD, had to restart my installation 3 times in VMWare, the basic apps installed by default are kind of boring and can not be used out of the box as a desktop machine.No office suite. Abi Word should not be included as the first choice.
On the looks side its not winning any accolades either but its not the worst you can get.
Im not a gamer so i have no intention spending an evening to get the emulators working well enough.
So its a no from me.
Out of the box distros that runs perfect are Mint and Zorin. They are both as perfect as you can get. Zorin is very underrated and its perfect as a workstation.
I have around 1700 client on Mint and Zorin workstations/desktops and laptops, with absolutely no issue..
Ive never seen Linux as a desktop replacement a there is a huge gap in desktop suites and software, but its getting there.
A celeron laptop with 8 gigs of mem and a SSD is just perfect for Linux.
This is a very basic feedback as my software programs and the sheer size of the projects killed CachOS.
great effort , but i wont be using or recommending it.
Nothing like Mint or Zorin to start of your Linux exploration with no tears.
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Version: 251129
Rating: 1
Date: 2025-12-29
Votes: 2
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I tested catchyos immediately after its release, coming from endeavouros, which is my daily driver, for months without any problems right out of the box.
Installation of catchyos went ok enough, and Wi-Fi and other hardware were recognized after a little while of drivers being updated. KDE Plasma as the desktop environment ran without issues. Though the OS installs pretty slowly, and booting is equally slow as well.
However, it's a distro full of bloat and “optimizations”, that are half-baked and don’t have any evidence and proof to back any of these “optimizations” are helpful- they just add a ton of resource usage and lots of processes running, which is actually quite sad, the bloatware found in this distro where you get three terminals and several media players out of the box—why?
But the printer, an Epson ET 2650, was listed, but apparently lacked the necessary printer drivers to get it to print.
And since there was no package manager and Flathub couldn't help either, that was a major deal-breaker.
Otherwise, I have nothing negative to report; Flathub provides the necessary programs.
However, the pre-installed programs in catchyos can't be easily uninstalled; at least, I couldn't find a way to do so, and the developers' blog wasn't particularly helpful either.
That ended my experiment with catchyos, and I'm going back to endeavouros who are open with the community and helpful and not closed off and hostile like catchyos is.
System
Acer Aspire C24-860
Intel® Core™ i3-7130U × 4
Intel® HD Graphics 620 (KBL GT2)
16 GB RAM 1 TB Samsung SSD
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Version: 251129
Rating: 1
Date: 2025-12-28
Votes: 2
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Live disk loads OK. Slow to boot and slow to use.
Installation from USB key to SSD failed (black screen after boot).
The installer gives erroneously "no disk with gpt table", "no EFI partition".
First time I encounter this installer, could not find a remedy.
I can't recall when was the last time an installation failed for me (no expert, but linux user for many years).
KDE version.
Machine:
Type: Desktop Mobo: Gigabyte model: B450 AORUS M
serial: UEFI: American Megatrends LLC. v: F67g
date: 12/28/2025
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Version: 251129
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-12-27
Votes: 0
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I have been using cachyos flawlessly on my laptop for a year, with KDE Plasma and now with Niri.
This has been just great: it is fast, low on resource, good on power consumption and easy to use.
Installation was easy and I never had any issue with updates or anything else, even after 3 months not touching my PC.
It is minimal but all the essential packages are here, which I very much like (no bloat).
It just works, well and fast.
After years of distro hoping and distro comparison, I don't feel the need to distro hop anymore, I feel at home.
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Version: 251129
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-12-27
Votes: 0
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My New favourite Linux distro for gaming, blazing fast, install the gaming package in the CachyOS Hello and just install games and smile. For newer hardware its one of the fastest Linux Distros out there. Coming from windows 11, it feels like youre driving a race car when using CachyOS. Its optimized and fast. I can see a rapid grow in CachyOS, and im not surpriced, just the fact that you can download this OS for free, hav NO spying and NO forced apps thrown at you is mindblowing. Using CachyOS you will have the advantage of using the latest and greatest. My mind is blown. CachyOS is my new home on my computer.
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Version: 251129
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-12-25
Votes: 0
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Since I'm just a clueless Linux user, not a geek (having a car to drive it, not to tinker with the machine) I'm always worrying with rolling distros, if my system will boot after next system update. (my main is Debian based, MX). The reason I sometimes venture to Arch based systems is, there are coupe of old old old games that somehow works on arch based distros, but I'm too noob to manage to set it up on MX. Something to do with old 32 bit drivers. My main distro is just causing me too much headache here.
Manjaro, Endeavor, with both I had at some point problems, after system update wine crashed the game or some other things, so I always had two versions installed on two different partitions. If after system update one stopped working I would not update second one so to keep game going.
I'm explaining all this so you can see, what problems can have a noob, who is too old to learn new tricks. (I was somehow geek at win 3.11 and xp...) From this viewpoint, Snapshots with BTRFS is a good send. Something goes wrong, you can at boot pick up working previous version! So for this reason, Catchy OS is good fit for noob. Other Arch versions are not. Talking from my own experience.
This is a great technology great improvement and I hope this combo, BTRFS+Snapshots soon spreads through Linux community. Cant hurt having this safety net.
For this reason I'm giving Catchy OS rating: 10. Is it fast? I guess, with few years old computer I would think every Linux distribution should be fast, so this is not that important.
After using it for several months I had no problems and didn't even have a chance to use snapshot to restore a system, until my disk died. System was very stable.
I'm of course staying with MX as my main though. I know it and MX snapshot allows me to easy create copy of my system which i can then install on any other computer or even just run it off of USB stick. This is a deal breaker for me.
But in Arch universe, Catchy OS is clear winner in my opinion. Good job, keep going, I'm rooting for you!
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Version: 251129
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-12-25
Votes: 0
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POSITIVES:
- Blindingly fast, even on my eight year old Dell Latitude 7480. It uses very little processor and memory.
- Everything just worked: WiFi, Bluetooth, mouse, touch-pad, nightlight, firewall, app store, screen shots, access to other partitions (n.b. my documents that have their own), etc.
- Unlike Garuda, it comes with most of the major packages out of the box, eg LibreOffice.
- Much longer battery life than LMDE, which I have been using for six months now.
- If used to “sudo apt ….”, the terminal will run it anyway. The native command is “sudo pacman ….”
- My add ons, e.g. MegaSync cloud storage and PIA VPN (both good cross-platform apps), were relatively easy to install. WhatsApp, Teams, and Outlook (PWA WebApps through Brave Browser “save and share > install”) all work seamlessly.
- Multiple Desktop Environments including Budgie, Cosmic, and KDE Plasma.
NEGATIVES:
- The install was slow. A good internet connection is required or it just hangs.
- Settings are all over the place (in BigLinux, too, another Arch based distro), eg panel configuration (only available from the panel), desktop, quick settings, plasma settings, system settings, control panel, login screen, display configuration, desktop and wall paper, menu editor, time configuration (Set Time Format, Configure Digital Clock).
Anyway, highly recommended.
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Version: 251129
Rating: 1
Date: 2025-12-24
Votes: 1
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This is by far the worst distro I have ever used. I tested the latest release and it’s extremely buggy and lagging. The GUI is a mish mash of visual clutter and confusion. The settings is scattered in multiple modules than to be all in one settings like in gnome.
The taskbar uneven icon sizes is not visually appealing where all the icons on the left is large and on the right its small. There was a lot of icons on the desktop that was unnecessary and very difficult to customize. The taskbar remained translucent no matter what theme you choose. All of the wallpaper look like oil paintings, no real photos or anything. The window theme was chaotic. It’s like it was designed by a 10 year old that tried to make it far too intuitive than it needs to be.
Customizing was very confusing. They really need a serious eye on design and user experience. It was tooooo cluttered too many preinstalled apps. I won’t recommend this distro to anyone. It’s too much.
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Version: 251129
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-12-23
Votes: 0
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"Magnificent piece of work."
"A big waste of time."
Both statements are true, it depends on your HW, ways of installations, set up, and more. If it works and doesn't break you system after upgrades - you will have your score as 10. It is fast, optimized, close to vanilla Arch. If it has problems with installation, or breaks often after updates, or having dependency hell - you will have your scores as 1. Obviously.
I am drifting between plain Arch Linux, EndevourOS, Manjaro, and CachyOS. My main daily driver was EndevourOS due to been "twin" of CachyOS, but more stable. Recently I have switched back to CachyOS. Reasons? Main 3 reasons:
1) Probably most important. Finally, (similar to Manjaro) CachyOS made out of the box bootable snapshots ( similar to Manjaro). All you need - to install bootloader as Grub and the file system as btrfs - and you have several bootable options. Now I am waiting for CachyOS to break after update, so I can use previous snapshots and see if it will resolve my fear of CachyOS as a broken system (sooner or later). Still, keeping EndevourOS as "plan B" solution, just in case.
2) Support for 4K display - now it is the clear login screen (and, to some extend, the boot screen) in 4K. Not sure it is due to install both Cosmic and KDE desktop environments at installation stage - but it works nicely now.
3) it is still a bit faster for running computing applications than anything else, particularly EndevourOS (which is also quite fast).
As EndevourOS, CachyOS is very close to vanilla Arch Linux, so it is sharing all pros and cons of Arch and its derivatives.
I hope CachyOS team will keep improving its features, particularly its stability.
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Version: 241221
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-12-23
Votes: 0
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I’ve been testing and using CachyOS on and off for over a year. While the latest installation had a few issues, and not all desktop environments work equally well, this distro genuinely feels like magic when paired with KDE.
I have a gaming PC, and I’ve been hopping between Linux distros for years, always searching for something that could work as a daily driver while also delivering excellent gaming performance. I never truly found “the one.” Using plain Arch and building everything from scratch was powerful, but honestly, it was a pain in the a**, and for a long time, it felt like the only viable option.
That changed with CachyOS + KDE.
It simply has everything you need:
One-click installation of gaming packages
Easy performance tweaks and enhancements through CachyOS Hello, which honestly feels like magic
NVIDIA drivers working out of the box better than on any other distro I’ve tried
An enhanced kernel and CPU scheduling without unnecessary tinkering
All the essential software preinstalled—useful, not bloated
Simple selection-based installation for extra software
No weird quirks, no hacks to fix mouse or keyboard behavior, and no input lag issues
For the first time, I feel like I don’t have to choose between performance, convenience, and control. CachyOS with KDE finally delivers all three, and for me, it has become the distro.
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Version: 251129
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-12-22
Votes: 0
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This is my first dive into an Arch based distro. I had a few hiccups along the way that were solved by using the CachyOS wiki page. I wanted something better with newer Nvidia drivers and packages. Installation was easy with the Calamares installer and I was able to install what I wanted without any bloat. I chose the Cinnamon DE as I am very familiar with it coming over from LMDE. So far so good and gaming has been great with excellent frame rates and the overall responsiveness of my system. I now know why folks use Arch/Arch based distros. My only regret is that I didn't make the jump sooner. Great job CachyOS team!!!
Current laptop specs:
Asus ROG Strix G712LW
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10750H
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Mobile
Memory: 32 GB RAM
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Version: 251129
Rating: 2
Date: 2025-12-21
Votes: 3
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Wont boot easily, once you get into the live usb then pacman fails. I have tried other 30 times to install and have been successful 3 or 4. It doesn't perform as well as Fedora or EndeavorOS or base Arch. The optimizations lead to crashes and instability. This is why Bazzite doesn't do performance optimization. Users can dive into optimization once they get familiar with the distro and how that stuff works. This distro maintainers have great marketing and everyones falling for it. If you want to use cachy I would use a different kernel and see how that goes.
The plus side is that they have implemented GUIs for a lot of things and thats great.
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Version: 251129
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-12-21
Votes: 0
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The distribution's installation needs to be configured and improved in a way that is easily understandable for the end user. I can install it in any way, but for a user unfamiliar with the Linux world, for example, someone wanting to switch from Windows to CachyOS, the installation is quite complicated. I play games and I'm very satisfied. It's a distribution that provides support for gaming in every way. Many thanks to the CachyOS team. Please don't abandon this project. CachyOS will be very successful. Greetings from Türkiye.
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Version: 251129
Rating: 1
Date: 2025-12-18
Votes: 1
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As a person who been around Linux for a very long time, I have installed and tested quite a large quantity of Linux Distributions and Desktops.
This has to be the worst I have seen. To start the ISO is 6 Gig, second after finishing the Install on a NON virtual machine with hardware made in past two years there were no errors how ever the software store would not install some software, I went through a software update as per request system needed updates, things went south from there, multiple errors after reboot, system became unstable, I tried the software store again to see If could install applications, I have to click the install icon twice... the first time I thought the app had installed but after a couple of seconds it stated not installed, if that not weird... never seen this on any other distribution or desktop.
The interface is poor- it has flat design and is minimalistic = very sterile and bland, but again is not usable. The developers need to take a hard look at this before releasing something like this half broken desktop.
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Version: 251129
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-12-18
Votes: 0
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Recently downloaded this CachyOS and installed it on my old Asus B75M-A mobo Intel core i3-3220 cpu, with onboard Intel GPU, 16GiB memory, Seagate SATA 1.0TiB HDD in an old TigerDirect ATX Mini tower and all went well with the minimal install on hard metal.
The only problem that did arise afterward was when I connected my printers, a Brother monochrome laser HL-L2305W, and an Epson ET-2840 inkjet with flatbed scanner. I just couldn't figure out why CUPS wouldn't install my printer's. I've never had any problems with other Linux OS's that also supplied CUPS in their repositories.
After banging my head a few times and getting ready to go back to another Linux OS a "light" went on in my head on the last reboot watching the initial screen offering another kernel choice before final boot. So another Control, Alt, Del and caught the boot screen and selected kernel 6.12.62-1 chachyos, instead of kernel 6.18.1-1 cachyos, and left it continue.
Bang, Pop, Wow! like the old Batman scenes, my printer's installed without any fuss or muss. I almost did a complete re-image to something else, something I didn't want to do as I liked the newest CachyOS in Cinnamon, and it was all do to an incorrect kernel selection.
Hope that this helps 'others' who may have hit that same wall as myself wondering what in the heck they did wrong.
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Version: 251129
Rating: 1
Date: 2025-12-17
Votes: 0
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I participated in the beta test of 251129. As with Manjaro, I found 251129 having the same issues with Bluetooth. All desktop environments relying on 'blueman' appear to be affected. Bluetooth OBEX doesn't work on my (pretty standard) hardware in these cases. However this is not an issue with EndeavourOS as that doesn't use 'blueman'.
Arch based distros use a newer version of 'blueman' than 251229. I have not have had any issues with Bluetooth on EndeavourOS 2025.11.24.
My bug report was rejected as 'observation' and 'upstream'. I wish that my issue would have been addressed by putting a more recent version of blueman into the cachyos repositories to fix this. I can't use cachyos as a daily driver, as I rely on a fully working Bluetooth setup.
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Version: 251129
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-12-16
Votes: 0
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Very satisfied overall with CachyOS! Have been testing Linux Mint, MX Linux, PopOS and CachyOS for two months and finally landed on the latter. I find the system to be very fast, stable and easy to work with, especially on my rather old laptop. The only thing that brings down the rating is a slightly bad/complicated way to manage online accounts, especially Onedrive and Google drive. But I run them in the web browser now so it works relatively well, although not as smoothly as if they were mounted devices directly in my home directory. The new update notifier is excellent!
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Version: 251129
Rating: 1
Date: 2025-12-16
Votes: 2
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i have been using cachyOS for over a year now on three devices.
after the long pause between the august ISO and the late november iso i thought, lets wipe my gaming PC and start fresh...
directly after the installation, the reboot causes a infinite loading screen, turning off the PC and start it again causes directly another infinite loading screen.
i reinstalled, reflashed and troubleshooted everything i could and it did not work.
now there is another ISO (091225) which i am currently sitting infront of a infinite loading screen while i type this on my laptop.
i am completely unable to use cachyOS with any new iso that came after the august release.
tested systems:
B650E 7950X 7900XTX
X870 9800X3D 9070XT
Core Ultra 7 285H 140T
All three behave identically... live iso, installation = no problems. Reboot after the installation finished = infinite loading circle.
shut off PC with Powerbutton and reboot = cachyOS / LTS selection screen (no difference with LTS) and then a infinite loading circle/screen.
no way to fix it.
i am sorry but this is unacceptable. no other distro causes any issues except cachyOS since the 29.11 release.
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Version: 251129
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-12-15
Votes: 0
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I came from Windows 11 and started messing with Linux about two months ago. Since then I’ve hopped around a bit, trying to find something that actually clicks for me.
I began with Linux Mint XFCE. It was fine and stable, but honestly it felt a little too plain for my taste. Then I moved to Manjaro, which I liked… until an update left the system not booting/working properly. After that I tried openSUSE Tumbleweed for a short time, but I ran into a weird issue where it acted like my password was wrong (even though it wasn’t), so I didn’t stay there long. EndeavourOS was the first one that felt really solid and “normal” to use, and I could have happily stayed on it.
But I wanted to try one more distro, and that’s how I ended up on CachyOS. And yeah — this is the one I’m keeping.
Right now I’ve installed CachyOS on two laptops, a Chromebook, and my desktop. Across all of them it has been fast, smooth, and just… pleasant to use. It feels snappy, the system stays out of my way, and overall it has the best “daily use” vibe of everything I’ve tried so far.
I’m basically using it as my main OS now. Even gaming has been great for me: Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition runs perfectly. The only reason I still keep Windows 11 around is DxO PhotoLab — I haven’t found a Linux replacement that does the job for my photo workflow.
So if you’re looking for something Arch-based that feels quick and well put together, CachyOS is absolutely worth a try. For me it’s the first distro in this whole journey that really feels like home.
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Version: 251129
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-12-14
Votes: 0
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I started with Unix with Coherent - so, some time ago. After using several distros at different times and for different use-cases, I started to use Linux at home again a few years ago with Fedora and this year Proxmox and Debian. My last attempt to switch from my M2 Mac mini to a new PC and Linux is now successful with CachyOS. I tried openSUSE Tumbleweed for a few weeks and managed to destroy the btrfs setup. Saved the data and migrated with my docker contrainers to a new CachyOS install. Almost everything that I had to tweak with openSUSE worked out of the box. The whole experience is very pleasant, if things don't break too much, I could image to stay with CachyOS for the next years.
Great distro, many thanks!!
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Version: 251129
Rating: 8
Date: 2025-12-11
Votes: 0
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Well, this shall be an interesting one. Let me explain my experiences with CachyOS.
So First I decided to try Openbox since I was familiar with it. (Thanks Ubuntu MATE) The config for Openbox that you see in the image in the installer and on the wiki doesn't appear anymore, since the tweaks that CachyOS needs involves the package Nitrogen, which, for some unknown reason, cant seem to be found by the package manager, thus not allowing me to install it and then install customization's that CachyOS has for Openbox manually, (Which really should have been automatic in the installer) so I'm left with a vanilla Openbox install with a few applications like a browser. Not a great start and it isn't very good!
So a few hours later a thought pops into my head "If Openbox isn't gonna work, why not just try Hyprland and see how it goes?"
Turns out, that was a pretty good thought. Followed both the CachyOS Wiki and the actual Hyprland wiki, didn't need to check the Arch one (Although it would have been good as well) and it worked out quite well! I'm currently running it, with some modifications of mine. Cachy USED to have their own config files for their installation of Hyprland, but those were removed due to a lack of maintainers, (The Installer Image is a LIE for both Hyprland and Openbox, and I suspect this may be the case for some other WMs) but nonetheless, I made it work.
As for the actual OS Itself, well, its alright. the package manager is built in quite nicely into a graphical application, and I have used it for the few extra applications I have wanted and swapped out. I probably could easily add flatpak if I wanted it, but I have the AUR, so there's really no point unless I want something specific. Besides the nice package manager for easily accessing those packages, that's really about it. Cant really see a difference with the so called "Kernel Optimizations," at least not on this old Laptop. Runs about as nice as it would on Debian or Solus, 6 hour battery life if I just have it normal, 4 if I've got the all the cool looking Hyprland effects on (Usually when I'm on a charger) so it works out.
Overall in the end, the only noticeable changes I get is said package manager and not having to manually install it myself like I would with Vanilla Arch. Otherwise, it really just ends up being Arch with a few minor changes. For some that's great, for others its not.
If you just stick on the big 2 (+XFCE) you'll be fine on Cachy, but the rest of the DE's and WM's you probably wont have much support and will basically just be on Arch with a nice package manager, and that's about it. For CachyOS, its quite simple, stick to the 3, and if you use anything else, be ready to spend plenty of time reading Wiki Pages and typing terminal commands.
One final note though, please do NOT try this in a VM, it seems like a lot of folks don't go to the CachyOS wiki and read the little thing on the Preparation steps page that tells you not to. If you don't have the hardware, don't do it!
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Version: 251129
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-12-08
Votes: 0
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Very nice distro i will tell the good then the bad
good:
the distro has many env's and is very user friendly and has a truckload of features. very amazing!
bad:
Trying to install this on a vm is quite hard for newbies but my recommendation is to run it on vmware not vbox since it works better on vmware and has a lower change of error. FYI the password for liveuser is live with wayland session.
NOTE: Arch based distros like this one are not recommended for new users due to instabilty with rolling relases and the
sheer complexity of arch distros.
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Version: 251129
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-12-08
Votes: 0
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I’ve been using CachyOS as my daily driver for over a year now, after previously running Arch and Manjaro, and having a long history with Ubuntu, Red Hat, and Debian for work. The installation process was incredibly smooth, and everything worked right out of the box across several different hardware setups. I even installed it on three different laptops without a single issue.
My main machine is an HP Victus, which I use for both gaming and productivity. CachyOS handles both flawlessly—and in fact, some of my games run even smoother than they did on the Windows installation that originally came with the laptop.
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Version: 251129
Rating: 1
Date: 2025-12-07
Votes: 0
|
A big waste of time.
Tried the ISO on VirtualBox on Manjaro, it starts up and asks for password of a liveruser, I had to check its forum to find out that I need to select Wayland rather than X11 (but X11 took precedence, even though my Manjaro runs Wayland).
Then I installed it on VirtualBox.
During installing, it downloaded 7GB of something without first telling me.
Then it simply doesn't start, with a black screen and a rotating circle.
I've been using Manjaro and Ubuntu for decades, and tried various distros, never seen anything like this.
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Version: 251129
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-12-06
Votes: 0
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I have been using CachyOS for the last 4 months, it's stable and swift, I really like it. As it is practically Arch there already is enormous amounts of info out there to use when something goes wrong. There also are a lot of options for to from when selecting a DE, I picked xfce4 as I like simple setups, but it is a bit lacking due to it's simplicity, so KDE would probably be better if you are just getting into Linux. I have also tried cinnamon but it crashed a few times and wasn't really complete (system sounds lacking, and a few other things I can't recall rn). Load times are fine, I done a test but from the feel of it CachyOS boots faster or at the least equally fast as Windows10. I haven't played many games on this as my system isn't the best, but older titles work without issues using the proton integrated into the steam package of the system.
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Version: 251129
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-12-06
Votes: 0
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Magnificent piece of work. My first dip into Arch.
Been using Cachy for the past 5 months, previously a Mint user for 7 years.
Wanted get the most out of my system "push it to the max"
I have an older system.
ASUS H97 MB
Intel i7-4790
Nvidia GTX 970 Ti
Played Far Cry 6 seamlessly.
To explain why Cachy, well I actually tried other gaming orientated distros but they wouldn't install,
I tried to research why but kept coming up with dead ends Cachy just worked 1st go.
Apologies for the lack of technical info.
I wanted to share my experience from a general user perspective.
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Version: 251129
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-12-02
Votes: 0
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it just works
perfect experience
in my eyes, the definitive linux desktop experience
- games -
Works well, and the custom CachyOS proton branch works great on games that don't support linux natively
- general use -
flawless, i have been able to get all of my work done, with no issues
- issues -
next to none
for a day, i experienced constant freezing of the entire desktop, but then i updated and it went away
- final verdict -
10/10, my favorite linux distro, after ages of distrohopping, i've finally found my home
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Version: 251129
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-12-01
Votes: 0
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Installed CachyOS on a laptop. Used Arch occasionally on an old machine, and WSL daily for the past year. I was up and running in less than an hour. I spent a lot of time customizing, trying things out, but the out of the box experience really impressed me, I didn't have to tinker to get anything working. I have Windows 11 (not for long, this is the one to finally convince me I genuinely have no need for it anymore) and CachyOS on that same machine on separate SSDs (same model), and CachyOS is VERY noticeably faster. I have KDE Plasma and Niri as my DEs, and both of them are extremely snappy and responsive.
Anyways, my first impression was, how snappy and responsive it is, and how it (mostly) made it usable for whatever I wanted to use it for immediately after the installation was over. A few random pros and cons after daily use for a month now:
Specs (Laptop - ASUS Strix G16 2025):
Intel 275HX
Nvidia 5080
32GB
Pros:
- Easy installation.
- The inclusion of the apps like CachyOS Hello and Octopi makes it convenient for people who aren't comfortable using the Terminal (you should learn to be though, but it feels like CachyOS tries its best to give you the choice, which is nice).
- Gaming has been great, not tolerable, but actually great. All I did was click on the button in CachyOS Hello to install all the required drivers/packages for gaming. I opened Steam, ran a game at random (Ghostrunner) through proton-cachyos, and it just worked right away, no stutters, no weird resolution issues, great performance, just worked. In my experience, other than native games, anything Platinum on protonDB has indeed just worked. Occasional issues I've had could be fixed by changing the Proton version used, or with launch options. A good thing here is that a lot of people are using CachyOS for gaming, so you can very often find a fix on protonDB comments from someone who had the same issue. But still, it doesn't happen that often.
- I'm never thinking about the fact I'm using Linux or CachyOS in particular, because it just works, and at least if your hardware is new like mine, it's fast enough to make you forget it's even there. It just stays out of the way. It doesn't fight whatever it is I want to do, and it feels like it has no particular opinions it wants be to buy into. Pretty much the main things I want from an OS.
- Has felt more stable that Windows 11. I had recurring Nvidia drivers issues on Windows 11 when I purchased this laptop, it took a clean wipe of the drivers using DDU in safe mode, and a reinstall (didn't work), and then a round two using older drivers (didn't work), and finally a third round using slightly older drivers. I've had occasional crashes related to that and other driver issues. On CachyOS, I let it install whatever it wanted through CachyOS Hello, and I haven't had to worry about it, worked first try. Also much faster and snappier, if you've used Windows Explorer or opened a context menu in Windows 11... you know what I'm talking about. It's painful. Here it's instant.
That's the main stuff, it really clicked with me in a way nothing really has before. If you try it out coming from Windows, you'll genuinely have a hard time believing just how much suffering you endured thinking it was normal.
Only a 9 since I've been using it for a month, and well, it's too short to call it perfect, but if I tried to rate Windows 11 in its current state, it'd be.. I don't know, a 4? Yeah. I recommend it.
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Version: 251129
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-12-01
Votes: 0
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Really great balance between ease of use and functionality. Used this as my first Arch-based distro and I think I'm staying. Haven't had a single problem with it yet, but make sure you disable CSM before installing. It will make your life much simpler down the road. Was initially having some issues where the system would repeatedly freeze while updating packages, but it seems to have gone away.
Desktop specs:
Ryzen 5 5600x
Geforce RTX 3060 Ti
32 GB RAM
CachyOS Hello is a really nice jumping-off point, especially for those who don't yet know how to use pacman. Cachy has an ample software suite while not being overly bloated. Really loving the Arch experience so far.
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Version: 251129
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-12-01
Votes: 0
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I'm pretty new to Linux, all things considered. I did distro-hop for a bit, not a lot, but I tried a few: Nobara, Pika, Pop, Linux Mint, Manjaro (which is the one distro I would never recommend, shit ran like a freaking gasping old man on his deathbed), Garuda, base Arch, Nix, Endeavour, Zorin, debian, ubuntu, and then CachyOS (then reinstalled windows due to some important work stuff and came back again to Cachy). I've been using Cachy for a total of two years now. It's been smooth sailing for the most part with the biggest problem I experienced was that one issue I had where no audio was being detected by the mic which I eventually got a solution from the nice folks in the discord server.
I mainly game on my PC and I stream on Twitch whenever I am able to. CachyOS has been amazing for both so far. Games have generally run smoother compared to my experience with Windows (which I have used exclusively for a almost all of my life until about 3-ish years ago when I decided to try out Linux). Recording/streaming while gaming has been generally smooth sailing with the exception of certain games and their respective in-game settings.
I also edited videos with Kdenlive and had no issues on that.
The best part? If I get stuck on something and needed help (if you can't find the solution in the wiki), all you need to do is head to the discord server and ask for help. Everyone there has been very nice and helpful which made getting through the hiccups I experienced.
I would definitely recommend CachyOS to somebody who never even touched Linux before. Installation is a breeze and all the knowledge you need is on the wiki. The discord server is welcoming and helpful. Performance wise, it's blazing fast. Gaming is as smooth as butter (at least with the games I play). And even if you stream on Twitch, it doesn't even take that much to set it up (depending on the programs you use, of course).
10/10 would recommend to even a level 1 baby.
One thing, if you're used to Discover, it doesn't have it installed. But I haven't really needed that during my time on Cachy, to be honest.
Specs:
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X
32gb ddr4 ram
AMD Radeon RX6700XT 12GB
-rev :>
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Version: 251129
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-12-01
Votes: 0
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CachyOS has been my go-to Linux distribution, and I'm thrilled to share my experiences with the community. I have CachyOS installed on an external SSD as a backup option. The speed at which it boots up is remarkable – it's blazing fast! I've had no issues with it whatsoever. KDE is an absolute delight for the eyes, and I appreciate how frequently updated packages keep my system current. Also, the Discord community surrounding CachyOS is vibrant and welcoming to newcomers. Setting up and navigating the OS has never been easier due in part to the helpful resources available. Furthermore, CachyOS's ability to provide bleeding-edge software makes it an ideal choice for gaming enthusiasts like myself. It strikes a perfect balance between performance and resource efficiency, ensuring that your gaming sessions are smooth and uninterrupted. overall, its speed, features, community support is the real beating heart of this project, which has rightfully cemented its position in the ranks. As long as it continues on this trajectory, I don't see myself switching anytime soon.
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Version: 251129
Rating: 1
Date: 2025-12-01
Votes: 0
|
i use cachyOS since it launched and the last 6 months were straight up the worst experience i've ever had.
the last august ISO had a keyring issue while installing and sometimes needed 5 install attempts before it worked and the new late november ISO shoved in a basically dysfunctional plymouth implementation causing infinite login loading screens on two fresh installed systems (9800X3D/9070XT and 285H/140T)
not a single month without OS destroying issues. that are non existant in basically any other distro available.
i am very disappointed with the "lets hope it works" work mentality of the team behind it but i can no longer recommend using it even if it is basically the perfect distro if it wouldn't be more broken than windows 11 all the time.
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Version: 251129
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-11-30
Votes: 0
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Been tinkering with linuxdistros off and on for 30 years now. Ive tried Just about every type of distro there is except the really hardcore ones, like Gentoo and LFS. Not that Im afraid of compiling, but it just take alot of time getting somewhere. Installer preferred, thank You. I have installed Arch the manual way, but I prefer not to do it again. Until a year ago, I have always used Windows at the same time. But Windows 11 is a mess!!! So I dumped it and everything done by Microsoft.
I distrohopped for a while. Debian, mint, Ubuntu and the ran Fedora until august 2025. Got tired of constant trouble with Nvidia drivers on my new desktop. And then I tried CachyOS. Have not been having any problem since. Easy to install, but have to be kept updated all the time. Its OK as long as its on a machine Im using daily. On my laptop i still use fedora and on my really old laptop debian. So I dont have to update 3 computers all the time. Choose distro after usecase is my philosofy.
Anyway. CachyOS is very fast with new hardware. Easy to install and nvidia works out of the box. Very pleased with it. Its no beginner distro in my opinion. It is pretty close to arch linux, so it updates constantly. Sometimes multiple times a day. Its not something to run if Youre not prepared to do alot of updates. It have to be maintained. Excellent for gaming!
Intel i9 14900KF
Nvidia RTX 5080
32 GB RAM
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Version: 250825
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-11-29
Votes: 0
|
Fresh Windows convert here, been using Cachy for about a month now. I think a strong 8 to a light 9 is a pretty accurate rating for this.
Got sick of Microsoft's cyberpunk dystopia grindset, so i hard dropped off from it and blind switched to Linux. Haven't regretted it, and with how good the space currently is and only getting better, i likely never will.
I actually went to Mint first. Used that for about a week, and i liked it. Apparently, distro-hopping is highly virulent even amongst total newcomers, as i was reading through Cachy's wiki detailing all the high-tech stuff it was doing, and it piqued my curiosity. I was still getting stuff together on Mint, but i also figured testing out different OSes like this is something i've never done before, so i took yet another leap of faith and switched to Cachy.
I tempered my expectations - this thing's supposed to be fairly user-friendly, but it's still an Arch distro, so probably some level of wrangling i'll need to do to make it work how i want.
Honestly? it's actually been *easier* than i expected. Either i'm more tech adept than i think i am or Cachy is friendlier than i was anticipating, or possibly both. Well, i've also only been using it for a whopping single month, but in that month i haven't really come across any notable problems. Plasma froze up once and i didn't know how to restart it, so i had to restart the system, but that's about it.
As is natural for 2025 Linux, every game i've thrown at it works totally fine - granted, i haven't tried that many yet. One game i tried wouldn't let me load into it, kept complaining about a bad Steam session. Looked around for a few minutes, couldn't find any solid leads, so i switched the Proton version from Cachy's own to 9.0.4, and that fixed it. I imagine that's similar for most games, it "just works" while needing very little tweaking, if any.
My use case is pretty basic (gaming, music, browsing, 3D modeling + texturing) but Linux so far has been able to do basically everything i did on Windows. Either the programs i use also had native Linux versions, or there was an equally good alternative available. Even *that one thing* in the form of the Windows-exclusive XCOM 2 modding tools i managed to get working, albeit with some guidance.
Also incredibly fast and snappy, obviously. Windows is bloatware at this point, so it's not THAT impressive - even the more "bloated" (relatively speaking) Linux distros would still outperform Windows 11. Cachy's probably a touch or two faster than other Linux distros, though.
SPECS:
Motherboard - MSI Z370
CPU - Intel i9-9900k
GPU - Nvidia GTX 1070
Memory - 32 GB
Installed on an SSD
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Version: 250825
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-11-27
Votes: 0
|
Beginner/ Intermediate user here.
After roughly 3 months of use for daily driving, I can say that I'm very happy with Cachy so far.
Before, I previously had relative exposure to Linux in general during university, mainly through Debian (main server OS) and Ubuntu (WSL).
I wanted something with access to the newest software packages (hence the Arch-ecosystem was targeted) and giving me something that can work "out-of-the-box", while still offering me to freely tinker around If I so choose to. Also, being suited for gaming (without having that as it's "core identity") was a plus as well.
CachyOS performs swiftly and IMO feels nicely optimized/ extended as an Arch derivative, offers good documentation/ information through various channels and felt quite accessible to me throughout exploring it. It has given me quite a stable/ reliable impression so far for being rolling-release oriented.
With only a few exceptions, applications and other software seem to "just work" for the most part, without much of a hastle.
(else, the wikis for Cachy and Arch are your friends)
Problems so far merely revolved around re-installing specific packages or re-doing system updates, in case some dependencies or a certain application didn't make it into the update-list the first time.
I get why some people might prefer to go straight to the source instead of this distro (i.e., base Arch), and I'll probably try that too in the future on a different machine. However, Cachy generally offers a great product (performance- and accessibility-vise) that feels like more than just Arch with an easy install-process. This will likely stick as my daily-driver for the foreseeable future, and I can definitely recommend it (maybe not for *absolute* beginners on Linux though).
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Version: 250825
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-11-26
Votes: 6
|
I have tried so very many distros in the past, the majority of which suffer from terrible documentation and lousy reliability. CachyOS has excellent documentation and gives clear information about what changes/improvements have been made and the rationale behind the changes is. Compared to my past experiences with distributions like MX Linux, CachyOS stands out as a system that offers noticeably better stability and speed, all while remaining accessible and user-friendly. The developers seem to be really making a big effort to produce a very snappy, high quality but reliable distro. Their passion shows. Since it is coming off an Arch base this is notable. This is one of the very few distibutions I would heartily recommend as worth financially supporting.
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Version: 250825
Rating: 4
Date: 2025-11-25
Votes: 7
|
My installation on MSI with Ryzen 5 CPU and with modern hardware, failed to detect the touchpad and the system was choppy. I tried also the hyprland wayland - it has taken huge storage size -supposed to be small. I don't see any performance improvement as some people are saying compared to my good old Debian (Gnome). So, I switched back to Debian. Even the unstable version I use, the Debian is very stable and up to date. I use Tiling Shell and Search Light extensions for speed and to mimic Hyprland.
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Version: 250825
Rating: 1
Date: 2025-11-23
Votes: 2
|
This thing is just… yeah, not great.
It’s yet another Arch-based distro stuffed with a bunch of “why does this even exist here” packages. And for some reason the terminal greets you with fastfetch every time you open it - like, thanks, but I already know what my PC hardware. I don’t need a daily fastfetch, lol.
And of course it’s getting hyped by TikTok kids who are still in their “try a new distro every 24 hours” or “Windows is trash, install Linux” phase.
Honestly, just install plain Arch. And if you don’t feel like wrestling with the Arch Wiki, use archinstall or go with something actually solid, like Manjaro or EndeavourOS.
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Version: 250825
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-11-22
Votes: 16
|
I've used Arch before, but now I decided to try CachyOS on both my desktop and laptop.
The installation worked flawlessly. Also, all the drivers are installed correctly. (nvidia, focusrite...)
There were a few packages included, but I don't think they were unnecessary.
The shells were pre-configured and their color scheme is nice to look at. The default shell used is fish.
Everything works incredibly well, from games to AI to programming.
This is the first time I've been surprised by something other than pure Arch or Debian.
CachyOS is fast, strong, and reliable and I hope it stays that way.
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Version: 250825
Rating: 2
Date: 2025-11-21
Votes: 0
|
Installing well, work fast and that's all...
I installed kde version and refind as bootloader on my laptop on ssd. Its installed ok, refind find both of my win on hdd, and i start to install libreoffice... Guess what? Its not install because some repo cannot sync. Ok, i read wiki and sync repos, seems all ok, but then ... Dependenses! When i find out how to solve this problem some repo die again , some package get broke and system froze. I reboot it and see a black screen... When i remove the ssd i try to boot to my windows it and it turned out that my win bootloader is broken...
i have a linux expirience - I use mxlinux on desktop and ubuntu server on router, but abuot arch based distro i only have reading about a problems and now i get it
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Version: 250825
Rating: 8
Date: 2025-11-18
Votes: 0
|
Niri installation and dots are outright broken, ugly and useless.
Go with KDE then manually install niri alongside KDE to save yourself the headache.
Other than that, this is just arch with an impressive custom kernel. Which means it has all the jank and diy (maintenance) approach that comes bundled by arch. I don't get why this is recommended for beginners everywhere, sure it works OOTB on most machines but what about maintenance? That being said, i'd definitely not recommend this to any beginners, especially to people that just want to work after setting stuff up; please AVOID rolling release distros as your first distro or you'll hate linux!
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Version: 250825
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-11-16
Votes: 19
|
This is a REALLY good distro.
This started as me testing Linux gaming stuff and test the waters with general use of Linux as a daily driver and been testing it on a external SSD. now, I'm very seriously considering putting this on my main drive and ditch windows 11.
I've tried other distros in the past but I am very much a noob with Linux knowledge and frequently distro hopping, running into problems and end up switching back to windows in defeat.
Somewhat recently i hear of CachyOS and still been thinking of Linux PLUS recent garbage with windows REALLY made me think about Linux so, I get my old SSD that i put into an enclosure and install it on that so i still have my main drive to fall back to.
Most of if not all the games I play and been throwing at it have worked, software side; most of the programs I use are already on Linux or has a port or an equivalent that does the same job.
I haven't had a major hang-up or issue using it and been running it constantly and have NOT been missing windows at all.
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Version: 250825
Rating: 5
Date: 2025-11-16
Votes: 1
|
I wish I could say more positive about this distro, but unfortunately its configuration when I was using it on my desktop had various issues that I could not figure out how to debug, on day one.
First off, my volume settings reset on every reboot/login, using the default audio configuration. Second off, setting up networking for virtual machines was a nightmare, as the qemu package had a completely broken network configuration that caused VMs to be unable to connect to the internet when my internet worked fine on the host. Third off, I ran into a strange bug where shader precompilation on Steam caused my whole system to freeze - twice, and the only fix was to download the Plasma X11 session and finish the job there. Fourth, even after I fixed the QEMU network config, somehow the libvirtd service needed to be manually re-enabled upon reboots.
I want to be nicer to this distro, but unfortunately, CachyOS's broken configs for me on my install did not even give me a chance to fix it. I went back to Linux Mint after four days and I haven't ran into a single one of these bugs since. I have a feeling that pure Arch / Endeavour might have a less troublesome setup for me than this did.
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Version: 250825
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-11-16
Votes: 0
|
This flavour of linux is perfect, but of course, tinkerers like me will find one thing to not like about it, and what I wish they did better is the option to just give you a very minimal system, but with all the tweaks.
Basically, I don't like the fact that it pre-installs stuff like fish for your terminal, and other stuff like that. The installation menu does let you have no desktop environment, which I prefer, because then I can set up my desktop environment after installation, the way I like it with the peace of mind that it's clean, without the though of having to go in and delete stuff that came pre-installed.
But, I don't think that, this should be a concern at all. At the end of the day, this is probably the best version of linux I've ever used, and finally have I found a distro that I like.
I've never been the kind to distro hop, because different distributions are essentially just forks of debian and arch, but when I heard about cachyos, I could not have stuck to just base arch linux.
I used arch linux because when I was first starting out with linux, I had no idea which distro to pick, and I just wanted the most minimal thing so that my potato laptop could run it, and at that time I heard that "arch is lightweight" which it is, but cachyos is even more lightweight.
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Version: 250825
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-11-15
Votes: 0
|
One of the fastest, most stable desktop OS I have ever used.
I used to hop around a lot, always trying "new to me" distros, but I have been happy with CachyOS for over a year now.
I usually have messed up my Linux distribution by now.
It worked right out of the box for an older PC I have and flies on my new machine.
I manage everything CachyOS Hello, It lets you install apps, and Apps/tweaks gets your gaming set up fast.
It has been great a great gaming distro with Steam, Lutris and Heroic game launcher available. Games run fast.
I have installed apps through AUR and using flat packs no problem and once installed CachyOS keeps them up to date.
"Reinstall all packages" is a nice feature, as I live in a rural area with power outages.
Great distro for both my machines. I find I am using my computer more than I am tinkering.YMMV.
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Version: 250825
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-11-14
Votes: 0
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I have been using linux for years but this is my first Arch based distro and I chose it for my home pc because of its modern hardware. I chose KDE and systemd-boot. Installation was very easy on a disk that windows also reside as a second boot option by simply following the wiki instructions and recommendations.
I am using it for about a month without any major issues. During this time I haven't booted to Windows at all. For the few applications like ivms4200 (although I got it to work with wine) and to run anydesk I have used a docker win11 instance. Very easy to install and run.
The people involved have done an excellent job both with the distro and the wiki.
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Version: 250825
Rating: 1
Date: 2025-11-07
Votes: 0
|
I tested cachyos immediately after its release, coming from endeavouros, which is my daily driver, for months without any problems right out of the box.
Installation of cachyos went ok enough, and Wi-Fi and other hardware were recognized after a little while of drivers being updated. KDE Plasma as the desktop environment ran without issues. Though the OS installs pretty slowly, and booting is equally slow as well.
However, it's a distro full of bloat and “optimizations”, that are half-baked and don’t have any evidence and proof to back any of these “optimizations” are helpful- they just add a ton of resource usage and lots of processes running, which is actually quite sad, the bloatware found in this distro where you get three terminals and several media players out of the box—why?
But the printer, an Epson ET 2650, was listed, but apparently lacked the necessary printer drivers to get it to print.
And since there was no package manager and Flathub couldn't help either, that was a major deal-breaker.
Otherwise, I have nothing negative to report; Flathub provides the necessary programs.
However, the pre-installed programs in cachyos can't be easily uninstalled; at least, I couldn't find a way to do so, and the developers' blog wasn't particularly helpful either.
That ended my experiment with cachyos, and I'm going back to endeavouros who are open with the community and helpful and not closed off and hostile like cachyos is.
System
Acer Aspire C24-860
Intel® Core™ i3-7130U × 4
Intel® HD Graphics 620 (KBL GT2)
16 GB RAM 1 TB Samsung SSD
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Version: 250825
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-11-02
Votes: 17
|
CachyOS is honestly one of my favorite distros since I've been distro hopping.
Cachy works really well out of the box with gaming tools ready to be added after a fresh install with just a button.
There's a bit of a learning curve to Arch as compared to something like Mint that works right out the box and comes with a software installer (Octopi does exist but it can be a little jarring to those new to using it)
I personally use Cachy for gaming and editing and it works great for that, Aside from having a few issues with davinci resolve to get it working (Had to go to an old version of some libc++ & libc++abi packages) and a modloader just not running without .net6.0 (Thank you Protontricks) The distro works great!
If you're just getting into Linux and are distro hopping give this a shot, I know it's an Arch distro but it's not too scary after you learn a few commands and browse the user forums.
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Version: 250825
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-11-01
Votes: 17
|
For me, CachyOS has been my daily driver for two years. I prefer Arch-based distros, and started with Garuda, then move to normal Arch. But when CachyOS was released, with various tweaks to the kernel for gaming, and had a graphical installer, I was hooked.
What I also like is CachyOS optimizes the applications distributed with CachyOS to take advantage of the tweaks in the kernel, etc. The CachyOS Wiki is a great source of knowledge on pre and post install steps you can do to make your experience with CachyOS even better.
But in the end, I still have that Arch freedom to work with which lets me pick and choose what I want, to make it as lean, or as fully loaded as needed. I started using Linux back in 1993 when it was first released. I've worked with the SLS, Slackware and other early distributions where you had to choose what you wanted to install. Arch gives me that nostalgic feeling of when I first started to use and learn Linux.
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Version: 250825
Rating: 1
Date: 2025-10-30
Votes: 2
|
Live disk loads OK. Slow to boot and slow to use.
Installation from USB key to SSD failed (black screen after boot).
The installer gives erroneously "no disk with gpt table", "no EFI partition".
First time I encounter this installer, could not find a remedy.
I can't recall when was the last time an installation failed for me (no expert, but linux user for many years).
KDE version.
Machine:
Type: Desktop Mobo: Gigabyte model: B450 AORUS M
serial: UEFI: American Megatrends LLC. v: F67g
date: 03/11/2025
|
Version: 250825
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-10-30
Votes: 2
|
A great distro!
My only complaint about it is that it did not come with the discover store for flatpaks by default. I got accustomed to it on SteamOS on my steamdeck so I was disappointed to see it missing from here.
But everything else is great! Doing game development I thought it made a little more sense to get a more optimized kernal that was supported by the distro. Arch based means my dependencies are more up-to-date. I have had no breakages like I have had in the past with Arch and Endevour OS.
Pacman is easy enough to use but the inclusion of Octopi is also great, to handle searching and installing with a graphical interface.
I have had no issues specific to this distro.
I used the KDE desktop, default bootloader and I haven't picked a kernal aside from the LTS and V3 that are default installed.
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Version: 250825
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-10-30
Votes: 17
|
I’ve tried countless Arch-based distributions — including pure Arch, EndeavourOS, and Manjaro — but CachyOS is on a completely different level. It’s the perfect blend of Arch’s purity, speed, and simplicity, combined with real-world usability and rock-solid stability.
The installation is fast and flawless, the interface is clean and modern, and everything just works right after setup. No tinkering, no post-install headaches — just a fully functional, elegant system ready for work, development, multimedia, and even heavy workloads.
The Cachy Kernel deserves a special mention: it’s unbelievably smooth and responsive. Everything feels instantaneous — windows, scrolling, compiling, even web browsing. On my Ryzen workstation, performance is noticeably higher than on vanilla Arch.
I’ve been using CachyOS as my main workstation for quite some time now, and it’s been perfectly stable — not a single crash or issue. Every update runs cleanly, and you can clearly see how much care and attention the developers put into this project.
CachyOS is Arch done right — fast, modern, and full of soul. ❤️
Huge thanks to the team for creating this masterpiece. I can’t imagine going back to anything else.
10/10 — simply outstanding!
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Version: 250825
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-10-23
Votes: 26
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So far I am absolutely loving CachyOS. Over the past couple weeks I have moved all of my Windows machines to Linux.. While researching which distro I wanted to use, I saw someone mention CachyOS. I grabbed the ISO stuck it on a flash drive and installed it. I had no issues during install. The desktop(KDE Plasma) was beautiful. I installed Steam. Installed a few games and ALL of them worked immediately. The first install was not on my primary desktop but after a few hours of use I was sold and I made plans to (finally) drop Windows. After working through some issues not related to CachyOS, I had it installed on my desktop. Over the next few days I was able to get everything setup as I wanted it. I couldnt be more impressed and happy with the change to CachyOS.
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Version: 250825
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-10-22
Votes: 9
|
I really enjoy cachy, mainly because of the wiki they have. It was fairly easy to install, I would say that if you're able to install windows on your own, you can configure a stable Cachy system, no matter the GPU.
I stuck with KDE Plasma, but the choice of out of the box DesktopEV is great, but could maybe be overwhelming for some users.
The package mangement options are also great, from graphical installers to just pacman itself. Especially the gaming package. Load up Lutris and Steam and nearly everything works without you touching anything.
I hope more people switch to cachy, which would lead to even better improvements.
|
Version: 250825
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-10-22
Votes: 8
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So far I am absolutely loving CachyOS. Over the past couple weeks I have moved all of my Windows machines to Linux.. While researching which distro I wanted to use, I saw someone mention CachyOS. I grabbed the ISO stuck it on a flash drive and installed it. I had no issues during install. The desktop(KDE Plasma) was beautiful. I installed Steam. Installed a few games and ALL of them worked immediately. The first install was not on my primary desktop but after a few hours of use I was sold and I made plans to (finally) drop Windows. After working through some issues not related to CachyOS, I had it installed on my desktop. Over the next few days I was able to get everything setup as I wanted it. I couldnt be more impressed and happy with the change to CachyOS.
Pros:
Very easy to install
KDE Plasma desktop looks very nice.
CachyOS is very fast and responsive on my hardware. You experience may vary.
Gaming has been perfect so far. Steam + Lutris = Every game I would ever want or need to play.
Cons.
I have ran into one issue that may be a bigger problem for users new to Linux. While getting my drives setup I had to modify the /etc/fstab so the drives would be mounted at boot. If there is anything in this file that is wrong, the OS will refuse to boot and drops you to "Emergency Mode". I just commented out the changes I had made and rebooted into the OS with no problems. The OS also makes a snapshot anytime you install something so you are always able to revert if something breaks.
I dont really have any complaints other than that.
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Version: 250825
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-10-22
Votes: 5
|
Hello,
Working with this latest version has been very enjoyable and productive for me. Problems with package updates, in particular, seem to have been resolved. Furthermore, the old hardware issues I was experiencing with the new kernel also seem to have disappeared.
I can successfully carry out my daily routines and tasks. I've always used a Linux operating system on my desktop since 1995. After using Manjaro, CachyOS has become even more enjoyable and free.
The package update service and the rapid installation and updating of packages through the nearest mirror sites are excellent. Furthermore, the wide variety of Windows interfaces made it easy to choose the interface I wanted.
Thank you.
TA2MIX
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Version: 250825
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-10-20
Votes: 13
|
The best Linux distribution so far on my 2015 iMac with CachyOS (KDE) has been working properly.
I previously used a different Linux distribution.
Sadly, that distribution crashed, so I moved to CachyOS.
I put CachyOS on the SATA partition (I use a hybrid drive) because of some installation negligence.
which seemed noticeably slow to react, and I noticed that many people were complimenting CachyOS's speed.
Realising my mistake, I used gparted to clear the other drive during the live setup and reinstalled CachyOS in the SSD portion of the drive.
When compared to earlier, the OS is now responding quickly.
I am aware that the i5 processor I am using is fourth or fifth generation.
But still I am having the best experiance so far from the 11 years old machine I use.
Sound driver works fine, I use wired connected, so wifi not tested.
I use generic mesa driver, works fine on daily tasks.
Choice of desktop envinroment was avaiable during instalation process.
I selected KDE as it works best for me as I have a inbuild 27inch 5K display.
XFCE has caused some scaling issues before.
I would rather keep it simple and free of gimmicky addons.
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Version: 250825
Rating: 1
Date: 2025-10-18
Votes: 0
|
CachyOS is definitely the worst Linux distro I've tried, I've been hopping distros for a while now and I got really tired of it. every distro had it's problem, I had to setup up many things which was really consuming my time. until I found out about cachy, but it’s promise of stability was a lie. My life completely changed after that, here's why it changed my life. First, it doesn’t come configured with all the necessary drivers and things you need for gaming or even normal use. second, it does not come with your Nvidia drivers, and you have to set up everything. I really struggled a lot with this Nvidia part on this distro. Third, it's really really slow, if you're a gamer then you must avoid cachyos. This distro truly changed the way I think about Linux. its setup is really hard, and you do not get to choose your favorite desktop environment.
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Version: 250825
Rating: 1
Date: 2025-10-18
Votes: 0
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Unfortunately, Cachy does not include the Wifi drivers for my Realtek 8821AU-based Wifi modem. This also means I could not install it because Cachy insists on having an internet connection to do the install from the live version. And I should not have to worry about the drivers in 2025, whether they are built into the kernel or added to the distro before being released to the wild. Tethering isn't even an option for some wifi hotspot, although mine does it, Why jump through hoops just to test Arch? 1/10 for me..
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Version: 250825
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-10-17
Votes: 14
|
CachyOS might finally be the distro that ends my long streak of hopping from one Linux setup to another. From the moment I ran the installer, it was clear that this project is built with both polish and technical depth in mind. The installation process is intuitive yet remarkably flexible, giving fine-grained control over kernels, filesystems, and performance optimizations without overwhelming the user. It’s one of the rare Arch-based distros that manages to balance power with approachability.
Once installed, CachyOS delivers a system that feels both snappy and thoughtfully tuned. The maintainers have clearly optimized for responsiveness, and the inclusion of performance patches and custom repositories makes it easy to keep everything running fast and up to date. Whether you’re into gaming, development, or just want a clean, efficient desktop, CachyOS adapts well to your needs.
What stands out most is its philosophy: Linux your way, without compromise. It respects Arch traditions while improving on them with intelligent defaults, good documentation, and an active community. For those who appreciate technical elegance but still want convenience, it’s hard to beat.
We’re living in an incredible era for desktop Linux, where projects like CachyOS prove that open-source systems can be modern, high-performance, and user-friendly all at once. After years of testing and tweaking countless distributions, this one finally feels complete enough to call home.
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Version: 250825
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-10-17
Votes: 2
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CachyOS is definitely the best Linux distro I've tried, I've been hopping distros for a while now and I got really tired of it. every distro had it's problem, I had to setup up many things which was really consuming my time. until I found out about cachy. My life completely changed after that, here's why it changed my life. First, it comes configured with all the necessary drivers and things you need for gaming or even normal use. second, it comes with your Nvidia drivers all working without having to set up anything at all. I really struggled alot with this Nvidia part on other distros. Third, it's really really fast, if you're a gamer then you must use CachyOS. This distro truly changed the way I think about Linux. it's setup is really easy, and you get to choose your favorite desktop environment.
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Version: 250825
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-10-10
Votes: 16
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I use the distribution professionally. (Not only for programming, but also for normal office tasks [teleconferencing, creating documents, etc.]).
All applications for teleconferencing, video conferencing, text creation, spreadsheets, and presentations are available and work flawlessly.
I am very enthusiastic about the good performance and easy installation.
The hardware is wonderfully supported. Even on slightly more complex hardware, e.g., hybrid graphics cards, there are no problems.
The stability is excellent, and I can only recommend this distribution.
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Version: 250825
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-10-10
Votes: 17
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This distro might have stopped my distrohopping. I have tried numerous distros like Linux Mint, Zorin OS, Nobara, Ubuntu, Manjaro. I decided to install CachyOS and I am blown away how fast this distribution is. I also dualboot with Windows 11 and i am shocked how slow that OS is, especially next to CachyOS.
Everything works out of the box, I used to have issues with Nvidia card on other distros, and Wayland used to be slow for some reason for me and cause trouble. CachyOS however is exception, with Nvidia GPU and Wayland everything works flawlessly without hiccups. My system boots up quick, windows open quick and everything just is so responsive, and gaming just works so well.
Since this is Arch Linux based, you might have to use some time to get some things set up, but once you get it, you're in for treat. Highly recommend this distribution who is looking for fast distribution that does what its supposed to do, and that can run games smoothly.
Kudos to CachyOS team, keep evolving this distro even further since you have the right recipe!
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Version: 241221
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-10-07
Votes: 17
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I use CachyOS since 8 months and linux since 2015.
This is the fastest distro I ever used. For Arch as its base it's pretty stable.
Never ran into any issues which I never thought tbh. My Arch experience back then was... adventures.
Gaming, music editing works well. The community holds together and I really like the different options of schedulers.
Didn't struggle with my Nvidia GPU, it worked out of the box.
I like this distro more than Nobara, even that Nobara is also pretty good but I ran into issues with updates too often.
I'm glad, that there is an updater now, which I can run to upgrade the whole system (incl. Flatpaks!!).
Installed CachyOS for 3 other guys, 1 of them doesn't know anything about computers but he is happier than with windows and I got some more time because there are way less issues with CachyOS than it was with Windows.
I can really recommend this distro. For beginners, you need someone to explain (YT or personal) the basics like updating the system (Updater with user interaction), how to install/uninstall software (Octopi).
They'll notice the faster boot time and snappy system.
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Version: 241221
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-10-05
Votes: 5
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The only distro that worked out of the box for my GPU (AMD 9070XT) since then I only used CachyOS. Looks good, works good.
I personally like ubuntu based distros better since I am used to ubuntu commands but this distro is really convenient if you just want it to work out of the box for gaming. Just install the distro, install steam, run games with proton and you are set. So far, I have really no complains with the system. I hope this distro is here to stay and other developers can learn something from what this distro brought to the market. Well done to the team of developers!
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Version: 250825
Rating: 1
Date: 2025-10-02
Votes: 0
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I have praised this distro after quite a bit of use. But serious problem with the updates continues. Time and time again I have had to download the latest version and reinstall. It's going well until there's a big upgrade. After the last major upgrade via the package manager, KDE desktop's screen size became incredibly large and it was not possible to start any programs or system tools!
The system works ok enough and then there are updates and something goes seriously wrong. Version 241221 KDE Plasma worked better after installation, but it wouldn't turn off completely! When I looked for a solution via Startpage, most of the answers were something that only very technical users could fix. No, this cachyos seems to remain in the test pit! I would rather choose a more stable system that you can trust and that works all the time.
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Version: 250825
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-10-02
Votes: 10
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I have no words, this distro is just awesome. Everything works out of the box. It's also really good for developers.
If you want one of the best gaming experiences, and want to code and develop things as well, this distro is rock solid and pretty good.
Its also good for handheld devices. There's a version of this distro called the handheld edition.
This is also very good for watching movies and running media and stuff.
Overall, this distro is awesome for daily use and I highly recommend you guys to try it out :)
Hats off to the developers for creating such an awesome distro.
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Version: 250825
Rating: 1
Date: 2025-10-01
Votes: 0
|
Sadly, I find the installer environment close to unusable when Ethernet is not available (ie. I *have to* set up wireless). From the command line, connmanctl returns mysterious errors not mentioned either in the cachyos wiki or in the arch wiki; trying the “custom” KDE wifi applet is torture because the GUI seems to be configured for space aliens with ~4 hands and ~100 fingers. It is so depressing because I believe in the simplicity, including init, which is the selling point of cachyos, at least I thought it was. I don't know, maybe replacing wpasupplicant with connman is a mistake?
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Version: 250825
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-09-27
Votes: 14
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In 2022/2023 ish i was using linux mint as double boot, AT THAT TIME it didnt fulfill my needs (alot has changed in few years, steam proton) - now using cachy as daily solo boot for a month with no issues (came from windows 10).
Cachy with KDE is amazingly welcoming for someone like me, who is rather new to linux space, very intuitive. The wiki is very easy to follow, the cachy hellopage on bootup very helpful with very useful tools.
The use of terminal is very minimal or not needed at all if thats what scares you. I might be wrong about this but with my Nvidia card 2060 super might be performing better on cachy then other distros, cause one/two of the cachy devs is working for nvidia driver team aswell. Even running Intel Core i5-4690K which is quite old - so both cpu and gpu not linux friendly (historically) but i still get great experience while using cachyOS. On AMD tech i bet this OS is absolute rocketship, since wiki lists even more perfomance tweaks for AMD.
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Version: 250825
Rating: 1
Date: 2025-09-26
Votes: 0
|
No faster than Arch Vanilla. I just use Manjaro, which meets my needs: stability. I took a look at Garuda, which has a lot of interesting features. I use it as a second operating system for gaming and because it has a good forum.
As for Cachy, I've noticed that quite a few essential packages have been modified with Cachy in mind, but I'm concerned given the small team of developers. I hope I'm wrong, of course, and I wish this team courage and resilience.
But I'm convinced that Cachy's approach (including kernel optimization) will be an interesting idea to consider.
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Version: 250825
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-09-26
Votes: 11
|
This is a really great distro. We have a bunch of older hardware in the office hitting EOL for Windows 10, and there's no way they can run 11. For funzies, I installed cachy on one of our compromised workstations today - it's pretty mid/low-spec, intel i5 something or other, 16GB ram, 250GB HDD. The installation and initial configuration is genuinely about the smoothest I've ever seen, and all of the essential features either worked "out of the box", or required 5 minutes of tinkering.
I'm not going to daily drive this, I have my own preference, but this is probably something I'm going to reach for first when I need to set up a new general purpose system quickly. Fingers crossed for the cachyos community NOT becoming like the arch or manjaro ones, iykyk what I mean.
Great work, maintainers!
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Version: 250825
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-09-25
Votes: 0
|
CachyOS is a fairly user-friendly Arch-based distro. The optimised kernels and patches are pretty stable on my all-AMD PC. Some games such as the older CoDs see a substantial boost in performance, presumably those that benefit from more cache. Bootable snapshots are enabled by default on GRUB and Limine, allowing for easy rollback.
That being said, KDE Plasma's S.M.A.R.T. utility is missing, and I ran into some major issues with Steam (Native), such as FMVs having a red filter, or games outright crashing. Thankfully, vanilla Steam works as intended. Overall, this is my favourite distro right now, and I think it has a bright future. :)
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Version: 250825
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-09-25
Votes: 6
|
One of the fastest, most stable desktop OS i have ever used. I used to be a distro hopper until i landed into KashiOS.
A lot of it-s built in tools are super easy to use, and allow for a lot of customization to your OS, and i haven't had it break on me once ever since i switched to it at the beginning of the year.
That being said, when choosing DE's, personally i found Gnome to be a lot more stable than KDE here (but that could also be a user issue since I'm primarily a Gnome user, even if I'm currently using CashiOS with KDE)
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Version: 250825
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-09-22
Votes: 13
|
The best. Love it.
Fast. Secure. Stable.
Custom Kernel Tuned for Performance and Stability. Distro based on Arch Linux. KDE desktop.
CachyOS provides a large selection of optimized packages specifically compiled for various modern CPU architectures. This includes support for x86-64-v3, x86-64-v4, and Zen4+ systems, ensuring your software is built to take full advantage of your hardware’s capabilities for a significant performance boost.
I made the switch from Windows 10 to CashyOS.
In love with Linux.
1.000/1.000
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Version: 250825
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-09-21
Votes: 20
|
I used to be a distro hopper, not for fun like other people, but to find the best distro to replace Microsoft Windows. So glad I found CachyOS, I could play games from my steam library and even stream it on Twitch. During installation, it detects what hardware you have and have all the required drivers installed so you can use your computer right after installation. Sure it's might not suitable for beginners, but those who willing to learn, it's worth it.
Last but not least, a big thank you from the bottom of my heart, to CachyOS developers and their communities to make this distro the best operating system for everyone.
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Version: 250825
Rating: 8
Date: 2025-09-15
Votes: 3
|
I was excited to see a distro based on Arch Linux so high in the ‘Distro-Watch’ ranking and decided to try it out.
I have over 20 years of experience with Linux. I spent many years working with SuSE, then with Opensuse, and now I've been using Linux Mint for about 7 years.
Installation:
Extraordinarily easy, fast, and stable. Nothing to say, for beginners this should not be difficult. I installed the KDE version, which reminds me of my SuSE time. The welcome screen is user-friendly and too well documented. Intuitive and easy to use.
Start reviewing applications and desktop settings.
The system is already operating with Wayland. The stability is remarkable. However, not all KDE features are available.
Trying to replicate my ecosystem of applications (i.e. LibreOffice) and games. The ease with which Steam and Lutris have been installed is remarkable. I had to ask how to install them in the forums, and the response and task were quick and simple. The games operate remarkably well and are stable.
I started having problems when I wanted to install applications that are not natively available for CachyOS (Arch), such as Softmaker. It is true that there is a way to install them and I managed to work with them, but it has to be done through commands in the terminal and they are not well integrated into the desktop.
For other packages such as Stremio, protonmail, etc., there are instructions in the forums on how to install them, and although you also have to work with the terminal, their operation is relatively simple.
Conclusion:
The KDE desktop appears polished and too stable. However, it is limited in terms of customising some appearances and functionalities. Perhaps I should try other desktops.
As for the range of applications and games, as long as you use the packages available for Arch, it is very simple to install and work with them.
You may encounter problems when you want to install packages that are not native to Arch. Here you have to use the terminal and seek support from forums and the community, who are always willing to help.
In short, it is a too modern, stable system with the latest applications and software. CachyOS is a very good rolling release system.
And it is precisely this point that prevents me from installing it on my work machines yet.
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Version: 250825
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-09-15
Votes: 15
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In my opinion, this is the best distribution for gaming. Personally, I have no issues with this system. I have been using it daily for a year now, and so far everything is fine. The distribution itself has many improvements such as custom kernels, Wine with fixes (especially regarding multimedia codecs in games), and custom Proton versions. Recently, a graphical system updater even appeared. There are no unnecessary applications in this system at startup. With one click, you can install all the packages needed for gaming. In my opinion, it's worth paying attention to this distribution. And if you encounter any problems running a particular game, I recommend the protonDB website, where you can find tips on how to launch a specific game or its compatibility with Linux systems.
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Version: 250825
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-09-11
Votes: 27
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First time Linux user (with the caveat that I am a programmer, so I have had Linux experience) moving from Windows 11. Wanted a fast OS where I could do work and game. CachyOS was perfect for this and I decided to go with it and KDE Plasma as a DE. I have had an amazing experience installing it and found the wiki and community incredibly useful. There hasn´t been a problem yet where I couldn´t quickly find a post with the solution. The desktop is incredibly snappy. I absolutely love the customization, although that isn´t necessarily a CachyOS feature.
The repos they give you for pacman are also filled with configs so they really make the Arch Linux experience super easy. Gaming was as easy as installing a package and now it works. In fact, in Kingdom Come Deliverance I am now able to play on High and get 60FPS, whereas on Windows I was playing on Low for the same performance.
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Version: 241221
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-09-09
Votes: 27
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Moved from Windows 11 to CachyOS as i was sick to death of the new stuff microsoft was putting into windows, still getting used to linux and i know arch based linux not the best for beginners to start with.
Boot speed is fast and desktop is snappy and responsive way faster than windows,still getting used to terminal that is a learning curve, best part i install what i need not what someone else tells me to that i have to remove after install.
Also not had this much fun in years learning a new OS and do not think i'm ever going back to windows at this rate.
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Version: 250825
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-09-06
Votes: 13
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I had been using Kubuntu on a i5 6200u laptop, which ran "fine", but after reading such glowing reviews about CachyOS, I decuded to test it. I have been surprised.
The installation was easy and quick, it has been stable till now, and VERY snappy! The only "loss" has been that I can't get QSV to be detected (a minor quirk). Updates are also fast and hassle-free, as the depencies seemed to be addressed correctly.
Gaming? No idea... I want a daily driver, something solid but that will not drag around on such old hardware, and it seems CachyOS checks all the right boxes.
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Version: 250825
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-09-06
Votes: 12
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After more than 15 years with Debian-based distributions (Debian, Ubuntu, Mint), I've fallen in love with Linux again with CachyOS. My absolute favorite at the moment. I still have Linux Mint on my second M2 SSD for backup. But thanks to Snapper, I don't really think it's necessary anymore. I am using it on an ASUS TUF Gaming A17 with 64GB of RAM and an RTX4060 8GB VRAM. For Gaming and AI, everything runs fast and smooth with CachyOS. I would say Linux Mint is not capable for gaming modern Games. No more Windows!
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Version: 250825
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-09-06
Votes: 5
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I recently made the switch from Windows 11 to Cashy OS, and so far the experience has been very positive. The first thing that stood out to me was the speed: the system boots in about 21 seconds, which feels incredibly quick compared to what I was used to. Performance in general is smooth and responsive, making everyday tasks much more pleasant.
Even though I was completely new to this operating system, I was surprised by how beginner-friendly it is. The interface is intuitive, and it doesn’t take long to get comfortable with the basics. That said, one area where I needed some extra time to adjust was installing applications. The process is a bit more complex and different from what I was used to on Windows, but once you understand how it works, it becomes manageable.
Overall, Cashy OS offers a fast, reliable, and lightweight alternative to Windows. If you value performance and a clean user experience, and don’t mind a small learning curve with software installation, it’s definitely worth trying.
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Version: 250825
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-09-05
Votes: 10
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This is a highly recommended distro. I use it with KDE and also tried Cosmic.
I'm new to Arch. I've used Ubuntu/KDE on both desktop and laptop for many years, due to recent hardware upgrades I switched to CachyOS about two months ago.
I was initially concerned that trying Arch/CachyOS would involve a steep learning curve. However, CachyOS's GUI installer makes the installation process arguably simpler than installing Windows, completely changed my perception of Arch. When installing apps, pacman + paru (yay alternative) not only provides transparency but also delivers a more comfortable, controllable experience than apt/snap. I really appreciate how CachyOS manages to strike a balance between simplicity and having everything under control.
The recommended Grub + Btrfs delivers highly reliable and user-friendly snapshot functionality, eliminating concerns about risks associated with rolling updates. Furthermore, CachyOS offers Linux kernel LTS version as options in both boot and rollback, in case compatibility issues arise with the latest kernel.
The only issue I encountered was downloading and switching KDE themes. While downloading the Sweet KDE and WhiteSur from the store, I received unnecessary error messages and was unable to use them at all. Kvantum manager‘s problem I guess.
I'm not a seasoned gamer, I've only played Black Myth with CachyOS, and I'm quite satisfied with its performance.
Awesome system, I have decided to stick with CachyOS.
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Version: 250825
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-09-02
Votes: 7
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I usually go with Deb or Fedora, but like many I try different distro's when on catches my eye...
I have been running CachyOS for about a month now and it has been pretty solid. Installed on a couple laptops with KDE and Hyprland. Both seem to run pretty good. Hyprland is Jakoolit and installed with no issues.
Only one issue so far. On one laptop after an update, the NIC disappeared. No WiFi or wired functionality.
This issue was easily overcome. Thanks to BTRFS and Snapper a different snapshot was chosen and used. The subsequent update has performed well and I continue to use it as my development laptop.
I switched from Deb to Fedora because of Deb's release cycle (I still choose Deb for my servers). Fedora has been solid, but I wanted to try a rolling release again. That brought me to where I am with CachyOS. If the performance remains as solid as it has been, I will probably rebuild my desktop to use CachyOS.
IMHO, it is worth a try if you are looking at distro's.
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Version: 250713
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-08-24
Votes: 26
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Excellent option, I use it with LXDE + i3wm.
Internet, video and music and all the programs I need for development and communication, schedulers and task managers, backup programs work great.
I used a script ArtNazarov/arch-postinstall from GitHub for post-configuration.
Tested applications: Telegram, firefox, terminology, okular, brave, progress-tracker, thunderbird, keepassxc, dolphin, doublecmd, far2l, mc, copyq, kate, gwenview, qmmp, bleachbit, portproton, stacer, radiotray-ng, luckybackup etc
Stable system, no freezes or crashes observed
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Version: 250824
Rating: 6
Date: 2025-08-24
Votes: 0
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I liked the previous version a lot, but this latest set of updates hosed my printer. This is probably an Arch thing more than a Cachy specific thing, but my other distros haven't had any problems with the printer. But in this update, seems like a bunch of the cups libraries are Back Street Boys "Gone gone gone". I'm not going to fight with it for a while, I have too much work to do to be spending time emailing maintainers and uploading logs and such. I'll try Cachy again sometime soon, maybe it will be worked out by then.
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Version: 250824
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-08-24
Votes: 22
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In my opinion, cachyOS is the best distribution for gamers. CachyOS Hello has many graphical configuration tools that are accessible to beginner Linux users. There's also a kernel manager where you can find various versions of Linux kernels (I recommend Bore LTO for gaming). The system installer is simple and intuitive. You can choose the desktop to install or additional programs. Cachy OS Hello has a great gaming packages installation script that includes all the packages needed to run games. I recommend this distribution for gaming, multimedia, and web browsing.
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Latest Reviews
Project: CachyOS
Version: 251129
Rating: 10
Date: 2026-01-17
Votes: 4
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I have been a long-time user of both Windows and macOS, but transitioning to CachyOS has been a total game-changer for my workflow. With the combination of CachyOS and the Niri compositor, everything runs incredibly smoothly and feels significantly more responsive than any other setup I've tried.
One of the standout features is how user-friendly it is for gamers; it provides excellent default gaming packages out of the box, making it remarkably easy to set up Steam and start playing immediately without the usual Linux troubleshooting. The performance gains were so noticeable that I actually reformatted my entire disk and left the Windows platform for good. Furthermore, the documentation is exceptionally helpful and comprehensive, which made the transition feel seamless. If you are looking for a high-performance, Arch-based distribution that just works, I cannot recommend CachyOS enough.
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 251129
Rating: 10
Date: 2026-01-13
Votes: 0
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Honestly, I can´t use other distros. The AUR and pacman are the most versatile package managers that I have used, everytime I try a non-arch distro I miss them, and why can´t I use other arch based distros? CachyOS has the least problem with my hardware. Using it on a acer nitro 5 an517-57, meaning impossible to disable nvidia optimus, as i use a dual monitor setup I get a lot of trouble. Other distros capped my second monitor refresh rate in half when using wayland, this also occured on CachyOS put changing to any cachyV4 kernel version fixed it. Even with this problem I used it for 1 month without regrets, then hopped to windows so i could play some siege, fortunately for me it got hacked and I was stuck seeing the agony of slowed down Firefox scroll bar on firefox or when watching 1440p videos, also the unresponsive file searcher. CachyOS KDE surpasses any use case of windows unless when you NEED Adobe software / MS Office and don´t want to bother creating a vm/container to run it. Also, updates didn´t break anything on my end, so no planned obsolesce like Microsoft does with Windows. Games run great, there is a "install all necessary game packages" wich makes it so fine, Its custom proton version fell snappier and more performant than other options. A really well rounded distro.
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 251129
Rating: 10
Date: 2026-01-09
Votes: 1
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After being on Mint, Fedora Bazzite and CachyOs for two moths, I seriously found CachyOs to be the best distro i have ever used. It just works out of the box for my nvidia 5090, it just loads the latest NVIDIA drivers and updates it withought fuss, it recognizes my monitor, keyboard and mouse brands without issues. With fedora and Mint i have to go to the terminal to download the 5090 driver. As for system restore Cachy gives you Btfrs like Mints time shift, unfortunately Fedora gives you nothing. The gaming packages that come with Cachy is another plus. For gaming Cachy was the best, unilike bazzite which i used as well and had issues with. Seriously recommend this distro for beginners and advanced users alike. Its as easy as Mint, users often dismiss the cachy hello and this is where the Cachy team needs to spend some time to make the gui better so users can be more aware of. The cachy team should make the Cachy software installer the main one and remove octopi and the arch updater as users are confused and often mistake them for the official app store. I seriously wish the Cachy team all the success.
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 251129
Rating: 10
Date: 2026-01-08
Votes: 2
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This is Arch, but it has more performance and convenience. The standout feature is the speed: CachyOS uses aggressively tuned kernels, including the BORE scheduler, which delivers a genuinely snappier feel especially on older hardware. Applications launch quicker, and the desktop just feels more responsive. The installer is very straightforward and easy to use. You get a smooth Calamares installer, followed by their excellent "CachyOS Setup" app. This application lets you configure drivers, select desktop environments (KDE Plasma is the flagship, and it's beautifully configured), and install curated packages or niche items like gaming tools with a few clicks.
You get all the power of Arch, access to the AUR, and rolling updates but without the manual setup grind. The documentation is community-driven and improving, though it can be sparse in some areas compared to more established distros. It’s not for absolute Linux newcomers, as you still need some terminal comfort for maintenance, but it’s perfect for tinkerers and performance seekers who want a cutting-edge, fast system without starting from absolute zero. For me, it hit the sweet spot between control and convenience.
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 251129
Rating: 1
Date: 2026-01-06
Votes: 0
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I often wonder about ridiculous claims, blazing fast, CatchyOS, ahem, that one burned itself very quickly.
CatchyOS has one very big catch, even running from memory it feels sluggish compared to antiX with ICEWM running live from ram. From SSD it is also noticeably slower, the test experience is now consigned to the land of loonies and legends.
To add in:
The distro is so slow, applications crash a lot of the time, and I had numerous lock-ups, one that was so bad, it broke grub and just really kept being a beta quality product. Releases are rushed out with no care at all, and as others have said, the community, wow, it’s toxic.
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 251129
Rating: 10
Date: 2026-01-06
Votes: 0
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For PC gamers who are technically minded, comfortable in their OS, like customisations and control, I wouldn't pick any other distribution, especially if you're new to Linux. It's a gentle introduction to using Arch Linux, and the opinions are all very much what you'd want, gaming optimised kernels, enhancements for the latest AMD CPUs, an updater CLI/GUI combo. Check recent benchmarks too, CachyOS usually tops the charts which proves its capability and that the changes are meaningful. I won't be going back to Windows
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 251129
Rating: 10
Date: 2026-01-05
Votes: 0
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The best Linux distro I used. I was an Ubuntu user for a long time. I have a high end recent spec PC. Nvidia GPU. Ubuntu (24.04 LTS) would crash on a daily basis (Nvidia). I tried many distros to replace Ubuntu but, all had issues with Nvidia.The problems I had, fail to walk up from suspend. Wrong monitor resolution when it does suspend and walk up. Screen tesaring and artifacts. I finally heard of Cachyos. It fixed all my issues and it is so snappy. It seems that the latest Nvidia drivers and the customisation by the Cachyos team have managed to fix Nvidia issues.It is my first Arch based OS and I won't go back. Keep the good work guys.
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 251129
Rating: 1
Date: 2026-01-03
Votes: 3
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Everyone told me coming from Windows to Linux, meant I should try catchy os. I was told how easy it was to use and how user friendly it was. I tried installing catchy os on every computer in the house (I have four). It is not easy or user friendly. It looks haphazardly put together, especially because of the use of minimalism and flat design as the UI. Asking for help meant needing to use the terminal for everything. I was instructed to use the terminal to change my desktop wallpaper. One of my computers would not boot no matter what I tried. Someone told me to edit the GRUB menu but since it would not boot and displayed a black screen, I could not do anything with it. I got it working on my desktop which was four years old, and it froze anytime it went into sleep mode. I tried disabling sleep mode, but the screen would still sometimes turn black. My laptop could not boot this and kept providing a kernel panic.
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 251129
Rating: 2
Date: 2026-01-03
Votes: 1
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It is an enthusiast distro that a lot of people coming from Windows should not be using. Based on Arch it does not hold your hand. Easy for non technical users to get caught with their pants down with security. No checking to see if packages will break your system.
I do like the performance boost but it is a tradeoff. Some apps and even games actually perform worse. Where others off minimal gains. Some do truly offer larger gains however. It really is your miles may vary.
If using an Arch distro I prefer either base Arch or EndeavourOS. Easy to use the CachyOS kernel if you want, but honestly no huge benefit.
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 251129
Rating: 1
Date: 2026-01-03
Votes: 1
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Installed, but without an Internet connection due to not recognizing DHCP or my modem. Distros that I have used that recognize DHCP and Modem are: Ultramarine, GeckoLinux, Devuan, Mint, SolydXK, KDE Neon. So, if those distros install and recognize the internet connection, how is it that catchyos is so stupid? There is not much help online, at least none you can understand. The community has not been very helpful and it is a bit rough if you do not understand near immediately in the "help" they give and understand what to do if there are bugs and other problems- the developer “team” (1 person) is also the same way. For a casual user, It’s difficult when it implies the utility of the command line too much.
I do not recommend this.
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 221230
Rating: 9
Date: 2026-01-03
Votes: 0
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This is my first and only distro I've used on my personal computer at home. I deleted Windows 6 months ago for this OS with KDE Plasma, and it's been a very easy transition with very few hiccups. I mostly use it for gaming, and there have been a few issues that popped up here and there, like randomly losing focus on my active game/window while playing a game (as if I had alt-tabbed out). But the solutions were't too difficult. I'd highly recommend this OS for gamers. I especially love how I can install the whole gaming package, including Steam proton, and Nvidia drivers all with one easy command prompt. That's faster than setting up steam on Windows.
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 251129
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-12-31
Votes: 0
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This is my third distro ever. Used Ubuntu very briefly in 2013 and Mint for a few months in 2018/2020.
My primary concern has been gaming performance on linux, and how it has evolved over time.
I decided to check in again in 2025, and the word was Arch based distros were doing best for games, and CachyOS and Endeavour were most friendly to Windows users. I tried CachyOS.
On CachyOS, everything I've played runs exceptionally well through Steam. Battle.net programs run via steam. This is currently achieved in a slightly inelegant way (installing Battle.net Launcher as a game in Steam), but all the games I played (SC2, D2R) function perfectly.
I have not tried anything from other platforms such as EA, though I read that they function well though HeroicLauncher or Lutris.
I tried Steam for Linux around 2013 and 2020. The performance in games vs Windows was pretty bad in 2013. In 2020 it was close but there was input lag issues in my experience. I am using the same hardware now as in 2020.
I am currently using a 360Hz monitor and the performance in games, to my eye, is now indistinguishable from the Win10 environment performance. Respsonse time to inputs feel exactly the same as they did in Windows10 the day before installing Cachy. I haven't tested any benchmarks because functionally I can't tell a difference.
I am quite satisfied with respect to modern game performance on CachyOS. Out of the box overclocking of the GPU with NVidia settings is nice to see now.
OS is quick in operation, very nice looking with Plasma Nord theme.
When I first tried Steam for Linux around 2013, there was one game that was Linux friendly in my library (TF2). Today I have a shared family library of over 1000 titles, and if I select 'only Linux compatible titles', only three titles out of 1000 are removed. All my old games that were not previously compatible now work.
Cons, with respect to gaming and the related programs, are superficial so far. After pressing the login button on the Battle.net Launcher, some visual corruption is sometimes seen in the login window before it signs in and switches to the main Battle.net program window.
After launching Starcraft 2 for the first time, it took a good minute or two to fully load in all the profile related data. I wasn't sure if the game was functioning properly, but once all the data was pulled it performed perfectly.
Every time I read Year of Linux, I shrug it off, but it is coming now. Given how much gaming drives the PC market, the parity that linux is reaching here is actually going to threaten Microsoft's market share before long. The only thing holding the gamers back has been the non functionality/performance of DirectX games.
i7 9900k 5.0Ghz
32gb ddr4
gigabyte nvidia rtx 2080 super
aorus z390 master
1 tb SSD
1440p 360hz monitor
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 251129
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-12-30
Votes: 0
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Best distro of the year.
CachyOS is by far the best distro of 2025. Its fast, responsive and full of goodness. Your games will run smooth as butter. The discord is super helpful and people are very nice there too. The only small complaint i have is setting up a custom dns can be a bit of a struggle.
To start gaming, all you need is to install the "Game package" and you can start gaming with the best kernel tweaks and proton version out there. This also includes Steam and Lutris.
Its simply fantastic and i recommend it to everyone who want to play games the best way on Linux.
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 251129
Rating: 1
Date: 2025-12-29
Votes: 2
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I tested catchyos immediately after its release, coming from endeavouros, which is my daily driver, for months without any problems right out of the box.
Installation of catchyos went ok enough, and Wi-Fi and other hardware were recognized after a little while of drivers being updated. KDE Plasma as the desktop environment ran without issues. Though the OS installs pretty slowly, and booting is equally slow as well.
However, it's a distro full of bloat and “optimizations”, that are half-baked and don’t have any evidence and proof to back any of these “optimizations” are helpful- they just add a ton of resource usage and lots of processes running, which is actually quite sad, the bloatware found in this distro where you get three terminals and several media players out of the box—why?
But the printer, an Epson ET 2650, was listed, but apparently lacked the necessary printer drivers to get it to print.
And since there was no package manager and Flathub couldn't help either, that was a major deal-breaker.
Otherwise, I have nothing negative to report; Flathub provides the necessary programs.
However, the pre-installed programs in catchyos can't be easily uninstalled; at least, I couldn't find a way to do so, and the developers' blog wasn't particularly helpful either.
That ended my experiment with catchyos, and I'm going back to endeavouros who are open with the community and helpful and not closed off and hostile like catchyos is.
System
Acer Aspire C24-860
Intel® Core™ i3-7130U × 4
Intel® HD Graphics 620 (KBL GT2)
16 GB RAM 1 TB Samsung SSD
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 251129
Rating: 4
Date: 2025-12-29
Votes: 2
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Not really a nice Distro but its getting a lot of downloads. Its not half as fast as the developers make it sound and a terrible installation process , not faster than most others that ive used over my 36 years of using Linux.
My test machines are very basic, 4th and 9th gen i7 with 16gb of memory and a SSD, had to restart my installation 3 times in VMWare, the basic apps installed by default are kind of boring and can not be used out of the box as a desktop machine.No office suite. Abi Word should not be included as the first choice.
On the looks side its not winning any accolades either but its not the worst you can get.
Im not a gamer so i have no intention spending an evening to get the emulators working well enough.
So its a no from me.
Out of the box distros that runs perfect are Mint and Zorin. They are both as perfect as you can get. Zorin is very underrated and its perfect as a workstation.
I have around 1700 client on Mint and Zorin workstations/desktops and laptops, with absolutely no issue..
Ive never seen Linux as a desktop replacement a there is a huge gap in desktop suites and software, but its getting there.
A celeron laptop with 8 gigs of mem and a SSD is just perfect for Linux.
This is a very basic feedback as my software programs and the sheer size of the projects killed CachOS.
great effort , but i wont be using or recommending it.
Nothing like Mint or Zorin to start of your Linux exploration with no tears.
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 251129
Rating: 1
Date: 2025-12-28
Votes: 2
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Live disk loads OK. Slow to boot and slow to use.
Installation from USB key to SSD failed (black screen after boot).
The installer gives erroneously "no disk with gpt table", "no EFI partition".
First time I encounter this installer, could not find a remedy.
I can't recall when was the last time an installation failed for me (no expert, but linux user for many years).
KDE version.
Machine:
Type: Desktop Mobo: Gigabyte model: B450 AORUS M
serial: UEFI: American Megatrends LLC. v: F67g
date: 12/28/2025
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 251129
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-12-27
Votes: 0
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My New favourite Linux distro for gaming, blazing fast, install the gaming package in the CachyOS Hello and just install games and smile. For newer hardware its one of the fastest Linux Distros out there. Coming from windows 11, it feels like youre driving a race car when using CachyOS. Its optimized and fast. I can see a rapid grow in CachyOS, and im not surpriced, just the fact that you can download this OS for free, hav NO spying and NO forced apps thrown at you is mindblowing. Using CachyOS you will have the advantage of using the latest and greatest. My mind is blown. CachyOS is my new home on my computer.
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 251129
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-12-27
Votes: 0
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I have been using cachyos flawlessly on my laptop for a year, with KDE Plasma and now with Niri.
This has been just great: it is fast, low on resource, good on power consumption and easy to use.
Installation was easy and I never had any issue with updates or anything else, even after 3 months not touching my PC.
It is minimal but all the essential packages are here, which I very much like (no bloat).
It just works, well and fast.
After years of distro hoping and distro comparison, I don't feel the need to distro hop anymore, I feel at home.
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 251129
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-12-25
Votes: 0
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POSITIVES:
- Blindingly fast, even on my eight year old Dell Latitude 7480. It uses very little processor and memory.
- Everything just worked: WiFi, Bluetooth, mouse, touch-pad, nightlight, firewall, app store, screen shots, access to other partitions (n.b. my documents that have their own), etc.
- Unlike Garuda, it comes with most of the major packages out of the box, eg LibreOffice.
- Much longer battery life than LMDE, which I have been using for six months now.
- If used to “sudo apt ….”, the terminal will run it anyway. The native command is “sudo pacman ….”
- My add ons, e.g. MegaSync cloud storage and PIA VPN (both good cross-platform apps), were relatively easy to install. WhatsApp, Teams, and Outlook (PWA WebApps through Brave Browser “save and share > install”) all work seamlessly.
- Multiple Desktop Environments including Budgie, Cosmic, and KDE Plasma.
NEGATIVES:
- The install was slow. A good internet connection is required or it just hangs.
- Settings are all over the place (in BigLinux, too, another Arch based distro), eg panel configuration (only available from the panel), desktop, quick settings, plasma settings, system settings, control panel, login screen, display configuration, desktop and wall paper, menu editor, time configuration (Set Time Format, Configure Digital Clock).
Anyway, highly recommended.
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 251129
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-12-25
Votes: 0
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Since I'm just a clueless Linux user, not a geek (having a car to drive it, not to tinker with the machine) I'm always worrying with rolling distros, if my system will boot after next system update. (my main is Debian based, MX). The reason I sometimes venture to Arch based systems is, there are coupe of old old old games that somehow works on arch based distros, but I'm too noob to manage to set it up on MX. Something to do with old 32 bit drivers. My main distro is just causing me too much headache here.
Manjaro, Endeavor, with both I had at some point problems, after system update wine crashed the game or some other things, so I always had two versions installed on two different partitions. If after system update one stopped working I would not update second one so to keep game going.
I'm explaining all this so you can see, what problems can have a noob, who is too old to learn new tricks. (I was somehow geek at win 3.11 and xp...) From this viewpoint, Snapshots with BTRFS is a good send. Something goes wrong, you can at boot pick up working previous version! So for this reason, Catchy OS is good fit for noob. Other Arch versions are not. Talking from my own experience.
This is a great technology great improvement and I hope this combo, BTRFS+Snapshots soon spreads through Linux community. Cant hurt having this safety net.
For this reason I'm giving Catchy OS rating: 10. Is it fast? I guess, with few years old computer I would think every Linux distribution should be fast, so this is not that important.
After using it for several months I had no problems and didn't even have a chance to use snapshot to restore a system, until my disk died. System was very stable.
I'm of course staying with MX as my main though. I know it and MX snapshot allows me to easy create copy of my system which i can then install on any other computer or even just run it off of USB stick. This is a deal breaker for me.
But in Arch universe, Catchy OS is clear winner in my opinion. Good job, keep going, I'm rooting for you!
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 251129
Rating: 1
Date: 2025-12-24
Votes: 1
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This is by far the worst distro I have ever used. I tested the latest release and it’s extremely buggy and lagging. The GUI is a mish mash of visual clutter and confusion. The settings is scattered in multiple modules than to be all in one settings like in gnome.
The taskbar uneven icon sizes is not visually appealing where all the icons on the left is large and on the right its small. There was a lot of icons on the desktop that was unnecessary and very difficult to customize. The taskbar remained translucent no matter what theme you choose. All of the wallpaper look like oil paintings, no real photos or anything. The window theme was chaotic. It’s like it was designed by a 10 year old that tried to make it far too intuitive than it needs to be.
Customizing was very confusing. They really need a serious eye on design and user experience. It was tooooo cluttered too many preinstalled apps. I won’t recommend this distro to anyone. It’s too much.
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 241221
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-12-23
Votes: 0
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I’ve been testing and using CachyOS on and off for over a year. While the latest installation had a few issues, and not all desktop environments work equally well, this distro genuinely feels like magic when paired with KDE.
I have a gaming PC, and I’ve been hopping between Linux distros for years, always searching for something that could work as a daily driver while also delivering excellent gaming performance. I never truly found “the one.” Using plain Arch and building everything from scratch was powerful, but honestly, it was a pain in the a**, and for a long time, it felt like the only viable option.
That changed with CachyOS + KDE.
It simply has everything you need:
One-click installation of gaming packages
Easy performance tweaks and enhancements through CachyOS Hello, which honestly feels like magic
NVIDIA drivers working out of the box better than on any other distro I’ve tried
An enhanced kernel and CPU scheduling without unnecessary tinkering
All the essential software preinstalled—useful, not bloated
Simple selection-based installation for extra software
No weird quirks, no hacks to fix mouse or keyboard behavior, and no input lag issues
For the first time, I feel like I don’t have to choose between performance, convenience, and control. CachyOS with KDE finally delivers all three, and for me, it has become the distro.
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 251129
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-12-23
Votes: 0
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"Magnificent piece of work."
"A big waste of time."
Both statements are true, it depends on your HW, ways of installations, set up, and more. If it works and doesn't break you system after upgrades - you will have your score as 10. It is fast, optimized, close to vanilla Arch. If it has problems with installation, or breaks often after updates, or having dependency hell - you will have your scores as 1. Obviously.
I am drifting between plain Arch Linux, EndevourOS, Manjaro, and CachyOS. My main daily driver was EndevourOS due to been "twin" of CachyOS, but more stable. Recently I have switched back to CachyOS. Reasons? Main 3 reasons:
1) Probably most important. Finally, (similar to Manjaro) CachyOS made out of the box bootable snapshots ( similar to Manjaro). All you need - to install bootloader as Grub and the file system as btrfs - and you have several bootable options. Now I am waiting for CachyOS to break after update, so I can use previous snapshots and see if it will resolve my fear of CachyOS as a broken system (sooner or later). Still, keeping EndevourOS as "plan B" solution, just in case.
2) Support for 4K display - now it is the clear login screen (and, to some extend, the boot screen) in 4K. Not sure it is due to install both Cosmic and KDE desktop environments at installation stage - but it works nicely now.
3) it is still a bit faster for running computing applications than anything else, particularly EndevourOS (which is also quite fast).
As EndevourOS, CachyOS is very close to vanilla Arch Linux, so it is sharing all pros and cons of Arch and its derivatives.
I hope CachyOS team will keep improving its features, particularly its stability.
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 251129
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-12-22
Votes: 0
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This is my first dive into an Arch based distro. I had a few hiccups along the way that were solved by using the CachyOS wiki page. I wanted something better with newer Nvidia drivers and packages. Installation was easy with the Calamares installer and I was able to install what I wanted without any bloat. I chose the Cinnamon DE as I am very familiar with it coming over from LMDE. So far so good and gaming has been great with excellent frame rates and the overall responsiveness of my system. I now know why folks use Arch/Arch based distros. My only regret is that I didn't make the jump sooner. Great job CachyOS team!!!
Current laptop specs:
Asus ROG Strix G712LW
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10750H
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Mobile
Memory: 32 GB RAM
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 251129
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-12-21
Votes: 0
|
The distribution's installation needs to be configured and improved in a way that is easily understandable for the end user. I can install it in any way, but for a user unfamiliar with the Linux world, for example, someone wanting to switch from Windows to CachyOS, the installation is quite complicated. I play games and I'm very satisfied. It's a distribution that provides support for gaming in every way. Many thanks to the CachyOS team. Please don't abandon this project. CachyOS will be very successful. Greetings from Türkiye.
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 251129
Rating: 2
Date: 2025-12-21
Votes: 3
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Wont boot easily, once you get into the live usb then pacman fails. I have tried other 30 times to install and have been successful 3 or 4. It doesn't perform as well as Fedora or EndeavorOS or base Arch. The optimizations lead to crashes and instability. This is why Bazzite doesn't do performance optimization. Users can dive into optimization once they get familiar with the distro and how that stuff works. This distro maintainers have great marketing and everyones falling for it. If you want to use cachy I would use a different kernel and see how that goes.
The plus side is that they have implemented GUIs for a lot of things and thats great.
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 251129
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-12-18
Votes: 0
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Recently downloaded this CachyOS and installed it on my old Asus B75M-A mobo Intel core i3-3220 cpu, with onboard Intel GPU, 16GiB memory, Seagate SATA 1.0TiB HDD in an old TigerDirect ATX Mini tower and all went well with the minimal install on hard metal.
The only problem that did arise afterward was when I connected my printers, a Brother monochrome laser HL-L2305W, and an Epson ET-2840 inkjet with flatbed scanner. I just couldn't figure out why CUPS wouldn't install my printer's. I've never had any problems with other Linux OS's that also supplied CUPS in their repositories.
After banging my head a few times and getting ready to go back to another Linux OS a "light" went on in my head on the last reboot watching the initial screen offering another kernel choice before final boot. So another Control, Alt, Del and caught the boot screen and selected kernel 6.12.62-1 chachyos, instead of kernel 6.18.1-1 cachyos, and left it continue.
Bang, Pop, Wow! like the old Batman scenes, my printer's installed without any fuss or muss. I almost did a complete re-image to something else, something I didn't want to do as I liked the newest CachyOS in Cinnamon, and it was all do to an incorrect kernel selection.
Hope that this helps 'others' who may have hit that same wall as myself wondering what in the heck they did wrong.
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 251129
Rating: 1
Date: 2025-12-18
Votes: 1
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As a person who been around Linux for a very long time, I have installed and tested quite a large quantity of Linux Distributions and Desktops.
This has to be the worst I have seen. To start the ISO is 6 Gig, second after finishing the Install on a NON virtual machine with hardware made in past two years there were no errors how ever the software store would not install some software, I went through a software update as per request system needed updates, things went south from there, multiple errors after reboot, system became unstable, I tried the software store again to see If could install applications, I have to click the install icon twice... the first time I thought the app had installed but after a couple of seconds it stated not installed, if that not weird... never seen this on any other distribution or desktop.
The interface is poor- it has flat design and is minimalistic = very sterile and bland, but again is not usable. The developers need to take a hard look at this before releasing something like this half broken desktop.
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 251129
Rating: 1
Date: 2025-12-17
Votes: 0
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I participated in the beta test of 251129. As with Manjaro, I found 251129 having the same issues with Bluetooth. All desktop environments relying on 'blueman' appear to be affected. Bluetooth OBEX doesn't work on my (pretty standard) hardware in these cases. However this is not an issue with EndeavourOS as that doesn't use 'blueman'.
Arch based distros use a newer version of 'blueman' than 251229. I have not have had any issues with Bluetooth on EndeavourOS 2025.11.24.
My bug report was rejected as 'observation' and 'upstream'. I wish that my issue would have been addressed by putting a more recent version of blueman into the cachyos repositories to fix this. I can't use cachyos as a daily driver, as I rely on a fully working Bluetooth setup.
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 251129
Rating: 1
Date: 2025-12-16
Votes: 2
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i have been using cachyOS for over a year now on three devices.
after the long pause between the august ISO and the late november iso i thought, lets wipe my gaming PC and start fresh...
directly after the installation, the reboot causes a infinite loading screen, turning off the PC and start it again causes directly another infinite loading screen.
i reinstalled, reflashed and troubleshooted everything i could and it did not work.
now there is another ISO (091225) which i am currently sitting infront of a infinite loading screen while i type this on my laptop.
i am completely unable to use cachyOS with any new iso that came after the august release.
tested systems:
B650E 7950X 7900XTX
X870 9800X3D 9070XT
Core Ultra 7 285H 140T
All three behave identically... live iso, installation = no problems. Reboot after the installation finished = infinite loading circle.
shut off PC with Powerbutton and reboot = cachyOS / LTS selection screen (no difference with LTS) and then a infinite loading circle/screen.
no way to fix it.
i am sorry but this is unacceptable. no other distro causes any issues except cachyOS since the 29.11 release.
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 251129
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-12-16
Votes: 0
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Very satisfied overall with CachyOS! Have been testing Linux Mint, MX Linux, PopOS and CachyOS for two months and finally landed on the latter. I find the system to be very fast, stable and easy to work with, especially on my rather old laptop. The only thing that brings down the rating is a slightly bad/complicated way to manage online accounts, especially Onedrive and Google drive. But I run them in the web browser now so it works relatively well, although not as smoothly as if they were mounted devices directly in my home directory. The new update notifier is excellent!
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 251129
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-12-15
Votes: 0
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I came from Windows 11 and started messing with Linux about two months ago. Since then I’ve hopped around a bit, trying to find something that actually clicks for me.
I began with Linux Mint XFCE. It was fine and stable, but honestly it felt a little too plain for my taste. Then I moved to Manjaro, which I liked… until an update left the system not booting/working properly. After that I tried openSUSE Tumbleweed for a short time, but I ran into a weird issue where it acted like my password was wrong (even though it wasn’t), so I didn’t stay there long. EndeavourOS was the first one that felt really solid and “normal” to use, and I could have happily stayed on it.
But I wanted to try one more distro, and that’s how I ended up on CachyOS. And yeah — this is the one I’m keeping.
Right now I’ve installed CachyOS on two laptops, a Chromebook, and my desktop. Across all of them it has been fast, smooth, and just… pleasant to use. It feels snappy, the system stays out of my way, and overall it has the best “daily use” vibe of everything I’ve tried so far.
I’m basically using it as my main OS now. Even gaming has been great for me: Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition runs perfectly. The only reason I still keep Windows 11 around is DxO PhotoLab — I haven’t found a Linux replacement that does the job for my photo workflow.
So if you’re looking for something Arch-based that feels quick and well put together, CachyOS is absolutely worth a try. For me it’s the first distro in this whole journey that really feels like home.
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 251129
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-12-14
Votes: 0
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I started with Unix with Coherent - so, some time ago. After using several distros at different times and for different use-cases, I started to use Linux at home again a few years ago with Fedora and this year Proxmox and Debian. My last attempt to switch from my M2 Mac mini to a new PC and Linux is now successful with CachyOS. I tried openSUSE Tumbleweed for a few weeks and managed to destroy the btrfs setup. Saved the data and migrated with my docker contrainers to a new CachyOS install. Almost everything that I had to tweak with openSUSE worked out of the box. The whole experience is very pleasant, if things don't break too much, I could image to stay with CachyOS for the next years.
Great distro, many thanks!!
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 251129
Rating: 8
Date: 2025-12-11
Votes: 0
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Well, this shall be an interesting one. Let me explain my experiences with CachyOS.
So First I decided to try Openbox since I was familiar with it. (Thanks Ubuntu MATE) The config for Openbox that you see in the image in the installer and on the wiki doesn't appear anymore, since the tweaks that CachyOS needs involves the package Nitrogen, which, for some unknown reason, cant seem to be found by the package manager, thus not allowing me to install it and then install customization's that CachyOS has for Openbox manually, (Which really should have been automatic in the installer) so I'm left with a vanilla Openbox install with a few applications like a browser. Not a great start and it isn't very good!
So a few hours later a thought pops into my head "If Openbox isn't gonna work, why not just try Hyprland and see how it goes?"
Turns out, that was a pretty good thought. Followed both the CachyOS Wiki and the actual Hyprland wiki, didn't need to check the Arch one (Although it would have been good as well) and it worked out quite well! I'm currently running it, with some modifications of mine. Cachy USED to have their own config files for their installation of Hyprland, but those were removed due to a lack of maintainers, (The Installer Image is a LIE for both Hyprland and Openbox, and I suspect this may be the case for some other WMs) but nonetheless, I made it work.
As for the actual OS Itself, well, its alright. the package manager is built in quite nicely into a graphical application, and I have used it for the few extra applications I have wanted and swapped out. I probably could easily add flatpak if I wanted it, but I have the AUR, so there's really no point unless I want something specific. Besides the nice package manager for easily accessing those packages, that's really about it. Cant really see a difference with the so called "Kernel Optimizations," at least not on this old Laptop. Runs about as nice as it would on Debian or Solus, 6 hour battery life if I just have it normal, 4 if I've got the all the cool looking Hyprland effects on (Usually when I'm on a charger) so it works out.
Overall in the end, the only noticeable changes I get is said package manager and not having to manually install it myself like I would with Vanilla Arch. Otherwise, it really just ends up being Arch with a few minor changes. For some that's great, for others its not.
If you just stick on the big 2 (+XFCE) you'll be fine on Cachy, but the rest of the DE's and WM's you probably wont have much support and will basically just be on Arch with a nice package manager, and that's about it. For CachyOS, its quite simple, stick to the 3, and if you use anything else, be ready to spend plenty of time reading Wiki Pages and typing terminal commands.
One final note though, please do NOT try this in a VM, it seems like a lot of folks don't go to the CachyOS wiki and read the little thing on the Preparation steps page that tells you not to. If you don't have the hardware, don't do it!
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 251129
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-12-08
Votes: 0
|
I’ve been using CachyOS as my daily driver for over a year now, after previously running Arch and Manjaro, and having a long history with Ubuntu, Red Hat, and Debian for work. The installation process was incredibly smooth, and everything worked right out of the box across several different hardware setups. I even installed it on three different laptops without a single issue.
My main machine is an HP Victus, which I use for both gaming and productivity. CachyOS handles both flawlessly—and in fact, some of my games run even smoother than they did on the Windows installation that originally came with the laptop.
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 251129
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-12-08
Votes: 0
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Very nice distro i will tell the good then the bad
good:
the distro has many env's and is very user friendly and has a truckload of features. very amazing!
bad:
Trying to install this on a vm is quite hard for newbies but my recommendation is to run it on vmware not vbox since it works better on vmware and has a lower change of error. FYI the password for liveuser is live with wayland session.
NOTE: Arch based distros like this one are not recommended for new users due to instabilty with rolling relases and the
sheer complexity of arch distros.
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 251129
Rating: 1
Date: 2025-12-07
Votes: 0
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A big waste of time.
Tried the ISO on VirtualBox on Manjaro, it starts up and asks for password of a liveruser, I had to check its forum to find out that I need to select Wayland rather than X11 (but X11 took precedence, even though my Manjaro runs Wayland).
Then I installed it on VirtualBox.
During installing, it downloaded 7GB of something without first telling me.
Then it simply doesn't start, with a black screen and a rotating circle.
I've been using Manjaro and Ubuntu for decades, and tried various distros, never seen anything like this.
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 251129
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-12-06
Votes: 0
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Magnificent piece of work. My first dip into Arch.
Been using Cachy for the past 5 months, previously a Mint user for 7 years.
Wanted get the most out of my system "push it to the max"
I have an older system.
ASUS H97 MB
Intel i7-4790
Nvidia GTX 970 Ti
Played Far Cry 6 seamlessly.
To explain why Cachy, well I actually tried other gaming orientated distros but they wouldn't install,
I tried to research why but kept coming up with dead ends Cachy just worked 1st go.
Apologies for the lack of technical info.
I wanted to share my experience from a general user perspective.
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 251129
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-12-06
Votes: 0
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I have been using CachyOS for the last 4 months, it's stable and swift, I really like it. As it is practically Arch there already is enormous amounts of info out there to use when something goes wrong. There also are a lot of options for to from when selecting a DE, I picked xfce4 as I like simple setups, but it is a bit lacking due to it's simplicity, so KDE would probably be better if you are just getting into Linux. I have also tried cinnamon but it crashed a few times and wasn't really complete (system sounds lacking, and a few other things I can't recall rn). Load times are fine, I done a test but from the feel of it CachyOS boots faster or at the least equally fast as Windows10. I haven't played many games on this as my system isn't the best, but older titles work without issues using the proton integrated into the steam package of the system.
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 251129
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-12-02
Votes: 0
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it just works
perfect experience
in my eyes, the definitive linux desktop experience
- games -
Works well, and the custom CachyOS proton branch works great on games that don't support linux natively
- general use -
flawless, i have been able to get all of my work done, with no issues
- issues -
next to none
for a day, i experienced constant freezing of the entire desktop, but then i updated and it went away
- final verdict -
10/10, my favorite linux distro, after ages of distrohopping, i've finally found my home
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 251129
Rating: 1
Date: 2025-12-01
Votes: 0
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i use cachyOS since it launched and the last 6 months were straight up the worst experience i've ever had.
the last august ISO had a keyring issue while installing and sometimes needed 5 install attempts before it worked and the new late november ISO shoved in a basically dysfunctional plymouth implementation causing infinite login loading screens on two fresh installed systems (9800X3D/9070XT and 285H/140T)
not a single month without OS destroying issues. that are non existant in basically any other distro available.
i am very disappointed with the "lets hope it works" work mentality of the team behind it but i can no longer recommend using it even if it is basically the perfect distro if it wouldn't be more broken than windows 11 all the time.
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 251129
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-12-01
Votes: 0
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CachyOS has been my go-to Linux distribution, and I'm thrilled to share my experiences with the community. I have CachyOS installed on an external SSD as a backup option. The speed at which it boots up is remarkable – it's blazing fast! I've had no issues with it whatsoever. KDE is an absolute delight for the eyes, and I appreciate how frequently updated packages keep my system current. Also, the Discord community surrounding CachyOS is vibrant and welcoming to newcomers. Setting up and navigating the OS has never been easier due in part to the helpful resources available. Furthermore, CachyOS's ability to provide bleeding-edge software makes it an ideal choice for gaming enthusiasts like myself. It strikes a perfect balance between performance and resource efficiency, ensuring that your gaming sessions are smooth and uninterrupted. overall, its speed, features, community support is the real beating heart of this project, which has rightfully cemented its position in the ranks. As long as it continues on this trajectory, I don't see myself switching anytime soon.
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 251129
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-12-01
Votes: 0
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I'm pretty new to Linux, all things considered. I did distro-hop for a bit, not a lot, but I tried a few: Nobara, Pika, Pop, Linux Mint, Manjaro (which is the one distro I would never recommend, shit ran like a freaking gasping old man on his deathbed), Garuda, base Arch, Nix, Endeavour, Zorin, debian, ubuntu, and then CachyOS (then reinstalled windows due to some important work stuff and came back again to Cachy). I've been using Cachy for a total of two years now. It's been smooth sailing for the most part with the biggest problem I experienced was that one issue I had where no audio was being detected by the mic which I eventually got a solution from the nice folks in the discord server.
I mainly game on my PC and I stream on Twitch whenever I am able to. CachyOS has been amazing for both so far. Games have generally run smoother compared to my experience with Windows (which I have used exclusively for a almost all of my life until about 3-ish years ago when I decided to try out Linux). Recording/streaming while gaming has been generally smooth sailing with the exception of certain games and their respective in-game settings.
I also edited videos with Kdenlive and had no issues on that.
The best part? If I get stuck on something and needed help (if you can't find the solution in the wiki), all you need to do is head to the discord server and ask for help. Everyone there has been very nice and helpful which made getting through the hiccups I experienced.
I would definitely recommend CachyOS to somebody who never even touched Linux before. Installation is a breeze and all the knowledge you need is on the wiki. The discord server is welcoming and helpful. Performance wise, it's blazing fast. Gaming is as smooth as butter (at least with the games I play). And even if you stream on Twitch, it doesn't even take that much to set it up (depending on the programs you use, of course).
10/10 would recommend to even a level 1 baby.
One thing, if you're used to Discover, it doesn't have it installed. But I haven't really needed that during my time on Cachy, to be honest.
Specs:
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X
32gb ddr4 ram
AMD Radeon RX6700XT 12GB
-rev :>
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 251129
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-12-01
Votes: 0
|
Really great balance between ease of use and functionality. Used this as my first Arch-based distro and I think I'm staying. Haven't had a single problem with it yet, but make sure you disable CSM before installing. It will make your life much simpler down the road. Was initially having some issues where the system would repeatedly freeze while updating packages, but it seems to have gone away.
Desktop specs:
Ryzen 5 5600x
Geforce RTX 3060 Ti
32 GB RAM
CachyOS Hello is a really nice jumping-off point, especially for those who don't yet know how to use pacman. Cachy has an ample software suite while not being overly bloated. Really loving the Arch experience so far.
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 251129
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-12-01
Votes: 0
|
Installed CachyOS on a laptop. Used Arch occasionally on an old machine, and WSL daily for the past year. I was up and running in less than an hour. I spent a lot of time customizing, trying things out, but the out of the box experience really impressed me, I didn't have to tinker to get anything working. I have Windows 11 (not for long, this is the one to finally convince me I genuinely have no need for it anymore) and CachyOS on that same machine on separate SSDs (same model), and CachyOS is VERY noticeably faster. I have KDE Plasma and Niri as my DEs, and both of them are extremely snappy and responsive.
Anyways, my first impression was, how snappy and responsive it is, and how it (mostly) made it usable for whatever I wanted to use it for immediately after the installation was over. A few random pros and cons after daily use for a month now:
Specs (Laptop - ASUS Strix G16 2025):
Intel 275HX
Nvidia 5080
32GB
Pros:
- Easy installation.
- The inclusion of the apps like CachyOS Hello and Octopi makes it convenient for people who aren't comfortable using the Terminal (you should learn to be though, but it feels like CachyOS tries its best to give you the choice, which is nice).
- Gaming has been great, not tolerable, but actually great. All I did was click on the button in CachyOS Hello to install all the required drivers/packages for gaming. I opened Steam, ran a game at random (Ghostrunner) through proton-cachyos, and it just worked right away, no stutters, no weird resolution issues, great performance, just worked. In my experience, other than native games, anything Platinum on protonDB has indeed just worked. Occasional issues I've had could be fixed by changing the Proton version used, or with launch options. A good thing here is that a lot of people are using CachyOS for gaming, so you can very often find a fix on protonDB comments from someone who had the same issue. But still, it doesn't happen that often.
- I'm never thinking about the fact I'm using Linux or CachyOS in particular, because it just works, and at least if your hardware is new like mine, it's fast enough to make you forget it's even there. It just stays out of the way. It doesn't fight whatever it is I want to do, and it feels like it has no particular opinions it wants be to buy into. Pretty much the main things I want from an OS.
- Has felt more stable that Windows 11. I had recurring Nvidia drivers issues on Windows 11 when I purchased this laptop, it took a clean wipe of the drivers using DDU in safe mode, and a reinstall (didn't work), and then a round two using older drivers (didn't work), and finally a third round using slightly older drivers. I've had occasional crashes related to that and other driver issues. On CachyOS, I let it install whatever it wanted through CachyOS Hello, and I haven't had to worry about it, worked first try. Also much faster and snappier, if you've used Windows Explorer or opened a context menu in Windows 11... you know what I'm talking about. It's painful. Here it's instant.
That's the main stuff, it really clicked with me in a way nothing really has before. If you try it out coming from Windows, you'll genuinely have a hard time believing just how much suffering you endured thinking it was normal.
Only a 9 since I've been using it for a month, and well, it's too short to call it perfect, but if I tried to rate Windows 11 in its current state, it'd be.. I don't know, a 4? Yeah. I recommend it.
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 251129
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-11-30
Votes: 0
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Been tinkering with linuxdistros off and on for 30 years now. Ive tried Just about every type of distro there is except the really hardcore ones, like Gentoo and LFS. Not that Im afraid of compiling, but it just take alot of time getting somewhere. Installer preferred, thank You. I have installed Arch the manual way, but I prefer not to do it again. Until a year ago, I have always used Windows at the same time. But Windows 11 is a mess!!! So I dumped it and everything done by Microsoft.
I distrohopped for a while. Debian, mint, Ubuntu and the ran Fedora until august 2025. Got tired of constant trouble with Nvidia drivers on my new desktop. And then I tried CachyOS. Have not been having any problem since. Easy to install, but have to be kept updated all the time. Its OK as long as its on a machine Im using daily. On my laptop i still use fedora and on my really old laptop debian. So I dont have to update 3 computers all the time. Choose distro after usecase is my philosofy.
Anyway. CachyOS is very fast with new hardware. Easy to install and nvidia works out of the box. Very pleased with it. Its no beginner distro in my opinion. It is pretty close to arch linux, so it updates constantly. Sometimes multiple times a day. Its not something to run if Youre not prepared to do alot of updates. It have to be maintained. Excellent for gaming!
Intel i9 14900KF
Nvidia RTX 5080
32 GB RAM
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 250825
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-11-29
Votes: 0
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Fresh Windows convert here, been using Cachy for about a month now. I think a strong 8 to a light 9 is a pretty accurate rating for this.
Got sick of Microsoft's cyberpunk dystopia grindset, so i hard dropped off from it and blind switched to Linux. Haven't regretted it, and with how good the space currently is and only getting better, i likely never will.
I actually went to Mint first. Used that for about a week, and i liked it. Apparently, distro-hopping is highly virulent even amongst total newcomers, as i was reading through Cachy's wiki detailing all the high-tech stuff it was doing, and it piqued my curiosity. I was still getting stuff together on Mint, but i also figured testing out different OSes like this is something i've never done before, so i took yet another leap of faith and switched to Cachy.
I tempered my expectations - this thing's supposed to be fairly user-friendly, but it's still an Arch distro, so probably some level of wrangling i'll need to do to make it work how i want.
Honestly? it's actually been *easier* than i expected. Either i'm more tech adept than i think i am or Cachy is friendlier than i was anticipating, or possibly both. Well, i've also only been using it for a whopping single month, but in that month i haven't really come across any notable problems. Plasma froze up once and i didn't know how to restart it, so i had to restart the system, but that's about it.
As is natural for 2025 Linux, every game i've thrown at it works totally fine - granted, i haven't tried that many yet. One game i tried wouldn't let me load into it, kept complaining about a bad Steam session. Looked around for a few minutes, couldn't find any solid leads, so i switched the Proton version from Cachy's own to 9.0.4, and that fixed it. I imagine that's similar for most games, it "just works" while needing very little tweaking, if any.
My use case is pretty basic (gaming, music, browsing, 3D modeling + texturing) but Linux so far has been able to do basically everything i did on Windows. Either the programs i use also had native Linux versions, or there was an equally good alternative available. Even *that one thing* in the form of the Windows-exclusive XCOM 2 modding tools i managed to get working, albeit with some guidance.
Also incredibly fast and snappy, obviously. Windows is bloatware at this point, so it's not THAT impressive - even the more "bloated" (relatively speaking) Linux distros would still outperform Windows 11. Cachy's probably a touch or two faster than other Linux distros, though.
SPECS:
Motherboard - MSI Z370
CPU - Intel i9-9900k
GPU - Nvidia GTX 1070
Memory - 32 GB
Installed on an SSD
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 250825
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-11-27
Votes: 0
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Beginner/ Intermediate user here.
After roughly 3 months of use for daily driving, I can say that I'm very happy with Cachy so far.
Before, I previously had relative exposure to Linux in general during university, mainly through Debian (main server OS) and Ubuntu (WSL).
I wanted something with access to the newest software packages (hence the Arch-ecosystem was targeted) and giving me something that can work "out-of-the-box", while still offering me to freely tinker around If I so choose to. Also, being suited for gaming (without having that as it's "core identity") was a plus as well.
CachyOS performs swiftly and IMO feels nicely optimized/ extended as an Arch derivative, offers good documentation/ information through various channels and felt quite accessible to me throughout exploring it. It has given me quite a stable/ reliable impression so far for being rolling-release oriented.
With only a few exceptions, applications and other software seem to "just work" for the most part, without much of a hastle.
(else, the wikis for Cachy and Arch are your friends)
Problems so far merely revolved around re-installing specific packages or re-doing system updates, in case some dependencies or a certain application didn't make it into the update-list the first time.
I get why some people might prefer to go straight to the source instead of this distro (i.e., base Arch), and I'll probably try that too in the future on a different machine. However, Cachy generally offers a great product (performance- and accessibility-vise) that feels like more than just Arch with an easy install-process. This will likely stick as my daily-driver for the foreseeable future, and I can definitely recommend it (maybe not for *absolute* beginners on Linux though).
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 250825
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-11-26
Votes: 6
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I have tried so very many distros in the past, the majority of which suffer from terrible documentation and lousy reliability. CachyOS has excellent documentation and gives clear information about what changes/improvements have been made and the rationale behind the changes is. Compared to my past experiences with distributions like MX Linux, CachyOS stands out as a system that offers noticeably better stability and speed, all while remaining accessible and user-friendly. The developers seem to be really making a big effort to produce a very snappy, high quality but reliable distro. Their passion shows. Since it is coming off an Arch base this is notable. This is one of the very few distibutions I would heartily recommend as worth financially supporting.
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Project: CachyOS
Version: 250825
Rating: 4
Date: 2025-11-25
Votes: 7
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My installation on MSI with Ryzen 5 CPU and with modern hardware, failed to detect the touchpad and the system was choppy. I tried also the hyprland wayland - it has taken huge storage size -supposed to be small. I don't see any performance improvement as some people are saying compared to my good old Debian (Gnome). So, I switched back to Debian. Even the unstable version I use, the Debian is very stable and up to date. I use Tiling Shell and Search Light extensions for speed and to mimic Hyprland.
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