CachyOS is an Arch-based distribution that aims for both performance and user-friendliness.
Is CachyOS for you?
Let’s find out.
What Is CachyOS?
Based on Arch,CachyOScomes with a couple of key modifications.
The most noticeable is that it actually installs a desktop environment by default.
The default choice is KDE Plasma, but others are available.
CachyOS also attempts to tune its performance to your machine.
There are several alternate kernels available tuned to specific hardware.
Installing CachyOS on a PC
Installing CachyOS is similar to installing any other Linux distro.
A CLI is also available for those who need it.
You’ll set up your partition scheme and select your region and language, among other things.
you might choose from either an offline or online installation.
The latter will download the latest packages, similar to a regular Arch install.
This option didn’t work when it was tested on a virtual machine.
The offline installer just uses the software that comes with the installation image.
CachyOS Desktop Environment
CachyOS seems to want to offer a lot of choices for a default desktop.
The default KDE environment looks attractive and responds quickly, even in a low-spec virtual machine.
CachyOS includes a customized version of Firefox called the Cachy web app.
This makes sense when you know that KDE is built on the Qt toolkit.
Despite the web client and these Qt development tools, there’s not much beyond the standard KDE system.
LibreOffice isn’t even installed as it is on most other desktop Linux distros.
Package Management in CachyOS
Managing packages seems straightforward.
The graphical utility simply shows the proposed packages you’re able to update.
you’re able to check or uncheck certain packages.
This might also be daunting for new users.
CachyOS aims to balance user-friendliness with transparency.
When the update runs, it shows a text window like a terminal, running the pacman command.
It will also advise you when you want to reboot, usually after installing things like the kernel.
As with its parent Arch, since it updates so quickly, you might find yourself rebooting a lot.
If uptime is important to you, you might best be served with another distro.
How Does CachyOS Perform?
The kind of hardware and desktop environment you install and use will likely govern the real-world performance of CachyOS.
CachyOS or Regular Arch?
The Moment of Truth
CachyOS, for all its promise, still seems incomplete.
The installation program still seems obscure for non-technical users.
Even its website still seems incomplete, with one link going to a template.
Arch also hasa very good wikithat makes the more technical aspects of the distro easier to understand.
CachyOS is a young distro, so there will be some inevitable growing pains.
If it can attract a user community the wayother Arch-based distroshave, CachyOS could catch on.
It will be interesting to see how this distro evolves in the future.
With its parent rolling-release pace, it won’t take long.
