I was recently looking to replace the OS on my old laptop, and while there are plenty of lightweight options out there, I still wanted something that wasn’t as stripped down.
Linux was the obvious choice, and this time around I wanted to try something that was Arch-based, and had a rolling release. After fiddling with a couple of distros, I landed on CachyOS, and I think I am going to stick with it for gaming and even all my lower-end hardware.
CachyOS nails the installation experience
I wish everyone copied this
Raghav Sethi/MakeUseOfCredit: Raghav Sethi/MakeUseOf
CachyOS probably has the best implementation of a Linux installer I have ever seen. Most distros install whatever desktop environment they prefer with their own tweaks, and that alone has stopped me from recommending so many of them. People care about how their system looks, and if they do not like the default layout or workflow, there is no point trying to convince them.
Sure, technically, you can install any DE on any distro, but I am not going to ask someone who has never touched a terminal window to swap out their entire desktop on day one. CachyOS avoids that whole mess by letting me pick the DE right in the installer. And it’s not that you get to choose from either GNOME or KDE. You genuinely get a lot of choice here, and I was actually pleasantly surprised to see Cosmic, the desktop environment originally from Pop!_OS too.
I can also choose the packages I want, skip the ones I do not, and even sort out dual booting without digging through confusing partitions. Plenty of distros already do this during setup, so it is not like CachyOS invented the idea. But this is the first time I have seen all of it come together in a way that feels like a complete package which anyone can use.
It’s the fastest Linux distro I have ever tried
I get the best of SteamOS on all my hardware
CachyOS does all the behind-the-scenes optimizations you could possibly do on a Linux install right out of the box. Without getting too technical, CachyOS builds itself in a manner that actually matches your CPU architecture. You get packages that are tuned for your hardware instead of a one-size-fits-all approach. Even the kernel and the scheduler are adjusted to squeeze more performance out of your system.
But instead of just trusting their claims, I wanted to see what this meant in real use. So I compared CachyOS to the two big “gaming” Linux distros right now; SteamOS and Bazzite, and even tossed Windows 11 into the mix for good measure.
All tests were done at the same TDP and the same graphics settings. In almost every game, CachyOS either matched or slightly beat SteamOS in average FPS. But the real difference was in overall frame pacing.
Games without benchmark modes were tested using identical scripted sections to ensure consistency.
My frametime graphs were noticeably smoother in heavier titles, where I was hovering around 40–50 FPS. While it may not seem that big of a deal, a smoother frametime graph means less stutters, and it is something that you will definitely notice visually.
Outside of gaming, I was running the KDE version, and I even installed it on a very old laptop with 4GB RAM and a 4th-generation i5-4350U. It was still faster than Ubuntu on the same machine, which was already a massive leap over the Windows 10 install it had earlier. It is not magic, of course. Once you open more than five tabs, that hardware hits its limits. But within reason, the system felt snappy and usable in a way I did not expect from something that old.
Hardware support is really good
Don’t worry if you have an Nvidia GPU
I had switched to SteamOS on my ASUS ROG Ally, but because of an issue (more on that later) I started looking for something else. I still wanted to stick with Linux, but I wanted something that gave me the convenience of SteamOS while getting a bit more out of the hardware.
CachyOS basically did exactly that. It has a separate build made specifically for handhelds, and it comes with the same full-screen gaming interface that SteamOS uses. When you first boot into it, you’ll genuinely not be able to tell if you’re running SteamOS or CachyOS.
As much as I wish I could recommend SteamOS to everyone, the problem is it only supports AMD hardware, and even that is still pretty experimental on anything other than the Steam Deck. If you want a similar couch PC setup, on most devices, SteamOS isn’t an option just because of different hardware.
That is why CachyOS felt like such a good fit. I got the same overall experience, better performance, and it did not matter whether the device had an Nvidia or Intel GPU. Some mainstream distros still have issues, especially with Nvidia cards, but CachyOS handled them perfectly well. Even on the older laptop I mentioned earlier, I had zero compatibility problems with things like Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.
I actually prefer rolling releases
Faster updates meant I could actually play my favorite game
The reason I even started looking beyond SteamOS was because of one single game. Counter-Strike 2, which is ironically Valve’s own game, was completely broken on SteamOS for over a month because the Mesa drivers were outdated. SteamOS uses its own custom Mesa build, and since the update hadn’t rolled out yet, the game would load with missing textures.
And because SteamOS is an immutable distro, meaning you cannot freely change system files, installing newer drivers manually was a huge headache. The game was working perfectly fine on other distros, but on Valve’s own platform I was completely stuck.
I then slowly realized that I actually prefer a rolling release setup. A rolling release is basically a distro that gives you updates as soon as they’re ready instead of holding everything for a big “version upgrade”. That means newer drivers and kernel versions show up much faster.
I wouldn’t recommend this to someone who just wants something extremely stable and never wants to touch anything. But as a tinkerer who prefers having the latest improvements all the time, it worked really well for me.
CachyOS earns its spot
Right now, all my machines are running very different setups. I’ve decided I’m sticking with CachyOS on my ROG Ally and my lower-end devices. But on my other laptop, I recently ditched Ubunutu for Fedora Silverblue because I wanted something low-maintenance and extremely stable.
I wouldn’t say CachyOS is perfect for everyone, since rolling releases can be a doubled-edged sword. But if you know your way around Linux, and don’t want to deal with the hassle of installing and managing vanilla Arch, it is a damn good choice.
