CachyOS is a derivative of Arch Linux with some promising approaches that set the distribution apart from the mass of free operating systems. With an adapted desktop based on KDE Plasma as well as optimized software packages and tweaks, the operating system should stand for high performance.
CachyOS wants its own way Go away
Linux developer Ferdinand Thommes, who is also very well known to ComputerBase readers, put CachyOS in the spotlight for the first time. He presented the Linux distribution on his website linuxnews.de and attested to promising approaches. CachyOS indeed goes its own way and stands out from the numerous Arch derivatives in the Linux cosmos.
-
CachyOS with KDE Plasma (Image: CachyOS)
Image 1 of 3
CachyOS with KDE Plasma (Image: CachyOS)
The special features of the distribution, which finds its way onto the system either via the well-known graphic installation routine Calamares or the CLI installer, include optimized software packages that are based on the correct architecture (“x86 64-v3”) should lead to a performance gain of up to 10 percent, as well as partially hardened system kernels, which can be activated via the kernel manager.
Performance is paramount
The open source project itself lists the following unique selling points on its official website:
- CachyOS is an Arch Linux-based distribution that offers an easy installation, several customization options to suit every user, and special optimizations for improved performance while remaining simple.
- We provide an optimized repo with march=x86-64-v3 support which comes with a notable performance boost. It depends on your cpu if it does support that, but you don't need to worry about it – the installer will detect the correct march and adjust to your system.
- We also provide several optimized custom kernels with various schedulers , which are maintained by me and also will soon be maintained by sir_lujan.
- These kernels will also include march optimization, with all of them already compiled and available in the repo, as well as LLVM-LTO support.
CachyOS – Highlights
CachyOS stands out visually
In addition to KDE Plasma, CachyOS offers the desktop environments Gnome, Xfce, LXQt and CuteFish as well as the window managers Openbox, i3 and e.g. wm and Wayfire. Visually, several themes and icons should ensure an independent appearance and a consistent user interface.
< /figure>
CachyOS with KDE Plasma (Image: CachyOS)
The resource-saving window managers such as Openbox and i3 also come with tailor-made themes and thus offer a lot of “eye candy”. The entire appearance of the distribution also automatically adapts to the light and dark mode of the user interface of the respective desktop.
An in-house browser is on board
Another unique selling point of CachyOS is the in-house browser, which is based on Mozilla Firefox as a spin-off of LibreWolf, which has been optimized for data protection and privacy. The Cachy Browser is compiled “out of the box” with several security-related flags and offers numerous extensions that are specifically aimed at this area.
The software packages are optionally installed via the package manager Pacman known from Arch Linux and the command line or the GUI options Octopi and Pamac are installed and kept up to date.
As is typical for an Arch derivative, there are also the numerous PKGBUILD scripts from the Arch User Repository (AUR) ready for installation.
Just try out CachyOS
Users who want to try out CachyOS can download the 2.4 GB system image CachyOS with KDE Plasma (ISO) optimized for AMD64 via the file hoster SourceForge and transfer it to a USB drive with an appropriate program such as Rufus. storage medium scream ben.
The extensive CachyOS Wiki provides further information, which also deals in particular with the numerous tweaks and optimizations of the operating system.