Anyone using Cachy?

[TudorFinalBosz]

Why do ppl say it's scary or not recommended for beginners, because it's based on Arch?

I don't have a problem using a cli to do things, but I don't want to spend days setting it up either.

I'd like to just install it and get it configured in a safe stable form then let it be and use it.

[GuiltySpark_]

I hate linux on the desktop, which is why my old AM4 rig that's also on my desk is running Linux. Specifically CachyOS. 

 

I'll admit I don't do a ton with it but out of the box, its been absolutely fantastic. The Wiki is great, their Discord is great, getting applications installed and running has been mostly flawless. Frankly, its pretty damn good even for gaming which was super simple to get working with the help of their wiki and a singular command that does a ton of the work for you. 

 

I hate linux. 

[TudorFinalBosz]

@GuiltySpark_ 

Been running vanilla Ubuntu so far, but apparently that's not where the new cool stuff is happening coz Canonical is playing it very safe or making some weird decisions then reverting them. Pretty much like how Microsoft was starting a feature then nuking it.

So I got interested in Cachy as I hear it has great performance and gives you a lot of options.

I'll install it to see what the whole hubbub's about.

If you got some recs, shoot.

[d-hubs]

 

good evening dear @TudorFinalBosz  and @GuiltySpark_ - 

 

 

many thank you for this thread -  thank you for this topic. 

Interesting to see CachyOS at the top of DistroWatch right now—it feels like a lot of people are giving Arch-based distros another shot. I’m on EndeavourOS myself - now for three years (/after running opensuse, debian, ubuntu), and honestly the community + docs there are what keep me loyal: The community at Eos is very very supportive and friendly.

 

And - the documentation - since it can rely on the famous arch-wiki - is awesome and outstanding. 

 

i am interested in this Cachy-Topic - and i could imagine, that Cachy’s Discord/wiki gives probably the same kind of beginner-friendly vibe. (in the last week i had a quick view on the forums - and have seen that there is much engagement there.)

,

What do you think - is it (Cachy -) as beginner-friendly -or, or is it more for advanced tinkerers?

 

look forward to hear from you. 

greetings

[Lurking]

5 hours ago, d-hubs said:

Interesting to see CachyOS at the top of DistroWatch right now—it feels like a lot of people are giving Arch-based distros another shot.

FYI, distrowatch ranking =/= how widely used an OS is. Distrowatch doesn't even claim that. It basically just means many people look at that OS on distrowatch. and it is a self-fulfilling prophecy. If Cachy is on top, everyone talks about it, and looks at it on distrowatch, which means it stays on top. 

 

No one knows how many of which distro are in use. Not even the distro-makers. Linux doesn't have activation, telemetry or forced accounts. So it all is reading tea leaves. You can do some sophisticated guess based on forum activity, downloads and so on. But none really reflects actual use. 

 

There may be some better data on Linux used for professional servers. But those are very unlikely to use the "fad of the day" distros. 

 

I think Cachy OS being designed to be a rolling distro makes it a good rolling distro. The question remains, is a rolling distro what one needs. 

[d-hubs]

Good day Lurking

 

 

thank you for the reply. 

 

 

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FYI, distrowatch ranking =/= how widely used an OS is. Distrowatch doesn't even claim that. It basically just means many people look at that OS on distrowatch. and it is a self-fulfilling prophecy. If Cachy is on top, everyone talks about it, and looks at it on distrowatch, which means it stays on top. 

 

thanks for the hint - i know this.  

 

 

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No one knows how many of which distro are in use. Not even the distro-makers. Linux doesn't have activation, telemetry or forced accounts. So it all is reading tea leaves. You can do some sophisticated guess based on forum activity, downloads and so on. But none really reflects actual use. 

 

Fully agreed: it's all a matter of perception

 

 

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There may be some better data on Linux used for professional servers. But those are very unlikely to use the "fad of the day" distros. 

 

yes - agreed here.

 

 

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I think Cachy OS being designed to be a rolling distro makes it a good rolling distro. The question remains, is a rolling distro what one needs. 

 

yep:  well i run EndeavourOS  for three  years now - i am very happy with that. 

 

but perhaps i am going to test cachOS during the winter season - when having some spare time

 

 

have a great day 

[Kobathor]

Late reply. I have been using Arch on my laptop for over a year now, so I chose Cachy for my desktop since CachyOS is touted for its gaming performance (which you can achieve on regular Arch, but with way more fiddling).

 

Cachy was easy to install (GUI installer) and the wiki is pretty helpful helping you get everything set up for gaming and regular desktop/laptop use. I was playing Windows games on Steam within a couple hours, and it only took that long cause I did some tinkering based on my specific setup. It's best if you have AMD graphics but Nvidia works fine these days.

[TudorFinalBosz]

I tried Cachy but I don't think it's for me.

It might be because I was used to Ubuntu for years, from using it on server, so when I got it on desktop too, a lot of things were familiar.

But Arch seems.. another world. Everything I learned from Ubuntu just does not apply there. So I had to waste too much time just to get basic things done.

 

Cachy does have nice performance, things seem to launch quite fast, though not superfast. Like if I launch a browser it's not really instant. A file manager (Dolphin?) window does launch instantly. But the DEs I tried with it (Hyprland, Cosmic and KDE) were very far from polished, compared to Ubuntu's default.

 

So if you're a beginner I really don't recommend going with anything based on Arch. You'll end up a bundle of nerves. 

Hyprland is nice but it's way too opinionated. Out of the box you basically have nothing you can use with a mouse except the top panel. If your keyboard doesn't work for some reason, you can't run anything. It's all based on CLI. Nice window animations, lol, but getting everything done 100% through CLI gets tedious after a while.

 

Yeah so for now I'll probly go back to Ubuntu, as I don't want to spend hours setting up every small thing in an OS.

[xAcid9]

9 hours ago, TudorFinalBosz said:

So I had to waste too much time just to get basic things done.

Such as? 

 

9 hours ago, TudorFinalBosz said:

So if you're a beginner I really don't recommend going with anything based on Arch. You'll end up a bundle of nerves. 

I wouldn't recommend pure Arch for beginner but Arch base distro like Manjaro/EoS/CachyOS or even Garuda is fine. It's friendly enough for beginners if you use KDE

 

9 hours ago, TudorFinalBosz said:

Hyprland is nice but it's way too opinionated. Out of the box you basically have nothing you can use with a mouse except the top panel. If your keyboard doesn't work for some reason, you can't run anything. It's all based on CLI. Nice window animations, lol, but getting everything done 100% through CLI gets tedious after a while.

It's a keyboard-centric DE just like other tiling DE. It's not 100% CLI, you can use Hyprland without touching CLI if you've set it up that way.

[TudorFinalBosz]

@xAcid9

Such as getting waybar to work on Hyprland, when that required `exec-once` to start it but somehow there was no information on how to install exec-once.

I was trying to get some kind of dock or apps menu working so I wouldn't have to keep tapping on the keyboard just to launch a browser, lol.

 

I tried Hyprland, Cosmic and KDE on Cachy. Hyprland looked very cool but everything launched is from CLI and is a tiled window... I know that if you put enough work into it you can get it to have floating windows, etc. But as I explained above, even basic things like launching something required some packages that were not on the system.

Cosmic was nice but it looks unfinished and made by amateurs. There were gaps between the rounded-edge fringe and the rest of the window. And the file manager was kinda terrible.

KDE indeed was the most stable and reliable. But it still has lots of things that look very unfinished. Like the previews of programs in the dock sometimes displayed a normal image, other times it was some distorted thing. So for anyone who wants to try Cachy, you should start with KDE, don't bother with the others, some are cool but kinda extreme and unpolished.

 

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It's a keyboard-centric DE just like other tiling DE. It's not 100% CLI, you can use Hyprland without touching CLI if you've set it up that way.

Yes. I know you can make it usable with a mouse too, but since I've been using Ubuntu for years (on server and now on desktop), working with pacman and other things that are typical of Arch was frustrating. For example, I've run into several cases when I needed to install something but then I found out the package was deprecated and no longer in the repo. It seems like support for Arch is much more sparse than for Ubuntu.

[xAcid9]

7 hours ago, TudorFinalBosz said:

@xAcid9

Such as getting waybar to work on Hyprland, when that required `exec-once` to start it but somehow there was no information on how to install exec-once.

No information?

Spoiler

https://wiki.hypr.land/Configuring/Keywords/

 

For app launcher/menu you need Rofi/Wofi/Hyprshell.

CachyOS use Wofi and to activate it you need press Mod(Window key)+Space

7 hours ago, TudorFinalBosz said:

But as I explained above, even basic things like launching something required some packages that were not on the system.

exec-once is not a package. 

7 hours ago, TudorFinalBosz said:

Yes. I know you can make it usable with a mouse too, but since I've been using Ubuntu for years (on server and now on desktop), working with pacman and other things that are typical of Arch was frustrating.

Similar argument to "I can't use Linux because Linux is not the same as Windows"

 

7 hours ago, TudorFinalBosz said:

For example, I've run into several cases when I needed to install something but then I found out the package was deprecated and no longer in the repo. It seems like support for Arch is much more sparse than for Ubuntu.

What package? 

[TudorFinalBosz]

@xAcid9

I tried running exec-once in Hyprland and it said command not found lol. So I assumed it's a package. And I searched to see how can I install it. Couldn't find anything. Exec did run, but not exec-once.

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For app launcher/menu you need Rofi/Wofi/Hyprshell.

CachyOS use Wofi and to activate it you need press Mod(Window key)+Space

 

I didn't find this info when I read the Github repo. I guess people don't put much effort into making sure users have a good start.

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Similar argument to "I can't use Linux because Linux is not the same as Windows"

Idk, I find it easier to work with Ubuntu, possibly because there are more packages and repos and online resources. So I find an answer to anything quickly.

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What package? 

Idk I think it was an appimage launcher that was last available in 2022 then when I tried to pull from the repo, it couldn't find it.

[TudorFinalBosz]

Oh well they did warn about this:

[xAcid9]

10 hours ago, TudorFinalBosz said:

Idk I think it was an appimage launcher that was last available in 2022 then when I tried to pull from the repo, it couldn't find it.

You don't need that. Just make the appimage you download executable and double click it. 

 

10 hours ago, TudorFinalBosz said:

Oh well they did warn about this:

Hyprland or any Tiling WM is definitely not beginner friendly imo. Except Gnome with Tiling Shell but it's not that customisable. 

[TudorFinalBosz]

2 hours ago, xAcid9 said:

You don't need that. Just make the appimage you download executable and double click it. 

Yeh. Did that. But this doesn't add the appimage to the system application menu and dock.

 

So I created that text file for the desktop shortcut too and that works. Then used some package that does desktop validation for that shortcut then enables the application on the whole system, but that didn't work. I see the program in the list, but clicking does nothing.

Now I can run for example Ungoogled Chromium from the shortcut on desktop, but the pinned program in the dock and application menu don't work yet.

Not to mention that the executable appimage itself doesn't have the icon, the shortcut does because I added it to the text file.

Anyway, all this can be tedious for a noob, it doesn't bother me, I'm used to using a CLI and doing all this. Just sayin that someone totally new would get pissed and give up. I had a similar reaction when I tried to do stuff in Hyprland and basically nothing worked lol.