EDIT: Since I mentioned it I might as well link it
I’m a NixOS fanboy now :/
*em
I’ll Bully Spam every gaming CEO until they support ONE god damn Linux distro like SteamOS. SLOP MICROSLOP SLOP, anticheat doesn’t fix shit! BF6 is basically proof.
LMAO Cursing your friends isn’t nice, CachyOS is for those that are comfortable with Linux…And the dreaded Arch.
Arch isn’t necessarily unstable or “dreadful”. It’s a distro that requires the user to know what they’re doing and to be a tinkerer by nature. Whether this is a feature or a downside is dependent on the user.
But I agree with you, recommending an Arch based distro to someone who is not a tinkerer and just wants to use the PC - which is the vast majority of PC users - is a mistake.
PS: I use EndeavourOS btw
I am exaggerating for effect, as all of my Arch experiences (never being able to pass the installer without a fatal error or showstopper) are all I know. Its quite vexing that getting other distros installed and configured is easy for me.
I do recognize the power of and capabilities of the distro. Yet, its never been at my fingertips; I must not know the soft, gentle latin curses required to make an Arch install successful.
I even tried to install EndeavourOS and CachyOS. To be met with failure and the need to retreat to another distro.
Better than normal Arch I guess… idk I would give beginners Mint, Ubuntu or maybe Debian.
I’d recommend Ubuntu or Mint for most new users; straight up Debian only in cases when the user don’t need the latest or greatest in terms of updated packages. As Debian is great, I’ve used it as extensively as Ubuntu…
However, Debian is build against older drivers and kernel, making it stable, if not a bit stale.
Ubuntu is a bit fresher with a higher kernel version (packages can still be behind something like openSUSE or Arch, Debian based distro truth). However, flatpaks allow for more recent software versions!
i don’t recommend ubuntu anymore. recently tried it on my laptop and holy hell it’s bad. couldn’t install flatpaks and the only way to install from repo was to use terminal. couldn’t get any version of steam to work at all. and I’ve been a linux user for years now…
also for some reason mint wouldn’t install on the same thinkpad, the installer wouldn’t boot at all, just gave some grub message. also fedora was no success, the usb media wasn’t recognized. ultramarine finally worked even though it’s just fedora with tweaks. some say it’s a bad thing to have tons of distros, but for me it’s been a blessing. one distro won’t work for every pc.
I was pretty successful doing the terminal commands necessary to make flatpaks work on Ubuntu in recent memory, as out of the box the distro is Snap centric. Its odd you had so many issues on a fresh install of Ubuntu. Oof, sounds like my legendary problems with Arch.
Yeah, Mint requires some workarounds on older hardware. Its possible, but, probably not worth it unless you’ve got a burning desire to use Mint on that hardware.
i looked up multiple guides to enable flatpaks and all i achieved was that i could install them from terminal, but the apps never actually appeared so i couldn’t run them.
took me a while to realize the default store is snap only, but i couldn’t install another store either (can’t remember why). if i wasn’t so pissed i probably could’ve figured it out, but steam not working was too much of a dealbreaker that it wasn’t worth the effortSomething fundamental must have been wrong with your install and you needed to do a total reinstallation of Ubuntu. As personally I had no issues with that, I was able to install the Flatpak for Warehouse and then used Warehouse to install/manage other flatpaks (I prefer that over installing yet another store).
For me all i had to do was a handfull of commands to get flatpaks to appear in the software store. https://flathub.org/en/setup/Ubuntu
I think it is annoying that Ubuntu software store defaults to snaps, and it is easy to not notice this at first and be mystified why you can’t find normal apt packages.
Also, snap and flatpak packages often have problems that the system version doesn’t have. For example, flatpak Firefox cannot access machines over the local network by their network names (e.g. hostname.local), and that is just a limitation of flatpaks.
The snap for Steam also sucks but it is useable enough at first that I wasted a bunch of time trying to get it to work better, and eventually just installed the .deb the way Valve intended.
I install most of my software via Flatpak and Snap anyway, so I don’t need the latest and greatest in terms of apt packages, and Debian brings the benefit of a rock solid base.
I agree, so many people disregard Debian, but if you’re not gaming and don’t need to keep up with the latest things - Debian is rock solid and most of your packages you can just use flatpak. For the majority of daily users who aren’t gaming, I think it’s a super solid choice.
I heard cachy was better than average arch in complexity. I am very new to Linux with minimal computer skills and have been very happy with bazzite but most of my friends I try to convert are cachy loyalists
CachyOS is still going to demand more from you than Bazzite in terms of computer skills…Manual interventions (because the Arch Team cannot help themselves but move too fucking fast). Not like I can complain about that, given I have openSUSE Tumbleweed installed and am in SELinux range.
Bazzite is nice, as it can be as simple or as complex as you’d like!
I am loving, loving KDE and Bazzite. It feels like such a mature operating system compared to ol’ Windows :D
It is. Fedora is on version 44
Oh yeah? Windows 98 will blow you out of the water!
First Arch based distro I used was Manjaro. Served me well for the time despite the criticism, but I had a lots and lots of configuration to do for my needs, specially as a nooby. Since moved to CachyOS after the latest Manjaro debacle and said fuck that shit.
Was pleased that CachyOS was pretty much ready for my needs out of the box.
This is what I always hear, but Arch eludes me…
I’ve developed a deep appreciation for openSUSE Tumbleweed as a rolling release, that gives me more up to date repos for software and packages.
No real struggles save for me being a goose on the loose and doing something “that seemed fine”, but didn’t work like it was intended. ROFL or SELinux being its strange self after an update. That was easy to fix with an auto touch command and a few others (forgot to document).
Cachy is great for newbies. There’s no tweaking required, at least not more than mint. The AUR has all your weird niche programs you had on windows that apt and flatpak don’t have. It just works out of the box.
So you say, but, the installer…Man that thing doesn’t want to work with my system (even with secure boot off). It was the one that had the most failures with not creating a boot record, failing to install the Linux kernel, or the NVIDIA drivers. Other distros have very polished and sleek installer experiences (rarely issues as a bonus). CachyOS, in my personal experience I don’t find it to be a good one. On paper, it is (I did a lot of reading to figure out how to get CachyOS installed).
That’s unfortunate. I have gotten 3 of my non-Linux friends to install it and everything “just worked”, I hadn’t heard of any issues like that before.
I’ve only recently dipped into it
I’ve been using Kubuntu though for awhile on all but 2 of my systems, my NAS and my main rig. I’m testing CachyOS though and I’m seeing no issues so far.
Of course once I’ve got KDE up it all looks like it should lol
It’s always a matter of time with Arch…Always. Hell, the damned thing wouldn’t install the 4 times that I tried. (checks notes) Failed to install the boot loader, fatal issue with installing the OS, failed with installing the kernel twice. You got lucky, I swear Arch (LOL) hears the mad shit I talk and readies the mortar to blast my chosen installer with condensed malice.
Any other distro and it’s installed within 9 to 15 minutes, then I’m ready to customize…
I think SteamOS Desktop is what will tip the balance. People want a corporation with a familiar and quality reputation. CachyOS, Bazzite, Fedora, Arch, Red Hat, all are just weird entities that the ordinary person wouldn’t know.
As for myself, I will pick CachyOS or SteamOS, depending on what reviews say when comparing the two. I want flexibility for modding and some other power-casual stuff, but also want documentation and a large community of people familiar with my OS of choice. SteamOS is likely to be that choice, assuming that Valve doesn’t mess up.
Putting all your eggs in one basket is dangerous
I am counting two eggs in my case. SteamOS and CachyOS. Honestly, Linux doesn’t need ‘advocates’ like you, because you ignore other people, even when they give context. Seriously, you make Linux look like a religion, not a tool. 😒
two eggs
SteamOS is likely to be that choice, assuming that Valve doesn’t mess up.
Unless you can run two distros at the same time. And even then, I was talking about the first part of your comment, not your choice. People want to use an ecosystem because it’s simpler but it’s a risk. That’s the only thing I meant.
And why are you talking about religion and shit? Run whatever you want, I’m just giving my opinion. You’re taking things way too personally.
recommends arch based distros to everyone
“Wait why do you guys say linux is complex and difficult!?”
It just works out of the box. Not much tweaking required with cachy. Arguably less than other distros since all my weird niche prigrams are available on the AUR and not apt or flatpak.
Eventually some update will break stuff, and you’ll be expected to know how to web search and fix it yourself
Please I beg of you, just recommend people Mint. Catchy is great, it’s very easy and smooth as arch goes.
But if you have someone who is under the illusion that Linux is hard. The moment they have any issue it might frustrate them enough to bounce off. I know so many people who have gotten recommended some flavor of the week like Manjaro, Bazite, Pop_Os or Nobara, who that has happened with. I’ve never talked to anyone who was recommended Mint with Cinnamon, used it, and then decided it was too hard and went back to windows. Plenty of people will say “well I used XYZ and didn’t have any issues” or the issues were minor enough and the answers easy enough that they stuck around, but that’s survivorship bias, the people who didn’t deal with it aren’t here to say otherwise.
So just send them to cinnamon mint, there will be no hiccups, it will just work. Maybe later they’ll be like “yah, I kind of want to see what else is out there” and then they can try other things. I get that, cinnamon mint is limited in some ways, but not in ways a first time Linux user is going to care about.
Very true, I began my own linux journey, almost 20 years ago (fuck I feel old) with Ubuntu, not for any other reason other than it being the only linux distro that had any mass appeal, relatively speaking. But it was a perfect introduction to linux.
Debain-based distros are the way to go for linux newbs, but i’m sure some tech savvy people might like an arch based distro instead. All in all, experimentation, especially when you’re young and not obligated to work or a wife and kids, is great for providing enough time to learn and grow in the linux world.
Of my friend group we’ve got 2 people on Kubuntu, 2 running Pop_OS, 1 with a Steam Deck running Steam OS, and 2 running Bazzite. We’ve all dipped our toes in Linux over the years in various ways and at various times/
Funnily enough I’m the only one who started on Mint, everyone else started on Ubuntu (well, except Steam Deck guy).
Personally I’ve only dipped my toes into CachyOS in the last few weeks. The main reason was due to it being talked about a lot and a more popular distro will be easier to get help with.
I’ve been using Linux for 20 years: Ubuntu, Arch, elementaryOS, etc. I’ve tried and used a bunch of them.
But I need to get work done. I don’t have time to tinker anymore.
I’ve switched to Mint last year. Best choice ever. It just works, easy peasy.
Funny, i’m also 20 years into linux, but i still love to tinker, and im slowly teaching my child how to use linux. I’m literally installing arch right now as I type this. I love customizing the OS, and ive built a post OS install script to handle all the software and driver stuff.
Zorin OS is also a good choice if they have a high resolution screen, because Mint’s Cinnamon desktop has awful screen tearing when you increase the scaling.
The screen tearing from UI scaling being at an uneven interval has been fixed with the switch to Wayland. Screen tearing can still happen but it’s due to something being messed up in the rendering pipeline and not an issue particular to mint.
Zorin user here. Might switch to Mint. Might not help, but after almost 2 years, I still don’t know what I’m doing.
Unless it’s flatpak.
But like, I have no idea how to update my bluetooth driver. And I really want to.
There are other utilities that I can’t install. It’s like the tools you need to install to make linux easy still need terminal to install.
It’s all “you’re missing prerequesits. They won’t be installed”.
So you need to be smart enough in linux to install the tools to make it easy, but if you knew how to install the tools, you wouldn’t need them.
Most drivers are just in the Linux kernel so updating it will fix issues with them, unless the drivers can’t be bundled in to the kernel for license conflict reasons. In which case they need to be updated manually.
Mint has a GUI program for managing drivers that aren’t in the kernel. It actually has a GUI program for most things that would normally need commands in the terminal. Which is why I think it’s kind of insane to recommend anything else to people who aren’t familiar with using a command line interface.
The first person I met who used Mint was asking me how to fix his Nvidia output stutter lol.
The answer was updated kernel shenanigans which is probably Mint’s only weakness.
Anyways, that’s usually why I recommend Fedora since I think it properly fits the same spot where Ubuntu was like 15 years ago. Cutting edge stable, large community, and much easier support than something more downstream.
That being said, a good chunk of users have been quite happy with stuff like Bazzite and CachyOS because they’re mostly here to play games.
But yeah I agree, the popular recommendations of the week really need to be ignored for first time users. I still remember when they were pretty much all just Ubuntu downstreams that never fixed any of the upstream issues that Canonical created, which led to a ton of youtubers thinking Linux stability was behind.
On a similar note, it’s also why I recommend literally any DE except GNOME. It looks and functions like a knockoff ChromeOS tablet, despite the fact that it used to be the home of Compiz 15+ years ago, which is the peak of desktop UX lol.
I hear a lot of love for Fedora.
Even though I happily run OpenSUSE Tumbleweed myself, I have run into the occasional “What the ever-loving heck” issue that I’ve had to stubbornly troubleshoot, and I worry that’d make some people run away crying.
I have a family member with a really old laptop enjoying Mint, but my wife’s and my best buddy’s gaming PCs might be worth giving Fedora a shot on.
Like me, they need those updated Nvidia drivers and Wayland, and honestly most importantly for familiarity + cool-new-thing factor: KDE plasma 6! ;)
Fedora does this unfortunate thing, which I have not researched how to turn off yet. It will schedule a restart for you, and then just restart right in the middle of whatever you were doing, kind of like windows in that respect.
That IS unfortunate o.O. How weird!
Every other distro I’ve used has just been like “Hey, some of this stuff was system integral, recommend a restart when you feel like it. 👍”
Yeah, I’m used to Ubuntu and other Debian distros to act like that.
cool-new-thing factor: KDE plasma 6!
I found the “Fall apart” option last week which makes windows explode into tiny bits when you close them. Never had so few lingering windows open in my life.
Pew pew!!!
OMG if you like that you’ll probably also love Burn My Windows (https://github.com/Schneegans/Burn-My-Windows)
Those effects are ported to Plasma too! You can get 'em through the KDE Store / get new stuff system. :D
i used to use cacht, but after updating to kde plasma 6.6 it would freeze after i put the correct login and password. thankfully it has snapshots, so i could just not update it for a while.
i waited for 6.6.1, and instead of freezing it just closed and reopened the login page. 6.6.2 went back to freexing forever.
so i gave up, and installed base arch to see if that’d work, and it did! i also found out that archinstall is a thing! (i had installed arch manually many times a while back, and the clock time always broke) i did break it once by not configing limine snapper correctly, but now it’s great, and feels basically equal to cachy (except things don’t break and there isn’t a bunch of unecessary programs installed)
This has been fixed since then.
Also to get around it just press ctrl alt f2 and sign in in the window that appears. But like I said, no need since it has been fixed.
that’s great, but i have already switched after waiting for around 3 patches, and i do not care about cachy anymore, since i got snapshots and everything working perfectly on base arch
Still unacceptable
People just want something that works reliably
That’s why bleeding edge distributions should not be recommended to new users.
Yea edging until you bleed isn’t a good thing
CachyOS is a good option. maybe not as a brand new person to Linux but it’s fast and has everything you need.
Bazzite is fine too if you just depend on flatpaks which might make a windows to linux transition easier.
I’m currently trying PikaOS for the week and it’s ok. It’s fast, games as well if not ever so slightly better than CachyOS, but it feels a little TOO opinionated. For example if you install the Niri version (and I assume the hyprland version also) Kitty is baked into it to the point were potentially removing kitty breaks other dependencies. I don’t like that. Kitty is a bloated mess of a terminal and I’d much rather use Foot. Also the Pikabar thing is garbage. it’s a fork of Noctalia with ALL the options stripped out of it for whatever reason. But PikaOS is very easy to install and fairly minimal with what it does install. It’s nice but it’s kinda all over the place with things.
I’ll probably just end up going back to NixOS in a week anyways.
sounds like PikaOS would be cool if you just stick to GNOME or KDE
it’s a weird distro for sure. it’s kinda all over the place with stuff. for example on the distro itself they recommend installing Cosmic-Store as your package manager even if you’re not using Cosmic. they also use Nemo and a few other GNOME things baked in if your running the Niri or Hyprland iso. it’s odd. Add to the fact like i said if you want to remove Kitty you cana potentially break your system especially if you have an Nvidia GPU as it’s also baked into it for some reason.
This as opposed to Nobara where you can literally use the officiall or KDE iso version and then completely remove Plasma in favor of a WM and you’re fine.
No you can’t, CachyOs is to gamers as Kali is to scriddies
I switched to cachyos recently from nobara, and I’m facing an annoying bug. I have a 2.1 sound bar connect to my monitor, which connects to my PC via display port. My audio keeps cutting out when watching movies on stremio or playing games on steam. It comes back whenever I press the volume key, but goes away when there’s silence or low volume. It also comes back automatically when there is a sudden increase in volume. For example, during bgm, the sound cuts off, but when somebody suddenly starts talking it comes back on, but not all the time, if that makes sense.
They really do be taking the pis out of pistachios.
I recently swapped from Aurora, a Fedora immutable distro with KDE, to Cachy on my AMD 7040 Framework 13. I’m loving it. I use plain Arch on my desktop, so I felt right at home for the most part, and it really does just work.
It also fuckin’ flies my dudes.
Why is cachyOS the current thing?
Good performance, easy to use, easy to install. GUI for everything you need if you prefer.
Because it’s what I’m using and I’m a victim of the availability hueristic.
I do like it though. I didn’t try Endeavor OS but figure it’s similar.
YouTube and social media drive a lot of it. I call them bandwagon distros.
Yeah I thought that might be it.
It’s very optimized.
it’s the current arch based distro that makes arch more accessible to newcomers
(Sad forgotten Endeavour OS noises.)
recommend them a newbie friendly distro instead though
On W11 I have gotten 2 popup ads for copilot today. Linux users, i know you think W11 is bad but its worse than you think.
