CachyOS is great, but I returned to MX

Debian
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I’d been using CachyOS for a couple months. It’s impressive, very fast and great for gaming. But I noticed that the package selection, even with AUR, is not as good as Debian. CachyOS always has the latest version of everything, which has its benefits, but the constant updates, and a kernel update every 3 or 4 days is a lot of churn for my tastes.

So I decided to start with MX again. After replacing my old Nvidia card with a Radeon, gaming is great again on MX, and it’s good to have access to that great collection of software, just an apt-get away.

In addition to the stock Debian kernels, MX also has gaming-optimized kernels available.

I’m running 6.17.13-1-liquorix-amd64, and it’s been behaving very well.

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As I have said many times. Debian is king. Interestingly I have found that most of the software I was using from the AUR was taken from a .deb file and converted for use in Arch. Maybe @hydn might know if there is a metric that shows how many software packages in the AUR comes from Debian.

I myself have a Radeon card to install in my computer. I am going to use it to return to using 3 monitors. When choosing between Nvidia and Radeon, I was aware that Nvidia cards needed extra drivers while Radeon tend to work from the current firmware.

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I actually just switch over to CachyOS from linux Mint to test it out on my old HP EliteBook 840 G5 so far I’m still new to all this but I did notice a significant speed up from Linux mint but as I said I’m still learning my way around all this again so I’m sure I will be hopping around till I find the right one for me.

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CachyOS is fast, since it’s optimized, and always has the latest of everything. I updated my MX Linux desktop to incorporate some of the things that were cachyOS defaults, e.g. zram swap, and systemd-managed automounts.

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Did you feel the difference after the tweaks?

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Most of the difference with zram in my case comes down to reduced wear and tear on the SSD. Since I upgraded my desktop to 32 GB that’s a good use for the extra memory. In the case of swapping, zram is going to be faster.

The systemd-managed automount performs the same, but the setup is simpler.

After replacing my nvidia quadro with a radeon rx 460, and instaling the liquorix kernel, gaming performance is very close to what it was under CachyOS.

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you don’t have to update every 3 or 4 days lul ?!?!
I do update my arch every 3 months
some times I test my luck by doing partial upgrade with -sy a single package might break the entire system from even booting, but i got used to it, debian based people don’t go through all this hell but it’s worth it.

you situation is very understood, good luck with MX linux.

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Sure, I could ignore the nagging update notifications, but I risk notification fatigue, and maybe I’d miss something important.

I have CachyOS on my backup desktop system, it’s great for gaming.

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:laughing: I know the feeling. When I was using Manjaro, the first thing I did was increase the update notification timing to the max, I think it was 1 week. At least it wasn’t a daily indicator showing updates are available.

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I’ll tell you what, if you don’t get bored with reliable consistency, very solid software, and a reasonably good looking system, you’re right; it’s hard to beat MX Linux and I’ve always had a copy of Simply MEPIS (early 2000s until 2012), and MX Linux from 2013 until now.

Taking the “other side” for a few moments, the Arch Linux “alternatives” compete for the end of the spectrum where people can’t “just leave well enough alone”! I think that CachyOS is probably a VERY GOOD distribution for people like Hayden James, who like great looking hardware and software.

I’ve had CachyOS in my stable but for me, I’m also a native Debian kind of a guy. My “go to”, just because I can’t “leave things alone either”, but also as a retiree, I don’t want to sit around all day long debugging someone’s work. For those who like THAT, Manjaro Linux is a complete disaster for me, but it might be just right for someone ELSE. My Arch-based go to is Endeavour OS. It’s the number one Arch variety for me because it’s easy to put together, they have all the tools right on their Welcome box, and you can get really beautiful night sky images of the Galaxy as you cross the Endeavour universe, and they’ve mostly tamed the AUR repo - for me, I use a few AUR packages without breaking everything.
With Endeavour OS, I’ve slightly tuned my alias definitions in my .bashrc (I use Bash rather than fish or some other shell), so I made my alias u look like this: alias u=‘yay -Syu’ and I made my installation alias like this: alias inst=‘yay -S $@’. These would work with either CachyOS or Endeavour OS. In MX Linux, these are alias u=‘sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get dist-upgrade;
sudo update-grub;sudo apt-get autoremove’
(I use the \ and put the remaining pieces on a separate line so they are viewable on a fairly narrow viewing area; otherwise they can be strung together on a long line.

So with Endeavour OS I can keep the system up to date either with their tools or mine and the same is true with MX Linux; they both have pretty good “information centers” so if you are not an expert with either Debian packaging or Arch-style packaging (pacman, yay, or some kind of updater), no problem; that is a nice feature in general for most good Linux distributions - more than one way to do almost anything.

I liked CachyOS, but right now it’s in my USB Flash Drive collection; I’m sure I’ll visit it again, but MX Linux is a keeper.

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CachyOS is more like a Formula 1 car. It’s built for raw speed and requires frequent pit stops. MX Linux is more of a high-end sports sedan reliable enough for the daily commute but has the engine (via Liquorix) to perform when you want to push it…!

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I still visit Cachy OS because I believe that it is good software but like you and others it’s an extra for me when I have time to experiment and try various distribution alternatives.

Regarding the immutable systems they won’t be my go to except when I have no time for installing and experimenting, then they have value as something that can be reliable (at least that is the intention).

For now my Debian alternatives are my every day drivers - antiX 23.2 is still the main one but I am helping with antiX 26 testing and soon that will become my base system. I also have MX Linux 25.1 and a few antiX respins to experiment with.

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Sounds like a solid setup using Debian and its derivatives as daily drivers while keeping Cachy OS and immutable systems for experimentation is a smart balance.

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Absolutely MX Linux’s reliability and polish make it hard to beat for daily use, and it’s smart to keep CachyOS and Endeavour OS around for experimenting without risking your main system.

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I like using Chaotic AUR and Bazaar for most things…

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I really enjoyed Mepis, they were really trying to help the user, bring things together, streamline. I didn’t use it for long because I liked to be in the details, but, it was pretty slick. Much better, to me, than the promise of what Ubuntu was supposed to be.

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I think that I understand what you’re saying: it’s MEPIS (and now MX Linux) are very solid, reliable solutions, but they’re so complete that you really don’t need to tinker with it at all, unless you WANT to do so. I get that.

While Debian doesn’t FORCE you to constantly tinker, it’s one layer closer and you can get very close to the direct interface to many things. Ubuntu definitely goes too far for people like you and me; using metapackages to an extreme and allowing very little flexibility; that may be great for some people who do not want to tinker at all, but unless you practically rewrite it, you have limited flexibility.

While I think that MEPIS and MX Linux do provide a lot of that flexibility, I understand your point.

My favorite distribution, antiX Linux, does things a LOT like Debian except for the reliance on systemd - the antiX developer despises systemd, so he’s worked for a decade to get rid of it entirely, finally succeeding a few years ago. It means that every time Debian inserts a systemd dependency into ANY package, he has to replace it and that’s a signifcant task, but it’s one that he (and a few of his like-minded developers) have mastered. I help moderate the antiX Linux forum so I have some of that bias too, but I do also use other distributions; MX Linux isn’t 100% nosystemd; a developer named ProwlerGr helped them bring back sysVinit as an alternative to at least reduce the number of routines dependent upon systemd.

Regarding CachyOS, I was really enjoying it for a while, but it went through a few rough patches, similar to the ones I’ve seen with Manjaro Linux, so I’ve found Endeavour OS to be an outstanding alternative to CachyOS; it’s just a little bit more conservative, thereby increasing the reliability and stability, plus they have a really wonderful forum.

I’ll say this though: even though we all have our preferences, and I’ll certainly state mine, at the very same time I am a HUGE advocate of personal choice, so if someone wants to pay a company to produce a commercial system, while that’s not MY choice, it’s their choice, and who am I to challenge their choice.

Bringing that right back here, if someone prefers CachyOS, MX Linux, Slackware, Tiny Core, Slitaz, Puppy Linux, FunOS, ZimaOS – fill in the blank - that’s why they are there. It’s fine; I’m not going to use or even try all of them, but I’m thankful that we have this many choices - and it’s our individual freedom of choice to use or not use whatever we personally choose, and that’s my biggest soapbox in the technology space.

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