Cachy OS | Arch Linux Done Right?

It's been wild to see the shifting popularity of Linux distros over the years.
It wasn't that long ago that the distros with the most momentum were Elementary OS, Solus, Pop_OS, and Manjaro.

This past year I've noticed a few distros that seemed to come out of nowhere with popularity including: Bazzite, Zorin OS, Omarchy, EndeavourOS, and the subject of this post/video: Cachy OS.

Cachy OS is based on Arch Linux, but unlike Manjaro it doesn't freeze it for points releases or make drastic changes that impact the update cycle.
Manajro provides 3 different .iso files for each of it's official desktop environments, and another 3 for it's community-supported desktop environments.

Cachy provides only 2 .iso images. One for desktops/PCs/servers, and the other for handheld-devices like the Steam Deck, ASUS ROG Ally, or Lenovo Legion GO.
The handheld .iso only supports KDE Plasma 6.

On the "main" .iso you get a Plasma 6 live installer to test things out, but also you get one of the most comprehensive graphical installers I've ever used.
Which lets you select options for:

Boot Loaders:

• GRUB2
• Limine
• Systemd_boot
• REfind

File Systems:

• BTRFS
• Ext4
• XFS
• ZFS
• BCache FS
• F2FS(Flash-Friendly File System)

Desktop Environments:

• KDE Plasma
• GNOME
• COSMIC
• XFCE:
• Hyprland
• Sway
• Niri
• i3
• Qtile
• Wayfire
• **Budgie **
• Cinnamon
• LXDE
• LXQt
• MATE
• Openbox
• bspwm
• UKUI

Cachy includes a handful of applications no matter which desktop:

Alacrity terminal emulator(pre-configured with customized FISH or ZSH shells)
BTRFS Assistant(if you installed on BTRFS)
Micro & VIM text editors
Btop++ terminal resource/system monitor
Octopi software manager for Arch & AUR.(Octopi was included on my install, but I'm told it has been replaced with Shelly)

And Cachy's Very OWN Software:

• Cachy Hello:
  A welcome-app with all of Cachy's links to documentation.(Cachy's website includes an extensive wiki of tutorials and how-to's that are extremely useful)
  • It includes toggles for various Cachy performance features such as Profile-Sync Dameon, BPF-tune, Aninancy-CPP, Systemd Out-Of-Memory-Daemon.
• Cachy Software Manager: A curated list of packages by type, and comprehensive list of packages in Cachy's official Arch-repos.
  • Gaming Packages in particular lets you pick from every Vulkan-driver imaginable. Graphics drivers for every chipset, integrated GPU, or graphics card that I didn't even know existed before seeing them listed here.

Cachy Kernel Manager: Lets you custom-build kernels, or switch between the various custom ones. Also gives you access to Sched-Ext custom scheduler extensions.

How Cachy Is Different from Arch:

Arch Linux builds their packages for maximum compatibility.
Where Arch is agnostic Cachy is specific.
Cachy clones and rebuilds the entire Arch Linux repository, but with performance-focused enhancements tailored to modern hardware.
This includes compiling more of the system using BOLT/PGO/LTO optimizations using Clang/LLVM Low Level Virtual Machine to build major components.

Cachy further specifies packages for x86_64-v2,v3,v4(Zen4) architectures to make better use of the latest instructions on modern Intel/AMD processor.

Cachy lets you switch between EEVDF, BORE, and BMQ schedulers.
EEVDF – general-purpose (default tuned scheduler)
BORE – optimized for responsiveness, desktop, and gaming
BMQ – alternative scheduler focused on simplicity and performance

And that's before letting you swap out Sched-Ext profiles that let you tune it even further.
There's also kernels built realtime, long-term support, hardened(security), and several more.

Cachy includes profiles/rules for Ananicy-CPP that optimize it for apps or games. Which includes Windows games that may have more than one necessary process. You can also write your own rules for games/apps.

CHWD or Cachy Hardware Detection automatically scans/determines available drivers/firmware.

And believe it or not, there's so many other things you'll learn by actually watching my video.