Try CachyOS, it's based on Arch but with additional optimizations, better defaults, and is user friendly. The problems the author of the article had would not have happened if he spent some time using an user friendly distro before trying a hard distro.
Do CachyOS optimizations actually make any difference whatsoever? I know they enable certain optimization flags whenever building software, but that doesn't directly equate to performance improvements unless you're actually benchmarking and testing it. I've seen some benchmarks in games and it seems there is literally zero performance difference (sometimes it loses to Fedora, even).
I'd always recommend upstream distributions with corporate backing for novice users: Ubuntu or Fedora. If they're coming from Windows: Linux Mint. There's also a clear upgrade path for users who enjoy Mint or Ubuntu: Debian testing.
Arch Linux is awesome, don't get me wrong. I just believe it's borderline unethical to recommend someone installing anything related to Arch on their workstation. It's just not what a beginner should choose at all. CachyOS included, it even makes you choose your bootloader at install (any user-friendly distro would simply never bother you with that and go with GRUB right away).
A user's first distro can make or break their Linux experience. Think hard before recommending new users the flavor of the month or an Arch derivative.
> Do CachyOS optimizations actually make any difference whatsoever? I know they enable certain optimization flags whenever building software, but that doesn't directly equate to performance improvements unless you're actually benchmarking and testing it.
I switched from Windows 11 to Kubuntu a year ago, and then gave CachyOS a shot after hearing praise for it. I'm on a laptop with an AMD iGPU, and CachyOS's `znver4` optimized repos gave a significant bump on my Geekbench results:
(Note: these results are from almost a year ago though)
Lenovo Thinkpad P14s Gen4 AMD
- Windows 11: 2366 Single-Core Score, 10717 Multi-Core Score
Have you observed any changes in your day-to-day usage, such as faster compilation times? If it's actually decently faster I might try it instead of playing with Gentoo to get better-optimized compilation flags.
I haven't benchmarked anything other than the initial tests with Geekbench. That said, it subjectively felt "snappier"/faster in terms of UI speed with KDE Plasma than Kubuntu. I've been a happy CachyOS user since.
I love Cachy, but please don't recommend it as a reasonable first step into Linux.
It's a lot more polished than Arch, but it's not for someone who hasn't used Linux before and wants a reliably rock solid and predictable experience 365 days a year, with no fiddling.
It's rolling release, and there are inevitably bugs when updating immediately to every minor version of every part of the OS stack. Arch/Cachy/Endeavour are for experts, and those who enjoy tinkering. (If you want to recommend something Arch-flavored, just recommend Manjaro, and don't listen to the memers who parrot some youtuber's list of ancient and silly engagement-bait grievances.)
Or Mint? Works flawlessly for me when I need a Linux, which is not so often these days, but if I was still doing cross-platform software development it's what I'd use. Minimal fuss.
Mint is one of the greatest distributions to get started with for users coming from Windows. I've been using Fedora full-time for more than four years now, but before that I used Linux Mint for about a year. It's a great, seamless experience.
Only problem I believe is the lack of customization options in Cinnamon compared to KDE and even Gnome with extensions. I guess that makes the user miss out on some of the cool parts of owning your software. Also, being stuck in X11 will start to become a problem in the next few years: I'm waiting to see what they come up with on that front.
CachyOS? That distro asking you to pick one out of 5 bootloaders and one out of 13 desktop environments? That is rolling and so comes with the implicit contract that you would have your eyeballs liking every package's release notes for any one of them that you ever update?
Don't get me wrong, I've got nothing against CachyOS (I really couldn't care less), but if this is where we collectively set the bar for what is "user friendly", we are doing it wrong.
This is hilarious. Recommendations like this are exactly why nobody takes desktop Linux seriously (aside from gamers who yearn to dick-measure about something). A rolling release distro? Let alone Arch? You may as well recommend Gentoo.
Yeah, it can quickly lead to analysis paralysis.
I've set up three laptops with a Linux on them for non-tech friends and family members and deliberately went with distros that "just work" (Debian and Fedora specifically).
In general I'd recommend sticking to the simple options and not going into niches unless you/the user actually wants or needs to.
That's what I first thought of too. The author picks CatchyOS as their first Linux distro, only to find it's more complicated to set up, and then the mouse buttons don't work.
For the Linux newcomer, the biggest advantage of Ubuntu (or Ubuntu derivatives like Mint) is the wealth of guides, tutorials, and Q&As online, allowing you to google most common problems. You can always switch to another distro once you become more confident with Linux.
Maybe don't tell beginners to use something that will so easily break because you didn't read a wiki post. CachyOS is for the kind of gamer who'd de-bloat Windows, etc. to squeeze 1 fps more out of their hardware. If this isn't you then use something else.
If you wanted to recommend a distro which is a bit more 'out there' (so not just the quadfecta of Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu, Mint), I'd much sooner go with Mageia or OpenSUSE than an Arch derivative.
> Like, I hate the modern ad ecosystem as much as the next person, but I also understand the abstract need for the existence of advertisements of some kind.
We used to have catalogs and yellow pages before ads were everywhere.
They already have a major PR problem and are scrambling to fix it.
What they don’t - or don’t care enough to - realize is that given the enormity of the crimes they committed (heck, still are committing!), nothing short of accountability and justice will help cleanse their reputation.
The latter has always been true already of mainstream social platforms like Facebook, and the former isn't a patch, that's the old strategy. It's not working anymore.
It's too late to matter. Try finding someone under 30 who isn't already a zionist that has anything positive to say about Israel. It's like pulling teeth.
Given how loosely zionism is defined that is pretty much a tautology. There is no definition of zionist in use here, it is just vibes based 'reasoning'.
Zionist is rhetorically used to maintain their political bubble.
They cannot say if for instance a moderate and nuanced opinion ("October 7th was legitimate causus beli -but blocking aid is a hard crossing of the lines.") is Zionist or not. Let alone statements like "Israel has a right to exist." qualify.
There is plenty of motte and bailey to go around and the truth has already been buried in an unmarked grave.
On what planet is Zionism loosely defined? Go ask young people - Zionism is support for the existence of an Israeli state.
Outside of Jewish and Zionist Christian circles (which make up a tiny minority), virtually everyone under 30 can be lumped into the "not a fan of Israel" camp. The only question is a matter of degree.
A third of them think Israel was too heavy-handed in the response to 10/7.
Another third are cheering for 10/7 and chanting "from the river to the sea".
The final third are quiet about it in person, but behind pseudonyms online, are denying the holocaust while simultaneously asserting that jewish people deserved it.
Seriously, go talk to people under 30.
Jewish people are in for a very rude awakening as the loudest non-Jewish defenders of Israel and of Zionism, the boomers, die out.
This is absolutely not an endorsement of antisemitism, or of violence or threats of violence being directed at anyone, which is always wrong, but if I were Jewish and living in the US or western Europe, I'd already have started making plans to flee/escape. Just because what is happening is morally wrong doesn't mean it isn't happening.
It's always so funny how these people use their money to buy all media companies (a "dying" and profitless industry) and still think nobody will even notice...
The old addage is true. It takes a village to raise a child. It is therefore no surprise that our contemporary unnatural way of life and organization of society is not conductive to the continuation of the species.
if you have a syntax error in file A, and file B is just peachy keen, you can keep compiling file B instead of stopping the world. Then the next time you compile, you have already cached the result of file B compilation.
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