While DistroWatch isn’t exactly a reliable way to measure how usable a Linux distribution is—since its stats are just based on how many times a distro’s page gets opened—the numbers it shows have still always been a fun point of interest for Linux fans.
I say this because we’ve got a new leader on the charts — the gamer-focused CachyOS — which just knocked Linux Mint out of the top spot. Mint, for its part, had claimed first place back in November last year, taking it from MX Linux, which had held onto that position for quite a while. So, at the moment, things look like this.
Interestingly, at the end of last year, CachyOS was sitting in eighth place, pulling in roughly 130% less traffic on its DistroWatch page than Mint, which was the leader at the time. But things have obviously changed a lot since then.
We’re not going to get into debates about the ranking itself—that’s not the point here. But this is still a big win for CachyOS, and it’s worth giving it some well-deserved recognition. So, let’s take a moment to share a bit about the distro for readers who might not be all that familiar with it.
Launched in late 2022, CachyOS is an Arch Linux–based, rolling‑release distribution that emerged with a clear focus on performance. It offers a polished desktop experience (KDE Plasma is the default here) on par with Arch, yet more approachable for newcomers, offering a GUI installer, automatic hardware detection, and great flexibility for customizations.
But where the distro truly shines is in its under-the-hood optimizations. The system ships with a custom CachyOS kernel heavily tuned for responsiveness—complete with specialized CPU schedulers like BORE and EEVDF, which enhance desktop interactivity under load.
On top of that, its repositories offer aggressively optimized packages compiled with architecture-specific flags (e.g., x86-64-v3/v4, Zen4), along with LTO, PGO, or BOLT enhancements, resulting in notable performance gains, especially in demanding tasks: gamers have reported FPS improvements of 10–15 %, alongside lower latency compared to standard Arch setups.
Given all these strengths, it’s no surprise that in just a couple of years, CachyOS has become hugely popular—especially with gamers and Linux users chasing the snappiest desktop experience. Its climb to the number-one spot on DistroWatch pretty much says it all.
And finally, one more time—while this ranking doesn’t really reflect the true popularity of Linux distributions (Arch sitting at 49th… seriously?), CachyOS’s achievement deserves recognition. Well done, Cachy!
Cachyos user here, just a regular and long time windows gamer. Gotta say, this arch base distro was my home now, it was indeed snappy and stable compared to lm, and other debian base tested on my laptop. Idk what cachyos did to make it fast since I’m a noob on this kind of tech terms but, they have tools to help you install things esp game tools and more. Im aware of aur security lately and it actually helped to be aware on things I put into my system, but guess this is better than sticking to windows. For spec, I have 3050 rtx with amd cpu, fps wise its not far from windows actually or sometimes better depending on dlss setup. Funny thing is, budgie is one of my hatest de and arch based after my experience on manjaro but I’ve ended up loving it overtime lol, and I also love that they have opt for bootloader and de during installation. So far, this has been my longest stay on a linux distro and it’s been a lot of fun.
Distrowatch’s hit counter doesn’t really say anything other than how many people have clicked on the distro name. It tells NOTHING about a distro’s reliability or performance. It’s all in the eyes and mind of the individual user, not in mouse clicks!
Since CachyOS is such a young distro, only 2-1/2 years old, who knows how long it will last? Here today, gone tomorrow. Without corporate backing (Red Hat/Fedora, openSUSE, Ubuntu, etc.) or a huge base of users who contribute to the distro’s existence and development (Linux Mint), most small projects will eventually flounder. Time will tell. Stick with a distro which has stood the test of time – 10-20 years.
Distrowatch’s recent review of CachyOS was not all hearts and flowers. Prove it to yourself!
https://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20250505#cachyos
Gave it a very short try.
Failed.
I use nPVR which failed to work – as it previously has, flawlessly, this past year on Kubuntu 24.04 – to timeshift OTA shows.
I also need:
1. WINE for a very basic but Windows only app I use daily.
2. Samba, so I can access files on my smartphone.
3. Google Chrome web browser.
Installing these may be possible. But jumping hoops to do so should not be required for a modern distro in this day and age.
You said Wine(Whine?)
Samba(What look at Windows?)
More Windows
Get Linux
I’d like to note that I had no issues with installing wine like I would on regular arch, excepting the fact that it’s a custom version that runs a bit faster. Personally I don’t use samba but the cachy devs recently published an automated tool for samba that was reviewed in distrowatch’s article that doesn’t even require user intervention. Google chrome is a basic AUR package that while not officially supported (nothing directly from google really is, and for good reason) can be installed very easily with paru, which ships with cachy by default.
Gave it a very short try.
Failed.
I use nPVR which failed to work – as it previously has, flawlessly, this past year on Kubuntu 24.04 – to timeshift OTA shows.
I also need:
1. WINE for a very basic but Windows only app I use daily.
2. Samba, so I can access files on my smartphone.
3. Google Chrome web browser.
Installing these may be possible. But jumping hoops to do so should not be required for a modern distro in this day and age.
Great, just what we need. Another Linux distro… I heard that this is all part of a wider plan by corporations to confuse and water down the open source movement.
Wouldn’t surprise me. There are no lengths those well-established corporations wouldn’t go to to maintain their monopoly.
One of the biggest issues with Linux has always been fragmentation. With a bajillion different distros to choose from it makes it harder for any centralized development to crush long existing problems. A lot of talented devs out there, but too many of them are scattered.
How could it be “pulling in roughly 130% less traffic on its DistroWatch page than Mint”?
100% less is 0. 130% less would be negative traffic.
Perhaps you don’t understand how that works. I thought this was just common knowledge here but when you pull over 100% of something in traffic, you know like if you’re pulling 100% of something then you’re pulling an equal amount of that person but when you’re pulling more than that, then that percentage is added to the hundred percent I thought this was a common thought. Curious seems like everyone’s going backwards and they’re thinking or they forgot how or too much fluoride in their head or maybe just too much Covid vaccine
Dear condescending.
100% means all.
100% less means 0.
If in doubt try to google “what does 100percent less mean”. It’s really basic maths.
I love how condescending you were while being completely wrong.
“130% LESS”.
It’s a great distribution. I can’t imagine using any other distribution on my computer.
Consider Archlinix (btw)
Garuda is my go to, will have to give Cachy a try.
Garuda looks silly…… way too cartoonish. Well suited to children – primary and junior levels.
You can install cachyOS repositories on Garuda or any other Arch-based and experience the benefits without reinstalling.
I tried this on two systems – my main one and my lappy. I would get dropped to an emergency maintenance shell at least 40% of the time. While following the advice of the prompt (typing “journalctl -xb”) did give me some info, the only thing I ever found is that it couldn’t find “/boot”. Well then how did it find it the other ~60% of the time? I got sick of updating, because every time I updated, I got that emergency maintenance prompt. It went away 4-5 reboots later. SCREW that noise. I’m on Linux Mint 22.2 beta, and it’s been perfect so far. As much as I like Endeavour OS (way better than Cachy) I’ve decided to shun all arch-based distros. I want stability, not a roll of the dice.
I found out my touchscreen laptop loves TUXEDO betrer than Mint. AUR is a security disaster waiting to happen. Anyone can really inspect what is being installed and who the author/approver/reviewer is? I really doubt. I really do not understsd why Arch did not tighten security betrer and automate issues resolution during updates.
Mate, i know linux mint the most stable distro but like you don’t need to.scream at the top of your lungs that all other arch ones are just bad.
It may be configuration problem 😔.some times it’s how the kernel handles the stuff, and yes since debian based distros only get a update like once every year or two it will be a lot stable once you set it up, the advantages of arch is you get the latest stuff and weak point is also you got latest stuff it’s not tested enough,and that’s why debian stays 3 to 4 versions behind in kernels since you know they fully tested and fixed by the arch users 😁.
I’m afraid someone has made a bot that frequently clicks on a certain distribution’s page.
No catchy just had a big couple of things that they started doing some big changes to their interface and that and there was a lot of nudes on it so that would definitely get a bunch of people clicking on your page. I mean news has everything to do with it, not a bot nobody’s got time for that
nudes?? where???
Most images of Tux are nudes
I’m not sure. It is mentioned in many Linux articles, phoronix often includes it in kernel and CPU benchmarks.
Exactly!
Long time arch user I moved to cachyos with new 9950x3d build. Honestly has been super awesome, everything just works plus still very close to arch. I moved my old media pc to it too, currently sitting in 60 days uptime. All in great work
For me DistroWatch is nice list of what kind be played with if I want and to get some other base generic details before
Regarding CachyOS, it is always interesting who maintains specific OS and here we can see interesting comment
>> Feb 3, 2025I admire CachyOS but I’ve given up on it for numerous reasons. Mainly due to the Russian co-founder (Vladislav Nepogodin) who is best known for being passive-aggressive and toxic.
I cannot see and access full page, it is just what is shown on search page
https://www.phoronix.com/forums/forum/software/distributions/1523346-arch-linux-powered-cachyos-updated-with-propeller-optimized-kernel/page4
I definitely won’t touch this…
My solution/compromise is this: I use Garuda Linux which is really quite excellent (great tools, hasn’t broken on me in 3 years) and use their kernel tool to run the Cachy kernel. Not my first choice — the Clear kernel gave better Geekbench results every time I benchmarked — however, following the shutdown the Intel team that maintained that kernel I’ve had to switch to Cachy’s.