Link: https://www.howtogeek.com/i-tried-cachyos-but-bazzite-is-still-my-linux-gaming-distro-of-choice/

CachyOS has taken the Linux world by storm lately. It’s currently one of the most popular Linux distros, and for good reason — it’s fast, polished, and, most importantly, reliable. I’ve used it myself, and I can see why so many people, especially Linux gamers, are fans of it. That said, if I were building a Linux gaming system, I’d choose Bazzite over CachyOS, and it boils down to one key reason.

CachyOS is a solid gaming distro

Giving credit where it’s due

CachyOS is an Arch-made-easy distro, giving you all the benefits of Arch without the technical hassle. You get a proper graphical installer to streamline the setup process, while the CachyOS Hello app offers one-click access to routine maintenance tasks like updating mirrors, installing gaming packages, adjusting system settings, and more.

That said, the real reason behind CachyOS’s astronomical rise to fame is its performance. The distro ships with its own custom Linux kernel, aptly named the CachyOS kernel, which is optimized for modern x86-64 processors. The official repositories also contain packages compiled for these architectures to take advantage of the CPU-specific optimizations.

All these optimizations help CachyOS squeeze more performance out of your hardware, making it a great choice for gamers. With the same hardware, you may see higher frame rates, better 1 percent lows, and more responsive gameplay compared with other Linux distros. Granted, the gains aren't anything extraordinary — CachyOS won't magically make a game that was otherwise unplayable run smoothly on your hardware — but the extra performance is certainly nice to have.

But it’s still an Arch-based distro

Performance matters, but so does reliability

CachyOS is based on Arch Linux, and there's a reason Arch isn't generally recommended for Linux newcomers. You see, Arch is a rolling-release distro, which means package updates become available as soon as they're released. This is usually good news for gamers because they get quick access to the latest features and performance improvements. However, it also introduces additional maintenance overhead.

You're expected to update your system regularly, ideally weekly or at least every couple of weeks. If you put off updates for too long, you might run into problems when you finally update, including keyring errors, outdated mirror lists, and other technical conflicts.

There's also the fact that constantly dealing with cutting-edge software can affect system stability. While most updates go smoothly, a buggy update can occasionally break something when you least expect it. It might be a driver, your desktop environment, or even a package dependency that causes your games to stop launching. When that happens, it's on you to figure out what went wrong and fix it.

Granted, CachyOS does provide a safety net for buggy updates and system breakages. It uses the Btrfs file system alongside Snapper to take snapshots before every system update. This way, if an update introduces bugs or breaks your system, you can roll back to a previous working snapshot. It's certainly a useful feature, and one that makes many rolling-release distros more viable for daily use.

Reliability by recovery vs. reliability by design

It's worth pointing out that snapshots are a recovery tool, not a way to prevent breakage in the first place. You still have to deal with a broken system and know how to boot into the appropriate snapshot. There's also a limit to what snapshots cover. By default, Snapper only takes snapshots of the preconfigured subvolumes, which typically include the root file system — not the home directory where your games live.

Now, yes, you can technically configure snapshots for your home directory, but doing so requires a lot of care and attention. Depending on your setup, rolling back personal files could also revert game saves, settings, and other documents alongside the changes you're trying to undo, which is a disaster in its own right.

For someone who's comfortable with Linux, all of this is manageable. However, for someone who has just switched from Windows to Linux to play games, it's a lot of unnecessary technical hassle.

Bazzite is far more reliable and beginner-friendly

It’s a distro designed to be fool-proof

Bazzite is another popular distro for Linux gaming. However, unlike CachyOS, it uses Fedora's Atomic Desktops as its base, offering a balance of stability and up-to-date software. These desktops use an image-based approach to system updates. Instead of updating individual system packages, Bazzite downloads an updated system image, prepares it as a separate deployment, and activates it after a reboot.

This sort of atomic update ensures that system updates are applied as a whole. If something goes wrong during an update, you can boot back into the previous deployment. This reduces the risk of partial updates and dependency conflicts, significantly lowering the chances of system breakage caused by failed updates.

What's more, Bazzite is an immutable distro, which means its core system is read-only. You can't freely modify the base system files as you would on a traditional Linux distro. This prevents applications and packages from casually modifying the underlying system, making Bazzite more resilient to accidental changes and the resulting breakages that can occur on other distros like CachyOS.

Bazzite's immutable nature also means you can't install apps and packages as freely as you can on other distros, since doing so involves modifying the core system. However, this generally isn't a problem for gaming since Steam and Lutris come preinstalled, and you can install your games through these launchers.

Furthermore, you can install system-level RPM packages using rpm-ostree, although this approach is generally discouraged. Instead, you're expected to use Flatpak for traditional desktop apps, Homebrew for command line apps, and Distrobox for software that needs a traditional package manager.

Overall, for someone who just wants to install Linux and play games without worrying too much about maintaining their OS, Bazzite is the more beginner-friendly choice.

Bazzite gives you the console experience

The way I see it, Bazzite offers more of a plug-and-play console gaming experience, which is perfect for casual gamers who aren't interested in worrying about the technicalities of Linux. In fact, you can install Bazzite's HTPC variant, which boots straight into Steam Gaming Mode, giving you a console-like experience based on Steam's Big Picture Mode. From there, you can simply install your Steam games and play them without ever having to worry about the Linux distro underneath.

In comparison, CachyOS is closer to traditional PC gaming. It gives you plenty of options but expects you to be tech-savvy enough to make the most of them and patient enough to troubleshoot problems if and when things go wrong. It certainly gives you more control over the OS, and if you enjoy that, CachyOS is going to be the better distro for you.

However, I just want a system that works. I have limited free time, and I'd rather spend it playing games than optimizing a system for gaming.

My gaming rig is Bazzite. My on the go laptop is CachyOS. Love them both, but agree with Bazzite for dedicated gaming.

I might have glossed over details, that felt like a lot of words just explaining what the distros are instead of your experience with them, but did you run cachy? Did you run into issues? The update experience with the immutables makes sense, but I've never had a problem with arch in over 3 years (though I do update regularly). Is it more of the issue of manually updating?

Cachy also has a handheld flavor that boots directly into steam, never have to boot into the desktop experience if you don't want to

I have a dedicated gaming PC running Bazzite and it’s been perfect so far. I wanted a console but PC and got it.

From personal experience, my rig is traditionally for gaming. However, simply because I prefer to make EVERY game work, immutable systems become a hindrance and not a blessing.

There have been many times that I can't mod a game, or install something that I need to make other games work, explicity because bazzite is immutable.

Bazzite also can on a whim change what your default applications are. The bazaar is ungodly awful as well, with it causing many conflicts. [They removed terminal and instead installed konsole for anyone who updated. Entirely unacceptable. ]

I would no longer recommend bazzite, mainly because they broke my trust by giving me a new browser that I never asked for, but just showed up one day after an update. Fuck bazzite.

Edit: I got the browser part incorrect. My memory is atrocious sadly, though the change was definitely strong enough to put me off of ever recommending it. They changed terminals with no warning what so ever.

i didn't have audio after installing bazzite, a result no other distro managed to reproduce. this was on a dell optiplex, so nothing out of the ordinary.

I would no longer recommend bazzite, mainly because they broke my trust by giving me a new browser that I never asked for, but just showed up one day after an update. Fuck bazzite.

What are you talking about? We've only ever shipped the Firefox flatpak since the pre alpha launch 5 years ago, you can easily verify this by looking at the source code.

There's nothing in the image that can even change your default.

It may not have been a browser, my apologies if I got that incorrect, though you guys absolutely have changed the default programs. My brain initially wanted to say it was Terminal/one of those applications, though I couldn't remember. I will correct that.

Regardless, an update shouldn't be changing anything like that on my system. It broke my trust.

What browser did they install?

I only skimmed the article since it covers a lot of stuff I knew already but it seems the main complaint is, as usual, “rolling distro bad”. With a side of “too technically demanding for average user”.

i wouldn't consider cachy as arch made easy at all.

it's a distro i can't recommend over bazzite for newbies because you need to somewhat know what you are doing.

not throwing shade it's excellent, just not for newbies at all.

I managed to break Debian Testing with updates, but so far never broke Arch or Cachy with updates of any sort. The fear of updates breaking Arch based distros is a bit out of proportion nowadays IMHO.

otoh, I migrated to cachy from Windows just over a year ago, and haven't really encountered any friction whatsoever despite my only prior Linux experience being installing Mint on an old laptop (which was a miserable endeavor, but that was entirely due to the sorry state of the laptop).

I'm probably a lot more willing to tinker than the average non-technical user, but it can be fine for newbies if they're willing to learn

i'm reticent to recommend it because most newbies aren't inclined to tinker with it.

it's an excellent os though and i'm glad you liked it. it's certainly not the easiest but it's the fastest and smoothest experience desktop linux can offer.

I went with Bazzite because I had assumed you couldn’t do this with Cachy, but I’m also a complete noob with Linux outside of my steam deck, so it might be for the best anyway.

I’m interested in Cachy because the discover store seems to be better than the Bazaar, and I wonder if using Arch would make getting my PSVR2 working on my PC any easier than it was on Bazzite. The mutability is a little scary, though.

I already had a situation with Bazzite where the motherboard stopped detecting my NVMe, and I couldn’t find a way around just reinstalling Bazzite from scratch again and redownloading my games. I had plugged in a really old hard drive to see if I could format it to work with Steam before booting into the system and the system assumed it had to boot into the hard drive, and then after that it just booted into the bios and had no clue where the proper hard drive was. I still wonder if there was an easier fix I didn’t know about.

Maybe if you're just trying to replicate the experience of a game console, Bazzite is closer, but for anyone who actually uses their machine as a workstation alongside gaming then CachyOS is far superior. Arch is incredibly well supported and documented and Cachy can run all the applications I need. Bazzite cannot, which is why I switched.

I would bet real money the way you broke Debian testing is that your boot filled up and initramfs didn't generate correctly, and then your rebooted and it wouldn't boot. Am I correct?

You can also take advantage of it a bit on other distros if your gaming because Lutris lets you use CachyOS's proton build on anything. And that works very nicely.

yeah, that's completely fair. I haven't had any noteworthy issues but I understand that isn't exactly typical with a rolling distro haha

By the third paragraph, I realized I'm reading a chatgpt response.

https://analognowhere.com/_/auxaru

Just use btrfs and if anything breaks roll back to the last snapshot

"Gaming" distros are cringe, ineffective gimmicks.

Em-dash in the very first paragraph

You bot that script posted somewhere? Im curioius how that works.
Also. You're launching steam in Big picture mode I assume? Not "SteamOS"?

Nah, Bazzite is king. Over 100k people using it now.

As a CachyOS user who tried Bazzite, I agree. Should I not have very specific requirements that make me go for a mutable distro, I would go with the latter.

If your needs are ordinary: browsing, coding, gaming, office work - Bazzite will fill the niche perfectly.

Yes in the sense that you can play all the same games on any "non-gaming" distro.

No in the sense of convenience, optimization, out-of-the-box features etc. Speaking of two distros presented here, CachyOS is greatly optimized and truly does increase your FPS compared to other distros (and by quite a lot, like 10-15% on average from what I've experienced!), while Bazzite has all the Wine/Proton stuff baked into the system, which saves a lot of trouble in some edge cases where Bottles or similar software won't help, and ensures proper graphics driver operation, especially on older Nvidia cards, which is another annoyance on stock Fedora.

Can you do all of this manually? Technically, yes. But then why not go straight LFS if DIY approach is a priority? Gaming distros bundle all you need to play without extra bother.

I have used many distributions but for gaming I want something that works reliably with modern graphics cards, does not annoy me with OS maintenance and updates and is controllable with a controller.

Yes, I could make a general purpose distro work like that. But I want to game after managing systems for 8 hours a day.

Not really some features are but other are really good to have them backed in for someone that just want to game.

Also SteamOS, ChimeraOS and other HTPC flavoured distro are usefull if you have a PC in the living room and don't bother Steam account.

Yeah, that's obvious in hindsight.

If I don't want all my college papers I wrote before AI to be accused of being AI because of the em dashes, I'm willing to accept that some nerd wiring a big post about Linux is using em dashes, I'm not going to accuse every piece that has em dashes of being AI out the gate.

Title made me suspicious already.

People with an Xbox or PlayStation are using commodity x86-64 computer running a gaming distro, just based on Windows and FreeBSD respectively instead of Linux. They are very, very popular and extremely effective. Some people just want to use their computer to have fun and want a heavily curated experience.

Thanks for posting relevent content!

"I don't like Cachy for one big, simple, obvious reason! Just one! So clear! So succinct! I could have fit it in the headline! You'll shit yourself! But first, here's a few paragraphs of dross."

How many use Fedora?

These big websites are all AI generated now.

I don't even see the point.

Why the hell would I want to go to your site to read the output of an AI. If I would like to do that I would go directly to ask the AI myself. It's stupid beyond measure.

No in the sense of convenience, optimization, out-of-the-box features etc.

Because installing Steam (which bundles proton) is soooo inconvenient....

CachyOS is greatly optimized and truly does increase your FPS compared to other distros (and by quite a lot, like 10-15% on average from what I’ve experienced!)

...which distros and games are you comparing because this is not a universal experience... It strongly depends on the game and personal config, no single distro is better than others fps-wise, as benchmark averages keep proving.

Gamers Nexus made a good video on Linux benchmarks if you feel like learning.

I consider this argument irrelevant in 2026. The average "full" distro is pretty much plug and play, Ive done nothing but install Steam on my Fedora install and game extensively.

This was not the case even 5 years ago, which is when "gaming" distros were an ok idea and these distros started. By now, the niche they aimed to serve has been largely closed by legacy distros.

I just saw several posts in a row from you and your alt and i'm surprised you're not getting downvoted into oblivion for posting generated slop

Nobody cares

At best you could argue theyay have paid for it to generate the result. If that's the case, just provide the prompt as well...

lulwat

No alt.

Articles come from websites more or less reputable.

.ca

Okay, another reactionary freak. Are you a Banderist?

Fedora won’t launch steam automatically and let me control the UI with my gamepad. Those are extra steps for a HTPC.

I find it mildly infuriating that the em dashes are getting this AI reputation. They have their place in literature and well written technical papers. Now all those texts may be accused of slop.

CachyOS for work, Bazzite for gaming. This is how I maintain what little is left of my sanity.

huh? What's wrong with the Canada TLD?

Because installing Steam (which bundles proton) is soooo inconvenient...

Steam is fine, but there are obscure edge cases in which it won't help. For example, I have one of the game launchers (running as AppImage) which, when I press Play, invokes Wine to actually run the game. On most immutable distros, this will be a problem, because it looks for Wine as a system package, it's not in the .iso, and getting it redirected to Wine as a Flatpak is a PITA, while using rpm-ostree has issues of its own. Bazzite has Wine built in, and so this problem simply doesn't arise.

This absolutely is an edge case most gamers won't face, but consistency is a big deal. Also, as a sidenote, I was pleased by Bazzite having a driver for my obscure 20-year-old printer built in, otherwise it would require me to use rpm-ostree to install it, and it's again far from optimal.

Which distros and games are you comparing

CachyOS vs Bazzite, Cyperpunk 2077, World of Warcraft, Minecraft, Space Engineers. Of course, this is a little bit of apples vs bananas, but you get the point. If you want a more correctly performed test, The Linux Experiment recently compared CachyOS to regular Arch in several games:

https://tilvids.com/w/kuTYMmJUmg54F6rN6Gj2j8

Gamers Nexus made a good video on Linux benchmarks if you feel like learning.

I'll look into it.