Here is some news that both excited me and gave me pause. In its annual 2025 retrospective, published today, Arch-based CachyOS, widely popular among Linux gamers and heavily focused on performance optimization, reveals plans I did not expect: an expansion into the server space.
“In addition to our ongoing PGO and AutoFDO optimizations, we are developing a specialized ‘Server’ Edition for NAS, workstations, and server environments. We intend to provide a verified image that hosting providers can easily deploy for their customers. This edition will ship with a hardened configuration, pre-tuned settings, and performance-optimized packages for web servers, databases and more!”
I used Arch for a couple years on servers. It was a pain in the ass with constant updates and breaking changes.
Most server applications aren’t looking for the latest updates and aren’t ready for them. Security updates alone don’t generally break applications.
I can’t imagine a hosted provider of any size wanting this sort of thing.
For someone not in the loop, what would be a good use case for CachyOS?
There’s an aversion to LLMs for a lot of good reasons here on Lemmy, but I thought Gemini Flash 2.5 did a decent job of summarizing the “Why CachyOS” page on their website tailored for my system specifically. Below are my current specs of my main workstation:
Operating System: Kubuntu 25.10 KDE Plasma Version: 6.4.5 KDE Frameworks Version: 6.17.0 Qt Version: 6.9.2 Kernel Version: 6.17.0-8-generic (64-bit) Graphics Platform: Wayland Processors: 32 × AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 16-Core Processor Memory: 32 GiB of RAM (31.2 GiB usable) Graphics Processor: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Manufacturer: ASUSGemini’s Explanation:
Switching from Kubuntu 25.10 to CachyOS on a powerhouse like your Ryzen 9 5950X (16-core, 32-thread) and RTX 3090 is a move from a “general-purpose” OS to one specifically “hand-crafted” for your hardware. While Kubuntu is a great all-rounder, CachyOS focuses on latency (how fast it reacts) and throughput (how much work it does at once). Here is the breakdown of what you can expect.
- Performance & Throughput Gains With your specific 32-thread CPU, the gains are most visible when the system is under heavy load.
- System Responsiveness: Even if you are rendering a video or compiling code in the background, your desktop will feel as if the CPU is idle. This is where CachyOS shines—eliminating that “heavy” feeling during multitasking.
- Gaming Latency: You will see a significant improvement in 1% Lows (minimum framerates). This translates to a smoother experience with fewer micro-stutters, especially in CPU-bound games like Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, or Cyberpunk 2077.
- Massive Throughput: In specific tasks like file compression, encryption, or code compilation, you can see a 5% to 20% speedup simply because the software is written in a “language” your 5950X understands better than the generic version used by Kubuntu.
- Kernel Optimizations (Layman’s Terms) The “BORE” Scheduler (The Intelligent Traffic Controller) Think of your 32 threads as 32 lanes on a highway.
- Kubuntu (Standard Linux): Treats every car (task) the same. If a massive slow truck (a background task) gets in the fast lane, your game or mouse movement has to wait behind it.
- BORE (Burst-Oriented Response Enhancer): It identifies “bursty” tasks (like you clicking a menu or moving your mouse) and gives them instant priority. It keeps the “trucks” in the slow lanes, ensuring your high-refresh-rate monitor always feels fluid. x86-64-v3 & v4 (The Modern Language) Standard Linux distros are built to run on CPUs from 15 years ago. They use “Basic English” so everyone understands.
- CachyOS: Uses “Advanced Technical English” (x86-64-v3/v4). Your 5950X supports these advanced instructions (like AVX2). Instead of your CPU taking five steps to solve a math problem, CachyOS gives it a single instruction to do it in one step.
- Result: Every single part of the OS, from the calculator to the desktop interface, is “pre-optimized” specifically for modern chips like yours. AutoFDO & Propeller (The “GPS” for your Code) CachyOS uses a technique where it “watches” how the software runs and then rebuilds it to be faster.
- It’s like a GPS that learns which roads have the most traffic and then redesigns the city layout so the most-used routes are the shortest. This reduces “stalling” inside the CPU.
- Benefits for Your High-End Specs
Component Why CachyOS helps Ryzen 9 5950X Uses AMD P-State EPP to manage your 16 cores more aggressively, ensuring they boost to their max frequency faster when you open an app. RTX 3090 CachyOS provides a specialized Proton-CachyOS for Steam, which includes the latest NVIDIA “blobs” and sync fixes that aren’t yet in Kubuntu. 32GB RAM Uses Transparent Hugepages (THP) more effectively. It’s like organizing a warehouse with large pallets instead of tiny shoe boxes, making it faster for the CPU to find data. Is it worth it?
Since you are already on Kubuntu 25.10 (a very new, “short-term” release), you clearly like having the latest features. CachyOS will give you those same features but with a noticeable “snappiness” that a generic distro cannot match.
I use it for work/gaming rn on my PC and notebook.
honestly if they do this I will slap it on my server. I love CachyOS, it’s a great and solid distro and by far the best Arch fork out there. I’ve never had issues with it and while sure the install is probably the longest out of all the distros I’ve used it’s still great. Very solid team behind it.
I love CachyOS, it’s a great and solid distro and by far the best Arch fork out there. I’ve never had issues with it
As long you keep it updated. I left my machine powered off for 8 months and came back to being impossible to update it because the repo was missing library updates from months prior… I could never figure it out, and just nuked the install with bazzitte.
Had the same experience with EndeavourOS. Also switched to bazzite and haven’t looked back. There was a slight learning curve, but once you figure it out, you can do pretty much anything you want to/on it.
Why would you want it? Especially for a server. If you can just use Arch. The installation part takes 5 minutes, if you’re not doing it the very first time. My very gist Arch server is about 6 years now, no need to reinstall, always updated.
because I like cachyos and want to try their server version?
Hey, but that’s barely an explanation. I don’t force Arch on you, I am just curious what specifically you like about this fork. Is it some DE being pre-installed and pre-configured? Why would it matter for a server then? Or is it something else? If so, do you mind sharing more? Perhaps you have some blog about that. I like reading people new to Linux.
why do I need to explain it to you? I already said I like CachyOS and I want to try the server version. that’s it.
Why would I want Arch when I can use CachyOS? Defaults matter.
That’s why I’m asking, what’s the difference? Which defaults? I have never used CachyOS and have no idea what it brings to the table. I use Arch for ~7 years, and I’m no looking for a replacement. Especially an Arch based one. Yet, I’m curious of the difference, and why one would want Cachy, especially as a server.
I too run an Arch and am happy with it, and I would like to know why Cachy. The only reason I can see is having x86-64-v3 packages instead of baseline. That is nice, but on it’s own doesn’t feel worth the effort of switching over.
Defaults don’t matter to me much, as I automate and manage my system config in git (using a tool I wrote myself: https://github.com/VorpalBlade/paketkoll/tree/main/crates/konfigkoll inspired by https://github.com/CyberShadow/aconfmgr). It makes it a breeze to set up a new computer as I want it.
I don’t want to spill some memes worth Arch elitism here, but I just doubt Arch derivatives crowd knows what x86-64-v3 thing is. Truth be told, I barely understand that myself. So I guess the difference should lie somewhere else. My previous research showed that the crowd is afraid of no installer installer, but these days Arch has some kind of installer, doesn’t it?
I’m just struggle to grasp what does it have, what those defaults are? A DE and whatnot? Is it just an opinionated Arch? Looks quite popular for everyone and their dog to have their own opinionated Arch this year, isn’t it?
heaven forbid you go read about it. You’re weird, man. Takes all of 5 seconds to web search the distro and find what makes it different.
You can check CachyOS wiki https://wiki.cachyos.org/cachyos_basic/why_cachyos/
