Tools: Why I Ditched Manjaro for CachyOS (And I’m Never Going Back)

The "Manjaro Plateau" ## What makes CachyOS special? ## The Migration Experience ## KDE Plasma 6: The Cherry on Top ## The "Arch" Advantage ## Conclusion For years, Manjaro was my comfortable home. It was the "Arch for human beings." It gave me access to the AUR without the terror of a command-line installation. It was reliable... mostly. But recently, I hit a plateau. There were the package delays (waiting 2 weeks for a Plasma update that Arch users already had). There were the occasional breakages when using AUR packages that expected a newer system library than Manjaro provided. And frankly, it just felt a little... bloated. I wanted something closer to the metal. I wanted pure Arch speed, but I didn't want to spend my Saturday afternoon configuring a bootloader manually. If you haven't heard of it, CachyOS is an Arch-based distro focused on one thing: Aggressive Optimization. It isn't just "Arch with a theme." They recompile the entire Arch repository with x86-64-v3 and x86-64-v4 optimizations. It’s like taking the governor off your engine. I backed up my /home folder and flashed the ISO. 1. The Installer: CachyOS uses the familiar Calamares installer (same as Manjaro), but it gives you choices. 2. The First Boot: The difference was palpable immediately. Boot time was shorter. Apps opened instantly. It didn't feel like a placebo. The combination of the optimized kernel and the v3 packages makes the OS feel "buttery." Manjaro holds back updates, so I was stuck on Plasma 5.27 for what felt like an eternity. Jumping into CachyOS meant jumping straight into Plasma 6, and oh my god. The best part of leaving Manjaro is being back in sync with upstream Arch. Manjaro was a great training ground. It taught me how pacman works and how to manage a rolling release. But CachyOS feels like the graduation. It is blazing fast, it looks incredible with Plasma 6, and it treats your hardware with the respect it deserves. If you are sitting on the fence, wipe that drive and make the switch. You won't regret it. Are you running stock Arch, Manjaro, or have you joined the CachyOS cult? Let me know in the comments! Templates let you quickly answer FAQs or store snippets for re-use. Are you sure you want to hide this comment? It will become hidden in your post, but will still be visible via the comment's permalink. Hide child comments as well For further actions, you may consider blocking this person and/or reporting abuse - Translation: If you have a CPU made in the last 10 years, CachyOS utilizes instruction sets (like AVX2) that standard Arch (and Manjaro) ignore for compatibility reasons. - Which Kernel? (They offer their own optimized BORE scheduler kernels). - Which Desktop? (KDE Plasma 6, obviously). - Which Browser? (They have a fork of Firefox called Cachy-Browser that is insanely fast). - Wayland by Default: It finally just works. No flickering, no weird scaling issues. It feels modern. - The Floating Panel: The new default panel floats slightly above the screen edge. It looks premium, like macOS or Windows 11, but with Linux customization. - HDR Support: If you have an HDR monitor, Plasma 6 actually lets you use it. The colors pop in a way I’ve never seen on Linux before. - The Cube is Back: Yes, the desktop cube effect returned. Is it useful? No. Does it bring me joy? Absolutely. - When a new version of a tool comes out, I get it immediately. - The AUR works perfectly because my system libraries match what the AUR developers expect. - No more "Partial Upgrade" fears caused by Manjaro's holding repositories.