{"id":183380,"date":"2025-08-15T14:39:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T14:39:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/linuxiac.com\/?p=183380"},"modified":"2025-08-15T14:46:30","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T14:46:30","slug":"cachyos-topped-distrowatch-rankings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/linuxiac.com\/cachyos-topped-distrowatch-rankings\/","title":{"rendered":"CachyOS Topped DistroWatch\u2019s Rankings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

While DistroWatch<\/a> isn\u2019t exactly a reliable way to measure how usable a Linux distribution is\u2014since its stats are just based on how many times a distro\u2019s page gets opened\u2014the numbers it shows have still always been a fun point of interest for Linux fans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I say this because we\u2019ve got a new leader on the charts \u2014 the gamer-focused CachyOS \u2014 which just knocked Linux Mint out of the top spot. Mint, for its part, had claimed first place<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CachyOS
CachyOS topped DistroWatch\u2019s rankings.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re not going to get into debates about the ranking itself\u2014that\u2019s not the point here. But this is still a big win for CachyOS, and it\u2019s worth giving it some well-deserved recognition. So, let\u2019s take a moment to share a bit about the distro for readers who might not be all that familiar with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Launched in late 2022, CachyOS is an Arch Linux\u2013based, rolling\u2011release 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CachyOS\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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\u2014complete with specialized CPU schedulers like BORE and EEVDF, which enhance desktop interactivity under load.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201315\u202f%, alongside lower latency compared to standard Arch setups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given all these strengths, it\u2019s no surprise that in just a couple of years, CachyOS has become hugely popular\u2014especially with gamers and Linux users chasing the snappiest desktop experience. Its climb to the number-one spot on DistroWatch pretty much says it all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And finally, one more time\u2014while this ranking doesn\u2019t really reflect the true popularity of Linux distributions (Arch sitting at 49th\u2026 seriously?), CachyOS’s achievement deserves recognition. Well done, Cachy!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The performance-tuned CachyOS takes the crown from Linux Mint, topping DistroWatch\u2019s ranking for the most popular Linux distribution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":183389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[6325,5060,1353,1176],"class_list":["post-183380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-os","category-news","tag-arch-based","tag-cachyos","tag-games","tag-rolling-release"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/linuxiac.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/linuxiac.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/linuxiac.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linuxiac.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linuxiac.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/linuxiac.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linuxiac.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/linuxiac.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linuxiac.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linuxiac.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}