Glorious Linux Penguin Correspondence

[24caratcoal]

okay, then other-fucking-wise. WHAT ABOUT THE DRAGON GARUDA?!

Click to shrink...

Not even sure what that is, tbh

 

[ShadowWisp]

Not even sure what that is, tbh

Click to shrink...

One person i know said,

Garuda has taken a fucking running dive into bullshit land since last i used it

Click to shrink...

 

[vyor]

Just use SteamOS.

 

[Neh-Toth-Amon]

Just use SteamOS.

Click to shrink...

Afair, SteamOs still requires you to have another OS for actual work, and most games working on it are already working on other Linuxes. Didn't check it for some years, though, maybe they managed it to work with most Win-only games...
I personally agree with OP about Mint, but many games on Steam work even on Debian.

 

[Lorsïthrorung]

I'm on Arch and need to finally fix the missing characters.

The rectangles that according to search results, translate into Emojis.

 

[MissileTeatime]

I'm on Arch and need to finally fix the missing characters.

The rectangles that according to search results, translate into Emojis.

Click to shrink...

That's going to be a font thing, right? If I recall correctly, installing a font that has the missing characters in the usual way should correct it, if your system has fallback fonts sent up correctly.

 

[Neh-Toth-Amon]

I'm on Arch and need to finally fix the missing characters.

The rectangles that according to search results, translate into Emojis.

Click to shrink...

Had similar for Steam on Debian - never got to fixing as most Net solutions didn't work and actual working went ok.
Mint worked well in this, though. I think it was initially a bit gamer- oriented.

 

[Feng Lengshun]

Damn. So there IS a Linux thread in here.

Oh well, I'm going to just use this thread. Two and half years of dormancy. A lot has happened in that time, huh?

Well, for now, I've transitioned from Bazzite to CachyOS.

I used to outright build my own Bazzite image. Well, build ublue image, I mean - I made my repo from back when all we had was the ublue-kinoite image.

They're convenient, and works well enough for the most part. My issue is that I just don't agree with how the admin runs the project. At times, it feels like it's their owm playground more than a platform for people to just make their own. The constant replacement of KDE/Qt apps for GTK/libadwaita especially irked me. Them removing Discover for Bazaar, when it wasn't ready, was the last straw for me.

I then used NixOS for a bit, but it just doesn't work out for my system. It's just excessively stuttery, which is understandable on my old laptop, but not so much on my ROG Ally. And Jovian is still mainly for Steam Deck, not ROG Ally.

CachyOS has been great, so far. A lot of what they do is invisible, but I actually tried Arch via archinstall for a day on my laptop, and I just realized how much CachyOS does that is annoying to do from vanilla Arch.

I don't really like Shelly, though. I think Octopi is a more straightforward GUI package manager. Though I do mostly use Flatpak still, so... Ehh.

Still, I'm satisfied with all that CachyOS has done. It really feels like an Arch distro that sets all the hassle invisible stuff and just gets out of the way in the way that users would want to control.


View: https://youtu.be/8C5i1JFCLTI

 

[24caratcoal]

One of these days I have to get off my ass and really get into playing around with Linux to see what I can really do with it. My excuses keep getting in the way.

 

[Feng Lengshun]

CachyOS has their April updates: https://discuss.cachyos.org/t/cachyos-april-2026-release-changelog/28539

**Hello CachyOS Enthusiasts,**

This is our **third release** of the year, bringing a new default GUI package manager, DNS-over-HTTPS support, fingerprint-based sudo, and a variety of installer and hardware detection improvements!

First, the installer now ships **Shelly** as the GUI package manager, replacing Octopi. A **clean snapshot** is now created immediately after the installation has finished and is retained permanently, providing users with a reliable baseline restore point. GRUB `os-prober` is now enabled by default to detect other operating systems on the same machine. The **UKUI** desktop has been dropped from the selection, and the GNOME package selection has been cleaned up and modernised. For AMD GPUs, a different Plymouth theme is now used, as the `amdgpu` driver was unable to render the previous theme reliably on laptops with a secondary monitor attached. Last but not least, a new option was introduced in the installer that sets up `MangoWM` with `DMS` shell.

**CachyOS-Welcome** supports **DNS over HTTPS** for better privacy. The redesigned DNS page lets you test connection speeds, auto-select the fastest server, or add custom ones. We also added a **VRAM Management** toggle to optimize graphics memory on AMD and Intel GPUs, full keyboard navigation, and sharper, dark-mode-friendly icons.

**chwd** automatically configures **fingerprint readers** for `sudo` prompts, detects specific Intel CPUs for better power saving, and correctly handle laptop edge cases. Firmware update fixes for the Legion Go.

In **cachyos-settings**, the default NVMe I/O scheduler was switched from `none` to `kyber` for better overall responsiveness under mixed workloads.

On the fixes side, the installer now prints the chosen partition method to the debug log, and old microcode packages are properly removed when reusing an existing boot partition. In **chwd**, the kernel search in the NVIDIA profiles is now more accurate, the forced Xorg session was removed from the 470xx profiles, and handheld product name matching was improved. In **cachyos-settings**, `S01x` power management was dropped due to issues with the NVIDIA 595 driver, and `AggressiveVblank` was disabled due to VR-related issues with the NVIDIA driver.

**Features:**

* **Installer:**
* Shelly now replaced Octopi as the GUI package manager
* A clean snapshot is now created immediately after installation and retained permanently, providing a baseline restore point
* GRUB `os-prober` is now enabled by default
* Added MangoWM as Desktop Option with dotfiles
* Dropped the UKUI desktop
* AMD GPUs now use a different Plymouth theme, as the amdgpu driver is unable to render the previous theme reliably on laptops with a secondary monitor attached
* Cleaned up and modernised the GNOME package selection
* Added option to install `MangoWM` with `DMS` shell
* **CachyOS-Welcome:**
* Added DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) support via `blocky`
* Added custom DNS server support and DHCP automatic indicator/reset
* DNS servers now display metadata (region, homepage, filtering) and support individual latency testing
* Added VRAM management toggle `dmemcg-booster` (additionally installs `plasma-foreground-booster` on KDE)
* Added full keyboard navigation support for accessibility
* Replaced PNG social icons with crisp, HiDPI-aware SVGs
* Added `wezterm` to the terminal helper
* **chwd:**
* Added native USB device detection (via libusb/sysfs) and chassis type detection
* Added support for fingerprint (`fprint`) sudo integration
* Added CPU family/model detection to support `intel-lpmd`
* **Handhelds:** Added exact patterns for Xbox ROG Ally
* **Network:** Added Marvell AVASTAR 88W8897 Wi-Fi profile (Surface Pro 4)
* Split NVIDIA profiles for laptops and desktop environments
* Split and updated profiles for Virtual Machines
* **cachyos-settings:** Switched the default NVMe I/O scheduler from `none` to `kyber`

**Fixes:**

* **Installer:**
* The partition method is now printed to the debug log
* Old microcode packages are now removed when reusing an existing boot partition
* **CachyOS-Welcome:**
* Fixed connectivity checks incorrectly returning true when ping fails
* Ensured external link icons are visible in dark themes
* Prevented multiple instances of the welcome app from launching simultaneously
* Added `StartupWMClass` for improved `.desktop` window matching
* **chwd:**
* Removed the `kms` hook from `mkinitcpio.conf` on non-portable desktops to fix NVIDIA driver conflicts
* Made the installed kernel search in NVIDIA profiles more accurate
* Removed forced Xorg session from the NVIDIA 470xx profiles (fixes compatibility with `plasma-login-manager`)
* Removed outdated `WaylandEnable=false` for GDM in Virtual Machine profiles
* Fixed false-positive handheld detections (e.g., specific MSI laptops being mistaken for the MSI Claw)
* **cachyos-settings:**
* Dropped `S01x` power management due to issues with the NVIDIA 595 driver
* Disabled `AggressiveVblank` due to VR-related issues with the NVIDIA driver

**Manual changes for existing users:** No manual changes needed. Just the usual updating:

```
sudo pacman -Syu
```

**Download:**

**Desktop Edition:**

Grab your copy of the latest ISO from our mirrors on SourceForge:

* CDN: https://iso.cachyos.org/desktop/260426/cachyos-desktop-linux-260426.iso
* CDN2: https://cdn77.cachyos.org/ISO/desktop/260426/cachyos-desktop-linux-260426.iso
* Germany: https://mirror.cachyos.org/ISO/desktop/260426/cachyos-desktop-linux-260426.iso
* USA: https://us.cachyos.org/ISO/desktop/260426/cachyos-desktop-linux-260426.iso
* China: https://mirrors.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/cachyos/desktop/260426/cachyos-desktop-linux-260426.iso
* Russia: https://archlinux.gay/cachy/ISO/desktop/260426/cachyos-desktop-linux-260426.iso
* Russia: https://mirror.yandex.ru/cachyos/ISO/desktop/260426/cachyos-desktop-linux-260426.iso
* https://sourceforge.net/projects/cachyos-arch/files

**Handheld Edition:**

* CDN: https://iso.cachyos.org/handheld/260426/cachyos-handheld-linux-260426.iso
* CDN2: https://cdn77.cachyos.org/ISO/handheld/260426/cachyos-handheld-linux-260426.iso

**Support Us:**

Your contributions help us maintain our servers. Consider supporting CachyOS through:

* Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/CachyOS

Thank you for your continued support!

**The CachyOS Team**

Click to shrink...

Bazzite also put out their Fedora 44 update: https://universal-blue.discourse.group/t/bazzite-44-update/12092

The Bazzite 44 update is here for our desktop users! This is the big one – new kernel, new versions of GNOME/KDE, and more!

**Major changes include:**

* [KDE Plasma 6.6 w/ new Plasma Login Manager](https://kde.org/announcements/plasma/6/6.6.0/)
* [GNOME 50](https://release.gnome.org/50/)
* [OGC Kernel 6.19.x](https://opengamingcollective.org/), with 7.0 coming in the near future. *(Yes, we will include the Valve VRAM patchset with 7.0)*
* Mesa 26.0.5
* Bazaar 0.7.15
* Ptyxis has been dropped from our KDE images, and the new Konsole terminal is available with container support.
* [SBOMs](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/the-ultimate-guide-to-sboms/) *(Which now power our changelogs)*, [Build Attestation](https://docs.github.com/en/actions/concepts/security/artifact-attestations), [OpenSSF](https://openssf.org/) security scanning, and signed ISOs.
* Built in support for Elgato 4K capture cards
* Images reduced by 1GB thanks to moving in-image QEMU and ROCM to [Bazzite-DX](https://dev.bazzite.gg/) for users who need them
* Access to the latest and greatest ASUS Linux patches for use with ASUSCtl *(A brew package for this is being explored to make it even easier)*
* New brew installer for Sunshine via ujust. **Sunshine is no longer preinstalled in-image.**

---

For our deck users, we will be opening Bazzite 44 builds for deck in testing in the near future. We are slow-rolling this update due to the nature and amount of changes present in it to ensure that the vast majority of our existing users have a good experience. We'll update you on our progress in the coming weeks and look forward to testing it with you!

For more information about deck builds, see our previous post [here](https://universal-blue.discourse.group/t/bazzite-april-2026-update/11907).

Click to shrink...

CachyOS remains trailblazing and Bazzite seems to be doing well as they follow with Fedora and CachyOS.

Haven't been following Bazzite as much, has anyone heard of what's been going on in the OGC?