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GNU/Linux on the Desktop/Laptop: CachyOS is Dethroning Windows, Why Switch, and Productivity Gains
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XDA ☛ CachyOS is dethroning Windows at the one thing it owned for decades
If you asked me what operating system you should pick for PC gaming, I would have named Windows in a heartbeat. At the time, gaming on Linux was down to either if the developer explicitly coded a Linux-compatible version or if Wine liked it. It felt like way too much hassle to game on Linux when Windows was right there.
However, ever since Valve began working on Proton in 2018, things began to shift a little. Eventually, gaming on Linux was no longer a joke; it was a possibility, and it was still developing. Now, we're seeing CachyOS begin to catch up with the likes of Windows 11, offering people similiar, if not superior in-game experiences to Microsoft's OS. If things continue, we may see a major upset to the decade-old advice that gaming machines should run Windows.
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XDA ☛ I switched to Linux for unconventional reasons, and now I can't go back
I’ve been a fan of the Linux ecosystem ever since I got a taste of it with the Raspberry Pi OS (or Buster, as it was called back then) on my RPi Zero ages ago. Since then, it has been a fun journey involving distro-hopping shenanigans and virtualization experiments. But unlike most folks, my reasons for going down the slippery slope of Linux flavors were more than just dissatisfaction with Windows and a desire to bring old devices back to life with light distros. Looking back, I transitioned to Linux and its FOSS tools for some wacky reasons.
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XDA ☛ This lightweight Linux distro is what old hardware has been waiting for
There’s a certain kind of older PC that never really gets a dignified ending. It still powers on, the keyboard still feels fine, and the screen still has some life left in it, but modern operating systems start treating it like dead weight. Every update adds a little more drag. Every background service feels like one more thing the machine didn’t ask for. At some point, the hardware itself isn’t the problem. It’s the software piled on top of it.
That’s why Void Linux feels like such a surprise when you try it on aging hardware. It doesn’t have the name recognition of Ubuntu, Fedora, or Linux Mint, and honestly, that’s part of the appeal. Void has its own package manager, uses runit instead of systemd, and offers both glibc and musl variants, all of which help make a distro that feels leaner than many mainstream options. On an older laptop or desktop, that difference doesn’t stay abstract for very long. You feel it almost immediately when the machine starts acting useful again.
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XDA ☛ I ran Windows 11 and Linux side by side for a year, and a clear winner emerged for productivity
Windows 11 may be the most popular desktop operating system in the world right now, but that doesn't mean it's the only option, or even the best one. In the past year or so, I've been using Linux on one of my laptops while also keeping Windows on another, and using each one as needed.
Ultimately, though, when it comes to productivity and getting work done, I'm always choosing Linux whenever I can. The difference may not always be evident to everyone, but to me, it's an easy choice.