What's new in CachyOS this April
There's a new package manager that's more friendly to Arch beginners
CachyOS' developers announced over the weekend a refresh to the downloadable CachyOS image. There are several additions and changes to the installer and default configuration, and these are the most important.
What's new
- A replacement for Octopi: Shelly is replacing Octopi as a graphical package manger. It's designed as a more user-friendly alternative to Octopi and
pacman.- Shelly integrates not just Arch packages and the AUR but, unlike Octopi, also Flatpak and AppImage management.
- Fingerprint authentication for sudo: If you PC has a fingerprint reader, you can now use it to authorize running a command as superuser.
- A permanent system restore option: A baseline snapshot gets created immediately after you install CachyOS for the first time, and you'll forever have the option to go back to it in the case you want a complete system restoration.
What's getting better
- CachyOS' hardware detection: The script that runs at installation identifying and optimizing for your hardware is better at choosing NVIDIA graphics card and virtual machine profiles.
- DNS choices and video memory: The Apps/Tweaks menu in CachyOS Welcome now lets you enable DNS-over-HTTPS with a single click. You can also install VRAM management tools that make more efficient use of video memory when gaming.
What's going away
- The UKUI desktop environment: The sleek desktop environment designed by and for Chinese Linux enthusiasts is no longer be available as a desktop option during installation.
- UKUI hasn't seen an update for three years.
- A couple of problematic optimizations: The S01x power and AggressiveVblank settings options are no longer available because of incompatibility with certain NVIDIA cards and drivers.
Zooming out
Why this update matters: CachyOS remains one of the trendiest Linux distros, especially in the Arch-made-easy scene. Continued development, especially in the hardware optimization department, makes it a tough distro to beat.
My take: I'm already using CachyOS on one of my computers, and all of these updates are good news for me. They make the experience more user friendly and simplify complex processes, making running Arch even easier.
- Also, I'm curious if Shelly can replace Gear Lever in managing AppImages for me.
Diving in
The fineprint: There were many more small changes I didn't mention but that you can find in the official blog post.
Get it now: Head to the CachyOS download page to get a fresh installation image with all the changes mentioned above.
