I do want SOME customizability, in the sense that I don’t want some hard work tweak I’ve implemented being nuked by an update.
Bazzite can do that. Unlike SteamOS, you cannot edit the system files, so there’s no customizations to wipe out. That said, user customizations generally live in /var
and /etc
, and those are left intact during updates. They’re also the only directories that are mutable on purpose (/var/home/youruser
is found there). You can also layer RPM files or dnf
packages using rpm-ostree install
. It’s a longer install process than traditional package managers, but it ensures you always have a restore point.
As a sidenote, I do recommend also checking out distrobox
, as it’s a useful tool anywhere but especially on atomic systems.
CachyOS sounds cool, but arch scares me.
Don’t be. Arch isn’t a big deal. The only reason people tend to like it is because vanilla Arch is a blank slate. That means the user gets to decide what goes into their system, but distros like CachyOS take all of that choice and decide what to include for you, in advance. So you get the same update schedule as the rest of Arch users, but you don’t have to think so hard about whether you want to use zfs or btrfs (for example).
If you want a great installation experience and mature community, I should also mention EndeavorOS. It’s Arch, but boy do they have the installation and onboarding down really well. If you’re nervous about CachyOS or Arch at all, check out this one.
CosmicOS I might avoid just because I don’t need beta instability right now.
Fair, and it’s not even in beta, it’s Alpha. I just mention it, because it’s going to be a big deal when it’s finished. Keep an eye on it.
Spin up some VMs and give em all a try!
I don’t know what any of that means, either. I think real world increases in performance are something like 10% for general computing, but it’s negligible for gaming.
The only thing that’s distinctly different from EndeavorOS is they have their own repos for optimized packages and their own helper interface for changing kernels, adding common packages, getting drivers, etc.