Because the PC enables me do do my hobbies (gaming, 3d modelling and printing), the PC itself isn't my hobby. If I spend more time tinkering with the OS than having the OS run the things I actually want to do, I'll go do something else.

I’ve spent far too much of my life configuring computers. I want to do as little configuring as possible. Also, I’d heard that Cachy had custom kernel changes that made pretty much any game run better.

Games run phenomenally, not sure why I’d go try anything else. (Bazzite, mint, zorin did not work with my setup)

i've been customizing linux for 15 years. it's nice to just sit down with something that works.

I tried pure Arch. Installed it and then realized I have to set up everything myself and lost all motivation. Didn't know about archinstall at that time. Found CachyOS and stuck with it. It runs perfectly and I see no reason to switch.

I like endeavour cause of the pretty wallpapers

I used EndeavourOS for a long time. I liked it mainly for the Sway config making it all so nice out of the box. And of course the easy install.

I don't use Arch anymore but I can imagine that the install process turned a lot of people off it or pivoted them to stuff like Manjaro, CachyOS, Endeavour etc. It isn't until recently that ArchInstall has become VERY good and simple.

Primary factor even with Archinstall is if you're trying to install Arch via Wifi. you have to do iwd and all that and for someone who isn't quite as comfortable on the command line yet that can be daunting. Even now for myself if I were installing Arch I still have to pull up the Arch Wiki during install cause I can never remember the iwd commands for wifi. I've also borked the install a couple times because I either forgot to include the networkmanager or selected the wrong video drivers.

I haven't run Arch in a few months, but I used to use CachyOS and Artix.

In the case of CachyOS, the repos have a few packages from the AUR pre-compiled, and linux-cachyos-hardened is a fantastic kernel flavour.

Artix, meanwhile, lets me use runit instead of systemd.

I also like the idea of Linux-libre, for which I would probably use Hyperbola (if not Guix). However, the only machine I own with a compatible WiFi chipset is a 32-bit MacBook from the 2000s, which I haven't seen since 2024.

The preconfigured desktop and software is irrelevant to me. I have my own DE recipes and workflows that I can replicate across most Linux distros and BSDs.

I googled 'gaming Linux distribution' and it basically gave me popos and cachy. Didn't like popos

Artix, because Arch mandates systemd and I don't want systemd.

I run EndeavourOS on my wife's laptop because it was easy to install.

I love the rolling release model, and the AUR. (I even maintain some packages on AUR.) I have installed and used pure Arch in the past, if only for the rite of passage.

But nowadays I mostly use EndeavourOS. It's basically Arch once it's installed, but has a nice and fast installer, with great defaults. Also, the community is awesome. I rarely need any help anymore, but I still like hanging out in their forums helping others, and generally chatting about non-Linux stuff.

lazy + unique features

like someone just fixed the isp4 webcam for my zbook, it's not even in the mainline kernel yet but at somepoint cachy's kernel started working perfectly with my webcam where before I had to build my own

Endeavor is just arch with a graphical installer takes 5 minst to install comes with a script to install nvidia drivers. I am far far from a nebie but it is just convenient. Also use cachy is repos which are faster

I used to use Arch, but I dropped it for CachyOS sometime last year. Cachy is just slightly faster for gaming for me, and since that's my biggest use, there was no really compelling reason why I shouldn't use it instead of Arch. Same experience, slightly better performance while gaming, and no additional work to set up. It's just win after win.

The installation process is intimidating for a lot of people.

I taught a friend Linux using the Arch install process.

They use EndevourOS because installation took 15 minutes instead of 3 hours.

Sorta first time Linux user, picked CachyOS because it came with friendly installer and startup install guide/automation. Unlike last time i tried Linux to run some python project on the GPU I never managed to install CUDA.

CachyOS promised out of box support, wine/proton directly, and the selection of default tools got me far along the Windows migration. So far no issues even compiling programs that need CUDA drivers and more. Haven't really gamed a lot, but this OS is supposed to be good for that.

I chose EndeavourOS initially because I was relatively new to Linux (I tinkered with Ubuntu in grade school) and wanted out of Microsoft's environment. The support community is amazing and newbie-friendly. They've helped me through a few bricked systems.

Now I'm at a crux because I own a 1080 and am tired of mistakenly breaking my installation because NVIDIA stopped supporting open source drivers for old cards. I felt uncomfortable building my own driver packages and was relying on AUR, but the recent security breach has me skittish.

Rather than switch to another distro (Mint being the top contender), I decided to replace my graphics card and stay with Endeavour because it seems the Arch distros are the only ones staunchly against age verification laws. I'm fortunate enough to be in a position to update and stick with Endeavour. Maybe when I actually get good at Linux I'll switch to pure Arch.

I didn't have time to set up arch manually as I wanted, after two/three hours I still didn't have a desktop environment and needed a working PC in the afternoon. I tried both cachyos and endeavouros, they're both good and they just work (TM). If I were to format the PC another time I guess I could try again with arch Linux, always happy to learn new stuff.

I've been using bare Arch for a while but after five or so installs I couldn't be bothered anymore and realized that EndeavourOS is basically doing exactly what I'm looking for.

So it's mostly the installer.

I did a pure Arch setup in a VM before I made the ultimate switch to CachyOS. I did not use the installer script but followed the guide on the wiki to get the basics running, and then I customized from there.

And while I'm glad I got that experience, because it taught me how much is really going on under the hood, I discovered that I simply don't enjoy that level of tinkering. It's not laziness, it's a lack of enjoyment towards the process.

I use CachyOS because I don't feel like going through the hassle of installing drivers for my 1070ti. The kernel optimizations are nice, tho.

I guess, same reason why we use Debian or Arch and not just LFS

I use the Calam Arch Installer ISO to install Arch. It's the same GUI installer that most downstream Arch derivatives use, but configured to install base Arch. No dealing with messy terminal install process and you end up with pure Arch install at the end. If all the downstream distros give you is an easy installer, this exists for base Arch as well even if it is a third party thing.

I want to, I've used arch in the past for a bit, then bazzite and then cachyos.

I want to go back to arch and set it up manually following a guide just to get more familiar with it, I just haven't had the time right now and cachyos has been working great

I have no reason to use a raw distro that requires customization when there’s a better version that already comes preconfigured.

im lazy :D

ArtiX because I don’t want age verification systemd on my computer.

I've ran vanilla Arch multiple times in the past, and each time it was for the 'fun'of building out my system, this was mainly back when I was a uni student.

These days however, I just want something that works well for my use case.

I am indeed lazy lol

Because pure Arch does not give me a choice of init system (Artix)

I’ve installed arch manually a few times. The last time I did it I had issues with my nvidia gpu and plasma glitching out drawing weird lines on the screen. I got tired of trying to fix it and went back to windows for a while. Figured I’d try crunchyos to see if their setup resolved that and it did. And now that it’s installed there’s no reason to uninstall.

Got tired of consistently running into problems trying to set it up(e.g,, messing up the UUID)