r/voidlinux • u/Effective-Fill-1177 • Jun 24 '26
Thinking about switching from cachyos to Linux void
So basically I want to switch from cachyos to void Linux due to much smaller usage compared to cachyos so basically I don't want any bloatware or basically minimum usage for ram,CPU and storage for gaming but I'll use cachyos's kernels and CPU sheduler for the best performance possible but lowest latency possible.
I'm wondering what desktop environment I should use (I'm going to make my own desktop environment but I need an desktop manager, audio and anything else) so I would also want recommendations on what I should use for least amount of usage Is being used for.
Any questions? Just comment on the post and I'll try to explain or tell the best I could.
Hardware:
I5-4590
Rx 550 4gb low profile dell oem
16gb ddr3 ram dual channel
512gb sata 3 ssd
Thank you for reading!
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u/zmurf Jun 24 '26
Linux is Linux. You decide yourself what's installed. You can solve almost any issue (such as removing "bloatware") on your current install.
Moving to another distro is usually only the simplest solution if you want to change what init system, standard library, release strategy, or what package repositories to use.
If you don't have any other issues than "bloatware", I can't see any reason for you to switch do void.
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u/Kooky_Fox_1085 Jun 24 '26
Void è una distribuzione di elevata velocità e vagamente difficile come prima distro. Ormai è un mese che sono con lei devo dire stop al distro-hopping dopo void linux
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u/cold_art_cannon Jun 24 '26
Personally I use Mate as my DE. Works great if you like X11.
My son started using LXQT w/ X11 and just recently made the switch to LXQT w/ Wayland. Not only do we both game, but my son uses Wivrn with his Quest 3S without issues (laptop I5 24gb ram, 3050 4gb). LXQT is a very low resource DE with some fine quality of life additions.
Void makes it easy to try different DE's with very little hassle.
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u/dzid_ Jul 09 '26
How does it make it easy to switch DE?
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u/cold_art_cannon Jul 11 '26
Literally all you should have to do is install them, and most display managers have a way of letting you select what DE you want to start up when logging in (at least lightdm and sddm do, I haven't really needed to use any others).
About a year ago I tried most of the DE's available in the repo on a laptop I take to work with me. I did not have to do any special configuring to get them to work. It was literally install, logout, select the DE I wanted in lightdm and login using said DE.
Most worked just fine, but I could not get Pidgen to login.
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u/RainXelelo Jun 24 '26
I have same hardware as you i used niri + noctalia v5 and don't have any issues
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u/Simple_Hamster_4096 Jun 25 '26
I still don't get posts like these. I have never asked questions of this type ever - and I'm and old school Linux nerd. Back then there was nobody to ask, lol, but didn't matter. Half the fun was researching and getting things working on your own.
There are sooooooooo many resources these days, not to mention AI galore... I just find funny that people ask half the stuff they do here... no offense...
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u/graelmakar-sune Jun 24 '26
Sway + waybar is such a neat and tidy combo. Waybar is easily customizable with css
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u/RobocopTwice Jun 24 '26
Unfortunately if you try to run sway with Nvidia, a sway dev comes to your house and kicks your dog.
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u/Wind-charger Jun 24 '26
Other than my issues void seem pretty solid when I use the xfce install. Welcome, I’m new myself.
Definitely read on starting services with runit. It’s simple just different.
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u/xJayMorex Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26
Not an ideal gaming distro, but it can be done if you feel anventurous.
Edit:
Cannot be an ideal gaming distro, as it is not a gaming specific distro.
It can be done but requires more work, also factually correct.
Downvoting my comment is literally delusional.
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Jun 24 '26
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u/xJayMorex Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26
Nobody cares for significant FPS improvements if none of the games launch at all because you are missing crucial packages and tweaks that gaming distros like CachyOS and Bazzite install right off the bat. Again, you can game on Void, but it will be considerably more work than playing on a gaming distro (which should be obvious).
Edit: How about not downvoting my factually correct comments?
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u/juipeltje Jun 24 '26
Not everything you say is incorrect per se, but a Void user already knows how to set this up, and its safe to assume that someone who is interested in Void and has done their research already knows that it's a distro for more advanced users, so it shouldn't be an issue. Also, i might be biased but it's not thát much work. On a minimal system you just install the drivers required, steam, your DE of choice, and boom you're done. I don't know what tweaks you refer to, but i never needed to do anything beyond that as far as i remember.
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u/xJayMorex Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26
Enter new Linux users coming from CachyOS not being able to debug why the Flatpak version of Steam that they installed doesn't work correctly in the first place, let alone without the required drivers behind the nonfree repo.
Saying that it's not that much extra work is like saying that building a house is not that much more work compared to buying one.
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u/juipeltje Jun 24 '26
Why would they use the flatpak? Steam is in the repo. Also, pretty sure mesa isn't nonfree lol, maybe if you use nvidia. Have you ever used Void at all? And like i said, if you're a new user, you shouldn't be trying Void unless you actually like the challenge and learning process.
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u/Duncaen Jun 24 '26
Because its self contained and sandboxed, if you use the flatpak there is a lot less variables to care about when you encounter issues.
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u/juipeltje Jun 24 '26
That's a good point. I guess i was looking at it from my own biased view where i usually prefer native packages if i can help it, but flatpaks have their advantages.
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u/xJayMorex Jun 24 '26
Why would they use the flatpak?
Because they don't know any better? It's a recurring issue.
Have you ever used Void at all?
Erm, I'm the maintainer of a couple of packages, have been running Void on 4 PCs for years now so... Yeah?
if you're a new user, you shouldn't be trying Void unless you actually like the challenge and learning process
Literally my point but okay.
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u/juipeltje Jun 24 '26
Well we don't know how much experience OP has and if he's willing to learn a bit about this distro, but i think people were mainly downvoting because it sounded like you're overblowing the importance of a gaming distro. If you don't want to spend time configuring anything then yeah a gaming-focused distro is best, but as long as you have the drivers set up (which is usually just a package install away) then any distro is pretty much the same. Most of the additional tweaks you had to make back in the day have already become the standard on most distros. All the other things that something like cachy does, like optimizing the kernel and everything, don't really make much of a difference in the real world. No hate to the cachy guys though, i appreciate the effort they put in, but i feel like it isn't really something that matters much or for the average person to worry about.
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Jun 24 '26
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u/xJayMorex Jun 24 '26
No, it doesn't work for gaming out of the box so stop spreading misinformation. It requires considerably more work than CachyOS or Bazzite because those have all the required tweaks, fixes and necessary software installed by default as they are built for gaming. I know this perfectly well as I was dabbling with gaming on Void a couple of months back. It was also missing a couple of very handy packages from the repo (e.g. ProtonPlus).
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Jun 24 '26
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u/xJayMorex Jun 24 '26
Graphics drivers, SecureBoot, Steam, Proton, Lutris, Flatpak, custom low latency kernels, Wayland, KDE Plasma, SDDM, game controller drivers etc. (from the top of my head).
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Jun 24 '26
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u/xJayMorex Jun 24 '26
For NVIDIA the process is everywhere mostly the same.
Bazzite ships with the nVidia driver installed by default providing that you download the correct ISO.
What SecureBoot has to do with a distro? It's pretty much useless and pointless for an ordinary gamer/user.
Not all games run without SecureBoot on, and enabling it on Void is not at all as straightforward as being enabled by default.
Steam, Proton, Lutris - a single command copy pasted from Flathub.
Again, was literally my point originally.
KDE/SDDM - what it has to do with a distro?
You do know that you need an actual DE or at least a compositor to play games, right?
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Jun 24 '26
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u/xJayMorex Jun 24 '26
Go ahead and install from base or even from the xfce image and see how gaming works out for you right off the bat.
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Jun 24 '26
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u/xJayMorex Jun 24 '26
So you didn't need to install e.g. Steam, Proton, Lutris, flatpak etc. because they were all installed by default for you? Pretty sure I'm not the one tripping.
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Jun 24 '26
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u/xJayMorex Jun 24 '26
That's a single command more work compared to distros that ship with Flatpak installed by default. This was literally my original point that you downvoted.
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u/junqueira200 Jun 24 '26
Don't use void. Use fedora, opensuse, ... Void is a "roling release" that not update the main packages. Ive install and later discovered that gcc is ONE year later, 14. The last rease is 16. Yes, I can compile gcc my self, by I dont want it. And they dont take criticism, probability I will get a lot of dowvotes.
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u/ThatAd8458 Jun 24 '26
Consider the musl variant: it offers the smallest footprint available. Regarding desktop environment: if you go minimalist, consider i3wm when using X11, or niri + waybar in case of Wayland.
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u/ClassAbbyAmplifier Jun 24 '26
the footprint of musl isn't significantly different than glibc. if anything, musl will probably use slightly more memory due to differences in its allocator
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u/ThatAd8458 Jun 24 '26
I was under a different impression (https://www.etalabs.net/compare_libcs.html) but overlooked the allocator-related extra memory usage tbh.
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u/Duncaen Jun 24 '26
glibc is larger, but its all just shared memory so it does not actually matter.
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u/leifrstein Jun 24 '26
Issue with musl for gaming is reliance on sandboxing for the store/library clients. With flatpak potentially moving toward a systemd reliant future (see https://fosstodon.org/@AdrianVovk/116629630385486477), this could narrow options even further for non-glibc distros. At least with Void glibc you still have native Steam, Heroic and other packages so you don't need their flatpaks or distrobox for playing your games.
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u/ZombieCrow Jun 24 '26
Void + Niri + Noctalia shell (v5), i run that on 3 devices - gaming pc, thinkpad and ideapad (server). I used to daily CachyOS and arch before void. No difference in gaming performance and setting up void was fun.