The Best Linux Audio Distro In 2026 Is CachyOS

So I've been on the Linux Audio bandwagen since about 2003, it was the reason I switched from Windows. Worried about having all sorts of problems, I took the plunge, and installed Slackware- if we go, we go all the way! And sure enough, you could get a kernel and I even helped with packaging (until the slackware audio guy told me to improve my package quality and I took that kind of badly). It actually worked okay!

Then, I cought all the enthusiasm Ubuntu was radiating and jumped right on. Debian with fresh packages? What is there not to like But I ended up kernel hunting again. And when I noticed I'd never successfully upgraded an Ubuntu install, and had been getting all my kernel documentation from Arch linux documentation, I switch to arch. That was the best decision I ever made. System always easy to update, always easy to fix if necessary, always the latest packages, and fast too! They even had realtime kernels! But those got a bit old and the only new realtime kernels came from this new CachyOS project and holy hell were they fast. So I put the rest on and it updated without a hitch.

Well, now I'm a happy guy, I can finally use my realtime kernel on the desktop all the time, so I can just reach over to the music software without restarting and then just closing the window and moving over to Netflix in 4k if needed. You know- priorities.

And that's why CachyOS is the best realtime distro right now- for the same reasons arch is (system always up to date, always easy to fix, always latest packages), plus it's faster and has an even archier realtime kernel that works with the proprietary nvidia drivers.

I'm finally happy with my computer.