CuerdOS is a Debian-based GNU/Linux distribution with focus on stability, efficiency and performance. It comes with a series of optimisations, such as performance and memory consumption improvements. These optimisations are achieved through kernel patching and the Ananicy daemon, the latter of which manages input/output and CPU priorities. The distribution's "Standard" product uses Wayland's Sway compositor by default, but separate "Legacy" and "Community" builds with Budgie, Cinnamon, LXQt, MATE and Xfce desktops are also available.
To compare the software in this project to the software available in other distributions, please see our Compare Packages page.
Notes: In case where multiple versions of a package are shipped with a distribution, only the default version appears in the table. For indication about the GNOME version, please check the "nautilus" and "gnome-shell" packages. The Apache web server is listed as "httpd" and the Linux kernel is listed as "linux". The KDE desktop is represented by the "plasma-desktop" package and the Xfce desktop by the "xfdesktop" package.
Colour scheme:green text = latest stable version, red text = development or beta version. The function determining beta versions is not 100% reliable due to a wide variety of versioning schemes.
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I grabbed the KDE version, and it needs a LOT of polishing. Overall, it is not a bad distro, I'd say strip it down and add what you want. It uses more memory than a standard Debian KDE spin, but it felt snappier. I installed it into a VM first to see all the problems, as the last version was full of bugs.
When I say it needs polishing, I mean things like, not ejecting the live cd like other distro's automatically, leaving the installer icon on the desktop after install, not translating the update app, duplicate menu entries, Conky is always on top, the list goes on.
However, there was an effort made, Vivladi has a Cuerdos theme, there is a nicer app centre than discover, (Though discover is still present) I saw anothr user complained about onlyoffice, but it is not installed for me.
I'm installing on metal as I write this. It's not too broken and will give it a three month probation.
6/10 maybe 7, but definitely and 8 or more if the jank gets removed.
Version: 2.0 Rating: 7 Date: 2025-12-09 Votes: 2
I put this distro in a VM to test it out, and overall I'd say it's very promising. I'm currently using a tiling window manager and didn't know how a VM with Sway would operate, so I played it safe and with with XFCE. The system is very snappy, like CachyOS levels of fast. Genuinely impressive how much they managed to optimize Debian (which isn't exactly slow, but it could be faster) for basic speed. My VM only had 2GB of RAM and 2 cores, so I imagine this will probably run particularly well on older devices. It also manages to solve the problem of XFCE being inherently unpleasant to look at by way of a custom theme that looks very nice.
There are a couple things I'd do differently. Specifically, I'd swap Vivaldi in favor of something like Chromium or Firefox. Vivaldi is just too buggy to be a default browser in my opinion, and I feel that Chromium would be a better alternative while still maintaining that whole "dare to be different' kind of vibe CuerdOS has going for it. I also would've shipped LibreOffice over ONLYOFFICE, as some people may find that office suite to be disagreeable. If the tabbed interface was the reason for going with ONLYOFFICE, there's likely a way to prepackage LibreOffice with its tabbed interface. I noticed a few rough edges: The welcome application states CuerdOS is based on Arch, the system update tool doesn't actually have a button to let you update the system, and the system information screen still says things in Spanish even after switching it to English. Finally (and most importantly), I am able to log into the root account from the greeter. That's a big no-no in my book and should be either disabled by default or should have an option to disable it during install (or to enable it, either way works).
Overall, this distro is a solid 7/10 for me. It's stable, it's fast, and it looks as good as it runs. It's off to a wonderful start, I just think it needs a bit more direction - and by that I mean I think there should be a "sales pitch" as to why Vivaldi and ONLYOFFICE are bundled with it (as opposed to more traditional options like Firefox and LibreOffice). Even if it's just "we wanted to be different", something on the website that spells out the logic for me would be great! I look forward to seeing how this distro evolves with time.
I'm really excited about the new upgrade! Today, they launched the 2.0 release across many desktops. I want to check out all the flavors they've given us: KDE, XFCE, Sway, Shell, and Mate. That's quite a lot for this small development team! I’m sure that potato PC I have will be enough to test these distros. My favorite flavor is Mate, and now it’s an official flavor! However, I also want to reinstall and try Budgie on this potato I have. Thanks to the Cuerdos developers for thinking about those of us with older laptops who want to improve our experience a bit.