CachyOS founder explains why they didn't join the new Open Gaming Collective (OGC)

The Open Gaming Collective (OGC) was an interesting announcement recently from a few bigger names, but the CachyOS team opted out of it and now we know why.

Currently the OGC includes the likes of Bazzite & Universal Blue, ASUS Linux, ShadowBlip, PikaOS, Fyra Labs along with ChimeraOS, Nobara and Playtron.

In a post on Reddit that was made in relation to our own coverage of it, the founder of CachyOS ( Peter Jung / ptr1337 ) jumped into the comments to explain why they decided not to join in. From their own words:

Hi,

We have thought about this but we opted out, since we do not see all too much benefit from our side. Handheld stuff is not our major focus. Also, we had some concerns that this could get a "burocractic loophole", which seemd to be more or less true so far.

Additionally, to us all this "initiative" locked like an emergency rushed thing, so that Bazzite finds new kernel maintainers and for other technical stuff after kicking the maintainer, which basically made most integration work for them

We neither want to be associated with "Playtron" too. There are more reasons, but Ill keep them out of the public

Side-note: For those unfamiliar with Playtron, they made a big splash back in early 2024 about making a new Linux-based OS for gaming while pulling in a number of open source developers. The first (and only?) hardware actually using it appears to be the SuiPlay0X1, which has some weird web3 / crypto blockchain stuff. And eventually, Playtron announced their own crypto currency back in May 2025. Playtron haven't announced anything at all since then.

In a follow-up Reddit comment Jung from CachyOS also mentioned:

There could be theoretically a benefit in terms of specific patches for handheld devices. Antheas made there a really good job in creating and finding the proper patches, but since the person is not in Bazzite anymore and the rest seem not to have their experience.

Weve been working together with ChimeraOS and asus-linux since more then a year. Much testing and integration from inputplumber came from the CachyOS Handheld Edition too! :) I dont think for that a collective with strings attached is needed.

Staying out of any possible drama and just continuing to do your own thing is a very valid stance to take. Hopefully both CachyOS and the Open Gaming Collective (OGC) continue on to do great work for the benefit of all Linux users, even if it's apart.