Argo OS
A custom Gentoo distribution built for performance, stability, and sanity
Three months, 200+ hours, and one existential crisis with Qt6 later -- this is what emerged.
What is Argo OS?
Argo OS is what happens when you get tired of waiting 6 hours for Firefox to compile. It's a custom Gentoo-based distribution designed to rival:
- CachyOS for gaming performance
- Fedora/Debian for security
- openSUSE for stability and snapshot protection
The difference? Argo OS compiles everything once on a build server, then deploys binary packages everywhere. Updates take minutes instead of hours. And if something breaks? Roll back in 2 minutes via Btrfs snapshots.
System Hardware
The daily-driver machine running Argo OS. Proof that you don't need new hardware to run a fast system.
Argo OS runs on a 12-year-old CPU. Performance comes from compilation optimization, not brute force hardware.
Filesystem Layout
Btrfs subvolume structure designed for independent rollbacks and snapshot efficiency.
Why This Matters
/ without touching your documents.
/var/cache is excluded so package downloads (hundreds of MB per update) don't inflate every snapshot.
/var/log is excluded so you can still read what went wrong after rolling back the root filesystem.
emerge operation. Boot into any previous snapshot from GRUB.
Core Design Principles
Compile Once, Deploy Everywhere
Binary package distribution from build servers. Your workstation never touches a compiler.
Snapshot Protection
Btrfs with automatic snapshots before and after every package operation. Rollback in 2 minutes.
Performance First
Optimized compilation with CPU-specific flags. No distribution compromises for compatibility.
Version Controlled
All configurations tracked in Git. Rebuild the entire system from source if needed.
Reproducible
Anyone should be able to build identical systems. Documentation is the product.
Cloud-Integrated
Automated backups and distributed storage. Your configs are never truly lost.
The Journey
Three months of building, breaking, and rebuilding. Here's how Argo OS evolved.
The VM Foundation
Built Gentoo in a VM. KDE Plasma, Firefox, the whole stack. 40 hours of compilation. Then the package database corrupted.
The Btrfs Migration
Rebuilt everything on Btrfs with Snapper. openSUSE's snapshot model, but on Gentoo. First successful rollback test: 2 minutes including reboot.
Binary Package Distribution
Set up a binhost server. Compile once, deploy everywhere. Updates went from 6 hours to 15 minutes. Game changer.
The Desktop Setup
KDE Plasma 6. Hyprland for tiling. NVIDIA drivers that actually work. The dream setup that took 3 weeks of dependency resolution.
The Build Swarm
One binhost wasn't enough. Built a distributed compilation system: 5 drones, 70+ cores, packages built in parallel across multiple machines.
Production Ready
Daily driver for work and gaming. 4,728 packages. Self-healing build infrastructure. Faster updates than Arch.
Technology Stack
Core System
Desktop
Infrastructure
Tooling
Key Features
90% Faster Updates
Binary packages mean updates in minutes, not hours. Firefox installs in 30 seconds instead of 4 hours.
2-Minute Rollback
Automatic snapshots before every package operation. Broke something? Boot into a previous snapshot from GRUB.
Distributed Builds
70+ CPU cores across 5 machines compiling packages in parallel. Build the entire system from scratch in hours, not days.
No Compromises
Every package compiled with your exact CPU flags. No distribution-level compatibility compromises.
VM Portable
Deploy a complete system to a new VM in 15 minutes. Golden images for rapid testing and development.
Documented Obsessively
Every decision, every disaster, every solution -- documented. The journey is the product.
How It Compares
An honest comparison. The point is not that Argo OS wins every category -- it's that Gentoo's customization plus binary packages removes the traditional tradeoff between optimization and convenience.
| Feature | Argo OS | CachyOS | Arch | Fedora | NixOS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Package optimization | Per-CPU flags | CachyOS patches | Generic x86_64 | Generic | Generic |
| Update time | Minutes (binary) | Minutes | Minutes | Minutes | Minutes |
| Rollback | 2 min (Btrfs) | Limited | No built-in | No built-in | Yes (generations) |
| Init system | OpenRC | systemd | systemd | systemd | systemd |
| Package count | 4,700+ | Arch repos | Arch repos | 60K+ | 80K+ |
| USE flags | Full control | No | No | No | Nix options |
| Learning curve | High | Medium | Medium | Low | Very High |
Every distro makes tradeoffs. Argo OS trades learning curve and initial setup time for per-CPU optimization, full USE flag control, and snapshot-based rollbacks -- without the multi-hour compile times that usually come with Gentoo.
By the Numbers
Explore More
Blog Series Index
The complete Argo OS documentation -- from the first VM to production infrastructure. Start with Part 1 and work through, or jump to a deep dive.
The Journey
Technical Deep Dives
Getting Started
Argo OS is not a downloadable ISO. It's a documented approach to building your own optimized Gentoo system. The value is in the process, the decisions, and the lessons learned.