Most Linux distros you don’t have to tinker anymore. I like Garuda, for a traditional desktop experience, but also including everything for gaming. I’ve heard CachyOS is similar but I haven’t tried it yet. If you want SteamOS (aka, a somewhat limited experience built for a handheld/console-like experience) Bazzite is great. None of these will require tinkering. They work out of the box and are easier to install than Windows even. SteamOS will be very similar. You won’t be getting anything you can’t already have.
Comment on Steam survey for December 2025 shows Linux holding to 3.19%
Alchalide@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Release steam OS and see it shoot up. For the people saying : just use this or that distro. I don’t want to tinker.
Cethin@lemmy.zip 2 months ago
MudMan@fedia.io 2 months ago
Having daily driven Bazzite for ages now...
...nah, you still will tinker.
Linux advocates just don't parse what "tinkering" means for most users, and frequent distro hoppers tend to think anything that doesn't break in the install process is "tinker-free". Neither is even remotely accurate.
Bazzite is alright, but it defaults to autoupdates, so you may want to understand how rolling back on a Fedora atomic distro works if you don't want to be confused later when something fixes itself/breaks randomly for no reason.
Cethin@lemmy.zip 2 months ago
Fine. As tinker free as Windows. I don’t know anyone who uses Windows and hasn’t had to modify it. The difference is that on Windows that’s often editing registries, or things like that. It’s a total pain in the ass. Every system will require you to change things to fit what you want. These distributions include pretty much everything you’ll need though.
MudMan@fedia.io 2 months ago
I definitely advocate for some key tweaks to Windows 11, for sure. Just one specifically as a manual registry edit, two perhaps, but absolutely.
Still, depending on your setup, your hardware and your use case you may or may not need to mess with some configs beyond what you'd do on Windows. Back when I moved into Bazzite I was more annoyed by this argument because I had all the setup tweaks fresher in my mind. These days I'm more part of the problem because I tweaked the tweaks and I genuinely forget all the things that needed tweaking, so in my head it was more straightforward than it was.
I'll say that I do regret somewhat going with KDE Plasma, which is a bad fit for Bazzite, but that I haven't reinstalled with Gnome because, man, do I not want to go through that process again. So that's probably a good gauge of whether that sounds like too much or not.
ArsonButCute@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
I know people are holding out for legit Steam OS, but Bazzite exists specifically for those people, who would prefer to hold out for Steam OS.
Might be worth looking at, its not for tinkerers.
Killer57@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
Bazzite is amazing, highly recommend.