I play a lot of games over steam, and I am coming from windows.
I would say SteamOS if you can run it. Otherwise, CachyOS.
I am looking for a Linux OS
Submitted 20 hours ago by Arandomguyontheinternet@sh.itjust.works to nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
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Comments
Endymion_Mallorn@kbin.melroy.org 20 hours ago
Arandomguyontheinternet@sh.itjust.works 19 hours ago
Thank you
KoboldCoterie@pawb.social 17 hours ago
Worth noting if you take this advice: SteamOS (and Bazzite, recommended elsewhere) are immutable distros, which, to over-simplify it to an extreme degree, limits your ability to install things that modify the system directly. This can be a good thing, but it can also make it difficult to install certain things that you might want. There are workarounds, but you might find this frustrating at first.
If you primarily game, this is probably not an issue for you except that some non-Steam games may require some extra work to run (particularly ones that, for example, require you to install .NET Framework or specific Java versions.)
Not trying to discourage you from these - they’re great OSes and the ‘downside’ of immutable distros can actually be beneficial when new to linux, as they prevent you from breaking things through inexperience, but it’s something you should be aware of up front. (FWIW I use Bazzite as my daily driver for everything, and it works fine.)
BandanaBug@piefed.social 19 hours ago
I’m running CachyOS and love it. Great performance and easy to use IMO
zxqwas@lemmy.world 16 hours ago
I’d probably say mint, reasonably newbie friendly. I’ve not tried Bazzite but I hear good things about it.
I currently run Arch btw, it’s not what I’d recommend as a first distro.
Anyway don’t over think it. Get something easy up and running and after a while get curious or annoyed and try something else.
Hope you have an AMD gpu. Been a while since I had a Nvidia but they were twice as annoying to deal with some 7 years ago.
Lyubo@lemmy.ml 13 hours ago
Your new phone and GameNative. If you insist on a PC- Bazzite have a cool idea where they use Fedora atomic, the downside is that it’s Fedora. If you feel like you can get alone with Arch try CachyOS. I use Nobara but I’m not quite happy with in because I’ve had so many issues with updates, and stuff not working properly and in the past was very confusing what you should’ve to install programs. I’m not sure if there’s a reason to use Nobara now when they use the kernel patches from CachyOS and removed all patches for specific vendors (like Asus and Lenovo) except for Surface laptops. The initial setup is great. If you have legacy or in the short future legacy Nvidia GPU don’t go with Nobara. If you want to set it up yourself like you want check out openSUSE. I didn’t mentioned Debian and Debian-based because Steam is recommended to be installed as system app and Debian have very old packages. Debian unstable or maybe better PikaOS can work for that.
KiwiTB@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
Want easy starting point… Linux Mint.
Later down the line move to more complicated ones.
EponymousBosh@awful.systems 6 hours ago
Honestly, if you’re mostly using Steam for gaming, pretty much any major distro will work. Linux Mint is my personal choice for newbies but if something else strikes your fancy, go for it. I second the recommendation for checking on ProtonDB to see if your games are supported. I would also recommend ProtonUp-Qt as a program once you’ve installed Linux; it’s really good for managing different Proton installs on Steam quickly and easily. Also also, I have personally had better luck with the Flatpak version of Steam, rather than the native distro versions, because it has less weird dependency issues, but YMMV. Good luck!
Nalivai@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
I don’t recommend anything Ubuntu related for newcommers, it’s full of weird stuff that is hard to debug when it breaks. But other than that anything will do really. And even Ubuntu is passable to be honest
NoxAstrum@lemmy.ca 13 hours ago
Since you posted a kitty, I will help. I adopted Mint with Cinnamon, and it works. It’s not perfect, but it’s good enough for me not to spend ages playing with distros.
Smoogs@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
Should be fine for the most part on any distribution. Just install lutris, heroic, steam. Wine and wine tricks and proton as your emulator.(glorious egg roll or latest is pretty stable)
The only games I’ve had issues with so far have been an old game from bungee and maybe a few old ones from Ubisoft
levzzz@lemmy.world 17 hours ago
CachyOS with kde. Nvidia + wayland + wifi + proton and lutris with umu all work out of the box
imetators@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 hours ago
CachyOS for performance, Bazzite for stability. None of key features I’ve mentioned about these two OSes are overwhelmingly better on each side. Barely makes any difference imo.
My perspective: I fly Bazzite on my main rig (HX99g) and it’s been epic. Gaming mode unfortunately doesn’t detect 165Hz but desktop does. Upsides: seems to run games slightly better than windows, and does most daily computer tasks with ease. Downsides: doesn’t run windows native apps. Can be ran though winboat, but say Whatsapp wont have mic unless you add device in settings, but then you’d lose sound of Bazzite.
Other than that, it has been an epic ride. So far that I have nuked internal SSD windows and clonezilla’d my external Bazzite ssd to internal SSD. Windows hasn’t been installed yet. It is in the plans.
nutbutter@discuss.tchncs.de 17 hours ago
I have been using Nobara OS for a few years, it is based on Fedora, comes with Nvidia and other proprietary drivers if you want. Plus, it also has an HTPC (home theatre PC) mode, where you boot directly into steam’s big picture mode, like steam deck.
Smoogs@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
It is fedora. Just a fedora install with some preticked boxes. That said there’s some differences to note such as nobara doesnt come with selinux like fedora desktop does. It uses apparmor. Which you won’t bump into an issue with until you install certain softwares. I think if you’re just gaming it won’t matter
rmuk@feddit.uk 16 hours ago
Okay, but that’s not what you found. What you have there is a cat, which is also very good! In fact, the excellent news is that you can keep the cat and continue searching for a Linux distro.
felixwhynot@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
What kind of GPU do you use ?
sbeak@sopuli.xyz 17 hours ago
For me, my recommendation is:
- slightly older hardware, go with Linux Mint (based on Ubuntu, so will have slower updates than something based on Fedora so will not support the latest hardware)
- if you have newer hardware, I would go for something based on Fedora.
Fedora Workstation (GNOME) and KDE are both great well-rounded options.
If you want a gaming-centric distro, Bazzite is a nice option (if you have nvidia GPU, pick the option that has those drivers!). Bazzite is atomic, meaning it’s slightly harder to break the OS and it’s easy to roll back (there are a few limitations though, like most apps will be installed via flatpak rather than with dnf). If you have a living room PC, Bazzite also offers a console-like experience with Steam Big Picture Mode.
If you like tinkering and want to squeeze out performance, CachyOS is a great option, it’s essentially Arch Linux that is easier to install and has a bunch of performance tweaks.
TLDR: Mint for older hardware, Fedora/Bazzite for newer hardware, CachyOS if you know what you’re doing
sbeak@sopuli.xyz 17 hours ago
If you can’t decide between distros, I would test them out with live boot (you could use VenToy for this) and mess around in them, see what works and what doesn’t. That’s how I did it, I hopped from Mint to Fedora Workstation then landed on Fedora KDE. I am currently thinking of switching to EndeavourOS later (nothing wrong with Fedora, I just want to try out something Arch-based for a change!)
Also, one thing, if you’re installing Fedora, make sure to enable third-party repos when setting up in the little guide! This will allow you to install Steam and, if applicable, Nvidia drivers. It’s pretty stupid that they make it sound all scary, it really would be better if they just asked whether you want Steam and Nvidia drivers, but it is what it is.
daggermoon@lemmy.world 15 hours ago
CachyOS
nightm4re@feddit.org 17 hours ago
Strange to see no one recommending plain old Fedora yet 😢 it’s stable, performant, up to date, and compatible with just about any hardware. I’m daily-driving it on my notebook, playing tons of games without issues. As for desktop environments, I’d highly recommend KDE plasma since you won’t have to relearn everything at once (compared to GNOME), and also the KDE apps are a lot more configurable than GNOME’s.
chippydingo@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
I was thinking the same thing about Fedora since I have installed it on two purpose built gaming PCs using new or last gen hardware and a very old Dell Inspiron laptop and the experience has been very good outside of a couple minor issues like installing the WiFi driver on the Dell.
One of the best things I have found with Linux is the live-disk distro testing option since you can test how much you like the interface and execution of each OS+DE and how well they behave with your hardware situation without having to reformat anything first. Personally, since my goal was to move as far from the windows experience as possible, I opted for Fedora Workstation since I also tested the KDE version and I just didn’t like it at all. GNOME seems to have its detractors (and for valid reasons) but after using Apple computers and Ubuntu a long time ago, I just preferred the intuitive layout and clean desktop experience. Using Windows11 at work is horrendous and I look forward to being back on my own machine every evening.
Another thing to consider is X11 vs Wayland since that ended up being what made me give up on Mint when my new hardware refused to run without persistent and horrendous screen tearing in 3D games. X11 just didn’t work for me and everything I tried to tweak was either not helpful or would leave me in an un-bootable condition that required recovery via rollbacks or terminal commands using the live-USB.
Did I mention that I also got my kid on the Linux train? He is using Fedora Workstation and loves it compared to his old Win10 laptop and the POS Chromebook the school district gave him. In any case, as a Microsoft refugee I think Linux is a wonderful and viable alternative and while there may be some bumps along the way, the community is very helpful and you can often find solutions or you can just ask.
Tetsuo@jlai.lu 14 hours ago
You should recommend Nobara then.
nightm4re@feddit.org 11 hours ago
not really, that’s just Fedora with a fake Moustache glued on :) OP didn’t say they were incapable of installing a few packages, which in my opinion is the only selling point for Nobara.
nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 hours ago
A lot of these things look really sleek and fancy. I’m still using Arch Linux with i3 and can play whatever games. It’s all the same shit under the hood once you’ve installed what you need
Muffi@programming.dev 17 hours ago
I also game a lot and made the switch a little over a year ago. I use a 3090 so i chose Pop!_OS and it has been treating me super well! Highly recommended, especially their new Cosmic version.
jjpamsterdam@feddit.org 14 hours ago
I run Mint myself and it’s fairly idiot proof. While I don’t have as much free time as I used to, running most of the games I enjoy on steam is possible there. I’ve heard good things about Bazzite, as it seems to specifically cater to the gaming crowd. I haven’t tried it out myself though, since gaming isn’t my biggest priority.
Slayer@infosec.pub 13 hours ago
I watched a video recently of a german Youtuber that created a Linux chooser with questions about usage, experience etc.
The language is only in german, but you could try the translation feature in your browser.
themorpheus407.github.io/LinuxChooser/