I have a home built PC that I want to get off Windows 11.
Specs:
- Ryzen 3700X, upgrading to a 5800X3D soon
- RTX 2080 Super
- 500GB NVME for OS, 2TB SATA SSD for files, programs, etc.
- 1440p Ultrawide monitor
- an 8bitdo Ultimate controller
Usage:
- I usually play indie games, emulators, and occasional AAA games. Most of my library is on Steam, with some games on GOG, e.g. Cyberpunk.
- I have an original Steam Link in my living room, and I use it to play games from my PC on the couch. Does Steam on Linux even support this?
- I also write game mods, so I need a distro that is a good fit for software development (C++, Python, and Lisp).
- Random miscellany: I use mullvad VPN, stream movies from a friend’s plex server, and use an SFTP client to back up photos and videos from my phone.
I’ve been an on/off Linux user in the past, so I know my way around basic/intermediate terminal usage and configuration. Buuuut every previous attempt to move to Linux ended in disaster, so I have little patience for asterisks, strings attached, etc. If you’re offering a distro I’ve never heard of before, you’re probably gonna be hard pressed to convince me.
Thanks for the help!
Having read through some of the comments I just wanted to add one thing. If you find that one distro doesn’t quite do what you need, don’t be afraid to wipe it again and install a different distro. I migrated from windows 10 to Linux mint, I found it frustrating for gaming, and then from mint I switched to cachyOS, which is built from the same OS that the steam deck uses. I haven’t had any similar issues since. Find what works for you, and don’t be afraid to try something else
Fedora KDE.
upvoting the bazzite. if you want to play steam games its the obvious go to. I went to it from zorin and enjoying it.
I’m currently on Linux Mint, works pretty well out of the box. Steam games and indie games and even old windows game work (with lutris and/or bottles).
However I should warn, I also have a Steam Link. It does stream, but depending on the game the framerate can get very laggy. I’m running on a RTX 2070 tho. Not sure I can recommend steam link on Linux yet.
Everything else works great.
That was adorably fun.
Narrowed down to the one I chose, and now I have my next choice if to test run.
First time I’ve seen this! Tried it out and it was entertaining to root for my favorites, and a lot of fun reading the various jabs they make at each other!
My winners were exactly the ones I use, so I’m happy (Fedora + KDE Plasma)I just learned about it from Brodies channel (a Linux YouTuber). As you say, its entertaining. It may or may not get a good recommendation. Some questions aren’t really suited to ask beiginners, but that’s okay. And some questions like what the use case is, would need 3 answers to me: Gaming, Development and the regular Daily stuff. But I love the idea how its presented and the audiovisual style. Pretty cool.
I heard CachyOS is quite popular these days. Other dedicated gaming distros are Bazzite, Nobara, Garuda Linux …
I’ve been running Garuda with KDE (dr4g0nized gaming spin) for over a year and have had a great experience. Arch gets a bad rep for breaking updates, but I’ve never experienced any. My Steam Link in the living room has mostly functioned fine, but it has been a bit finicky lately. As for the AUR, I think I have maybe a dozen packages from there in my machine, partially because Garuda ships with Chaotic-AUR, which has a more robust (read: existant) review process for submissions. I have used both Nvidia and AMD GPUs and both have worked flawlessly. I don’t game as much as I used to, but I’ve been nothing but happy with my Arch gaming experience.
+1 for CachyOS
My PC has an AMD CPU / Nvidia GTX 1060 GPU which was fine when I originally set it up with Kubuntu but had some unrelated issues. So I took the opportunity to try it with Arch and had an absolute bastard of a time getting the Nvidia drivers to work. Cut my losses and tried CachyOS instead and pretty much everything just worked from the off.
Pick one, that is the one
Yeah I feel like you can game on anything these days. I’m on Arch, which is what SteamOS is based on afaik. Works great. Gaming on Steam and Heroic launcher for Epic games. No complaints.
On other comments and what you’ve said in your other comment, I think you’d be just interested in Nobara or CachyOS. At least, if you want an out of box working experience but still have the ability to tinker and develop relatively easy.
You might prefer Nobara because it’s Fedora based rather than Arch, and your hardware specs aren’t bleeding edge anyway. If you want a bit more stability than that though, and don’t mind doing the set up yourself, plan vanilla Fedora could also work and you just add what you want / need.
I’d avoid any recommendations for immutable distros like Bazzite because they’re best for beginners that aren’t too tech savvy, or people very familiar with Linux and have no issues mucking about with OS-tree or running a distrobox. Really no in-between.
I also have 8 bitdo controllers and I do recommend updating them on Windows before you get rid of it, depending which you have - some can be updated via a Chrome based browser but others only through Windows really.
Linux Mint!
It’s based on Ubuntu, which means broad support for basically everything, including niche things like the Mullvad VPN client.
Mint has been around for a long time and they have had plenty of time to prove their place as a stable and reliable alternative.
Their software center includes well integrated support for Flatpaks, which is a a must have for things like Steam.
Mint is polished both visually and technically speaking. It’s a great general purpose option for both beginners and experienced users.
However. I might not be as ‘cool’ as some other new shiny players, which seems to be important for some, but I don’t feel comfortable recommending something that most likely last for a few years.
Mint is not something that I use myself, but it’s what I generally recommend to most users. I hope that excludes me me as some Mint fanboy.
Second that, ubuntu sucked, but mint is great so far.
I use Mint for gaming (Steam), some light development and AI work and all everyday computing tasks. It works really well and with minimal hassle. The cool kids will scoff, but for people who just want to get stuff done it’s great.
Almost any distro will work for pretty much all of that. Only potentially limiting thing I see there I don’t think that the Mullvad VPN client is generally available within distro repositories. Their site says it has clients available for Ubuntu, Debian, and Fedora. So perhaps pick from one of those?
For the steam link question, I know if I have a game running on my desktop it presents me the option to stream to my laptop (both Linux machines). I assume this is the same functionality. I don’t use it so can’t speak to how well it works.
Edit: It occurs to me this comment lacks a recommendation. Within the three listed supported distros for Mullvad, I think I’d recommend Fedora for you. Been some years since I used it last but I remember the installer being fairly robust and intuitive while still easy to use, and a pretty rock solid system once it’s up and running.
You can add the Mullvad repo and get the package from there.
Or yeah, the .rpm file on the site works fine, but you’ll just have to manually update it whenever there’s a new version.
I have an original Steam Link in my living room, and I use it to play games from my PC on the couch. Does Steam on Linux even support this?
Answer: Yes.
Is your PC going to be a gaming-centric PC? Or are you planning on doing other things like work or other stuff?
There’s plenty of gaming-focused distros out there. Some easier and some harder to understand.
From your hardware You’d probably be good with something like Linux Mint or Zorin OS. They’re Ubuntu based and are pretty solid and easy to use. They support your hardware out of the box. Kubuntu might be a good choice too if you want a more windows-y experience with more customization options. I personally have Kubuntu and my 8bitdo controllers work without a hitch via bluetooth. I play mostly indie games and a few AAA titles from Steam, GOG and Epic via the Heroic launcher as well and have had zero issues.
If you REALLY want a gaming-focused distro, you’ll have to go with a Fedora based distro then. Something like Nobara.
But you want to avoid less stable distros like Arch-based ones. Like Cachy OS. Those might end up being more of a headache than anything with problems occurring after updates and a malware-infested 3rd party software repo.
Fun story about why I’m such a curmudgeon about this:
Long before Proton even existed, I once researched how to run a Windows VM for gaming on a Linux host machine, with GPU passthrough. At the time I had an Intel iGPU and an Nvidia discrete GPU, so I figured the iGPU could run the host, while the discrete GPU could run the guest.
I asked around reddit and some of my tech savvy friends on what the best distro would be to accomplish this. A few people steered me toward Debian, because I expressed concern that the system wouldn’t be stable or would be difficult to work with.
Well, turns out Debian was a fucking terrible choice. First I had graphics driver problems, naturally. Secondly, I couldn’t even install qemu if I wanted to because it wasn’t in the apt repositories that shipped with Debian. So I had to learn to add those. Then I had to learn how to stop Debian from recognizing the nvidia GPU during boot, so that the PCI device could be reserved for the passthrough. That was a monumental headache to figure out. And finally, once everything was set up, I learned that nvidia had more or less disabled their consumer-grade cards from being used in a virtual machine. I spent over a month trying to get that working, and eventually just said fuck it and stayed on Windows. And I caught a ton of flak for that, because obviously I should have known that nvidia was a bad choice of GPU, and I should have just purchased an AMD GPU instead… in the middle of GPU mining bubble, when cards were going for $500 a pop.
I’m really hoping to not have a repeat of that experience.
Secondly, I couldn’t even install qemu if I wanted to because it wasn’t in the apt repositories that shipped with Debian.
Debian has a non-free repo containing non-open-source software that it hasn’t historically enabled by default, but I don’t think that that’d apply to qemu. I’m pretty sure that’s all open-source.
goes looking.
qemu’s been in the Debian repos since…checks sarge, which was released as a stable release in 2005.
And it was in main, not non-free, so it should have been there as an out-of-the-box enabled repo:
https://snapshot.debian.org/archive/debian/20050312T000000Z/pool/main/q/qemu/
QEMU only came out in 2003.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QEMU
QEMU is free software originally developed by Fabrice Bellard; the first preview release was in 2003.
It looks like it was packaged in Debian unstable since 2004, though I wouldn’t recommend jumping right on unstable to a new user.
$ apt changelog qemu-system 2>/dev/null|tail -n 15 -- Paul Russell <prussell@debian.org> Mon, 15 Mar 2004 23:56:25 +0100 qemu (0.5.2-2) unstable; urgency=low * Fix build problem so bios.bin etc. can be found. (Closes: #237553) -- Paul Russell <prussell@debian.org> Fri, 12 Mar 2004 05:43:00 +0100 qemu (0.5.2-1) unstable; urgency=low * Initial Release. (Closes: #187407) -- Paul Russell <prussell@debian.org> Wed, 3 Mar 2004 02:18:54 +0100 Fetched 314 kB in 0s (1,431 kB/s) $I don’t know, maybe I’m misremembering a detail, it was 10 years ago. I think I needed KVM as well, maybe that’s what was missing. Either way, I had to add newer repos to an older version. I think the codenames were Jessie and Wheezy.
I’m currently running qemu in trixie because one of my bosses demanded me to run office. It was pretty straight forward, but for some reason i had to create a group and do some permissions tinkering for it to work… nothing too complicated. I dont really remember what issues i had with it.
Currently i managed to set a share folder, keys to give orders to the host (mainly to switch back to civilization quickly) and also i convinced my boss that internet isnt working (it’s working from day 0) so she cant force me to use one drive.
Yeah, some people are really bad at recommending a Distro for specific usage.
When I started with Linux, quite a while back, I was recommended gentoo.
It’s now my least favorite choice 😁
When I started with Linux, quite a while back, I was recommended gentoo.
Are you sure that wasn’t just a cruel joke? Lol
Actually, I’m not really sure. I mean I was sure at that time that it was a recommendation but as I am an autist (unbeknownst to me at that time) it could’ve been one of those ‘obviously’ not serious recommendations.
I use Bazzite. The Mullvad VPN gui app works on it, but you will have to either add the Mullvad repo and layer the package, or install the local .rpm file (using rpm-ostree), and manually update it whenever there is an update.
Sounds complicated, but it really isn’t.
If you want to use the aur, all you need to do is create an Arch distrobox (everything you need to do it is pre-installed, including a gui app for distrobox if you don’t want to do CLI). You can then “export” anything you install on the box to your host OS to be opened with one click with no noticeable overhead.
And yes, you will be able to play your Steam games on the TV with Linux. Probably better and more easily than with Windows nowadays.
Steam Link has never been able to figure out that my ultrawide monitor and TV don’t have the same aspect ratio, so I have to go into Windows settings to change the resolution. Don’t suppose that’s easier on Linux?
Edit: Fun fact: Bazzite’s Live USB doesn’t have Steam installed on it so I can’t test out that functionality, and Steam only offers a deb package that you can’t install because Bazzite is immutable. Bazzite says they’re not going to change that so I think I’m crossing Bazzite off my list.
I’m not sure live USB environments are going to work for gaming for other distros either. That’s just not what they’re meant for, and the USB is a major bottleneck.
If you’re really worried about gaming, Bazzite is literally made specifically for it. It’s pre-configured for it, plus has a bunch of pre built “ujust” recipes for anything else you might need.
If the premiere gaming distro is choosing not to have Steam in their live USB environment, I imagine they have well documented reasons.
My guess would be that it wouldn’t be representative of the actual experience, and therefore would be counterproductive.
If you tried Steam on a live USB and it worked like shit, they don’t want you blaming the (gaming focused) OS instead of the fact that you’re trying to play games on an OS that’s streaming from a USB drive.
Edit: by the way, you probably could just install the Steam flatpak. Just keep in mind that the performance might not be representative. You might even be able to install an RPM since it’s Fedora.
Shit, you might even be able to just set up an Arch or CachyOS distrobox and run Steam off of that.
Mullvad vpn is the vpn for an intellectual
Well, their founder was recently discovered to be funding far right groups in Sweden. The rest of the company is apparently very unhappy with this. My subscription lasts until next year so I’m holding off on renewing until the dust settles there.
The party they funded is literally lead by a leftist extremist…
The company is only sad about it because people got mad, but lets be real. People would get mad regardless of what party he donated to.
They are nationalist racists trying to cloak themselves with populist leftist ideas. This is the leader of that party:
https://www.friatider.se/markus-allard-om-andra-generationens-invandrare-de-ska-ocksa-ut
Örebro Party leader Markus Allard goes to the election on expulsions. He opens to withdraw citizenship and also expel second generation of immigrants – even if they were born in Sweden.
“I’m prepared to cross corpses,” he said.One suggestion that he has is that citizenship and permanent residence permits can be torn up – with reference to “Sweden is the country of Swedes”.
In a section of Yoshi’s Podcast, Allard develops his view on expulsions and explains that he prepared to “go over corpses” to bring home unwanted immigrants. The host notes that there will be no beautiful sight when, for example, immigrant mothers who have been on maternity leave for 15 years are to be deported together with their children. “It’s not going to be pretty to send these people home,” he said. Markus Allard agrees, but says: I think you can handle that optics. Even the children will need to be deported, he explains.
He further explains that many of the problems relate to second-generation immigrants. They are going out too. Even if they were born in Sweden, because they have no natural connection to Sweden. They are not Swedes. They have not become Swedes. It says Sweden in the passport, but they have not been interested in becoming part of Sweden. There’s a difference. It’s a qualitative difference," Allard said
Remember; the Nazi’s did the same thing by strategically calling their party the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, despite them not being socialist nor a working class party. This was chosen because Socialism was gaining popularity, and thus the Nazi’s thought it would help their chances of getting votes and public support.
No they are definitely left-wing.
Yes I have seen that article, but if you look at the video that is attached to the article it is very clear that he is talking about…
- Migrants that commit crimes
- Migrants that does not want and actively avoid, being part of Swedish society
There is nothing right or left wing about throwing out people who commit murder och rape. That is pretty standard in most parts om the world even, because a nation has no obligation to let non-citizen criminals stay in the country.
ÖP is vert much on the workers side, and have pretty vocally advocated for a smaller but stronger state and shorter work week.
That’s just veiled racism, dude. Racists always couch it like that. Don’t fall for it.
So you mean ignore what they’re actually saying and believe random leftists online? xD
Migrants that does not want and actively avoid, being part of Swedish society
You’re not going to find many leftists that aren’t vehemently against deporting people for not integrating, especially leftists who believe in abolishing borders.
Love Linux Mint for the easy transition away from Windows.
CachyOS. Hands down the best for you.
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Gets updates as soon as they come out which is important for gaming and software development
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Really good performance, has access to a huge amount of software
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Beginner friendly, automatically creates snapshots (backups) in case you mess up
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Has a simple to follow wiki with lots of useful info. Also it lets you install all the gaming packages you need with one button click.
No offense to people on this site but every time this thread pops up there are a lot of terrible recommendations being thrown around. Don’t bother using base Arch linux if you’re new to Linux. Don’t use random niche distros like MX Linux. Debian is very barebones and requires you to manually set up a lot of things that come by default in other modern distros. And finally IMO don’t use an immutable OS unless you know what you’re getting into, as many people get burned by how hard it is to install applications on them.
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