A friend is due for a gaming PC build. But he’s super pissed it needs to run windows 11. I told him just run something else. He said his job needs something that runs windows-only and on the odd occasions where he needs a desktop to do something he’s not buying a second computer just to run windows.
Dual booting exists but Microsoft likes to clobber boot loaders. So I reminded him he could just run windows 11 in a VM when he needs to, everything else in bare metal Linux.
He’s now sold on moving to Linux.
The question is where should he start? It used to be as simple as “if you aren’t sure, use Ubuntu.” But his use case kinda seems like what everyone has been crowing about using bazzite for.
I have zero experience with bazzite but the page does describe something built for his use case. There are 3 concerns I have though.
- Is it common enough that he can Google an answer?
- it’s an atomic distro, so classic Linux answers he might find online won’t always be applicable here.
- selinux, ugh.
What’s a good gamer Linux distro? He’s not super into tinkering. He just wants it to do the thing without Microsoft’s invasive bullshit.
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Honestly, my recommendation for new users who are into gaming is Bazzite. Just install everything through the software store and it just works. Well, everything that’s available as a flatpak at least. Steam comes preinstalled, as do all the drivers (among some other various gaming-oriented things like kernel optimizations and Lutris), so it’s basically just install and done. The software store, Bazaar, will find basically anything a normal user needs. The nice thing about atonic distros is that you generally don’t need to do anything through the command line,as installs are perfectly consistent across all computers (so no random things breaking in the background without someone else noticing and either filing a bug report for you in the beta, or fixing the issue outright). After over a decade of Linux use, I’ve never found an easier distro. I honestly have switched to it as my main distro because I love Fedora, and the atomic features are nice (and Bazzite is just a little nicer for my use case than Kinoite).
When I set someone up with Bazzite, I just tell them to install everything through the software store, and I rarely get questions other than “how do I install this software that isn’t available on Linux”, which I usually meet with a recommendation for an alternative, or if it’s really critical, I’ll have them install through Bottles or something. I always mention the “no Adobe or Autodesk” caveot before they install, so I never really get questions about that except for “well, what would you recommend I use instead?”
As to answer your questions directly:
- It is very common, so you can find Bazzite specific answers,
- As far as I’ve used it (which is a couple years now) things never break, so finding solutions that work in other distros doesn’t tend to apply for me (except for when I want to make custom scripts like when I bound a mouse button to hard mute and unmute my mic, though I just had to look up generic Pipewire stuff)
- Everything installs as a flatpak, so selinux is essentially completely unnoticed. I’ve never had a single issue with selinux and I’m a power user. I’ve used Fedora-based distros for many years and only ever encountered selinux issues on my server, and that was for low-level processes that aren’t relevant to desktop use (for instance, setting up NUT to automatically power off all devices on my network during a power outage when the UPS battery is low)
Try them all 🤔
Garuda, Bazzite, Zorin, Pop OS…and get a seperate machine for work. Hell no, I’m not letting my employer on to my personal machine.
The employer should have a way for you to remote in. There is no reason for you to have a work machine at all anymore.
And I am not talking a VPN.
Don’t even get me started
Just install Mint. Honestly, “gamer” Linux is a pretty silly concept. You can install Steam and Lutris on any distro which gets you access to basically all modern PC gaming. Even something as slow to embrace change as Debian has recent enough drivers and kernels available.
I would recommend installing Heroic Launcher too. It works good for GoG, Epic & Amazon games.
I have a mini PC for gaming and originally installed Mint, but switched to Bazzite to see if it would fix an issue with my XBox controllers cutting out. It didn’t, and I also didn’t notice any better performance in games. After coming to the conclusion I’d have to rebase to uninstall Steam (I only use Lutris), I decided immutable is cool, but I’ll stick with Mint.
Fact. I game on Debian (mostly through Steam flatpak) and it works great. I tried the so-called “gaming” distros and eeked out 0-5% fps gains while also experiencing paper cuts or bugs in other areas of my daily driving that weren’t present on Debian. I’m not into e-sports so so long as I’m not hitting a 30 fps floor I’m fine. The time I save not having to navigate paper cuts I get to put toward fun things, like actually playing games.
(Edit: typos)
Ask him which software it is that requires him to run windows. If it can not be used with wine their is also winboat. Which is technically a windows VM where programs seemingly integrate on the Linux DE
I didn’t k ow win oat was VM based. I thought is was like a prettier wine.
LMDE 7 and send it. Regular mint has Ubuntu nonsense baked in, lmde is basically the same end user experience and smooth Debian jazz underneath.
Like someone else said, steam, heroic.
I’d avoid any of the gamer distros.
LMDE is missing various useful programs, such as the GNOME disk utility. Just stick with stock Mint if you’re going Mint.
I could spin up a VM and check, I’m 99% sure you’re wrong. Also lmde includes almost the same preinstalled programs.
or…
apt install -y gparted
Well it was missing something I needed when I tried it a while back.
I mean, fair. It also doesn’t have mint’s driver manger, which is a bummer.
Edit: it does have the driver manager! The hell with vanilla mint for sure then.
Nobara is alright if you just want games to work without tinkering etc
It’s also developed by glorious egg roll, the GE in GE-proton. I wanted to love it but Wayland + multi monitor + KDE + Nividia = pain
Everything except nvidia is how I use it and it works very well. I have had a few issues with kde once but never again since then
Are you talking about scaling monitors at a different rate in a multi monitor setup? I thought they’ve fixed that.
Mine freezes the display output to one monitor after awhile. (Intermittent, my favorite.) This was probably 6-9months ago. Usually apps kept working behind frozen display. Just with reduced utility.
Monitors are identical make/model 2K 165hz
Which Ubuntu stuff does Mint Cinnamon have? I thought the point of Mint was that they removed a bunch of that stuff like Snaps.
Mainline mint is a derivative of Ubuntu. Lmde is largely the same OS with a pure Debian heart without Ubuntu clogging the arteries
Yes, I know Mint is downstream of Ubuntu, that’s how I know it doesn’t include Snaps. What exactly other “nonsense” is there or was your statement just a general LMDE puritan hand-wave?
I’m an ubuntu hater / snap hater. I prefer my mint without junk in the trunk. I’ll confuse people though, I think systemd rocks. And let’s make more people mad, vim is a pointless flex and nano is better.
Fair enough, I totally agree about Ubuntu, although Mint doesn’t have most of the bad Ubuntu stuff. What it does benefit from is Ubuntu’s superior hardware support, PPAs (most important for up-to-date Mesa) and GUI stuff like Driver Manager/Update Manager. For a beginner or casual user there’s no contest.
Nobara, LinuxMint, Zorin, PopOS & Manjaro. Or MXLinux or Antix if the hardware is potato
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Bazzite is great out of the box. My favourite part is that the menu automatically suggests flatpak apps you might want to install without getting in the way of your existing apps.
No matter the distro (since there’s plenty of good ones out there), help your friend set up Winboat and you’ll be all good.
Linux Mint
After I left Bazzite I switched to Garuda, it is also gaming and performance focused, works with Nvidia, and has been super easy as a beginner.
It may be worth a look.
We aren’t building with nvidia. Absolutely not.
I mean … it’s not required. So, good for you, I guess.
It’s a matter of their ties with palentier at this point. We aren’t paying for that.
I mentioned it because a lot of people already have a card they need to accommodate, not to try and convince you.
Echoing what others have said, a “gaming distro” really isn’t necessary. I have used Ubuntu for years on and off. When I switched my gaming PC to Linux earlier this year I went with Kubuntu, because it’s just Ubuntu and I like KDE Plasma better than Gnome. I do feel like Ubuntu is one of the easiest to find support for when you’re looking online.
While I generally agree, the benefit of it being gaming focused means if he has to look something up any community or support he finds will already be familiar with exactly what he’s trying to accomplish. It will help the newbie when I’m not available to.
If not Bazzite, Nobara is an option. It is based on Fedora, but is not an atomic distro, and iirc, it replaces selinux with apparmor, but unless you’re getting into development, docker/podman etc, selinux will never be an issue.
Nobara is maintained by Glorious Eggroll, who also maintains proton-ge. Is also comes with an iso with built-in nvidia drivers, and also comes with an HTPC iso.
I have been using it for a few years, now. The documentation is also well detailed. And anything that works on Fedora will work on Nobara.
Mint, Fedora, openSUSE.
CachyOS
Trust me it’s super easy and nice.
^This is the answer.
Mint still does not work well with Wayland from what I can tell, and if you need features like HDR, you’re gonna have to stick to something that runs Wayland well.
While Bazzite seems fine, it is an atomic distro. If you were to try installing certain software natively, like another Firewall for instance, it might not work. And if you continue to layer such software, the update times can take longer.
Cachy(with KDE) seems very stable to me. You’ll pretty much find every software through the repo. If not, you’ll have to manually install flatpak yourself. Never had to do it myself though. But it shouldn’t be a hassle, I think.
It has its own proton variant and they recommend that you disable Steam preshader caching and increase maximum shader cache size when you’re using Proton-Cachy or GE.
My choice also. Specifically with KDE Plasma
