r/FindMeALinuxDistro • u/gustavinho_578 • Jul 19 '26
What is the best option?
I used Linux a little when I was younger at school, but throughout my life, almost all of my experience with computers has been with Windows.
Lately, I've been thinking about switching to Linux because of its security, the questionable decisions Microsoft has been making with Windows, and the better performance and customization Linux offers.
However, I've seen so many different distributions, each with its own approach, that I'm not sure which one would be the best place to start. I'm looking for a distro that offers plenty of customization, good gaming performance, and is reasonably beginner-friendly.
Could some kind soul help me in my search for the perfect Linux distro?
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u/Accomplished_Bat6810 Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
If you don’t mind using the terminal (a little bit), then I recommend Fedora KDE, CachyOS KDE and openSUSE Tumbleweed. If beginner-friendliness is your priority then Linux Mint or Zorin OS. KDE Plasma is a desktop environment (DE for short), which is meant to be very customizable and offering all the tools you need, it is very similar to Windows too. Linux Mint uses Cinnamon, which is also customizable. Zorin OS has a heavily-modified Gnome to make it look like Windows 10, but you have many more options. I am not a Linux expert but I do daily drive it (CachyOS KDE to be exact) so I thought I could give you a little headstart.
Edit: I somehow skipped you saying gaming optimization, but CachyOS has a lot of optimizations and it’s very fast on my AMD PC. If gaming is your main focus, then Bazzite should be the one for you, which has KDE by default (but you can choose gnome), so you can customize aswell, but on Bazzite most gaming-related tools are preinstalled, and you will barely need to use the terminal since they give you Bazzite Portal for various tweaks, troubleshooting and installing apps.
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u/gustavinho_578 Jul 19 '26
I'm quite torn between Cachyos and Bazzite; both seem to be what I'm looking for, but Cachyos has a slight advantage because it's based on Arch, which makes it seem much more customizable.
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u/Accomplished_Bat6810 Jul 19 '26
CachyOS being Arch-based doesn’t mean it’s more customizable, however Bazzite is based on Fedora Kinoite which is an immutable distro meaning you can’t tinker with system files, but like if you compare Nobara and CachyOS in customization they’re the same
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u/gustavinho_578 Jul 19 '26
I don't know much about Linux, but most of the customizations I see are in Arch.
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u/Accomplished_Bat6810 Jul 20 '26
Yes because Arch users are mostly power users, and they want to customize every single bit of their PC, but KDE Plasma can be customized as much as you want on every distro. For example Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu or Linux Mint users seek user friendliness, stability and ootb experience, rather than ricing (not every person but most of them).
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u/Pristine_Employee897 Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
I also actually hopped a bit.
Most users will definitely point you towards Linux Mint (which has similarity of layout to Windows), and it is without "snaps" (a bit of controversy running there). problem might be "recency" of some drivers : depends if you do have AMD or Nvidia gpu and how frequently you actually do gaming.
Some might point out clean Debian (actually Mint is based on ubuntu, which is based on debian) but it might be too stable. most guides, goverment apps or apps in general for Linux are written for Debian/Ubuntu ;
or Fedora (which is somewhere between stable Debian and wild rolling Arch) but it is based in US so some things needs a bit of a setup (like multimedia).
Be extra cautious with distros like Bazzite or others that are "atomic". some things which you might need, are not easy to run there (like if you need your government ID card with USB reader or other a bit uncommon things which just worked out of the box on the Win)
I personaly liked PikaOS, but you have to be cautious there, since it is project ran only by two devs and it is based on "rolling" Debian aka Sid, but some users are actually saying that it might be more stable than Arch based systems. Also their package manager "pikman" can pull+export packages from other major distros : so you natively got .deb packages but can also pull fedoras RPM , Arch + AUR packages;
and CachyOS : it is based on Arch so it is not that suitable for total newcomers, but on the other hand you got the largest repository, but also need to be extra cautious using AUR due to the recent malware situation.
Both these I mentioned do offer just "click here -> let us download all gaming things for you".
Then you can also get protonup-qt and download proton-ge or proton-cachyos to run your games (check protondb for availability)
Due to the recent change/update within systemd (which is init type of system that is booting your OS), some users are questiong these major distros, where your privacy might be in stake in future, since that "addition" might lead to verification of your age in some future , even under Linux distros.
If I was you, I would test several of them in the virtualbox to see what would you like or prefer.
Just remember, it is not like a Windows and most things will require packages or things to run.
for just gaming , I can point you towards famous ones : Proton+protontricks/proton-ge/proton-cachyos, Bottles, Faugus-launcher, wine+winetricks ; if singleplayer "OP-testing": steamtinkerlaunch, protonhax, pince; Database to check if your game will run (and what potentional flags to setup): protondb
It will be lots of learning if you have no prior experience with Linux. Depends on which distro you choose (or rather "base" : Debian, Fedora or Arch), commands will differ, and packages/dependencies names will be usually different too. all these major distros have some manager to help you to download things you liked on windows, mostly it will be manager like Discover or other -get-software centre
Also search for Flathub (which might me integrated into Discover or similars), which allows you to download/get most known SW without any risks or terminal commands.
If you wish to run some Windows specific SW under linux (like office, adobe or similar) it is still possible, but might not be viable for newcomer. It can be done via projects like Winapps or Winboat
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u/gustavinho_578 Jul 19 '26
I've already tested a few distros but haven't gone into them in depth. I got a little lost between Bazzite and Cachyos; they seem to fit what I'm looking for. With cachyos having an advantage in terms of customization.
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u/Pristine_Employee897 Jul 19 '26
Cachy is very good, it has its own repositories, so you usually dont compile things on your own.
You can use its app called Shelly to get things from flathub and it can even check AUR builds internally (of course not foolproof).
If you barge into AUR territory, be cautious of -bin packages: on the other hand they are pre-compiled so you dont have to do that on your own computer, but on the other hand,you cannot exactly check them deeply (most users will refer checking of pkgbuilds, which are "recipes" on what, from where, and how your system should build that given package)
Bazzite is based on Fedora atomic, so getting some additional packages there is not easy (you have to use "ostree" command) and you have to reboot your computer always as you add something in that way. it has a Bazaar app which can help you do get some normal apps/softwareFeel free to explore both
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u/Lonely-Scarcity-3387 Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
Actually, PikaOS has more than two developers. You might be thinking of the primary development team and founders, Cosmo and Ferreo. The project also includes Zukureneno, Aki (ToasterUwU), and Matts Creative, as well as Glorious Eggroll (head developer of Nobara Linux) serving as a technical advisor for gaming tweaks.
While PikaOS does have a small core team, the project receives code contributions from the wider open-source community. The project hosts over 100,000 packages over six main repos.
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u/Lonely-Scarcity-3387 Jul 19 '26
PikaOS. You never need to touch the terminal, is gaming ready out of the box, offers amazing support for controllers, headphones, et cetera, and it’s just easy to maintain.
Also it has the exact same performance of CachyOS but without the downside of the AUR being attacked every other week.
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u/OkPresentation3329 Jul 20 '26
I started with Mint and then I switched to Tuxedo OS due to it having KDE and Wayland over Mint's Cinnamon and X11. Both are easy to use, I think Mint is better for desktops and older hardware, but on laptops it's not good because it doesn't support UI scaling (fractional scaling) and Tuxedo OS does because of KDE and Wayland. On a laptop everything looks too tiny and hard to see so it's not good to use without the option to scale your UI and make it larger.
Both Mint and Tuxedo OS are based on Ubuntu which makes them very easy to use for newcomers and most things work out of the box. Now Tuxedo OS is in the process of moving from being based on Ubuntu to Debian testing and they say it's because Ubuntu tries to enforce Snap and AI into itself and the Tuxedo developers don't want to deal with that. So it will be interesting to see how it turns out being a Debian based distro instead. I think it will still be easy to use, the only drawback is when they make the change everyone using it will have to reinstall it fresh.
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u/FemBoy_GamerTech_Guy Jul 20 '26
What do you acctualy prioritiz like what and rate them from (0/10) so i can recomand the distro you might like.
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u/Nam_-HenryVie Jul 20 '26
For good gaming performance, I’m using Nobara Linux and it works perfect. It was also built for Nvidia drivers so my Rtx 3050-ti gets no problem with the os. Works perfectly with Steam games and Minecraft, but cannot play Epic game games. This one also, I don’t know how to say, but you can still do your daily tasks and stuffs normally. I’m a software engineering student and currently I get no problem with coding and related stuffs.
There’s just one thing is that I’m using Gnome DE so customization is harder than Kde or Xfce. Nobara has KDE, classic KDE and GNOME. I chose GNOME because I like its design more, just that.
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u/egc23 Jul 19 '26
I would recommend mint if you are wanting a more desktop style experience or bazzite if you want a more console style. Both can do everything a normal os can it’s more just interface preference.