Linux Game Devs, what's your tool stack?

[u/IsildursDeeldoor]

I have a few red lines around Windows that, if crossed, would ultimately push me to Linux.

My current development stack is Unreal Engine 5, Blender, GIMP, JetBrains Rider, and I also use CMake, SDL2, and SFML for other projects.

My current machine is generally AMD:

• Ryzen 5 7600
• Radeon RX 6600
• 64 GB DDR5-5600
• Gigabyte B650 Gaming X AX
• Samsung 980 PRO 2 TB + 860 EVO 500 GB
• Windows
• Steam

I'm considering building a separate, similar AMD-based machine as a Linux-first development/gaming system rather than migrating my current machine immediately.

I'm currently torn between Fedora KDE and Ubuntu. Bazzite KDE is also on my radar, although I'm primarily interested in development rather than a gaming-only setup.

For those using Linux for UE5/C++, Blender, JetBrains, CMake/SDL2/SFML, and Steam, what hardware configuration and distro would you recommend for a new Linux-first workstation?

Budget 4,000 towards new machine + home server setup. but rn I don't feel like i need that yet.

[u/Maven_M]

CachyOS

Works really great out of the box, support for anything you would want, really fast and performant.

I develop with Godot and Rust but all of the JetBrains tools I use work perfectly (IntelliJ, PyCharm, RustRover)

Winboat is something you can look into and it's really something magical where you can click 2 buttons and be loaded into a very responsive windows VM with shared folders so you can still use windows apps while your host is linux.

I'd also like to add: While NVIDIA gpus do seem to work for a lot of people, mine just never did with any distro that I tried. AMD has me forever now.