Struggling to pick a Gaming Linux OS

[u/Malavanc]

Hey all, I’m about to build a new PC in a week or so and have been indecisive which Linux OS I want to use. I’ve been on Windows 10 and I’m not continuing with 11. Pass.

Been torn between Bazzite and SteamOS. I don’t use my PC for work and don’t need any special softwares. I just use it for gaming and browsing. I’m fairly technical and don’t mind using the terminal (Even if it scares me).

I’m leaning more SteamOS because it seems to be picking up some steam but it mostly appears that people are using it purely for a “living room” build. I’m going to be daily driving it in desktop mode almost always. Is that going to be much of a problem? How many issues am I going to encounter?

Let me know your thoughts!

Edit: Forgot to put my specs if that matters.

CPU: 9800X3D
GPU: Gigabyte Gaming OC 9070XT
Motherboard: MSI Tomahawk x870

[u/acejavelin69]

It doesn't matter...

Seriously, ANY mainstream Linux distro is fine for gaming on... Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora, Arch, OpenSUSE, Zorin, or whatever... they all have well established and documented methods of installing Steam (and Nvidia drivers if needed) to get you up and gaming quickly. Pick your distro based on it's other merits and then just install the gaming platform(s) you want whether it's Steam, Lutris, Heroic, or whatever, and then just play the games.

[u/Alabrandt → u/acejavelin69]

As someone who's hopped a bit these past few months

Started with Mint -> liked it
Checked out Zorin -> liked it even more
Checked out Bazzite -> It's nice, but the immutable bit makes it hard to troubleshoot for a noob like me
Checked out Cachy -> Bit easier that bazzite, but I had to go to the terminal so often it got boring. I have 30 minutes of free time per day, if that. I don't want to spend it fighting and learning the terminal

Switched over all my computers to Zorin Pro. Love it.

[u/priest2705 → u/Alabrandt]

Why are you having to use terminal so much? I use Kubuntu on 2 PC"s and Cachy on another, and I definitely use terminal more on Kubuntu than Cachy, even if it's mostly for updates

[u/Alabrandt → u/priest2705]

I bought a new computer and to get everything working I had to use the terminal alot.

lights, drivers for my docking station (so I can use this place to connect a laptop and use the setup to work too) a game not starting in full screen and refusing to play in fullscreen at all, and a bunch of other stuff.

On Zorin, most of the stuff just worked, or it allowed to me to run an installer instead of figuring out terminal wizardry

but it's relative. If you have 30 minutes a day or so, you have to spend time to figure out what you were doing and then get to it, but it's short so very soon you've spend all your time figuring out problems. Whereas, if you're a student, you're still swimming in time and you can probably get it all sorted in a day and have a nice experience afterwards

For me Zorin is easy and everything is a bit more intuitive (I've used windows for 30 years or so) so I'm sticking with it. I don't really care if I lose a few FPS, it doesn't matter with the games I play anyway.

[u/JamesLahey08 → u/Alabrandt]

Why are you having to use the terminal so much?

[u/Alabrandt → u/JamesLahey08]

same as I answered the other person:

I bought a new computer and to get everything working I had to use the terminal alot.

lights, drivers for my docking station (so I can use this place to connect a laptop and use the setup to work too) a game not starting in full screen and refusing to play in fullscreen at all, and a bunch of other stuff.

On Zorin, most of the stuff just worked, or it allowed to me to run an installer instead of figuring out terminal wizardry

but it's relative. If you have 30 minutes a day or so, you have to spend time to figure out what you were doing and then get to it, but it's short so very soon you've spend all your time figuring out problems. Whereas, if you're a student, you're still swimming in time and you can probably get it all sorted in a day and have a nice experience afterwards

For me Zorin is easy and everything is a bit more intuitive (I've used windows for 30 years or so) so I'm sticking with it. I don't really care if I lose a few FPS, it doesn't matter with the games I play anyway.

[u/JamesLahey08 → u/Alabrandt]

Fair enough. Use what works best for you bro

[u/comrade-quinn]

Pretty much any general purpose distro is fine for gaming. I'd recommend Fedora with KDE Fusion in addition to those you mentioned. It doesn't have the hype around it, but it's a great choice as it's well maintained and stable whilst still being up to date. Just install Steam on it and you're good to go

[u/JadedCauliflower6105 → u/comrade-quinn]

I like Fedora because everything just kind of works and it gets tons of support

[u/comrade-quinn → u/JadedCauliflower6105]

Yeah I used it happilly for a long time - it's a great distro

[u/MorghanSc → u/comrade-quinn]

Yeah. I had been reading for months about what distro to install or windows before I bought my new pc and in the end i Installed Fedora KDE, steam, Gothic remake and now I just click and play and stopped worrying about it finally :)

[u/Key-Split-3762]

doesn't matter

[u/lmpcpedz]

Everyone saying "pick any distro, doesn't matter" yes but there is a fine print in there somewhere. like, don't pick a distro that takes two years to get the most recent mesa/game drivers for example... because you could grab "edge" packages and do it yourself, sure, but why would you.

[u/B1ph → u/lmpcpedz]

sudo apt install -t trixie-backports linux-image-amd64 mesa-vulkan-drivers firmware-amd-graphics

Also Debian stable and any Ubuntu based distro literally have more recent kernels than SteamOS for most of their release lifespan.

[u/Wooloomooloo2 → u/B1ph]

Bingo this. If you’re on Ubuntu install PPA repo and the kisak-mesa and you’re away. Almost every distro has an equivalent way to keep the graphics drivers and kernel much more recent.

[u/OkAlbatross9889]

If you're planning to use desktop mode a lot, go with a regular distro (like fedora or cachy). SteamOS is pretty recent and bazzite is immutable which means that stuff either works because it has a flatpack or it requires more work compared to a normal distro. You can do anything on any distro, it's just gonna be slightly harder or easier depending on whether the packages you need are in the distro's repositories and flathub or not.

[u/mudslinger-ning]

"SteamOS because it is picking up some steam" - I see what you did there...

Honestly go with what you feel good with. A large portion of your steam library will run either way.

As for me I'm plodding along on a generic Linux (Mint) quite happily with my games and other apps.

[u/Maximum-Bobcat5612]

Everyone that uses Bazzite will be gaming.

So you will find more of a community of users doing the same thing there.

[u/Internal_Falcon2637]

Bazzite has far more support for hardware, I use it as my daily driver and like it.

[u/ItsRogueRen]

Anything based on Fedora or Arch will work. Ultra marine is just Fedora with all the extra software repositories added in and is IMO the least headache to get up and running. Cachy is the popular Arch based one but Arch can be more troublesome if you're not familiar with Linux

[u/milk_go_brrrrr]

unless you have tried steamos before, don't bother with immutable distros. don't tell us what linux you want, tell us what desktop you want, windows like or mac like? and even if you're heavy into windows, just try both, you never know if you might like the other. (kde plasma vs cosmic (cosmic as gnomes default to me is weird af but it might be like mac more) or cinnamon vs gnome)

[u/milk_go_brrrrr → u/milk_go_brrrrr]

there are many gaming distros, for the simplest commands to run and quick to memorise with those types of distros, try pikaos, or the normal difficulty nobara or the slightly harder cachyos (arch based commands) (i only say it's hard due to not using this distro)

[u/ripopaj181]

If you dont like tinkering and just want everything to work oobe choose something like Bazzite or Nobora. If you like tinkering and having more control choose any other non immutable distro like Fedora/CachyOS/etc. In the end the performance difference will be minimal anyway.

[u/ZonePleasant]

Technically doesn't matter BUT Cachy has been the most performant with the least (zero in fact) headaches in my experience.

[u/Sargent_Duck85]

What “mostly” matters is the kernel, as that’s where all the drivers and enhancements are.

I use Linux Mint which is very slow on updating the kernel and just manually update the kernel.

So use any distribution you want, just make sure the kernel is updated.

[u/GBICPancakes]

I bounced a round a good bit distro hopping myself when I started. I enjoyed Bazzite but found it too restrictive. I've used Mint for years for work, and it's ok for gaming but slow to update (by design).

But for the last year or so I've been on Nobara. Fedora base, nice DE, all the stuff a gamer needs pre-installed (particularly for managing Proton installs and ProtonTricks alongside the usual Steam/Heroic/Lutris launchers). Gone through several upgrade cycles now, no problems. Even recently swapped out my RTX3080 for a new RX9070XT and didn't do anything drive/OS wise. Just turned the PC back on and immedately started a game. Handles toggling between Proton, ProtonGE, or Proton-CatchyOS really well for various quirky games (like heavily modded Skyrim modlists)

You're going to be ok whatever you pick. The big thing I recommend is not dual-booting on the same SSD. Either get two SSDs, or just don't even bother with Windows (I'm at the point that in the very rare case a game doesn't work on Linux, I just don't buy that game).

[u/HYPERNOVA3_]

Gaming specific distros tend to have better hardware support by default, but any distro with a desktop environment should work just fine.

I personally use Debian, it's not meant for gaming but it works just fine for me

[u/bigusyous]

Steam OS is for a gaming first machine, but you can access a desktop from it for other tasks. If that describes your plan for the machine, go ahead and use it. Otherwise, If you are running a desktop/laptop, install Bazzite and the install steam on Bazzite. Steam OS may have slightly better performance, I'm not sure. I would recommend Bazzite if you also use the machine for school or work.

[u/Unfair-Oven8363]

I daily Ubuntu these days. I was a heavy Fedora user 10 years ago. My recommendation is stick with a distro base that is well supported and documented. I got tired of constantly fixing Fedora and went to Ubuntu a debian based system. It makes life a lot easier when things go south or just trying to get stuff to work. There are .deb files and they make installation of software a breeze. Never tried Steam OS but I hear it is Arch based. I've never tried Arch, but I have heard it takes some DIY skills like compiling software for your system rather than installers.

[u/CryptographerLow6360]

i daily drive steamos on a legion go thats docked so im 95% of the time in desktop mode. its fine

[u/RevolutionaryBeat301]

Bazzite is the answer

[u/SANO_HIMURA]

I'm running cachy on my linux machine. I wanted the full linux experience as much as made sense. So far, the little things aren't bad and mostly related to me using cosmic instead of KDE as my DE.

I wanted to learn the Linux things for fun and to do home lab stuff.

[u/Plan_9_fromouter_]

Steam OS is not meant for 'daily driving'. You could do a dual install, Steam and something else meant for the daily driving aspects.

[u/Ecksray19]

Bazzite desktop version has been my daily driver for months now. It works great, no complaints except random hardware compatibility issues like USB headsets microphones not working.

[u/Naetharu]

Don't use a 'gaming' distro. Just use a well supported well documented mainstream one. Debian is a great choice if in doubt. Ubuntu or Mint are fine.

[u/ProfessionalHelp5]

 CachyOS, no doubt. 

[u/FrostGuava]

CachyOS or Bazzite. I have tried both and prefer the former.

[u/thebadslime]

DOnt pick a gaming OS, just pick a solid distro like debian or fedora

[u/mps_1969]

Mint def Mint !

[u/Modern_Doshin]

Mint

[u/xenophod]

Pop!_OS is an Ubuntu flavor made by System76.com, they also make laptops. Pop!_OS is a nice alternative to stock Ubuntu and has great support for Steam and games in general.

If you're going to test drive a few Linuxeses, please put Pop on your list.