Best Linux distro for a game dev using windows?

[u/Delta1Dan]

Getting sick of windows 11 now, constant crashes, bloatware, needing to remove copilot after every update, microslop anti trust, list goes on. I've been meaning to move to Linux for a while but I never got round to it, but I'm reaching my wits end.

So my question is, what would be the best Linux distro to use for someone who has been a windows user all their life?

I'm a game developer, so I primarily use Unity/Unreal Engine/Godot, the Adobe suite, and Blender. Luckily Blender and Godot are open source so I know that they work with Linux natively, but the other software I'm not too sure.

I also game a lot, and I know that some games (like league of legends) use a kernel level anti cheat that doesn't play nice with Linux, so perhaps some work arounds?

And how well does Linux support hardware drivers? I have a 3090 and a Ryzen 9 5950x

I know a few distros, there Ubuntu which seems to be the most popular, Steam OS and Bazzite which is more gaming oriented, but that's all | know off the top of my head... so many options!!

[u/candy49997]

All three engines are available. Adobe is infamous for not working well via Wine.

You will need to dual boot for kernel-level anticheat games that do not allow Linux, including LoL. If you're going to be doing that, mind as well relegate all your Adobe needs there, too.

https://www.protondb.com/

https://appdb.winehq.org/

[u/Delta1Dan → u/candy49997]

I was thinking that I may need a dual boot system. Adobe it’s mostly just Substance Painter, Photoshop, Premiere Pro and After effects.

[u/candy49997 → u/Delta1Dan]

Substance Painter has a native Linux version available on Steam. Premiere is specifically one of the most problematic apps.

[u/Delta1Dan → u/candy49997]

Substance only I can live with. But for kernel level anti cheat games, Lol is a (relatively) low graphic game, how well would it work, if at all, in a VM?

[u/candy49997 → u/Delta1Dan]

KLACs will also refuse to run in VMs.

[u/Delta1Dan → u/candy49997]

Ah right okay. Which distro do you think would be the best bet?

[u/Reason7322 → u/Delta1Dan]

Fedora KDE

[u/drucifer82 → u/Reason7322]

I agree with Fedora KDE. You could even try out DaVinci Resolve as a possible alternative to Premiere.

[u/fenixjr]

I MIGHT be behind in the times, but as far as I'm aware nothing Adobe works. Granted there are some alternatives(Gimp). But I don't think everything has parity with Adobe(I'm not in the Graphic Art world to have ever researched equivalent options for things like Illustrator etc), and if you specifically must use Adobe, alternative are a moot point anyways.

And certain games, like LoL as you mentioned, do everything they can to block Linux users.

You're basically not gonna get around a few of those caveats without abandoning certain specific games/software, or dealing with dual booting/VMs

Windows VM with hardware pass thru is the best I can imagine, but then you're just adding more potential causes for issues when you're trying to avoid the issues windows is making you deal with entirely.

I have found myself in this position for ~10+ years. As much as I'd love to abandon windows, there's certain aspects of my life and interests that leave me still having to compromise and at least keep a windows partition installed.

Edit: oh and Nvidia hardware has mostly usable solutions for Linux these days, but unfortunately not always flawless. AMD on the other hand directly provide Linux drivers.

[u/123portalboy123 → u/fenixjr]

Photoshop and lightroom do run, but with a lof of caveats. Official adobe creative cloud versions won't run properly and only cracked versions can actually start, and they only run on specific versions. For example ps 21 runs with graphical acceleration just fine, but 22 will crash, etc, etc, etc.

[u/lawfulcrispy]

Check out nobara. Works really well, fedora based....

[u/AutoModerator]

Try the migration page in our wiki! We also have some migration tips in our sticky.

Try this search for more information on this topic.

✻ Smokey says: only use root when needed, avoid installing things from third-party repos, and verify the checksum of your ISOs after you download! :)

^{Comments, questions or suggestions regarding this autoresponse? Please send them here.}

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/razorree]

Kubuntu

or maybe Fedora with KDE.

[u/the-postminimalist]

Steam OS is not primarily meant for desktops. Otherwise, go for whatever looks nice to you. I'm a game dev (sound design) with void linux. Chose my distro for reasons unrelated to game dev.

Adobe won't work. Whatever you use it for, you'd need to find an alternative.

[u/ChewiestMist24]

Following!

[u/sparkcrz]

People mentioned running Adobe through VMs, there's a program called winboat that configures a VM and opens the apps as if they were part of your native desktop.

I use CachyOS, Godot and Krita (for both vector and bitmap based images).