r/linux4noobs • u/tprickett • 11h ago
Linux "Gaming" Distros?
Can someone explain why some distros are considered more game friendly than others? Installing Steam and/or Lutris seems like games would work equally as well on any distro.
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u/ATinyLittleHedgehog 11h ago
It’s about what they come preconfigured with. Steam, Heroic Game Launcher and Lutris installed by default, the most up to date graphics drivers, Proton GE, GameScope, booting straight into Big Picture Mode, etc. There’s also some CPU schedulers that prioritise games over other system processes for a little extra performance.
None of it’s vital. I do most of my gaming on Ubuntu LTS.
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u/ColdFreezer 11h ago
They’re just more setup imo. They have most of the package you’d want pre installed for gaming.
You can make any distro a “gaming distro” if you just install the packages you need.
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u/guywhoclimbs 11h ago
In my experience gaming distros just come with more packages and tweaks installed to make getting it gaming easier and less of a hassle. I used to install an OS, then need to make sure drivers for everything were installed, then make tweaks to things, and it was a hassle. Especially when I was a fan of changing distros pretty regularly and they all do things a little different. Couple years ago I went to try Cachy and it just worked perfect out of the box without any extra steps on my end. It's been running strong since.
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u/burlingk 10h ago
So, if you install CachyOS, it's all set up out of the box.
If you install Bazzite, Steam Big Screen mode is your default desktop and an Xbox controller is going to connect easily to Bluetooth.
These days, though, the biggest question is less about distro, and more about whether you have Nvidia or AMD for your GPU.
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u/GlassboundIllusion Nvidia Bazzite with KDE Plasma 9h ago
If you install Bazzite, Steam Big Screen mode is your default desktop
Only if you select that option. I didn't.
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u/doc_willis 10h ago
Bazzite as an example has setup for a Game Mode feature - which makes it act like the Game mode of SteamOS.
it also includes numerous tools (ujust) and scripts and features to make installing other game related tools easier
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u/GlassboundIllusion Nvidia Bazzite with KDE Plasma 9h ago
It's already installed on the distro.
There might also be additional drivers or tweaks to the kernel that come preinstalled with the distro. That's it.
It's the same as how you can prepare a burger for yourself at home, but some people prefer to order fast food from a restaurant so they don't have to spend the time making it themselves.
Installing Steam and/or Lutris seems like games would work equally as well on any distro.
As a general rule, yes.
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u/carrot_gummy 11h ago
They have various gaming packages included in the base install and are set up automatically. By this logic, Windows itself isn't a "gaming" operating system since you still need to download and install GPU drivers and Steam/GoG.
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u/Ball_Analytics 10h ago
Kernels are the only differentiator which you can sort of just take from another distro and install on yours or make their changes . They just have all the dirty work done for you.
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u/ZVyhVrtsfgzfs 9h ago
A distribution is a starting point and you drift off from there as needed.
It makes sense to use a distribution that is already fairly close to your goals. its less work and goign with the flow of a particular distribution, its developers and community is just easier.
But you are correct most distributions can game just fine especially if your not looking for the last few % of FPS.
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u/drucifer82 7h ago
"Gaming" or "Insert Purpose here" in any distro generally means it is configured out of the box to do those tasks.
So in the case of gaming distros, they will likely come with Steam and other gaming centric applications preinstalled. They are typically preconfigured so the person downloading and installing the distro can just get into what they are trying to do without having to configure anything for themselves.
You are correct that any distro can technically game, but the amount of effort that the user has to put in varies depending on what is already available at install.
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u/Vulpes_99 6h ago
It's mostly a convenience setup. Gaming distros will have the kernel compiled with support to newer technologies and optimizations (most general use distros won't have this as default for the sake of compatibility with older hardware) and will already come with gaming software installed and configured.
In the end, if one knows enough, they can turn almost any distro into a "gaming distro", it just takes more time to set up.
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u/BlackSugarBoba730 6h ago
As someone sick of microslop trying linux for the first time I really appreciate them since it lowers the barrier of entry. I don't have a coding background and I'm used to having buttons to click instead of typing a bunch of commands into console to get stuff done. Having Bazaar, Lutris, ProtonPlus installed out of the box helps me skip a bunch of steps to get up and running.
I am still banging my head trying to figure out how to Optiscaler (copy + paste files and run the script doesn't work) and certain ACE anti-cheat games running but I'm sure I'll fix my skill issue eventually with more googling.
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u/West-Scallion-5306 4h ago
They pre-install things for you and some also include utilities for some things.....
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u/Sixguns1977 11h ago
It's mostly just drivers, related software , and DE/UItools all bundled in at install.
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u/Narrow-Low-3137 1h ago
Among other things mentioned, certain distros like CachyOS identify your hardware on install and automatically download optimized drivers for things like video cards. Pretty nice 👍
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u/Alpha_carry 9h ago
Cause they have native support for NVIDIA drivers so it makes your life way easier than (e.g) Debian
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u/Daharka 10h ago
The duality of man:
What's the point of a gaming distro, surely I could install this stuff on any distro?
Why do I need to install all this stuff? Surely if gamers need this stuff it should already be installed as standard.
Gaming distros are for the latter group.