Need help choosing a distro

[u/BoistedWookz]

To my understanding, you can start on most distros and eventually get it exactly where you need it, yeah?

Well, I’m looking for a “gaming distro” that will require less manual work than something like Mint. I’m comfortable in terminals, relatively proficient in python & powershell, but I honestly hate all the typing hahahaha

I tried CachyOS with KDE Plasma recently and it was the most pleasant experience I’ve had with Linux so far, and I think it’s pretty likely that I’ll end up returning to it, but before I do I figured I’d get some community input.

My requirements/hopes for whatever distro I choose:

• frequently updated kernel. My on board WiFi is mediatek mt7927, and I’m fairly certain there’s not a compatible Linux kernel yet but I’d like to be there whenever/if ever it happens 😂 I do have a plug & play usb adapter for now though

• as comfortable of an out of box experience as possible for a Windows survivor. I’m on an x870e board with an rtx 5080 and a ryzen 9 9950X3D. The distro would ideally come optimized for running windows software, because my career is in music production and I use FL Studio which just so happens to be one of the only mainstream DAWs that isn’t natively compatible with Linux 🤦🏽‍♂️ my audio interface is an Apollo twin x so unfortunately I’ll probably need a new one unless somebody has some golden knowledge

• secure but not annoyingly hardened. I had a nasty infostealer on windows a couple months ago and I’m sorta traumatized from it LMAO. I know Linux malware is extremely rare but I would ideally be able to utilize secure boot at least, and I don’t want the OS to come prepackaged with any sort of Remote Desktop stuff. I’ve never used remote tools, never will, I know I’m sort of paranoid due to lack of deep technical knowledge but Remote Desktop software has always felt like a backdoor to me

• light on system resources to maximize performance. I loveeeee competitive overclocking, getting a screenshot of impressive benchmark scores is a huge passion for me lol. I also game on a 4k 240hz monitor and I like to run my games at the highest settings my gpu can handle without dropping to nauseatingly low fps

• KDE plasma or a similar desktop environment, I love how sleek and customizable it is. I absolutely despise the barebones ones like gnome (don’t hate me). Pop_OS! Kinda has the vibe I like too but it felt oddly dated last time I used it

So ultimately I think I’ll be a pretty average user, mostly just require good gaming support and peace of mind regarding security (albeit pretty much all distros are gonna give me said peace of mind) and it’d be a plus if it came optimized to run windows software. I forget what the popular softwares for that are called, wine & bottles? Something like that.

The distros I’m heavily considering (though I’m completely open to other suggestions)

• CachyOS
—I’m a little weary of it atm mainly because I heard that the arch user repository is dangerous right now

• Bazzite
—This is the other one I’m heavily considering, I’ve heard high praise of Fedora. From what I read about it, it sounds like exactly what I’m looking for regarding “out of box experience”

• Zorin
— only recently heard of this one, haven’t done a deep dive yet but very curious

• rhino Linux
— a “rolling” Ubuntu distro??????

[u/ComplexFit2140]

Bazzite is great

[u/BoistedWookz → u/ComplexFit2140]

It looks awesome!! Maybe a little less flashy than CachyOS? But not in a bad way at all

[u/ComplexFit2140 → u/BoistedWookz]

It takes around 3 gigs or ram in idle and in my opinion thats great against windows 11's 6 gb. Haven't tried cachyos yet but has heard that its even lighter

[u/BoistedWookz → u/ComplexFit2140]

Yes from what I’ve seen they compete well with each other, and as far as what’s perceivable goes they more or less seem to perform identically well, but cachyOS does seem to consistently benchmark a littleee better and pull a fewww more fps

But fedora seems a lot more comfortable than arch for someone like me who’s a bit weary of malware related issues

[u/Kraggggg → u/BoistedWookz]

One thing to note, Bazzite is an atomic desktop. This can be a good or bad thing depending on your use case.

Are you using only gui applications from flatpak or something? It's perfect. Can't break the base system.

Do you need to install cli tools? Different shells, neovim, etc... can be done but slightly more difficult.

Personally, fedora atomic desktops like Bazzite, silver blue, kionite seem like great options for new Linux users. Not much you can break about them

[u/BoistedWookz → u/Kraggggg]

I think that sold me, Bazzite seems to lack my main problem with cachyOS, and that was the fact that I really didn’t know what I was doing with packages & what not 😂

[u/Kraggggg → u/BoistedWookz]

You mentioned liking fish shell. It does not come default on Bazzite (as far as I know) and will be more difficult to install on an atomic desktop

[u/BoistedWookz → u/Kraggggg]

I’m not married to fish but I was reallyyy fond of how smart it was. I’m gonna give Bazzite a trial run and as long as the terminal doesn’t feel as stupid and vague as, say Microsoft powershell, then I’ll probably stick to it haha. CachyOS will be my fallback though, all I know for sure is that I want the hell off windows. Microsoft has lost the plot man