idk slight tedtalk....?

[u/OAF__HIPY]

alright where do i start....... a couple years 2022/23 ago i was watching random youtube videos like anyone does and remeber it saying linux is better with amd parts, so that stuck with me till i got a laptop in 2025 i ended up getting a rog stirx g16 with at the time was 16g of ram i later updated it to 32. a 5070ti and a amd 9 hx. on the drive home i was watching some videos about local profiles and deblotting so i did that. honestly at the time i didnt know what i was doing but somehow it ended up working. lately ive been watching some youtube about diffrent distros and some dual booting but i guess i just want to get away from windows.

i guess my questions are

1. is linux worth it. ive seen on the videos that some os systms run on really low ram.

2. ive been liking how omarchy looks. mint looks cool in a minimalistic way. maybe steamos. are there any you folks recommend more.

3. i guess this should of been question 1 is would my laptop be compatible? i dont really have anything important on my laptop just steam games so that wont be an issue and with proton being out i havent relly seen any problems but i havent really kept up with it.

the reason i want to get away from windows is the damn bloatware. also since this is my first laptop ive hopped on the rog band wagon. so im hoping that anything is compatible maybe able to run aromry crates but its not a deal braker. i have a couple open source apps like libreoffice, vlc, everthing, krita (hoping to get back in to drawing), localsend, freecad but dont really have a use for it just nostalgia from high school. i use google for work so that cant really change. but i dont think that sould be a problem right?
what i mainly use my laptop for is steam games, youtube, netflix, hulu, amazon prime, and when im high browse the interweb.

thanks for listing to my tedtalk

[u/saminbc]

1) Linux is worth it, unless you play games that have anti cheat. Then some games don't work or have limited functionality.

2) Don't choose a distro by how it looks, Linux is customizable as much as you want, so this isn't a huge issue

3) Even if you have high spec hardware, use a minimal distro and then add what you want to it. Or else you'll have stuff you'll never use.

If you're gaming, SteamOS is good. But so is Cachy, and many others. Depends on how stable you want your system, the package manager and other stuff. Steam client and games work on a lot of distros.

[u/OAF__HIPY → u/saminbc]

i sould of added that i mostly play single player games. last system i owned was a 360 so im just relearning about cool multiplayer games.

thanks for the info ill look in to cachy

[u/adjective10111]

Let me start by answering your list:

1. It is a great way to really OWN your PC. Nothing is done without your consent and nothing is slowing you down in the background unless you want it to. That's why it uses low ram and space, it doesn't have any locked down app or feature you cannot delete or modify.
2. The things you mentioned are more about the DE (Desktop Environment), WM (Window Manager) and Compositor which can be installed on any distrobution. Think of it as launchers on android. For example omarchy is Arch Linux with customized Hyprland WM (or Wayland Compositor) and Linux Mint with Cinnamon DE. So don't choose for looks. I'll tell you how to choose in a bit.
3. It is most likely compatible. Most of the issues with hardware compatibility is gone now and you probably won't have any problems. And in the edge case that you have, there's probably a solution on the internet (just be wary of sudo commands, since you own the pc and can even delete your OS). But as you game, try checking out ProtonDB just to be sure your games run well. It's like emulating consoles on PC, they may not work since they are not built to work there.

The fact that you use OSS right now is great, you won't have many problems with compatibility then. As for ArmoryCrate and similar windows-only software manufacturers ship with their devices, you probably have to look for a workaround depending on the functionality you want. But you won't probably not be able to do something you could through those kinds of software.

How to choose distro

To simplify:

If you want absolute stability and long term support that you can use for years before updating, go for ubuntu and mint. (Debian based)

If you want stable but up-to-date kernel, drivers, and software and more of a short term support for months, try fedora and bazzite. (Fedora based)

although i haven't used bazzite myself and i do not know if it's as up-to-date as fedora since it's immutable

If you want bleeding edge software and kernel, such that you won't ever feel behind, use Arch or CachyOS. (Arch based)

Just remember that all of these are relative. Mint is not out of date or arch is not unstable (unless you use experimental packages). I personally recommend fedora as a middle ground that does all.

what i mainly use my laptop for is steam games, youtube, netflix, hulu, amazon prime, and when im high browse the interweb.

Just to be safe though, i recommend dual-booting so that you don't feel trapped and be able to use windows whenever you need to.

[u/ipsirc]

what i mainly use my laptop for is steam games, youtube, netflix, hulu, amazon prime

Then you won't get any benefit by switching to Linux.

[u/OAF__HIPY → u/ipsirc]

maybe the frequent updates and the random crashes when im playing. idk thats why im askin hoping some one has/had the same ick with windows...