I’ve been using Ubuntu as my daily driver for a good few years now. Unfortunately I don’t like the direction they seem to be heading.

I’ve also just ordered a new computer, so it seems like the best time to change over. While I’m sure it will start a heated debate, what variant would people recommend?

I’m not after a bleeding edge, do it all yourself OS it will be my daily driver, so don’t want to have to get elbow deep in configs every 5 minutes. My default would be to go back to Debian. However, I know the steam deck is arch based. With steam developing proton so hard, is it worth the additional learning curve to change to arch, or something else?

  • GustavoM@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    7 months ago

    There is no such thing as a “gaming distro” – all GNU/Linux distros are equally good for gaming and any other task.

    • simple@lemm.ee
      English
      0·
      7 months ago

      I kinda hate this take flying around constantly. There is such a thing as a gaming distro: one that has sane defaults for gaming, has the important things pre-installed like Feral GameMode, ProtonUp and the Nvidia drivers, etc. Also having an up-to-date package manager for these essentials is vital.

      Yeah, technically all distros are very similar, but most people asking for recommendations specifically want something that just works for their task, not everyone can fiddle with packages and DEs to get what they want.

      • GustavoM@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        7 months ago

        Distro with preinstalled packages =/= distro with exclusive features. The same packages available on “gaming distros” are available on any other “non-gaming” distro as well.

        • simple@lemm.ee
          English
          0·
          7 months ago

          Aside from the fact that they do have exclusive features (Nobara has a number of kernal patches and general fixes not found on Fedora), a distro is way more than exclusive features. The theming, extensions, patches, tuned package manager, etc. make up a cohesive experience.

          Nobody cares that you can replicate the same thing on Debian or Arch after 20 hours of hammering things together and even more hours of research and choice paralysis. Anyone asking for a distro recommendation want something that works. Not something that needs time and effort.

  • BananaTrifleViolin@kbin.social
    0·
    7 months ago

    That valve uses Arch is irrelevant in all honesty. Proton is not a Valve product, Valve is merely one of its users and contributors, and it is not wedded to one distro…Similarly Valves own Steam packages are not distro specifi, and there are other gaming platforms to consider which also benefit from Proton (for example you can get Gog windows games working in Linux too quite easily), as well as all the Retro gaming options.

    Pick a distro you personally like. I use Mint as I like the cinnamon desktop interface and the distro is pretty much good to go from fresh install. I use Mint both as a dual install with Windows on my PC and also within VMs in Windows. I still spend a lot of time using Windows because of specific games compatibility and work related apps.

    EndeavourOS seems a good choice if you do want to go the Arch route but it’s only something I’ve played with in a VM.

    If you want something gaming specific then Draugar seems like a good choice - it apparently uses Ubuntu LTS but with the mainline Kernel updates optimised for gaming. But I have no personal experience with the distro.

    I also see a lot of people seem to like Pop!_OS, but again no personal experience.

    I’ve had no issues with Mint on my setup.

  • iturnedintoanewt@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    7 months ago

    Nobara is specifically customized for gaming, created by Glorious Eggroll (from Proton-GE) himself, with specific packages which he tells you not to install as flatpak so you don’t lose the optimizations he made.

  • BurnedOliveTree@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    7 months ago

    I’ve been using Nobara for some time now, and I’ve been successfully able to play on Nvidia & Wayland, so that’s quite a feat in itself. Also, everything is setup at install time, so you don’t have to setup many things yourself.

    • Ace! _SL/S@ani.socialEnglish
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      7 months ago

      Are you not playing Windows games via wine/proton?

      This issue is what stops me from switching to Wayland on my GTX 1080. It basically makes games unplayable because the frames get displayed out of order