Linux gamers, what distro are you currently on?

I’m currently on Win11 but I’m getting that familiar Linux itch and want to dual boot a while again. I tend to gravitate towards Ubuntu simply because it’s so big and well supported by most things.

I’ve run Arch in the past but I’ve gotten too old and lazy for that if I’d be completely honest. I have played with manjaro and endeavour though… and opensuse tumbleweed, rolling is kind of nice.

Not sure what I’d try out first this time so I figured I’d get some inspiration from you guys!

jakepi,

I would take a look at pop_os. It’s Ubuntu, but without Snap and a closer to mainline kernel version. They have a lot of great usability tweaks too.

I run Arch BTW. I just like to make things difficult :)

nlm,
@nlm@beehaw.org avatar

I installed Kubuntu… I couldn’t be assed to resize my efi partition to a gig and disrupt windows… Done that in the past with varying results. Wish they didn’t require it to be that big tbh.

I do miss Arch… wouldn’t surprise me if I’ll install it again soon.

Kubuntu works. But where’s the fun in that? :)

It’s like… I installed it, messed with lutris a bit (needed a newer version) and installed Diablo 4, everything works… and now I feel like I’m missing out somehow. :)

jakepi,

You’re missing out on chasing the dragon for the latest and greatest. :)

Arch is fine once you get it setup, but I feel like the nerd in us can never just leave it be. I’ll probably go back to pop_os next major release they have.

nlm,
@nlm@beehaw.org avatar

Sometimes I wish I had a machine dedicated to nothing but reinstalling different distros. :)

It can get a bit disrupting to do it on your main rig too often.

Bene7rddso,

VMs are great for that

trash,
@trash@lemm.ee avatar

Use a VM?

nlm,
@nlm@beehaw.org avatar

I know, I do that too but it’s just not quite the same for some reason.

ladydascalie,

A very simple, almost stock setup of Arch + KDE.

YerbaYerba,

X11 or Wayland? I find games like csgo stutter on Wayland.

communist,
@communist@beehaw.org avatar

Make sure you’re running the sdl environment variable that makes them native on Wayland, in my experience when that’s on it makes my games that are native significantly more performant.

DaveedMee,
@DaveedMee@beehaw.org avatar

I use Arch with KDE Plasma for that comfy desktop environment feel but switch to BSPWM ever so often for productivity or to use my pc as just a media center

boonhet,

Been gaming on Gentoo for over a year, even if I haven’t found much time for gaming in the last few months.

Don’t do it if you’ve gotten too lazy for Arch though. Try Pop!_OS or Linux Mint or something. Enjoy an easy distro for a bit, till you get the itch for Arch back.

nlm,
@nlm@beehaw.org avatar

Oh I’ve tinkered with Gentoo plenty in the past (I still miss OTW if that rings any bells) and no, I really don’t have the patience for it these days. :)

And yeah, I’ll probably end up installing something a bit more fancy soon-ish… for now I plopped Kubuntu 20.04 on there and Diablo IV is downloading as we speak!

Kaldo,
@Kaldo@beehaw.org avatar

I really should have known better than to expect a consensus in a topic like this 😁 Ask 10 linuxheads which disto is the best and you’ll get 12 different answers

nlm,
@nlm@beehaw.org avatar

Well that’s what’s fun though isn’t it? :D

I ended up installing Kubuntu 20.04 for now… I was going to install Pop but they require a 1GB EFI partition and I didn’t have the patience to move my Windows partition around to resize it so… Kubuntu it is.

Knowing myself I’ll probably distro hop in a few days again.

Trying out different distros are almost as much fun as actually using them (probably more fun at times!)

Kaldo,
@Kaldo@beehaw.org avatar

If I were doing it on some spare PC maybe I’d find it fun too but I rely too much on my main workstation to just constantly reinstall stuff on it, and dual booting looks like a risk/hassle too. I am prepared for the inevitable day I take the plunge into linux for good, hopefully the number of distros doesn’t triple by then ^^

nlm,
@nlm@beehaw.org avatar

Don’t worry!

They’ll quadruple…:)

Kaldo,
@Kaldo@beehaw.org avatar

It definitely feels like they have in the past decade. When I last used Linux everyone would just dump Ubuntu on you, give you a nice pat on the head and wish you good luck. PopOS got big at one point but I think there were some issues when LTT tried it that gave it a bad rep. I haven’t even heard of 90% of distros in this thread.

CylustheVirus,

I think your next task is to start modding Skyrim so you can have the ultimate experience of spending more time setting something up only to spend a fraction of that time actually using it. XD

nlm,
@nlm@beehaw.org avatar

That or setting up a retro gaming sysgem… gathering and scraping roms, setting up a nice frontend with cover art and everything just to never touch it again when it’s done. :)

CylustheVirus,

How dare you call me out like this.

nlm,
@nlm@beehaw.org avatar

Been there, done that eh? :D

20gramsWrench,

garuda, it’s just a fancy arch install with the ugliest, bloatiest, default theming you can imagine, but once you get rid of it it’s pretty solid.

nlm,
@nlm@beehaw.org avatar

You’re really selling it :D

…I looked it up. You’re correct. That… was flashy.

TrontheTechie,

I’ve been using Garuda as well. It’s solid, and I like the fact they have a gaming variant that takes a lot of the nitpick presetup out of the picture.

gamma,
@gamma@programming.dev avatar

I’m on EndeavourOS, but my laptop will be moving to Fedora Sericea (Silverblue, but Sway) to try that out.

s0phia,

I’m on Arch right now, migrated to it after almost 2 years on Fedora. I’ll probably still go back and forth between the two.

thayer,

All of my workstations are now running Fedora Silverblue. Steam is installed via flatpak, and GPU is a Radeon 6800 XT. I also have a Steam Link for couch co-op. All is well on the gaming front!

Debian Sid and Arch have run equally well with this setup. Your choice of distro matters much less now compared to a few years ago, especially if you favour a flatpak workflow.

Edit: typos!

ostrosco,

I’ve been using Fedora for the past few years and have been pretty happy with it. It updates at just the right cadence for me where I get new stuff pretty quickly but I’m not on a rolling release.

eyecreate,

I have my gaming computer hooked to my TV and running Chimera OS. Makes it easy to use with just a controller.

nlm,
@nlm@beehaw.org avatar

Sounds like a sweet setup for controller based gaming!

sadreality,

Win11 is worse than a phone vis a vis spying. Finally made a switch. could not install popOS, so ended up with mint.

baggins,

Debian

TheNH813,

I use Void Linux. I like how much more up to date the libraries and apllications tend to be, it’s quite similar to Arch in that regard, as it’s a true rolling release just like Arch.

It also tends to be very stable as well, with couple minor issues I had ever experienced got fixes within 48-ish hours. One was hugin not launching, and the other a transition issue between pipewire-media-session and wireplumber being the default.

Void uses runit for service management, and is still multithreaded despite taking a more similar approach to just plain shell scripts, and constantly monitors services. What I like about this is more much simpler services are to write compared to SystemD, and then you just put a simlink to them from /etc/sv/<name> to /etc/runit/runsvdir/default/ to enable or disable.

Void also uses their own XBPS package system, which operates similar to pacman, and is equally fast. Void is basically a rolling release like Arch, with the latest updates, but instead has a more “classic” system management style, which I for one greatly appreciate.

After nearly a decade of distro hopping, Void is where I landed for at least the past several years, and I see no reason to leave. Just sharing incase someone else out there thinks this sounds like the system for them, and if so, Take a Step Into the Void, it might be what you’re looking for. That’s what I like about there being so many distros, there’s choice to match each one’s needs.

nlm,
@nlm@beehaw.org avatar

That’s another one I’ve heard of but never tried. Sounds pretty nice. Rathet Arch-like in a KISS approach l?

TheNH813,

Yup! That’s my kind of approach too. And Void boots just as fast. Up to date, boots very quickly AND is a install what YOU need, without tons of preloaded choices, distro. Arch and Void are at the top of my list for that reason. My personal file server runs Arch, my “client” computers run Void. I was surprised the touchscreen on my laptop (Ideapad 5 Pro, Ryzen 5600U version) worked without any configuration honestly, so hardware support is quite good on Void too.

nlm,
@nlm@beehaw.org avatar

Sounds pretty nice tbh!

DracEULA,

Not at all an expert, but I’m doing fine with most games on Manjaro. Most things worked out of the box with Proton on Steam. I also liked Arch before I got old and lazy, and Manjaro seems to be a good way to get most of the benefits of Arch with lazier upkeep.

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