Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Reccommending a Linux distro for a friend (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 2 days ago by muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works to c/linux@lemmy.ml

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A friend is due for a gaming PC build. But he’s super pissed it needs to run windows 11. I told him just run something else. He said his job needs something that runs windows-only and on the odd occasions where he needs a desktop to do something he’s not buying a second computer just to run windows.

Dual booting exists but Microsoft likes to clobber boot loaders. So I reminded him he could just run windows 11 in a VM when he needs to, everything else in bare metal Linux.

He’s now sold on moving to Linux.

The question is where should he start? It used to be as simple as “if you aren’t sure, use Ubuntu.” But his use case kinda seems like what everyone has been crowing about using bazzite for.

I have zero experience with bazzite but the page does describe something built for his use case. There are 3 concerns I have though.

Is it common enough that he can Google an answer?
it’s an atomic distro, so classic Linux answers he might find online won’t always be applicable here.
selinux, ugh.

What’s a good gamer Linux distro? He’s not super into tinkering. He just wants it to do the thing without Microsoft’s invasive bullshit.

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[–] just_another_person@lemmy.world 10 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Anyone in these comments claiming there is a big difference between "gaming distros" and any other is flat wrong.

Any distro works. It's about the initial experience they want without having to fuss about changes. You can switch Desktop Environment on any distro easily, none of them offer massive gaming performance differences over the others. It's subjective. For a beginner, don't recommend immutable. That's pretty much it.

[–] pivot_root@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago

Any distro works.

Any non-LTS distro works*

Using a distro release based on a 2 year old kernel with brand new hardware is asking for a horrible experience. For gaming especially, you're also losing out on months/years of improvements to Mesa.

[–] Tenderizer78@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 days ago

I've been running CachyOS and they have some gaming packages, but I forgot to install them and haven't run into any issues just installing Steam.