this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2026
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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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Some tips for you:
Check game compatibility using https://www.protondb.com/ this will let you know if the games you want to play run on Linux and how well they do so
Buy an AMD GPU, support for Linux is great on them, miles ahead of nVidia. If you already had an nVidia card it's usable, but if you're starting fresh 100% AMD.
Don't fret too much on the distro of choice, not sure how familiar you are with Linux but because of the questions I assume not much. If this machine will also be used as a normal computer prefer a general use distro (my recommendation would be Mint), if you'll plug it on the TV and use it as a console prefer a gaming distro (I've heard good stuff about Bazzite but never used it myself). You can have
/and/homebe different partitions, this means that you can distro hop and maintain your games, saves, and most configs from one distro to the other, or even when reinstalling the system, I strongly recommend people to do that.Linux is not windows, things are done differently and that's okay. A lot of the frustration of new users comes from trying to do things the windows way and failing miserably, e.g. trying to install programs/drivers by navigating to a random web page and downloading a binary.
Good luck, and ask any more questions you might have.
Mint is a good suggestion for a new user. An underrated distro, but solid, simple, and works well for any purpose.
Underrated? It's the single most recommended distro for beginners.
i mostly see immutables recommended to beginners on here
I'd also suggest Mint for getting started. I've been using it for several years with minimal hassle.
Isn't mint the most used distro after like catchyos?
I don't agree with the sentiment that Linux Mint is underrated either. As you note, it is quite popular and is mentioned a lot in the discourse.
However, I don't think that CachyOS and Linux Mint are the most popular distros; that undoubtedly goes to Ubuntu. And, if anything, I'd think that Linux Mint is more popular than CachyOS.
Yet, if we'd limit it to the distros used by gamers, then CachyOS probably does take the crown for most used distro (aside from SteamOS). At least, there are metrics that suggest as such.
That is what I based my statement on. Cachy has consistently 1000 more page hits compared to mint.
Ah okay, thanks for clarifying!
FYI, DistroWatch isn't a very reliable metric for gauging the user base of any given distro. Heck, strictly speaking, I'm unaware of any metric that does this any justice besides the opt-out DNF Count Me found on Fedora-based distros. And we will use exactly that to discredit DistroWatch!
So, Fedora (1112^[As per DistroWatch's 12 months, I'll use the same table for Bazzite*.]) has put out a number (relatively) recently; 961k users. And Bazzite (770) outright displays it on their website; 90.8k users. Like, Fedora is roughly 10 times as big as Bazzite. But their respective DistroWatch rankings don't quite reflect that.
“Top 10 most popular Linux distro” type articles I’ve seen usually list Mint near the top.
CachyOS