Try bazzite if you are willing to learn, otherwise just pick Zorin OS or Linux Mint and you will be fine (You will just have to learn the basics of how linux works, but nothing too complex as arch linux)
this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2025
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If you're using an Nvidia card, the easiest way into Linux for gaming (in my opinion) is Bazzite, as aguasemgas mentioned.
Otherwise, any distro will do. I prefer Fedora Workstation, which is what I use for work (as do my wife and kids) but use Bazzite in my laptop because it's a System76 Gazelle with a 3050TI,and I don't like the current status of PopOS. All my games run great, and everything else is a FlatPak, so not much need to tweak anything really.
You’re going to break things. Then you’ll fix things. Then your break them again. Then you’ll realize there was an easier way to fix that last issue. It’s a fun learning experience.
You're probably better off with Fedora, Mint, or Bazzite to be honest
Seconding Bazzite, it's great for gaming.
Third
ford
Seconding Fedora.
If you're willing to learn Arch it really isn't that difficult. I wouldn't reccommend it to a noob but seeing as you're already using it why not give it a try? I wouldn't reccommend the Steam flatpak as Valve reccommends against it and it doesn't work as well. Feel free to DM for advice from someone who uses it daily.
I second this. The initial setup is the hard part. Give it a couple days. The arch wiki is the best resource in the whole Linux ecosystem in my opinion. If that's the long manual you were looking at for installing steam, know that 90% of it is info on strange edge cases and all a typical user will need to do is sudo pacman -Syu then sudo pacman -S steam (I forgot you have to enable the multilib repository if you haven't already. You seem smart, you'll find the info in the wiki)
A couple times a year or so something will break after an update. When that happens
- Google if anyone else has posted your exact problem
- See if chatgpt knows anything
- Humbly post in the arch user forum
One of those will solve it. Good luck!
WHOA. Please be VERY HESITANT to use anything ChatGPT outputs. Sanity check any commands it gives you from other places first.
i see. thank you for the info. i dont exactly remember if i have enabled multilib, it does sound familiar. maybe i alr enabled it when i tried a bunch of random things..
thank you for the kind offer. ill try to use arch as long as possible. i hope i am a fast learner because I'm a bit lazy to setup a new distro and reconfig everything again
I'm the laziest fuck there is man. You're in good company lol.
cachyos, post install click install gaming packages, in steam goto compotability switch it to proton cachyos, done, there is no struggle, it grabs heroic and lutris too for non steam stuff
Highly recommend this for you OP. This would be the easiest course of action. Do you have to use Konsole, yes but for a few commands and once done you can do everything you need via GUI and not have to touch shell again for daily operations.
Catchy have a very powerful script that attaches all their pacman.conf (list of places where arch will look for it's software)
Here's a link to the section Adding CachyOS to existing Arch Install
Once that's done you only need one more command
sudo pacman -Syu octopi
Octopi will let you manage all your software and kernel updates without having to touch terminal or having to use flatpaks.
I would recommend packages:
- cachyos-hooks
- linux-cachyos
- linux-cachyos-header
- cachyos-kernel-manager
- proton-cachyos
- wine-cachyos
- cachyos-gaming-meta
This will have you fully set up and ready to seamlessly game on your machine without having to reinstall a OS.
thank you for the kind recommendation, ill give it a look. im ankle deep in arch now. ill see where it goes and when it broke ill try different distros.
The only tweaking I've ever needed to do was for Helldivers 2. I had to swap from cachy's proton to the actual proton which was literally just a menu in Steam. (Multiplayer wouldn't work otherwise. Everything else was fine.)
and i read now im responsible on maintaining it, what does it mean? is it just finding and testing drivers? or system update? what is the easiest way to do it? and what i getting myself into?
Where did you see this? What was the context? I ask because you could say the same thing about any PC you own. It's not like Microsoft is gonna answer your distress call if Windows breaks unless you're paying for support.
truthfully? memes. i always saw people memeing on how small thing can break linux and how barebones it is and after using the actual arch it just dawned on me.
Is Arch Linux a stable distribution? Will I get frequent breakage?
It is the user who is ultimately responsible for the stability of their own rolling release system. The user decides when to upgrade, and merges necessary changes when required. If the user reaches out to the community, help is often provided in a timely manner. The difference between Arch and other distributions in this regard is that Arch is truly a 'do-it-yourself' distribution; complaints of breakage are misguided and unproductive, since upstream changes are not the responsibility of Arch devs.
It does not explicitly say "maintain" but it has a similar vibe to it.
Yes, you're screwed.
You're mega extra screwed.
They know where you live.
They're coming for you.
Hide.
🙈
i read now im responsible on maintaining it, what does it mean?
sudo pacman -Syu - do this about once every couple of days to make sure your packages are up-to-date
i can't think of anything else i have to do as part of maintaining my system outside of backups
sudo pacman -Syu
And done, usually. Lol
Looks like you have an extra space
Good call lol. Fixed.
Once your computer's working to your satisfaction, pretty much all you'll need to do is alias sudo packman -Syu and try to remember to run that every so often. The arch Linux wiki is second to none, and if you stick with the distro you should find it all feels very familiar in no time.
🤞🏿 I just found out about ricing. so satisfactory is probably an illusive state...
Welcome to Linux where you maintain your own os.. You are literally the owner of this ship you want to destroy your system to ahead you want to do whatever cause windows pissed you off go ahead.. evening can be fixed usually.. try all the distros till you like some and use those.
How does it feel to be in control and not have to listen to the Man ?
if you're a first timer and already got arch with kde set up you're pretty fucking tech savvy ngl
But that doesn’t mean it’s a good place to start.
Try Linux Mint, Ubuntu, or Fedora. Any of these will be easier than Arch and offer point and click installation for steam, drivers, and just about anything else.
When you get some more experience, instead of arch you can try endeavourOS. it’s basically arch with good defaults and has a fantastic KDE implementation.
Try Linux Mint, Ubuntu, or Fedora.
I think openSUSE is also a good option for newbies, either the Leap (stable release) or Tumbleweed (rolling release) variants. One nice thing openSUSE does for newbies and why I have been using it in the process of moving away from Windows is that it comes out of the box with automatic system snapshots enabled so that if you break anything it's relatively simple to roll back to a working config.
I didn’t really enjoy YaST, but I’ve got a freed up secondary SSD, maybe it’s worth giving a try again.
I don't think YaST is really required and they're apparently moving away from it. I've barely used it myself, but I hear it's one of the things many people like about openSUSE.
For gaming focused PC I'd look at Bazzite. OP wants it to be like the Steam Deck, it's just perfect for that.
I almost always advise against atomic distros for noobs. They are extremely limiting, add multiple complications to otherwise simple tasks, and the padded cell of immutability means you can’t really fuck around and learn how traditional Linux systems work.
I’m usually distro agnostic and just happy to see people use whatever Linux they like, but immutables have issues.
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If you're the type of new user that likes to go balls deep straight away, then Arch is arguably one of the better options thanks to its excellent Wiki. However, please don't blatantly overestimate yourself for the heck of it. Consider checking out ArchWiki's own entries on this matter:
- Why would I not want to use Arch?
- I am a complete GNU/Linux beginner. Should I use Arch?
- System maintenance
i found a tutorial on it with 3 - 4 pages full of text and was a bit overwhelmed
I don't think this attitude is helpful for conquering Arch, but YMMV.
recently i just finished building a new pc. mostly for gaming since my only exposure to linux is steam os and i heard its uses arch with kde plasma so i try to emulate it as close as i can.
FWIW, if you just want to emulate SteamOS, perhaps consider Bazzite instead. It's not based on Arch, but it arguably is the closest to SteamOS (but better). More so than any Arch-based distro*.
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