Best distro for steam /gaming for someone kinda new to Linux?

mattyfez

mattyfez

mattyfez

Soldato
Joined
12 Apr 2007
Posts
12,293
Hi all..
I've used mint and Ubuntu briefly years ago and got on ok with them, just used as a home pc rather than any power user stuff.

I want to try out a new one as a bit of an experiment on what's currently a windows 10 machine.
Usage will be general home use, movies, music and games via Steam.

Considerations are

1.has to be able to run steam easily
2.I want to use an xbox game pad (can that be configured through steam?)
3. Support for Hdr in games and videos
4. Freesync compatible (not essential)
5. Support for high refresh rates or at least 120hz

Machine it will be running on is an i5 6600k with a Radeon rx480 gpu.

I quite like the look of kubuntu but anything that's user friendly with good gaming support as a priority!

Thanks for any suggestions!
 
Last edited:
I’d take a look at Nobara or Bazzite. They’re both flavours of Fedora with a focus on gaming. Bazzite tends to be a little more up-to-date, but Nobara is the personal distro of the lad responsible for a lot of the recent advances in linux gaming.
 
Last edited:
Out of your list of considerations you may find HDR is the hardest to satisfy. Bazzite supports it but only fully on the -deck version, as KDE and Gnome have somewhat more limited (experimental) support, which can be a bit hit and miss, unless you want to mess with terminal. CachyOS is also an option and is well maintained Arch spin with it's own Proton versions and performance kernels (and quite a few QOL additions) as well as a decent Wiki.

All should satisfy your other needs though.
 
Last edited:
Bazzite is superb. I replaced Windows with it on my gaming PC and it brought back all the joy that gaming used to bring to my life! Bazzite basically consolifies your PC by using the SteamDeck interface. Pick a game and play it - what more do you want?

Xbox game pads are supported natively on Bazzite. Press the sync button on the pad then select the pad in the Bluetooth menu. That’s it
 
To echo the above Bazzite also "just works" in my experience. It is one of the few distributions that you really don't have to open a console to actually arrive at a fully working system for gaming and general functionality, and most applications you'd want to use are already installed and working. Because of it's immutable nature it is also easy to recover if things should go wrong, and adding non-included functionality such as Virtualbox (though other alternaitves which aren't so much hassle are much easier to setup) is possible if a more involved because, again, of the immutable nature of it (you're essentially imaging your machine when you install Bazzite). But as a load and go option is it pretty darn awesome.

It also has some great documentation (https://docs.bazzite.gg).
 
Last edited:
Thanks all.. Bazzite looks like the prime contender then?

I'll do some reading... Can I just install it and haveya functional desktop etc?
 
ahh ok...so like a smart TV/andriod box style UI? that kinda sucks, but if it works it works.

Ive just ordred a new SSD to experiment on....

I guess I could test drive it virtually, or via USB but I want to see how it performs in games properly.
 
Last edited:
I use EndeavourOS myself (Arch made easier), I also really like Fedora but had some issues with steam not wanting to open up properly unless I use terminal when using .rpm package, HDR works great long as your using KDE and gamescope for the HDR session, I can put up my launch command if you need it
 
i use both arch with kde and Ubunutu. Both work fine. Arch is nice for the more bleeding edge and Ubuntu is better for compaability with some of the software used for work with less faff. The work that has been put into proton is a massive plus that and the nvidia drivers getting much better in the last year.
 
I am a miserable git and am never happy with things.

I do seem to be constantly going back to MINT.

I currently have 2 PCs and 2 Laptops that are running Linux and they all seem to run most games just fine. The ASUS ROG unfortunately has a GTX460 Card and so its not supported on newer Mint, and so I have gone back to 21.
The newer Laptop is near flawlessly playing Mint Cinnamon and has lots of steam gam,es that all play just fine - Even ones that are NOT Linux compatible mostly play just fine... a few do have issues though.

I tried Nobara but I failed to actually get it downloaded. I might re-try... might not!
 
I forgot about this thread!
I've got nobara running fine duel boot with win 10 on it's own drive but there's a few issues..

Forza horizon 5 runs but only at about 40fps compared to 70fps under windows..
Do I need to change the version of proton it's using in steam? (it's a windows game installed/running via steam)..suprisingly easy to authenticate with MS and get running though..

Biggest issue is Bluetooth though... Xbox pad works fine on USB but on blootooth, it sees and pairs the pad but the connection keeps glitching between connected and disconnected really fast like several times a second... No idea on that one.

Bluetooth and wifi are via a pci card (wifi works fine)

Card is

ASUS PCE-AC58BT 802.11ac Dual-band Wireless-AC1200 PCI-E Adapter​


Hope the link is allowed as its on older card that doesn't seem to be on sale new any more.

Any ideas?
 
Last edited:
Well, now I feel a moron.

I have tried to download and it did nothing. I tried it agaion last night and again it did nothing.

I just went to the same place that I went to last night and this time, the Download buttons did indeed change on mouse over and so I clicked and they bloody worked!

Im not going buts I know I am not, but hey ho... Its downloading now anyway.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom