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.

  1. Is it common enough that he can Google an answer?
  2. it’s an atomic distro, so classic Linux answers he might find online won’t always be applicable here.
  3. 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.

  • kieron115@startrek.websiteEnglish
    0·
    4 hours ago

    I’m throwing in my vote for CachyOS. Not because it’s the easiest to use (though it isnt difficult imo) but because it works out of the box, then they have nice wiki to guide you through simple things (like using Lutris and Proton). It’s also Arch based so there’s the arch wiki to fall back on also. I ran Windows for 35 years and just switched to Linux in like October, fwiw.

  • shadshack@feddit.onlineEnglish
    0·
    4 hours ago

    Echoing what others have said, a “gaming distro” really isn’t necessary. I have used Ubuntu for years on and off. When I switched my gaming PC to Linux earlier this year I went with Kubuntu, because it’s just Ubuntu and I like KDE Plasma better than Gnome. I do feel like Ubuntu is one of the easiest to find support for when you’re looking online.

  • BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world
    0·
    4 hours ago

    For gaming, start with Bazzite. It “just works” and is almost impossible to break.

    If your friend wants more control, switch to Fedora KDE.

    If your friend is very technically inclined — comfortable on a command line — and wants even more control, switch to CachyOS.

    Whatever you choose, I strongly recommend using the KDE Plasma desktop environment.

    I do not recommend Mint, even though it is very popular here, since it does not support the KDE Plasma desktop environment, the Cinnamon DTE is ugly and outdated garbage, and Mint has more hardware problems than other distros on newer gaming hardware.

    Fortunately, switching Linux distros is fast and easy, unlike Windows. So you can quickly and easily try different things to see what you like. Consider putting Ventoy on a USB drive, since it lets you copy ISOs straight onto it and you can boot directly to whatever you want. It’s a handy way to test drive any distro you want that has a “Live” image.

    If you absolutely must keep Windows around, install it to a separate physical drive to prevent it from destroying your bootloader. Then configure BIOS to boot to your Linux drive.

  • Fell@discuss.tchncs.de
    0·
    5 hours ago

    I can’t speak about Bazzite, but I installed Mint for a friend about two months ago and he was totally able to web search himself through a few problems. I didn’t have to intervene at all.

  • buwho@lemmy.mlEnglish
    0·
    7 hours ago

    Garuda, Bazzite, Zorin, Pop OS…and get a seperate machine for work. Hell no, I’m not letting my employer on to my personal machine.

  • IronKrill@lemmy.ca
    0·
    8 hours ago

    On dual booting, I’ll say I’ve been running Win11 through several updates with GRUB and Mint installed on a second SSD with no issues for over a year now…

    • muusemuuse@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
      0·
      7 hours ago

      do you think it could be safer to dual boot if windows an linux are on separate physical drives? he really doesnt want win11 but for a few of his games he’s going to need it.

  • rustinmyeye@lemmy.mlEnglish
    0·
    11 hours ago

    Arch or Debian. Depends on their personality and use case. I prefer Arch, but have no problems with recommending Debian and use it on one machine myself.

    Edit: after re reading I’d say Debian. Little more stability but it is more annoying if they ever do wana tinker more. OpenSuse is an honorable mention as well!

  • notaviking@lemmy.world
    0·
    14 hours ago

    I am not too clued up to say this or that, but Mental Outlaw on YouTube has been doing very good breakdown on loads of Linux stuff to noobs.

    So I will link to this, https://youtu.be/3MwJbRq3-rM

    I saw no one mention ZorinOS.

    I personally love Mint, tried different distros but I keep crawling back to green Ubuntu

  • ashughes@feddit.uk
    0·
    15 hours ago

    I don’t have a recommendation other than don’t recommend something to your friend for which you’re not willing to provide tech support.

  • Admetus@sopuli.xyz
    0·
    16 hours ago

    I have a specific use case for CachyOS but I see two categories:

    1. Bazzite, not intending to use the terminal much. Also less frequent updates which ought to be very stable. Atomic.
    2. CachyOS, using the terminal and frequent updates. Rolling, and good support base.

    Both use flatpaks which will keep apps sandboxed. A lot of users don’t seem to like snaps being pushed by Ubuntu so flatpak is the big choice.

  • xcel@lemmy.world
    0·
    16 hours ago

    • Get a usb with decent capacity

    • Install Ventoy

    • Drag and drop whatever linux iso you feel like trying (put in as many as you can)

    • Boot them one by one to try the out live