I’m putting together a gaming system for the kind of person who needs help if their TV is set to the wrong input. Obviously I’m committing myself to providing a certain amount of tech support no matter what, but I’m wondering if any of these modern Linux distros can provide a user experience at least on par with Windows in terms of ease of use and reliability for someone who doesn’t know how to do much more than check their email and log in to Steam.

So far, I’ve looked at Bazzite, Cachy, Nobara, and PopOS based on what I commonly see recommended here. I’m leaning toward Bazzite based on its stated goal of being friendly to Linux newcomers, and the quality and amount of available documentation. Are there any other distros I’ve missed, or other considerations that might sway my preference?

I’d also like to hear about your subjective experiences with Linux gaming:

  1. What distro are you using for gaming?
  2. How long have you used it?
  3. How often have you had issues that require Linux knowledge and/or searching the web to solve?
  4. Have you had any other minor/annoying complaints?
  • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    1 day ago

    I distrohopped for a long time, usually because I got fed up with something not being available for that distro and having to compile from source, and usually failing that despite following the instructions to the letter…

    Until I ended up on Nobara.

    I’ve used it for a couple years now, been relatively painless for gaming. Everythings compiled/installed/ready for show time from the start. Honestly the gaming experience on linux in general, thanks to proton advancements, has been so smooth that the rare time I have an issue its usually because of a game bug and nothing to do with linux… I do make a point of avoiding games that have excessive anti-cheat though.

    I’ve had two issues in as many years of using it that required hitting the Nobara discord, which had the solutions already pinned, and the solutions were little more than a command to copy into the terminal. Folks in the discord are wonderful, helpful people to the not-technical, too.

    I don’t have any real minor/annoyances with Nobara the OS, or really even Linux as a whole. my only real ongoing complaint (and this isnt a linux specific issue at all) is a combination of discord being used as a support medium/knowledge base for everything anymore, and the enshittification of search engine results from SEO… So now you cant ever find the solution for any problem, no matter what its about, because half the answers are locked away on discord where search engines cant index, and the other half a buried and unfindable due to a billion AI generated Search Engine Optimized websites/pages that bury any relevant, valuable information so deeply as to be impossible to find without a pith helmet, torches, and long expedition.