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?
  • BubblyRomeo@thebrainbin.org
    61·
    22 hours ago

    @[email protected]

    OP! Please don’t do this! Someone who doesn’t even know how to change their TV input will definitely not survive on Linux for a long time! Also they only use their PC for very basic stuff like checking their emails. Gaming on Linux will need to work compability programs like Proton and Wine. You’ll get calls from them everytime! Please just install debloated Windows 10 21H2 LSTC IOT version for them!

    What distro are you using for gaming?

    Gentoo

    How long have you used it?

    Nearly 2 years now

    How often have you had issues that require Linux knowledge and/or searching the web to solve?

    Pretty often. I often need to go to Gentoo forums for help.

    Have you had any other minor/annoying complaints?

    Gaming drivers are the biggest issue in Gentoo

    • grueling_spool@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
      3·
      20 hours ago

      I appreciate the concern, friend. They are absolutely getting a debloated Windows install if Linux doesn’t work out for any reason. And I’ll probably be avoiding Gentoo for this particular use case, which should hopefully minimise the issues with drivers and compatibility software. ;)

      • nelson@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        18 hours ago

        Gentoo is IIRC one of the harder distros to use. Or at the very least one that requires a lot of Linux knowledge.

        At least that’s how I remember it.

        Personally there’s plenty of good distros to work from. Things like proton and wine are pretty well hidden.

        I’m running on bazzite for a while now and have run into zero issues. ( Full AMD pc ). My previous rig had an Nvidia card and that one worked pretty flawless too. Only issue I’ve had is Edge of screen flickering in ff16. But only in ff16.

        Bazzite came preinstalled with everything i needed. Wifi drivers, controller support, …

        It’s what I’d recommend to friends if they’d want to give linux a go for gaming. I’d benchmark protondb for them as well to see if the game actually runs on Linux :)

        My only issues with Linux gaming are mainly the custom launchers ( ubisoft, ea app, battle.net ). Heroic app works great for gog/epic.