cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/14762903
I am switching to Linux for the first time.
I heard Mint is really good but am not sure exactly which distro is best to use with Steam, as well as with newer games, as I primarily use my computer for gaming.
I generally play games like Final Fantasy XIV, Baldur’s Gate 3, Elden Ring, Elder Scrolls Online, and Total War: Warhammer 3.
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My desktop is amd 2700 cpu and nvidia 3080. I have been on Linux for at least a year now. Nobara was okay but borked itself from an update. Bazzite is my current os and it’s been rock solid for gaming. Just use protondb to make sure individual games work right.
I’ve heard good things about Nobara Linux. It’s basically Fedora but customised for gaming. It’s maintained by GlouriousEggroll, who does a lot for Linux gaming in general. Otherwise I’m using Bazzite on my Steam Deck, which is pretty cool as well. It is a gaming-centric Fedora atomic version. It even comes with the Deck’s gaming mode, but only on amd GPUs unfortunately.
I also recently switched to Linux on my main PC which is also my gaming PC. I tried Mint first but had too many hardware issues, mostly related to motherboard audio chip. Manjaro was next and it resolved my hardware issues but I didn’t like the package manager. Third was openSUSE Tumbleweed and that one stuck. Been using it for several weeks now and I love it.
I’m also using openSUSE for about a year now. I came frome Ubuntu -> Manjaro -> Fedora -> openSUSE I love it so far.
The way Steam works is that it contains a set of mini libraries, kind of a mini-distro, that Linux Steam games use, so it doesn’t matter that much. It’s based on Ubuntu. Games that are released on Steam targeting Linux normally “target Steam” rather than a particular distro.
Some distros tend to have newer kernels than others, which can help with video driver support for the latest cards for 3D games.
Also, some very specialized Linux distros won’t have a Steam package; that won’t be a concern with anything you’re likely to pick.
But in general, I wouldn’t worry too much as far Steam goes.
I use Debian. That’s the largest “parent” distro today, and many distros – including Mint – are “child” distros of that, and Steam is packaged for Debian, so they’ll have it too. Red Hat has a Steam package, and it and its child distributions make up the next-largest tree.
some very specialized Linux distros won’t have a Steam package; that won’t be a concern with anything you’re likely to pick.
And the Steam flatpak can be used on any distro that doesn’t package Steam but does package Flatpak, so it’s even less likely to be a problem.
I had issues with mint but everything worked fine with PopOS. Not a large sample I know but my 2 cents
You’re an Nvidia user then
Yep
I started using Pop_OS! because it looked like that it was focused to gaming. Then I changed to a rolling release distro to get the latest drivers and kernel (openSUSE Tumbleweed) and I’m pretty happy with it.
I’ve been using Nobara for gaming a while now, and it’s certainly a good choice from by experience. It’s a modified Fedora distro that’s designed for gaming.
Having used many distros (gaming-oriented and otherwise) Nobara would be my recommendation as well.
People saying “doesn’t matter” aren’t considering someone brand new to Linux would probably benefit from an out-of-the-box gaming ready distro (nvidia drivers ready, rgb drivers built in for gaming laptops, other gaming specific tweaks and fixes that they won’t know to install on say mint, a perfectly fine, general use distro). Not to say they wouldn’t be able to do all that on mint or Ubuntu or whatever with a bit of googling and effort, but they’re asking specifically for gaming.
There is no wrong answer when it comes to sticking with popular and well loved distros.
Fedora , but you can’t go wrong with any major distro honestly.
Any distro is fine.
At most you’ll maybe see a 1 to 3 fps difference due to a different DE, but that’s about it.
I would check Protondb to see if your favorite games actually run on Linux before making the change!
For people who just start out using Linux, pick something tjay considered stable and looks a bit like the OS you’re used to right now.
Thank you for posting a sensible general answer, rather than the ignorant distro-bias that I often see in response to this question.
Note that ProtonDB covers Proton, which is Valve’s version of WINE, which is a reimplementation of Windows’ libraries. It’ll deal with Windows binaries running on Linux, but not Linux-native binaries. Some games have both Linux and Windows binaries, and some just Windows binaries. Steam calls running Windows binaries under Proton “Steam Play”, if you see that term.
Steam indicates which binaries are shipped for a game on the store page of a game.
Here’s Team Fortress 2’s Steam store page as an example.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/440/Team_Fortress_2/
You’ll note little white icons next to “Play Team Fortress 2”.
There’s a Windows icon, so they have Windows-native binaries. An Apple icon, so they have MacOS binaries. And a Steam icon, so they have Linux binaries.
By default, if a game has Linux-native binaries, Steam will download and use those.
You can also force Steam to use Windows binaries via Proton by going to the game’s properties under “Compatibility” and choosing – I’m not at my desktop at the moment, but something like this – “force use of a specific compatibility tool” and choosing a particular Proton version.
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ProtonDB also has a number of entries for Linux native games, and sometimes people will suggest running the Windows version instead if the Linux version is buggy. It’s a great resource to check regardless of Linux support.
You can also force Steam to use Windows binaries via Proton
To complete that thought, doing this can be useful in cases like these:
- A developer released and then abandoned a bad Linux port of their game, but still maintains a Windows build that runs well in Proton.
- A developer took platform-dependent shortcuts in their networking code, leading to cross-play problems between their Linux and Windows builds.
- Your favorite game mod is a Windows DLL.
It’s probably worth noting though that the only distro Valve officially supports is the latest Ubuntu LTS running KDE/Plasma, Gnome, or Unity. That doesn’t mean you’ll have problems on other distros – and you probably won’t! – but Ubuntu is the distro they’re testing on. Valve also maintains Ubuntu-specific troubleshooting resources as well.
That said, Valve does not support the official Ubuntu way of installing Steam, which is via snap (‘apt install steam’ will install the snap). So you have to make sure to install the Steam way (manually via the deb) instead.
Learned that yesterday as helldivers 2 would crash right after starting it with the snap version.
I find it so odd that they’re only testing on Ubuntu when Steam Deck runs on Arch.
The Steam runtime is designed so it doesn’t matter. They just haven’t changed their packaging or anything since the early days.
One thing I’d like to ask, as someone also starting to get fed up with windows. I know there’s proton and all but how does Linux work with VR? I have an index and nvidia card, and most of my VR is playing digital combat sim (DCS) but I do enjoy playing actual VR games from time to time. Is Linux still decent with those? Or do I have to stick with windows?
VR can work but is overall a buggy and less supported platform.
Nobara works well.
I’m not a Linux guru by any stretch of the imagination, but I’m a pretty big gamer and I daily drove Linux as a sort of experiment for a few months a last year. I went with Manjaro and had a pretty enjoyable experience.
Basically any that appeals. My biggest issue when I last used Linux with gaming was getting non steam games working through bottles or lutris, I had no idea how to set them up. Steam and proton played almost all of my library and worked well.
If you want pure gaming, one-click, steam deck like experience try Bazzite or you could also try Nobara.
