Maybe Imma consider it when Cosmic becomes the desktop.
The current stable release is a Gnome fork abomination and the current alpha has a trillion issues. Absolutely terrible for games.
I’m sorry but I really don’t see the point in these distros way down the line. You can add anything to Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Arch, etc.
That’s fair. But people are busy/lazy/not interested. More downstream distros that require less customization or tweaking will always be there for those people.
As an example, why would I install Ubuntu and remove Snaps and go on a massive customization spree when Mint has already done half of the work for me? It makes it easier for me to just sit down and get started and that is what many users expect. Those that want to tinker or are more picky and want to have it just so can install whatever they want and customize as much as they want.
I also sometimes feel there are way too many unnecessary options, but they’re obviously not for me. The more choices, the better chances to find exactly what you’re looking for and that’s not a bad thing in my opinion.
If you want to tinker a lot, you can always use Arch. But if you’re like me and just want your computer to work, Mint is absolutely fantastic. And I’ve run all my steam games on it without any issues. Mind you, those games were all bought for the Steam Deck, so compatibility is already sorted.
I just left Pop!_OS for Fedora because it being based on Ubuntu 22.04 means that it’s getting fewer and fewer critical updates for me, and their website doesn’t make any indication that they intend to change that any time soon.
24 is out I thought but it comes with Cosmic DE which is still in alpha
I have nothing against Pop_OS or what not, but this article gives absolutely zero info on why/how.
It’s an ads for Pop_OS! paid by System76 or it’s AI generated.
This article is total shat.
I’ve never used it myself, but I’ve also never heard a bad word said about it. Seems to be a pretty solid little distro.
It really isn’t. I’m not digging on PopOD, but articles like this make it seem like there is a world of difference in performance between distributionz, and that’s just not true.
Greetings from Temple OS. The gamers choice for holy gaming.
Is there really much of a difference in game performance between “game focused” distros and other ones like mint?
Depends what “much” is but there can be a measurable difference if the distro comes with it’s own kernel, like cachyos.
Between different distros on the same kernel the difference in performance is negligible.
Performance? No. But some of the new distros include Gamescope, which is kind of a big deal.
Isn’t gamescope more used with handhelds?
Gamescope is great to use even on desktops, it runs the games in its own little shell which is particularly good for compatibility with old games where you can change stuff like resolution, fullscreen, keyboard layout… without impacting your distro.
Oh I see. That is pretty cool. Can you launch that with steam in the desktop version?
But is there any difference between installing a distro that includes Gamescope, vs. installing it yourself afterward?
Not sure. I don’t even know if that’s possible.
It is, it’s just a command you type in. Similar to most other software.
Yeah I’ve spent far too many hours “just typing a command in” so I’ll stick with the ones that come pre-installed.
Not really. Nobara comes prepackaged with a plethora of game related utilities and tons of kernel tweaks and packages to optimize it for gaming, but I highly doubt any gamer could tell the difference, between it and mint in the middle of a game. Use the distribution you like that works well for you.
That’s kinda what I was figuring. I’ve been using mint for several months now and I really like it and I’ve gotten it all adjusted to my preferences. I’ve checked out pop os, but I’m not a fan of the OS layout. It reminds me of android lol.
The layout is just gnome, pretty sure you can change the DE if you want to, and yeah it does look like android which isn’t necessarily a bad thing considering desktop usage is getting replaced by mobile.
I’d argue it’s more about having all the things preinstalled rather than the tweaks. Having steam ready with all the proton versions available in the compatibility drop-down (including GE) plus heroic, gamescope, mangohud, etc. waiting to be discovered, that all reduces friction for newcomers.
Agreed. Long time Linux user here. The distro is just supposed to get you near what you want or need. There are science distros for different science labs. Because there is a certain set of tools and software that all the researchers would be using. And likely, the distro is not useful for anybody else. I think there is only the big gaming distro issue because, gaming hasn’t really been a huge thing on Linux. Now it is, and new people to Linux have no clue what all is needed or what all is possible. Most don’t even realize they could install and switch DE’s without having to “distro hop”. But, 100% agree with you.
Oh I see, that is pretty handy. It was kinda annoying and unintuitive to get mangohud running.
Steam and the other loaders (lutris, bottles…) take care of all the compatibility stuff just fine; the tweaks are actually the ones that can be bothersome to get, not that the performance difference matters much anyways…
I’ve never used arch or manjero, but I’ve used Ubuntu, Fedora, Bazzite, and Pop, and Pop has been the best for me for a desktop experience. Definitely for people looking to switch it’s the least intimidating
Genuine question, doesn’t PopOS requires to disable secure boot to install? Not a big fan of distros that request it
Because you as a Linux user still want to hang on the insecure leash of MS? Or why do you want to be forced to wait for MS again and again? UEFI is still a nasty disease and should be eradicated.
More than Mint?
I used mint a bit a few years ago, for first timers who need gaming I’d say yes. Idk if Mint does but the pre-baked in NVidia drivers made it extra easy for me.
I actually had issues with WiFi drivers on Pop for my partners’ PC. Since I didn’t want her to have to work out kinks I in the end chose Mint, which worked out of the box
