6 ms·

What distro did you go for? I'm thinking about moving to linux, I'm avoiding a Windows 11 upgrade, and am not a fan of mac.

surgical_fire 4y ago
Mint, because I'm a filthy casual :) I just love Mint, but I think any Debian based distro should work just fine for playing.
- acegopher 4y ago
  I started with Red Hat 5 bought in a box in 1998 from Microcenter, compiled my own kernel with the original Gentoo, ran XMonad under Arch, and need both hands to count the number of distros I've used as daily drivers. I have settled on Linux Mint. It just works, and looks good. From one "filthy casual" to another...
  - surgical_fire 4y ago
    Haha, good to know that my laziness is not looked down :P I used Ubuntu for a while, but fell in love with Mint. I really like how the interface looks, and how things are organized very intuitively. It feels so unfair to use it for free thay I donated 20 bucks, just to show appreciation. Honestly, easily beats Windows or Mac OS for me.
- agiacalone 4y ago
  I've used some form of *NIX since 1999, almost exclusively. Began with Red Hat 5. Moved on to Slackware for my server at the time, and Debian for workstations (I also had various MacOS machines as well). Dabbled with Arch for a few years and Manjaro. Recently, I sold all of my Apple equipment and standardized on...Linux Mint. Mint + Cinnamon DE is simply amazing and even with lower specs on the current laptop I'm running (Thinkpad T460S vs. Apple MBP 2019 i9), the difference is stark. Not to mention rock-solid stable. No going back for me.
stavros 4y ago
Basically whatever runs Steam, if you want to play games.
- smcin 4y ago
  Sure, but Steam doesn't run natively, and is very heavy on battery and GPU. So it isn't good for playing on a laptop when mobile; signficantly worse to native game binary running on a tablet or laptop.
  - stavros 4y ago
    If you're worried about battery life when gaming on the laptop as the decider between Linux and Windows, you should go with Windows. Otherwise, Steam doesn't really emulate anything, it just reimplements Windows API calls, so games run roughly as efficiently as they do on Windows.
  - giobox 4y ago
    > Sure, but Steam doesn't run natively, and is very heavy on battery and GPU. So it isn't good for playing on a laptop when mobile I'm assuming this statement is referring to the large amount of software that is Windows only on Steam and runs in a compatibility layer on Linux, rather than Steam itself. This really isn't that big a deal vs "native" for Steam on Linux and it's getting even less so with time - the Steam Deck mobile console and other x86 handhelds use the exact same Proton tech to run Windows games under Linux on a pretty small ~40Wh battery. Power consumption of the Proton compatibility layer isn't really any better or worse than running native in my experience - its a wash.
  - onli 4y ago
    Steam runs natively. It is a linux application (to my knowledge, and it wraps "a webview", so there might be some nuance here. But native enough for this distinction). Steam uses a compatibility layer called Proton to run Windows games under Linux. Running the games that way is not significantly worse. It can get the same or even better performance (but sure, sometimes worse) and will affect battery life pretty much exactly as if running the game via Windows on the Laptop. Proton is based on Wine, and Wine is not an emulator. Translating the calls does not make them heavier.
deleted 4y ago
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wrycoder 4y ago
If you like simplicity, Alpine.
- onli 4y ago
  Just not if gaming is the goal. Steam would be only available as a Flatpak, says https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Steam https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Steam. And the Flatpak version is problematic. Void would be a better choice if liking simplicity. Or to keep it simple, maybe Pop!_OS. Or Debian. Or Arch. Pretty much everything not Alpine ;)
  - wrycoder 4y ago
    I’ve used Alpine, Void, and Debian for years. I certainly would never use Alpine for gaming, any more than I’d use OpenBSD. I don’t use it for multimedia, either. My normal setup is i3 on Alpine. I like to think I have a good understanding of how an Alpine system is built up via its install scripts and maintained by its packaging system. There’s not a lot of cruft lying around that I don’t need and didn’t request. That’s what I intended by using the word “simplicity”. Why would you think that Debian and Void are simpler systems than Alpine? They are much larger.
    - onli 4y ago
      They are much easier to use for gaming, as you can install Steam without any hurdles. Note how the grandparent comment of your response mentions that being able to game easily now was what made the switch to Linux possible.
      - wrycoder 4y ago
        I’m currently building a rather powerful W10 box solely to run MS Flight Simulator 2020.
neogodless 4y ago
I ran Linux Mint on a Lenovo Legion gaming laptop for 2 months. Almost everything related to gaming worked but I did have problems. Under X11 + Gnome, fractional scaling was pretty badly broken for some things, especially the Steam app. X11 + KDE fixed that issue. Under X11 + KDE with hybrid graphics mode (automatically use APU for light tasks, dedicated GPU for games), the laptop's brightness controls were totally inoperable. I tried to research this but could not find a working solution. If brightness was problematic enough, I could pick one of the fixed graphic modes and log out and back in - mostly I left it near or at 100% and didn't touch it. One game (Anno 1800) would not connect to multiplayer, but works completely under Windows. Hogwart's Legacy ran horribly and was unstable in Linux Mint. It ran with much higher quality/performance and 100% stability under Windows. Other games like ARK, Conan, Valheim, StarCraft 2 (using non-Steam Proton), Deep Rock Galactic all ran identically (from what I can tell) to Windows. Also about 50% of the time, booting would hang for Linux Mint and I'd have to hard-reboot, probably pick an older kernel to boot into, and then I could reboot and go back to the latest kernel (a minor release under Linux 5.15). Fortunately rebooting is mostly infrequent. Overall it wasn't quite in a state I was comfortable with, so I'm back to Windows 10, which is much better than Windows 11 (or much less bad?).
- esperent 4y ago
  > Hogwart's Legacy ran horribly and was unstable in Linux Mint. It ran with much higher quality/performance and 100% stability under Windows. Do you think this is because it's new? If I could only play games with a year or two delay that would be fine. Cheaper too.
  - neogodless 4y ago
    I can only guess! It's very rare for me to even buy a new game (unless it's a $20 early access game) but my spouse was very excited for it and I wanted to play alongside. (It's not multiplayer but we can still talk about the parts we've played.)

surgical_fire 4y ago

Mint, because I'm a filthy casual :) I just love Mint, but I think any Debian based distro should work just fine for playing.

acegopher 4y ago
I started with Red Hat 5 bought in a box in 1998 from Microcenter, compiled my own kernel with the original Gentoo, ran XMonad under Arch, and need both hands to count the number of distros I've used as daily drivers. I have settled on Linux Mint. It just works, and looks good. From one "filthy casual" to another...
- surgical_fire 4y ago
  Haha, good to know that my laziness is not looked down :P I used Ubuntu for a while, but fell in love with Mint. I really like how the interface looks, and how things are organized very intuitively. It feels so unfair to use it for free thay I donated 20 bucks, just to show appreciation. Honestly, easily beats Windows or Mac OS for me.
agiacalone 4y ago
I've used some form of *NIX since 1999, almost exclusively. Began with Red Hat 5. Moved on to Slackware for my server at the time, and Debian for workstations (I also had various MacOS machines as well). Dabbled with Arch for a few years and Manjaro. Recently, I sold all of my Apple equipment and standardized on...Linux Mint. Mint + Cinnamon DE is simply amazing and even with lower specs on the current laptop I'm running (Thinkpad T460S vs. Apple MBP 2019 i9), the difference is stark. Not to mention rock-solid stable. No going back for me.

stavros 4y ago

Basically whatever runs Steam, if you want to play games.

smcin 4y ago
Sure, but Steam doesn't run natively, and is very heavy on battery and GPU. So it isn't good for playing on a laptop when mobile; signficantly worse to native game binary running on a tablet or laptop.
- stavros 4y ago
  If you're worried about battery life when gaming on the laptop as the decider between Linux and Windows, you should go with Windows. Otherwise, Steam doesn't really emulate anything, it just reimplements Windows API calls, so games run roughly as efficiently as they do on Windows.
- giobox 4y ago
  > Sure, but Steam doesn't run natively, and is very heavy on battery and GPU. So it isn't good for playing on a laptop when mobile I'm assuming this statement is referring to the large amount of software that is Windows only on Steam and runs in a compatibility layer on Linux, rather than Steam itself. This really isn't that big a deal vs "native" for Steam on Linux and it's getting even less so with time - the Steam Deck mobile console and other x86 handhelds use the exact same Proton tech to run Windows games under Linux on a pretty small ~40Wh battery. Power consumption of the Proton compatibility layer isn't really any better or worse than running native in my experience - its a wash.
- onli 4y ago
  Steam runs natively. It is a linux application (to my knowledge, and it wraps "a webview", so there might be some nuance here. But native enough for this distinction). Steam uses a compatibility layer called Proton to run Windows games under Linux. Running the games that way is not significantly worse. It can get the same or even better performance (but sure, sometimes worse) and will affect battery life pretty much exactly as if running the game via Windows on the Laptop. Proton is based on Wine, and Wine is not an emulator. Translating the calls does not make them heavier.

deleted 4y ago

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wrycoder 4y ago

If you like simplicity, Alpine.

onli 4y ago
Just not if gaming is the goal. Steam would be only available as a Flatpak, says https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Steam https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Steam. And the Flatpak version is problematic. Void would be a better choice if liking simplicity. Or to keep it simple, maybe Pop!_OS. Or Debian. Or Arch. Pretty much everything not Alpine ;)
- wrycoder 4y ago
  I’ve used Alpine, Void, and Debian for years. I certainly would never use Alpine for gaming, any more than I’d use OpenBSD. I don’t use it for multimedia, either. My normal setup is i3 on Alpine. I like to think I have a good understanding of how an Alpine system is built up via its install scripts and maintained by its packaging system. There’s not a lot of cruft lying around that I don’t need and didn’t request. That’s what I intended by using the word “simplicity”. Why would you think that Debian and Void are simpler systems than Alpine? They are much larger.
  - onli 4y ago
    They are much easier to use for gaming, as you can install Steam without any hurdles. Note how the grandparent comment of your response mentions that being able to game easily now was what made the switch to Linux possible.
    - wrycoder 4y ago
      I’m currently building a rather powerful W10 box solely to run MS Flight Simulator 2020.

neogodless 4y ago

I ran Linux Mint on a Lenovo Legion gaming laptop for 2 months. Almost everything related to gaming worked but I did have problems. Under X11 + Gnome, fractional scaling was pretty badly broken for some things, especially the Steam app. X11 + KDE fixed that issue. Under X11 + KDE with hybrid graphics mode (automatically use APU for light tasks, dedicated GPU for games), the laptop's brightness controls were totally inoperable. I tried to research this but could not find a working solution. If brightness was problematic enough, I could pick one of the fixed graphic modes and log out and back in - mostly I left it near or at 100% and didn't touch it. One game (Anno 1800) would not connect to multiplayer, but works completely under Windows. Hogwart's Legacy ran horribly and was unstable in Linux Mint. It ran with much higher quality/performance and 100% stability under Windows. Other games like ARK, Conan, Valheim, StarCraft 2 (using non-Steam Proton), Deep Rock Galactic all ran identically (from what I can tell) to Windows. Also about 50% of the time, booting would hang for Linux Mint and I'd have to hard-reboot, probably pick an older kernel to boot into, and then I could reboot and go back to the latest kernel (a minor release under Linux 5.15). Fortunately rebooting is mostly infrequent. Overall it wasn't quite in a state I was comfortable with, so I'm back to Windows 10, which is much better than Windows 11 (or much less bad?).

esperent 4y ago
> Hogwart's Legacy ran horribly and was unstable in Linux Mint. It ran with much higher quality/performance and 100% stability under Windows. Do you think this is because it's new? If I could only play games with a year or two delay that would be fine. Cheaper too.
- neogodless 4y ago
  I can only guess! It's very rare for me to even buy a new game (unless it's a $20 early access game) but my spouse was very excited for it and I wanted to play alongside. (It's not multiplayer but we can still talk about the parts we've played.)