[Update: I went with CachyOS instead, it looks like a great option for gaming with general usage and has a really good wiki]
A coworker of mine asked me to help him install Linux, he hasn’t tried Linux before but he’s sick of Windows.
He is very much into gaming, so gaming support is the first priority. He is also a developer/tester so I suppose that he will also want to have access to dev tools, languages, and other packages like that for personal projects.
My first go-to when recommending to newbies is Mint because it’s simple, tried and tested, but I have been hearing a lot about Bazzite lately and see that it offers a very nice gaming experience. However it scares me that there’s no typical package management like apt or pacman as I browse their docs, instead it relies heavily on Flatpaks and brew, or even podman images. Will this be a problem as he uses the OS for general usage besides gaming in the long term, would it be better to just go with Mint and set that up for gaming instead?
Feel free to also recommend other distros, but keep in mind that while he is technical, he is still completely new to this so I want things to work out perfectly for his first experience.
Fedora KDE.
Steam and Heroic work fantastic on it.
Has its own App Store for searching for stuff.
Looks similar-esque to Windows so getting around is less painful.
Definitely support this recommendation. Having switched to this from windows a few months ago I can say that it is very stable (after I fixed secure boot issue) and very pleasant to use. Solid built-in apps. Tried GNOME first. Its design was good but just not for me.
Bazzite is just Fedora KDE but immutable and optimized for gaming
what does immutable in this context mean? I am guessing you can still install software on bazzite
Basically, your OS drive (for the most part, there are exceptions) is read only. Every time your PC boots, it is initialized to your current OS image.
Yes, you can install software on it. For the most part, you default to flatpak, but it also comes preinstalled with distrobox that allows you to access any package manager from any distro you want. You can also install local RPM packages, but you have to update those manually.
They suggest you try to avoid it, but you can also “layer” packages onto your OS image using rpm-ostree. This basically adds the package to the image that initializes at boot. You usually only have to do this with things like VPN software. Maybe.
The result is an extremely stable OS. almost boringly so. Because updates and installed software aren’t applied until the system is rebooted, it’s essentially impossible for an update to break your install.
Also, rolling back to a previous OS image is trivial and takes like 30 seconds.
It’s definitely an adjustment if you’re already used to Linux, but it’s really not that restrictive, it’s just different.
Thanks for the explanation!
I went Mint>Bazzite>Fedora KDE and couldn’t be happier.
In order of ease of use; Nobara (Fedora based), popOS (Mint/Ubuntu based), cachyOS (Arch based, easy enough to use but might be overwhelming because of the amount of linux jargon going on) over bazzite, depending on your friend ability and wish to tinker around with his OS.
I have had problems even dragging dropping files across apps in bazzite and other immutable distros like bluefin. If your friend is interested in tinkering just a little bit then he will be be banging his head across a wall with bazzite. The community support for these relatively new immutable distros is also quite bad when it comes to edge cases.
I strongly disagree with the order. To me, nobara has broken more than any of these (quite frequently actually), pop os is clunky and not intuitive, cachy is surprisingly the most stable for me and easiest despite it being arch based. Bazzite I use on my home living room computer and it’s been pretty solid. I’m a little concerned with it though because I believe they are having some maintainer issues that might impact future releases.
He should start with Mint, learn the system in general, and then move to Bazzite, CachyOS, Pika or Nobara, which are more game centric.
he is still completely new to this so I want things to work out perfectly for his first experience.
Of the two options you gave, I’d go with Mint. If your friend runs into a problem, it would probably be easier to diagnose the issue since it’s just Ubuntu/Debian under the hood.
Once they get used to it, they can try other gaming specific distros if they want to try to get a little more performance.
I do not have first hand experience, but have been told that while Bazzite is excellent for gaming, the immutable nature of complicates matters when it comes to software development, dev tools and stuff of that nature.
Always start with Bazzite for gaming. If you decide you want more control, switch to Fedora KDE. When you want to explore whats out there, put everything that interests you on a Ventoy thumbdrive. I don’t recommend Mint for new users primarily because it doesn’t officially support KDE Plasma.
I went with mint, had mininal troubles getting gaming setup and still a good none gaming experience. Show him how to customize his desktop a bit i really enjoyed trying cool themes to fit the gaming vibe.
I’ve tried many distros, Bazitte is by far the best for gaming without having to tinker. Fedora is not a good option imo because nvidia drivers are a pain in the ass.
I’d recommend he dual boot. Bazitte strictly for gaming due to it’s lack of traditional package management. And arch, Debian, or Fedora for coding.
I personally use PopOS for work stuff as well.
If you are afraid of being limited by flatpak for bazzite, (or any other distro but arch), you can use this :
an Arch container using distrobox that can run in every distro.
This way, you’ll have access to the AUR and arch repos in general.
Since gaming is the first priority, does he play competitive multiplayer games? Better check their anticheat state first, as some just flat out deny linux, full stop.
I have no real recommendation in regards of distro, but afaik either should do.
And what I gather, Bazzite has package management ‘ujust’ https://docs.bazzite.gg/Installing_and_Managing_Software/ - but beyond this hastily googled doc, I have no idea, never used Bazzite.
ujust is not a package manager, the way I understand it from this thread is that it’s just a convenience script that internally will use one of the other methods shown in the doc you mentioned (brew or flatpak for example). So it still seems risky to me not to have access to common linux package managers besides brew
You can access any package manager you want through distrobox then run the app directly from your host OS without really even noticing that’s what’s happening. This is how I run librewolf because it was givit me a weird lag on flatpak. The only way I remember it’s on distrobox is because it says so in the task manager.
Aside from that, you mostly use flatpak. You can also install local .RPMs and appimage. You can layer packages with rpm-ostree, which adds the package to your base OS image that is initialized at boot. They recommend that you try to avoid that if possible. I’ve only really needed to use it for things like VPN software. I don’t use brew.
You’re right about ujust. Bazzite comes with a bunch of premade “recipes” to make some things people often need easier. For example, “ujust update” updates everything including os image, firmware, drivers, flatpaks, packages, etc. all at once. Being immutable, nothing changes until you reboot. Rolling back is insanely easy, but I’ve only had to do it once (and it was my fault).
I’ve been using it for like a year and a half now and it’s almost boringly stable. People will say it’s limiting or restricting, but I disagree. You can do pretty much anything, the process just might be different.
Bazzite is install and use. Perfect out the box experience
I built a new gaming computer a month ago. After a couple hours of research, I chose Nobara. It was by far the easiest experience I have ever had setting up an OS and everything has worked flawlessly so far. Even my wife who isn’t tech savvy at all has no issues using it. I cannot recommend it enough to new users who want an easy time gaming. I’ve been a linux user for almost twenty years, but I just wanted something easy that didn’t need tinkering and Nobara delivered.
I really like Bazzite and the universal blue project (Bluefin and Aurora) in general. It is the fastest way to get a stable, usable linux installation with a bunch of QoL tweaks without having to follow a “here’s top 10 things to do” guide after install. Starting from a stable install is the best way to get used to linux, imo. If you are coming from windows or a mac and the system borks itself or throws up wierd errors during installation or an update, or you have to follow a bunch of guides inputting commands you are unfamiliar with to get basic funcionality working, you aren’t going to trust the system enough to switch over to full time. A stable, well functioning system upon install is essential for new users.
It is very possible to do development work, however you will most likely need to be familiar, or willing to become familiar with, a containerized work flow. This is probably a good practice to get into regardless of distro you use. Bluefin/Aurora are specifically is targetted towards developers.
As far as packages go, you use bazaar for flatpak/gui apps, brew for CLI apps, distrobox for any random program from a different distro you might need, and podman for docker images. Layering is a last resort and should be reserved for apps that need to interact on a system level, most often VPNs with custom installers and some password managers.
Flatpak will be set up on install with decent defaults, so permission issues are less of an issue. Distrobox is also set up and easy to dive into if needed. Setting it up this way seperates user apps and system apps and makes the install much less prone to breaking un updates. It also updates in the system and flatpaks/brew apps in background without bothering the user, you just need to restart the machine every once in a while to upgrade to the next version, although this behavior can be modified with a simple terminal command.
Relying on flatpaks/brew means those apps will be up to date and you don’t have to wait sometimes months for the distro to get an upgrade, which can happen with non-rolling release distros. Since they are all fedora based, the system will be fairly up to date while not bleeding edge like a rolling release distro, so it is rare to experience kernel regressions or those types of issues.
The default file system is btrfs with seperate system and home partitions, and it’s set up to be able to roll back to a previous version from the grub menu if an update causes a problem. This is possible with other distros, but can take quite a bit of effort. I’ve done it in debian before and it was not intuitive, and if something went wrong after following the guide I followed, I would have no idea how to fix it and would just have to nuke the isntall and start over.
The main difference between the universal blue releases is that Bazzite has steam installed at the system level, and has Gnome, KDE, or KDE plus Steam Bigpicture modes available. Bluefin is Gnome focused, and Aurora is KDE focused, but steam is only available as a flatpak. It is easy to swtich between each release with a simple terminal command and there is almost no risk to your user files when you do so. It just swaps out the system layer and leaves your user partition alone.
This set up will not be limiting or cause problems unless you are wanting to explore different window managers or desktop environments outside of KDE or Gnome, or have an obscure device that the bazzite maintaners haven’t installed support for, or have to use a vpn with a custom installer that needs system access, or use a password manager that isn’t configured well in flatpak.
After I left Bazzite as “my first Linux” I landed on Garuda. It is Arch based, is gaming and performance focused, comes with different desktop environment options, has pacman and works well with pamac, and has been noob friendly.
No ragrets.
I just switched to bazzite a couple months ago after switching away from kubuntu. I love it, don’t expect I’ll ever go back, and I’m not interested in trying any others. It’s kind of a pain if you want to do things outside of gaming, due to the immutability of the os, but anything is still possible.
One thing I haven’t figured out yet is theming grub, nothing I’ve tried has stuck.
