I play a lot of games over steam, and I am coming from windows.
I’d love to help you, but unfortunately I can’t think of a single distro that would run on a cat.
I started on Bazzite when I switched, and it was ok but never felt quite right. After that I switched to Garuda, which is also designed to be a ready right out of the box experience that is gaming and performance focused.
It is based on Arch, so it is currently being kept up to date and has been extremely reliable. Pretty much every issue has been solved with an update and reboot.
As an aside, everyone always pushes KDE, but I personally love xfce, it’s worth a look.
mint
You will feel at home with anything kde
Fedora KDE Plasma is what I use. It’s solid.
Fedora KDE is what I use and recommend.
Its easy, to setup, no frills, reliable and very easy to use with a just gui if you’re not into the terminal.
If, and only if, this is not your primary computer. Eg, it’s only for gaming, I’d recommend Bazzite.
Bazzite is great and I use it on our couch pc for a true console experience. I call it “our better Xbox”.
Zorin OS
I was in the same situation a few months ago. I wanted to try Linux but had no real experience with it. To experiment safely, I built a computer from old parts and installed Linux Mint. I then swapped it with my Windows machine and committed to using Mint exclusively for a month. That hands-on approach helped far more than reading guides. I now use Mint on my primary system.
Here is what I learned along the way. Mint has excellent documentation because it is one of the most popular Linux distributions. When I ran into problems, I could generally find reliable answers through the official forums, community wikis, or by asking ChatGPT for step-by-step instructions. So far, there has not been a single issue I could not eventually fix with some experimentation.
If you are coming from Windows and want to game, there are several points worth knowing upfront:
1. Steam on Linux is straightforward
Steam has a native Linux client. Most Windows games work through Proton, which Steam handles automatically. For many titles, you simply install the game and press play. Performance can be very close to Windows.
2. Expect some trial and error
Although many games work out of the box, some require you to switch Proton versions or install small compatibility tools. It is usually not difficult, but it is different enough from Windows that patience helps.
3. Modding takes more effort
My most recent challenge involved getting game mods working. Tools like Proton, Wine, and mod installers sometimes interact in unexpected ways. It took me a few hours of reading and experimenting, but I eventually got everything running. Once you understand where games store their files and how Proton prefixes work, modding becomes much more manageable.
4. Linux teaches you how your system works
If you are willing to tinker, Linux rewards you. You learn how your files are organized, how applications install dependencies, and how to fix problems yourself. That knowledge makes troubleshooting less intimidating over time.
5. You can always dual-boot
If you are nervous about switching completely, you can dual-boot Windows and Mint. That way you can learn Linux without losing access to anything critical.
If you are starting from zero, the biggest advantage is the size and friendliness of the Linux Mint community. You do not have to figure everything out alone. With a bit of persistence, you can build a fully functional gaming setup that performs well and is easier to maintain than you might expect.
Fedora’s solid for me. I left Ubuntu distros because they’re always out of date with the latest desktop environment updates.
I recommend Mint if it’s your first time. It’s really easy to set up and use and there are thousands of guides online for fixing any issues you encounter with it. I do not recommend Bazzite like others are recommending because you literally can’t change anything with it. That is fine if everything works out of the box and you’re basically just using it for gaming, but if literally anything is wrong with your install or you have a device where the drivers that come with Bazzite don’t work, you literally can’t fix it. Not as in “it’s really difficult” I mean it literally won’t let you do it. Updating drivers on Linux is notoriously frustrating, but it’s very often required especially if you have older USB peripherals you want to use.
The beauty of asking a linux advice from linux nerds is that you will get as many different advices as there are comments and then will have to do your own research anyway.
Fedora KDE.
Looks similar-esque to Windows, Steam and most/all your games will run great on it.
Packages and kernel are kept current and it’s stable.
It has an App Store called Discover for finding most anything you will need out of the gate.
I don’t recommend anything Ubuntu related for newcommers, it’s full of weird stuff that is hard to debug when it breaks. But other than that anything will do really. And even Ubuntu is passable to be honest
I recently made the switch to Kubuntu. I wanted KDE and Wayland all setup for me after arch issues a couple years ago.
Another big reason is that I can install the discord .deb files easily without thinking much, cause discord has an update like every other day.
I might switch one day but it should be easy cause my OS drive doesn’t have any games on it
Pop_OS
