My current rig is featuring an I7 10th gen and a nvidia 4070ti. Is there a distro that you recommend me to use as a linux beginner that is also good for gaming and streaming, that will work with my pc parts? Because I heard that intel and nvidia are famous for causing issues on Linux.
I had very few issues with a GTX 970 and i7-4790k. The only issues I hear about with either any more is the linux kernel not supporting some of the features of newer GPUs (e.g. I know ray-tracing was a pain-point at one point).
I don’t like recommending distros based on such a general use case, mainly because every distro can be tweaked and configured to exactly what you want. Instead, you should research the different mainline distros that have been around for decades—Arch, Debian, Fedora, Gentoo, Guix, NixOS, OpenSuse, Slackware—and see what they’re about, what sets them apart from others, what the maintainers’ philosophies are, and what kind of package management system they work with. Once one sounds better than the others, look into it and try it out.
#Dos and Don’ts:
Don’t try a niche distro. They are harder to troubleshoot and less likely to be actively maintained.
Don’t use Ubuntu. It’s just a suckier version of Debian. It used to be user-friendly Debian, but now Debian is more user-friendly than it.
Don’t dual-boot with windows. This just solidifies your reliance on windows, especially if you’re the type to give up on problem-solving issues that you didn’t have in Windows. It also can cause issues with making Linux unbootable.
Do try a live usb with persistence before you commit entirely. It’s not exactly the same as a complete install, but it’s close enough to let you know how the OS feels and what hardware will or won’t work with it. Some people say try a VM first, but that won’t have direct hardware access.
Do problem solve the little things. Anything that irks you or bothers you or just slows down your workflow. It doesn’t have to be an actual bug or glitch, just anything that could be better. This not only solidifies the feeling of ownership over your OS—you no longer have to settle for anyone else’s lousy design choices—it teaches you the resources for troubleshooting larger issues.
Do plan around things not being plug and play at first. Want to test if a game runs on Linux? Great, set aside a couple of hours beforehand: first to install steam and set it up, then to figure out Proton, then to troubleshoot the game not even booting up, then to fix any glitches or whatnot, then to get your controller working. This won’t always be the case, but it will irk you a lot less when it is if you expect it. The more you make time for solving these issues now, the less time they’ll take up in the future (either they’ll be gone, or you’ll immediately know how to fix them, or your troubleshooting will be more streamlined).
Do set aside time to learn about Linux “under the hood.” You don’t have to become a computer scientist, but it will save you a lot of headaches, show you cool things you can do, and make your computer a smoother experience. It especially helps if you take the time to learn as they come up: e.g. installer asks you what “bootloader” you want, but you’re not sure what that is, what it does, or why it’s necessary? Now’s the best time to take a little learning detour.
Do ask questions on forums.
Don’t listen to the people who shame you for asking.
Do listen to the people who try to show you a better way of doing things, even if it’s not your way.
Stay away from the “bandwagon” distros for your first time. Bazzite, Pop_OS, Cachy, etc. There’s nothing wrong with them, but a lot more people use and have been using the more established distros such as Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora, etc. So if you run into any weird edge case issues it’s much more likely that someone else has already been there and discovered solutions. Once you’re comfortable with Linux you can start exploring the more niche distros that are better tailored to you. Have fun!
I’m not sure about this. I’m my experience, 90-99% of the solutions originally for Ubuntu worked for me in Pop.
Yeah, and since System76 supports Nvidia cards in their hardware, the drivers tend to work out of the box.
if you run into any weird edge case issues it’s much more likely that someone else has already been there and discovered solutions
While that is true, the amount of those weird edge cases that you’ll get varies wildly between distros. In my experience so far on a somewhat comparable rig to OP, Bazzite has been the only one that actually just worked out of the box and had not a single hickup, while any other distro I’ve tried (Pop, Fedora and Arch) all had several issues that required troubleshooting.
So, I guess, for someone willing to actually understand Linux, learn, and troubleshoot issues themselves, your advice is the way to go, but for the relative who wants their system to just work and would call me anyway at any sign of trouble, I’m recommending Bazzite (or Aurora, I guess) all the way
Every Linux distro will work with your hardware, aside from edge case components in certain situations. There is no difference in distros for hardware compatibility, unless you’re thinking of running a very old versions of something. Anything will work.
There is also no major difference between distros for gaming performance. The only difference in “gaming” distros is that they have certain software preselected and installed. You can just do this yourself anyway.
I currently suggest Fedora for beginners because it’s dead simple. The big difference between any distro is going to be the default Desktop Environment, and you can choose whatever you want after you install anyway.
If you like Windows’ UI, give KDE a shot. If you want something more like MacOS, go for Gnome. Either work great.
If you want to try multiple, download some LiveUSB images, start em up and poke around a bit. If you change your mind after install, you can just install a different DE and switch over without needing to reinstall the entire OS.
I really like Fedora, but please correct me if I’m wrong, isn’t it a bit difficult for a beginner to install nvidia drivers on it? Like, in Linux Mint you can simply open the Driver Manager app and install them
Fedora is a great distro. IMO it and Mint are the “it just works” distros. Mint just works, unless it doesn’t - usually a result of bleeding edge hardware. That’s where fedora comes in - newer stuff but without the downsides of something like arch.
The thing with fedora is that it’s “pure”. You have to install codecs and whatnot. Once you realize that there’s a team (rpmfusion.org) that is dedicated to making these things easy - fedora becomes much more tolerable for a newcomer. While it’s a bad idea to copy commands and jam them into the terminal - in this one particular case, I tell people to just copy and paste the commands and just do what they say. Boom nvidia and codecs installed and everything just works.
Fedora is a great distro. IMO it and Mint are the “it just works” distros.
Hard agree:
- Mint = “Just works”
- Fedora KDE = “Just works but also has a bunch of useful features and up-to-date packages”
Push button just like anything else. Same issues exist on Fedora that exist elsewhere, which is really an Nvidia problem, and has nothing to do with the distro.
There are a couple distros that install Nvidia drivers as part of their package selection, but they also have the same issues, because, Nvidia.
Just use Fedora.
Fedora Atomic! Kinoite rocks
I’ve been using Mint for almost a year now and what few problems I’ve had have been fixed with a few easy searches and a bit of forum help. Love it! :)
I have similar specs and use pop!_os with no problems. I’ve found it to be great for gaming.
Mint or Fedora(KDE) are great choices. Kubuntu, PopOS or OpenSuSE might also be suitable for beginners. Stay away from Arch-based distributions until you are at least a bit more experienced.
Intel (anything) works without problems on Linux (in fact, Intel is among the most Linux-supportive companies out there and most or all of their drivers are open source and part of the kernel, as it should be in the Linux world).
Nvidia GPUs used to be problematic in the past, it’s better now, still not as great as AMD GPUs are on Linux (they’re literally plug and play these days) but I think when going with the distro mentioned above it’s going to be just as easy Just make sure to enable support for NVidia drivers or “enable 3rd party drivers/repositories” (you’ll be asked during setup) so that those distributions will also install those slightly non-standard Nvidia packages which they might not do otherwise for “purity” reasons.
Check https://bazzite.gg/
You’ve already gotten several good replies, and I’ll add a couple more details that might be related to your use case:
Bazzite is a “gaming distro” with built-in Steam integrations. It’s great if all you do on the machine is game and do gaming-related things, like streaming. It’s what I use on my dedicated gaming PC, under my TV. Things mostly Just Work, and I’ve only had to mess with configuration files when setting up things like wake-on-USB and my custom Network shares.
Gaming and streaming will work on basically any distro. And if you pick a distro based on Debian or Fedora, it should be stable and fairly easy to get used to.
Don’t wipe out Windows yet. Install Linux on a separate partition, or even better a separate drive. That way, you can switch off between them until you’re fully used to Linux. Let yourself transition over a few months. That way, if you struggle to do something in Linux, you can switch back over to Windows and get it done.
Some folks try to change all at once, then get frustrated if they hit a stumbling block. It’s safer to keep Windows as a backup, so you don’t feel trapped if something goes wrong.
Bazzite isn’t only good if you’re only using it for gaming
Oh yeah, totally correct. But it bills itself as a “gaming distro.”
This is what I’ve been doing, and I’ve been on Bazzite for about 4-6 weeks now. I haven’t booted my Windows drive since the first week. It’s definitely an adjustment, but I’m finding my way around. Gaming on it has been pretty easy, it’s figuring out the Linux command line that is taking me more time. Knowledge of MS-DOS is really not transferable; all the commands are different. It’s kind of like learning a new language.
But I also don’t depend on a bunch of proprietary software that won’t run on Linux, as I’d been moving away from that over the past 1-2 years. I think that’s made my transition a lot easier. My goal is to get to a point where the only proprietary stuff on my computer is video games.
Ubuntu, linux mint, Bazzite… they’ll all work great. My advice? Download all ISOs into a USB with Ventoy installed in it, so you can drag and drop .iso files into the usb, and boot each live image so you can play around for a bit and see which one you like more.
1: You’re not yet ready for Arch and Arch derivatives (CachyOS, EndeavorOS, etc.)
2: Fedora KDE
3: Fedora KDE
4: Fedora KDE
Linux Mint is good, but it, like Ubuntu and Debian, are “vintage” linuxes that are very behind on software versions. Things are moving very fast right now with a lot of back end linux stuff changing rapidly to support more people and programs coming off Windows. Fedora is the best “middle ground” in that it’s not Arch bleeding edge, but it is also not Debian stable “vintage”.
You do need to install RPM Fusion for Fedora to go from nvidia open source driver to nvidia proprietary driver, though.
KDE is a fully featured desktop that will give you familiarity with Windows-like layouts. Some other desktops, like GNOME, tend to reinvent the wheel and have very different desktop workflows. You’ll have to boot the live discs / sticks and poke around to understand what I mean.
To make a boot disc, use an 8GB+ usb stick and rufus - https://rufus.ie/
I’ve been using fedora for 3 months now and second this. fedora gud.
I recommend EndeavourOS to newbies because I’m biased towards Arch. I think it’s a relatively low BS distro that gets you up and running. You also have access to the AUR which is awesome.
If that seems like too much I’ve heard Linux Mint is dead simple and stable.
I love EndeavourOS and I use it myself, but inflicting CLI package management and pacnew files on someone fresh from Windows is like throwing a baby into shark-infested oceans to teach it to swim.
My recommendation for new users is Fedora KDE:
- Almost never has any problems
- Works out of the box
- Up-to-date packages
- GUI package management and upgrades with Discover
- Lots of useful features vs. other desktop environments (such as GNOME that doesn’t even have a minimize button)
Mint is what I’d recommend for an elderly person who just needs to browse the internet and reply to emails, but for someone who needs to get work done it’s Fedora KDE all the way.
EndeavourOS meets all of those criteria except for the GUI package management which, admittedly, is unnatural to the Windows convert. However conquering that small, surmountable hump will unlock the AUR which imo is the real value add. There are many packages that are not included in standard repos that are included in the AUR. Regardless users can choose whatever they want. EndeavourOS is a great distro that is not complicated. It uses the calamares installer and ships with KDE. An afternoon of reading about how pacman works and installing yay/paru provides a great user experience and they will never have to do a system upgrade.
I agree that the learning curve is surmountable, but the fact is that many people are unwilling to use a CLI, which is valid. It’s also very easy to bork your install with EOS, which is terrifying for people who don’t have the knowledge to even begin to troubleshoot issues and who just want their system to work. IMO new GNU/Linux users, unless they specifically request a more advanced distros that will help them learn how things work, should always be recommended a distro with the lowest possible learning curve in order to keep their data safe, their confidence high, and minimise downtime. They can distro-hop later if they want to learn.
As a Guix user, I recommend Ubuntu. If you stick with it, there are specific distros for gaming, but, Ubuntu has such a large user base it makes it very easy to get answers to questions that are specific to your distro. Ubuntu makes it easy to install nvidia and other ‘3rd party drivers’, it’ll just work. I do recommend installing software in the terminal, the Ubuntu app store I feel has some rough edges.
The 4070 was released almost 3 years ago, so the driver should be decently stable and not cause that much issues, no matter the distro.
Just know that whatever distro you are choosing, it is a different workflow than Windows and it will take time to get used to it, and there will be some friction. And that’s fine. The first month is the hardest and it gets a lot easier fast.
Take a popular distro because it has a bigger user base and the chances that someone else has already fixed your issue and detailed the steps is a lot bigger than a niche distro.
If you want to easily test a few distro, take a usb key and install Ventoy on it. It will allow you to plug the usb key and drop ISO directly on it and boot from it. It will allow you to easily test distros without having to reformat the usb key each time.
I started with a Steam Deck. Now I’m running PopOS on my Framework 13 and Bazzite on a home theatre PC. I’ve had far fewer issues with them than any flavor of Windows.
I can’t go back. I won’t.
