upvoting the bazzite. if you want to play steam games its the obvious go to. I went to it from zorin and enjoying it.

Bazzite. Fedora based, “atomic”, has nvidia drivers and windows compatibility utilities preinstalled. Atomic means easy rollback after update in case if something breaks, and it probably doesn’t expect you to use command line much. It is expecting users to install apps with flatpak so make sure flathub has the software you need (I think it does).

I have never personally used Bazzite, but atomic distros and namely Bazzite are known to be very user friendly and breakproof.

Steam Link is available for Linux. I suppose that most Steam-things are.

On other comments and what you’ve said in your other comment, I think you’d be just interested in Nobara or CachyOS. At least, if you want an out of box working experience but still have the ability to tinker and develop relatively easy.

You might prefer Nobara because it’s Fedora based rather than Arch, and your hardware specs aren’t bleeding edge anyway. If you want a bit more stability than that though, and don’t mind doing the set up yourself, plan vanilla Fedora could also work and you just add what you want / need.

I’d avoid any recommendations for immutable distros like Bazzite because they’re best for beginners that aren’t too tech savvy, or people very familiar with Linux and have no issues mucking about with OS-tree or running a distrobox. Really no in-between.

I also have 8 bitdo controllers and I do recommend updating them on Windows before you get rid of it, depending which you have - some can be updated via a Chrome based browser but others only through Windows really.

I’ve switched to Fedora recently and it feels like a well-balanced everyday distro. The software is fresh enough, you get regular updates, but the system is stable and super easy to install.

Pick one, that is the one

I love how there are already 38 replies. Linux distro questions are like Lemmy catnip, heh.

Fort what its worth:

• I have very similar hardware: 7800, 3090, 1440p ultrawide, NVMe+SATA

• Similar needs (GoG, game modding, python, Plex, photo backup)

• Problems with linux before.

CachyOS has been my “end boss” distro.

Ive had the same stable partition for like ~3 years now, which Ive never had on linux so long. Its just perfect in so many ways, like development libs being optimized, and every gaming/optimization package you could ever want being packaged by the distro. It saved me from getting hacked or screwing up my own system in a few ways.

THAT BEING SAID,

I still dual boot to (heavily neutered) Windows. Some games, like Cyberpunk, just seem to perform slightly (but measurably) better on Windows when I A/B benchmark them, even when I try to make linux the best case scenario.

And some things I do (like HDR content wheb hooked up to a TV, or rendering HEIF files) still have some quirks on linux.

You dont have to choose. You can keep a tiny Windows partition, and/or a shared NTFS partition that both linux and Windows can access.

I use Bazzite. The Mullvad VPN gui app works on it, but you will have to either add the Mullvad repo and layer the package, or install the local .rpm file (using rpm-ostree), and manually update it whenever there is an update.

Sounds complicated, but it really isn’t.

If you want to use the aur, all you need to do is create an Arch distrobox (everything you need to do it is pre-installed, including a gui app for distrobox if you don’t want to do CLI). You can then “export” anything you install on the box to your host OS to be opened with one click with no noticeable overhead.

And yes, you will be able to play your Steam games on the TV with Linux. Probably better and more easily than with Windows nowadays.

I can recommend my experience - EndeavourOS. Based on Arch, it was built to come prepackaged with everything you need for gaming. Once install is complete it offers great choices for gaming and privacy programs. Almost everything on Steam is a Windows .exe so they are all run in a mini Windows filesystem through a top notch compatibility layer (called Proton, based on Wine) and to answer your question - yes, Steam Link is perfect on Linux. Lower latency than Sunshine/Moonlight.

One thing I owned that you’ll have to sacrifice, unless you use the Gnome DE iirc - Wallpaper Engine. I exported every .mp4 from the files and run with Hidamari instead, but it’s not the same.

And one caveat if you choose EndeavourOS - Budgie DE is borked a little bit so I switched to Cinnamon

My go-to advise for people new to linux or just wanting something that works is Linux Mint (Or Ubuntu if you don’t mind the commercial aftertaste). End of discussion.

It is based on Ubuntu packages which are well maintained (things just work), it has been around and popular for a very long time, has a big and active community, and it prioritises ease of use.

The only downsides are support for brand new hardware (<6-12 months) which takes a while to be supported. But that doesn’t seem to apply to you.

If you want bleeding edge, extensive customizations, or a cool unconventional desktop you can check out any kind of desktop.

I like discussing distros as much as the next person. But in my long distrohopping career I realised that with new or novice linux users it’s best to stick to the easiest, most out of the box experience. I would argue this is linux mint.

I’ve seen too many times that people send new linux users to the most wild distro’s and then be suprised that the user gives up on linux completely after a week.

If you want to get some terminal/technical experience or like to make your hands dirty feel free to experiment.
But make your feet wet in the shallow well known puddles.

My recommendation for new Linux users is to keep it vanilla: Mint (Debian), Fedora, or Arch. Flavor of the month distros are going to come with a lot of baked in opinions from the parent distro that may make troubleshooting more difficult if you try to treat it like that. Sure CachyOS is Arch based, but it has a custom kernel and other things. People will argue the point, but I think vanilla is just better. I also worry about distros that have yet to sufficiently establish themselves and the kind of support you can expect from them going into the future. Nothing is a bigger Linux deterrent than getting dragged into distro drama as maintainers fight, argue, fork, and drop support.

Mint: Beginner friendly. Some might recommend Debian, but I’ve always found setup to be a bit tedious. Mint has been around long enough to prove itself and has a well-established community.

Arch: Don’t let the reputation get to you, this is a perfectly fine distro to start with if you are a person of moderate to advanced skill level, especially since the archinstall script makes actual installation much easier. If you like the idea of the Arch wiki acting as a kind of instruction manual for an OS that you haven’t seen in years and hand-picking a lot of your software while making small adjustments in config files to get most things working (clearly documented in the wiki!), this is a good choice. I avoided it for years based on reputation while I fought with Ubuntu and I’m angry at how much I let community opinion deter me when this was the correct choice for me all along.

Fedora: Less to comment here as I don’t have a lot of personal experience, but from what I understand it’s a good compromise between Debian and Arch. A bit faster to update but not bleeding edge. Considered a bit more stable than Arch.

The most important advice I can offer is twofold,

1. Just make the switch. Once you get a better idea of what you need and what works and doesn’t for you, you’ll be able to make a more informed decision on if a more specific distro would suit you better.
2. Linux is not Windows. You’ll never be able to replicate your workflow and feel 1:1 and you can’t/shouldn’t consider that a failure. Be prepared to make small adjustments but I do think you’ll find the effort worth it overall.

CachyOS. Hands down the best for you.

• Gets updates as soon as they come out which is important for gaming and software development

• Really good performance, has access to a huge amount of software

• Beginner friendly, automatically creates snapshots (backups) in case you mess up

• Has a simple to follow wiki with lots of useful info. Also it lets you install all the gaming packages you need with one button click.

No offense to people on this site but every time this thread pops up there are a lot of terrible recommendations being thrown around. Don’t bother using base Arch linux if you’re new to Linux. Don’t use random niche distros like MX Linux. Debian is very barebones and requires you to manually set up a lot of things that come by default in other modern distros. And finally IMO don’t use an immutable OS unless you know what you’re getting into, as many people get burned by how hard it is to install applications on them.

Linux Mint!

It’s based on Ubuntu, which means broad support for basically everything, including niche things like the Mullvad VPN client.

Mint has been around for a long time and they have had plenty of time to prove their place as a stable and reliable alternative.

Their software center includes well integrated support for Flatpaks, which is a a must have for things like Steam.

Mint is polished both visually and technically speaking. It’s a great general purpose option for both beginners and experienced users.

However. I might not be as ‘cool’ as some other new shiny players, which seems to be important for some, but I don’t feel comfortable recommending something that most likely last for a few years.

Mint is not something that I use myself, but it’s what I generally recommend to most users. I hope that excludes me me as some Mint fanboy.

Zorin OS. They do an amazing job at creating a very smooth UI and give you the ability to tailor it to your liking. It’s Ubuntu-based, but very lightweight. I use it in all my VMs for this reason as well.

If you do have some experience with Linux, I think perhaps Garuda Linux might be worth a shot. It’s based on Arch and makes it pretty easy to install Arch and configure it. I find their ChaoticAUR is probably one of the best repos. The Garuda team polices it and keeps bad malicious builds from being born on that repo. I’ve gotten a lot of great software from that place and never touched the actual AUR. In my experience of running Garuda Dr460nized KDE on my gaming PC, it’s been one of the best that I’ve ever had. Surprisingly, I haven’t jumped to another distro (notorious distrohopper here). My system is pretty stable and I’ve not had any problems with my installation of 2 months so far…

I chose Dr460nized because it is colorful and bold, but also customizable, it gives you a strong base to build off of. I also like Garuda Mokka, which has a chill, smoky, gray vibe to it!

Also, Mullvad VPN is in the Arch Extra Repo, you would just have to set it up by installing the application and the daemon which would run in the background. It’s not particularly difficult, and only takes barely 2 minutes.

Love Linux Mint for the easy transition away from Windows.