I really enjoy archlinux so I was thinking on downloading garuda gaming but I’m unsure if that’s the way to go. What distro do you guys use? Have you encontered many problems with it?
Plain arch is great for gaming, no need for a gaming specific distro
+1 most differences between the common distros are package manager, de, and some defaults only so in theory they are all the same (yes I know some use musl or no systemd but that’s besides the point).
You enjoy Arch but you’re thinking of getting another distro based on Arch for gaming?
Nobara is a great gaming focused distro, it’s a fork of Fedora by a well-known Red Hat employee.
It’s by the GloriousEggroll guys, and I really liked it a lot. I would still be using it if it worked better with my laptop’s hybrid Nvidia graphics setup. When I get around to swapping my desktop to linux, I’ll almost certainly go with Nobara first.
FWIW, Pop!_OS is where I landed for great hybrid graphics support.
@shreddy_scientist @alehc Well, not just for gaming, but for beginners, or people who like the simplicity of the desktop environment, Linux Mint. I used it for quite a long time, and altough is has some quirks (as any linux distros do), it is a decent all-rounder, for everyday use and for gaming too.
That’s what makes Nobara so rad, it works great for gaming because it has a number of the most downloaded packages built in!
I found the distro really doesn’t matter much anymore for gaming specifically. You’ll install the same or similar tools for gaming no matter if using Arch, Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian etc.
For gaming it sometimes can be useful to have more current Software especially if playing new games since issues might only be fixed on the latest version.
But aside from that one part I think you should go with the distro you generally prefer and game on that.
Do you have any specific tools/software I should install?
It will matter if your packages are so out of date that you can’t run any games on it. Had this issue when I used KDE neon what uses an Ubuntu LTS release
Regular Fedora Workstation is a good compromise between stability and new kernels etc.
Personally I like the KDE spin best: https://fedoraproject.org/spins/kde/
+1 from me. Fedora is a nice middle ground - stable, polished, yet adopting new things fast.
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EndeavourOS and flatpak Steam. No need to reinstall because Arch. Nothing breaks because Steam got flatpaked. It just works. I used openSUSE and Fedora in the past because Arch wouldn’t install on my old HDD but I’ve an SSD now and shit just works and works good. My desktop never looked sexier.
Why flatpak Steam?
I’m firmly against installing 32 bit libs directly. I had to reinstall my system because they caused some mess. Steam is the only 32 bit using thing so it gets isolated.
Flatpak includes all the libraries Steam, proton, and games need to run, sandboxed and without having to mess with the ones installed more generally on your system. Can help prevent headaches and compatibility issues.
I’m sure u only wanted to tell us, u are using arch linux. You wouldn’t switch OS only for gaming. Jokes aside, I would rather switch from nvidia to AMD instead of using another Distro. I use arch btw, for gaming and music production.
I prefer Linux Mint, but I don’t believe there is a “best” for gaming; simply select the one with which you are most familiar.
It doesn’t really matter as long as you’re on something with recentish packages.
I’ve been on Arch for the past year or so and it’s been working pretty well.
I’ve used openSUSE, Void, Fedora, Debian, and Ubuntu in the past for gaming and they’ve all been decent.
I’m just on Arch because I wanted a newer kernel and graphics drivers than Debian.
Gamed for years on Arch, few problems diminishing over time. Currently gaming on Kinoite immutable (with Arch in a distrobox) with even less problems and a (touch wood) virtually unbreakable system. Then again, I never went chasing those last few percent…
debian testing go brrrrr
I use Mint for gaming with a 6.1 oem kernel and kisak-mesa drivers. Works great, super stable with no issues. Most stuff has an Ubuntu LTS release, for everything else I use Flatpak.
The only thing you really need for a good gaming distro is to be relatively up-to-date.
If you want the optimisations garuda provides you can just install them yourself on whatever distro, though they will probably be rather negligible.
I built my Linux gaming PC with 23.04 Ubuntu. It has kernel 6.2. Easy to install. Uses my Xbox and PS5 controller. Runs great with my Nvidia graphics card.
But you may want to try a few different distro and see which one you like.
I’ve been using opensuse tumbleweed for the past couple of weeks and it’s working pretty well for me. KDE, AMD cpu/gpu, Wayland, etc
