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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Coworker wants to try Linux with gaming, Bazzite or Mint? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) by iByteABit@lemmy.ml to c/linux@lemmy.ml

74 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.

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[–] Chaser@lemmy.zip 3 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

If he's a dev, he probably is able to follow this guide:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Installation_guide

The result is a system, that has virtually every package you can imagine in the aur, always the newest packages - which is quite important for gaming performance and a really slim system.

For the gaming part I recommend Gamescope:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Gamescope

As desktop Plasma is a good choice for beginners. However I personally use Sway.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/KDE#Plasma
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Sway

[–] bradboimler@lemmy.world 4 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (1 children)

I installed Arch for the very first time this past weekend. I am a software engineer with almost 30 years experience and some time less with Linux. I did my research beforehand: I watched a manual installation on YouTube and I went over the wiki.

And the manual installation was hard. I would not recommend it to a beginner.

he is still completely new to this so I want things to work out perfectly for his first experience.

This isn't Arch, sorry. My own Arch didn't boot the first time (but yes I was able to fix it quickly).

[–] Chaser@lemmy.zip 1 points 4 hours ago

This was my opinion too. However like a year ago my best friend asked me: "Hey, I want to try linux. Which distro do you recommend?" I told him, that I recommend Linux Mint for beginners. And that I use Arch. Like a day later he wrote me again: "I've installed Arch, lol. Wasn't that hard. The guide is actually very straight forward."

This changed how I see Arch today. Arch isn't super complex or hard to use. It's just a bit more time consuming to set up. On the other hand it just works once set up.