The best Linux distribution for gaming in 2023

If she with Ubuntu. It's fine. Especially if you just want to game or use the system. Not everyone sees computer tinkering as fun. So a stable base for what's more and more consider an "appliance", is perfectly acceptable.

I moved away from Ubuntu years ago as I want to try rolling release distros, but I really can't say anything bad about it in particular.

Oh shoot, just discovered that I actually disabled SELinux a long time ago! I'll try and reactivate it, at least on permissive for now

Those still maintaining the statement about Arch, Manjaro, Endeavour or whatnot Arch based being more stable than Ubuntu are more or less bluffing.. The very nature of Arch base and the likes is not to be stable but more fresh, yet very untested..

Then again SteamOS 3.x is now Arch based also but quite nothing like Arch really.

That's the right recommendation. People who can find their way through in distros other than Ubuntu are usually people who don't need recommendations anyway; they can make their own decisions. Those who ask for the recommendation are usually the ones who are new to Linux and therefore it's good to recommend Ubuntu to them.

Ubuntu is the answer to the question:
"What is the best distro for a Linux gaming newbie?"

It is not the answer to the question:
"What is the best distro for gaming?"

I'll let you divine the answer to that question. Let the distro wars commence! (or in this case, continue).

Quoting: CreakOh shoot, just discovered that I actually disabled SELinux a long time ago! I'll try and reactivate it, at least on permissive for now

Haha... that's a good example why SELinux is less secure than AppArmor, it's too complicated that people tend to simply disable it. I used to disable it as well. SELinux is one of the reasons I stay away from Fedora.

I'm a Mint person myself, but I'm not really going to disagree with Liam here. Mint is the best Linux distribution for general use. Really, it just is, sure there's individual taste and some people like their window managers modern and interesting or whatever, but basically, for the average computer user, Mint is better. Rough edges of all the others, knocked off. Stable. Comfortable interfaces. Stuff Just Working. No imposed Snaps. In general, no fuddle-duddling around.

But it tends to be kind of old package-wise, and for gaming you want stuff to be a bit fresher, and maybe Ubuntu is a better Linux distribution for gaming because of that. My gaming tends to the light side so I haven't actually had any problems with that kind of stuff, but if I wanted to be even not-particularly-bleeding edge I might.

Quoting: ExpandingManI use Manjaro on all of my personal machines and am extremely happy with it, but I have to use Ubuntu for work and, I gotta say, I am not at all happy with it lately. Not only do you lack a viable alternative to AUR but the repositories you do have are aggravatingly bare, update *waaaay* too slowly, and things have only gotten worse since they started moving things to snap. Concerns about snap are a whole other issue, but removing even the *option* of installing something with `apt` because a snap exists can be annoying.

The default configuration may work ok, but Ubuntu never seems to work right when you try to change the configuration. Try to switch to window manager, it breaks GDM somehow. Install lightdm with apt, of course it's broken on install and has to be fixed to be useful.

Even the idea that there is tons of information on ubuntu because it's so widely used doesn't seem to actually pan out. As far as I know there is nothing even close to as comprehensive as the Arch wiki, and the ubuntu wiki frequently seems badly out of date.

So, yes, Ubuntu may work well if you intend to install it, play games and never do anything else, but for day-to-day use I'm not at all happy with where it is right now.

I had to configure a wined snap for a relative once (printer driver), and it got infected with a trojan in like 2 weeks. I personally wouldn't recommend a linux distro to gamers, but would recommend debian for everyone else.

Quoting: BumadarIf your an nvidia user I agree, it works better out of the box on them.
If your an amd user then I feel there are more option as you can totally avoid closed source drivers.

Well only disto I can think of thats not good for an Nvidia user is Holoiso steamos.

I have a pretty slow gaming computer so I have to go for speed to reach 4k or atleast 4k with fsr or the like, so atm I am running ChimeraOS and CachyOS, they are both great for speed in games, ChimerOS is the fastest I have tried, however its a bit too locked down for daily driver usage.

I agree. I've used Linux for 24 years now, and Ubuntu is no bad choice for new users wanting a trouble-free experience. Not my choice, but that does not matter.

I have not had a lot of issues with Fedora either, just upgraded form 36 to 37, but actually, no tooling for nvidia drivers etc. really makes it a no-choice for new linux users wanting to play games, browse the web and do their work.

I couldn't even use my desktop properly with open drivers yet having an NVidia card, and having to deal with monitor selections and really lagging graphics, if I didn't know the reason I'd have immediately uninstalled it again.

POP!_OS 22.04 gets the latest kernel, Mesa, Nvidia drivers, and Pipewire. It also has the system76-scheduler which should negate the need for Gamemode. For a guy that runs Fedora, kinda weird that you are suggesting Ubuntu still. Especially with the recent trend of YouTubers ditching Arch for Fedora and saying Fedora is the new Ubuntu.

Over the years, I formed the pragmatic belief that there does not yet exist a distribution of Linux that is ready for the average U.S. person (for work or gaming). It's a dim view, but hard learnt from my experience. This site's vistorship tends to be quite a bit above average, so the above statement is not reflective of others here, but rather people I work with on the street (tutor).

In general, they don't want to know anything about their computer (mobile device), it just needs to function near 100% of the time and be able to "run the apps/games" and "visit the sites" that they want or need. Updates of any form are met with resistance or pure apathy. Good practices regarding data safety or backups are not considered or understood. As a FOSS advocate, I want to help these people have a safe and successful computing experience, but the lack of motivation/desire/understanding I encounter make it near impossible to recommend any Linux distribution.

Honestly, the Steam Deck (SteamOS 3) and Fedora Silverblue gave me a glimmer of hope for the future. Immutable operating systems with dedicated hardware is Linux's best shot to help non-tech savvy people get onto to FOSS platforms. Systems which update themselves, that can be rolled back from bad updates, and abstract applications from core operations are the right direction.

For the rest of us, I don't see that we have to abandon our "full" distributions and our package managers. We just need a Linux offering that can meet people where they are at (then hopefully lead them to a better place). For my own sanity, I would love a Steam Deck in a laptop format that people could just buy off the shelf.


Last edited by Numeric on 1 December 2022 at 9:04 pm UTC

Quoting: GuestHmmm. While I agree overall, there's a catch, anyone with a laptop that has integrated graphics+ Nvidia GPU should absolutely install pop os, no questions asked.

This! Totally! Tried on many models of MSI laptops (Gaming laptops as much as Quadro Workstations) and since most of them (just not to say all of them) don't have a "discrete graphics" BIOS setting, running anything but Pop_OS! on them is a nightmare. Pop_OS! works ootb, no messing around.

Edit:
It even adds a software switch in the power manager, that actually works:
(Nvidia Graphics <--> Balanced <--> Integrated)


Last edited by Mohandevir on 1 December 2022 at 9:38 pm UTC

Quoting: NumericIn general, they don't want to know anything about their computer (mobile device), it just needs to function near 100% of the time and be able to "run the apps/games" and "visit the sites" that they want or need. Updates of any form are met with resistance or pure apathy. Good practices regarding data safety or backups are not considered or understood. As a FOSS advocate, I want to help these people have a safe and successful computing experience, but the lack of motivation/desire/understanding I encounter make it near impossible to recommend any Linux distribution.

I don't really get it, to be honest. These are real issues I guess, but what do they have to do with not recommending Linux distributions? I mean, it's not like Windows is nice to work with vis-a-vis updates, or does anything for you in terms of data safety or automagically creating backups without you having to notice. And Linux distros can visit the sites, run the games, and run apps that are generally equivalent (but cheaper) to what they're used to. The more user friendly ones do it with LESS need to fiddle around than Windows. So I mean, assuming you can't actually ban these people from using computers, why shouldn't they do it with Linux?

Y'know, I use Windows at work, but because we have IT people I don't have to administer it. But a few months ago, i bought a basic little computer to attach to the TV, just to surf the web so my wife can watch the news and stuff. It came installed with Windows and, feeling lazy, I initially just left Windows there--why not? Just running a browser. It was a massive pain. Windows is nagware. My wife was constantly calling me over because of some mysterious message that she thought meant something serious but was actually just Windows saying something you can click and forget, for no particular reason except to look vaguely ominous as far as I could tell. Or because they wanted you to switch to fucking Edge. Or because they wanted to know if you really meant it when you set settings to "don't phone home very much" or if you wouldn't rather switch to doing things the Microsoft spy-on-you way. And the updates, argh. Wiped Windows, put in Mint, clear sailing ever since.


Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 1 December 2022 at 9:59 pm UTC

Quoting: CatKillerI'm not going to argue for a different distro - the reasons for recommending Ubuntu (sensible release cadence, well-supported, lots of users so lots of available information) are exactly right - but I will suggest a different flavour of Ubuntu since the Ubuntu website does a terrible job of letting people know that that's a thing that exists. The KDE flavour (Kubuntu is going to seem more familiar to a new user coming from Windows than vanilla Ubuntu's Gnome. It's all the same software and updates, but using the KDE Plasma desktop environment (like the Deck does) rather than the Gnome desktop environment.

Agree with this. For anyone who isn't a complete computer-klutz, KDE is better than Gnome. There is a reason Valve chose it for the Deck.

Quoting: rojimbooUbuntu is the answer to the question:
"What is the best distro for a Linux gaming newbie?"

...

Well, for that question the answer would currently actually be SteamOS on the deck... There was no talk about desktop there.. so using the deck you can use linux for gaming very well without having to know anything about the OS.. no other option is that simple to use.. so you could actually switch from a gameboy (does anyone still know the thing?) or lets say from not having used a complete OS before (Android, iOS, etc. are included here) to steamos on the deck and you should be ready and running in very little time... with any other option you need to know at least a couple of things about computers...

for my personal choice (not necessarily newbie friendly): i used suse for a long time ('til some updates completely broke my system and i get completely fed up with it trying to repair it) as it has a lot very nice gui tools for administration (can help former windows users to get acquainted with the system) and now switched to manjaro; pretty much like opensuse tumbleweed, just a different package manager and administration / maintenance access.. and with AUR lots of additional packages that work out of the box...
In gaming both work very well... rolling releases really do a great job in that area, especially when using recent additional hardware and newest games...
for stability, so far I have to say: Manjaro beats openSUSE tumbleweed.

Where's Nobara?

Hey, Liam. I'm not here to suggest another OS (I 100% agree with your article), but I'm wondering if you've seen or used Nobara at all. It's a Fedora-based gaming distro made by GloriousEggroll. I've been tempted to try it, but Fedora has been too good for me to replace. Nobara just seems like a cool project, and I'd love to hear your opinions on it.

https://nobaraproject.org/

Sorry for the semi-off topic question, but I figured this is somewhat related enough to the article to post it here.

I won't ever recommend people use something like Nobara. Regardless of who runs it, the point is pointing people towards tiny random distributions that could vanish at any point is not going to help Linux and Linux Gaming in the long run. If I'm going to put my reputation on a recommendation for a distribution, it's going to be one with a long history of support and good backing. Hopefully that makes sense.

Quoting: AbedsbrotherUsually run RebornOS (Arch) but am currently preparing to give Nobara a try. As time has passed, am less interested in cutting edge and more interested in stability (being a Patient Gamer helps).

Good to hear Reborn OS is still around. I was on it a few years ago but was very hesitant to put all my eggs (especially my work laptop) in the basket of a fringe, "one man" distro. When the at the time college aged (I think) founder/dev was openly pondering in the forums about whether he'd be able to keep everything going during his upcoming compsci grad school, I moved on. Is he still the primary driver or is there a larger team?

Anyway, there were always some good ideas at Reborn. Glad to hear it's still going.


Last edited by iiari on 1 December 2022 at 10:44 pm UTC