In a few previous years (#1, #2), I decided to do a fresh take each time on what the best Linux distribution was for gaming - so I'm back for a 2025 edition of the article that will cause you to tell me how wrong and terrible I am.
What's changed? Well, quite a lot actually. Both previous times I firmly suggested going with plain Ubuntu. However, time moves on, and the software world evolves rather quickly. So I have a new recommendation for you! Why am I even writing this? Sadly, there's still articles out there pushing for tiny completely random fringe distributions and plenty with stupidly outdated and republished information to get to the top of Google.
My current home for a while now, and what I'll recommend you pick up, is Kubuntu. It has all the goodies and support of plain Ubuntu, but with the KDE Plasma desktop environment, which is the same one used on the Steam Deck's Desktop Mode. It has an interface that will be much more familiar to people coming over from Windows, it's more customizable (if you want it) but with a sane default setup that just gets you going quickly.
The latest Long Term Support (LTS) version of Kubuntu, Kubuntu 24.04.1, is supported with security and maintenance updates until April 2027. So you can install it and basically forget about it and keep it running and secure for years to come. However, you're likely better off with Kubuntu 24.10 which is more up to date, if you're okay upgrading again when the next version of Kubuntu comes out (Kubuntu 25.04) which is around April 17, 2025. Either way, both work well.
I've been through Fedora, Manjaro, Linux Mint, plain Ubuntu, Arch and many others over the years. No Linux distributions is perfect and they all come with their own set of quirks and problems, just as Windows has its own set of unique issues. To me, Kubuntu just offers the best all around middle-ground of everything you need to get going.
People will argue about Snaps, but for the majority of normal users — it just doesn't matter in the slightest. I use the Spotify, Thunderbird, Telegram and other Snaps and they work great and are kept nicely up to date without me even needing to do anything.
I will suggest though, that you enable Flatpaks from Flathub, so you get the best of all worlds and access to even more easily installable packages. It's incredibly easy to do as well.
You can download Kubuntu from their website.
If you need help and support for Linux and Steam Deck gaming, you can try asking in our Forum and Discord. Don't forget to follow me on Bluesky and Mastodon too while you're at it.
Don't agree with me? That's fine! The benefit of Linux is that there's truly no one-size-fits-all. Leave a comment to tell me how wrong I am. You're still wrong if you disagree though.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
Mohandevir about 16 hours ago
Quoting: Mountain ManQuoting: Fester_MuddGreat article! Ubuntu is highly recommended for beginners and stability seeking folk alike. It is always just a matter of time when a rolling release distribution such as Endeavour / Manjaro / plain Arch break or an update process gets borked.Have you ever actually used a rolling release distro? Because in the several years that I've been using Manjaro, that hasn't been my experience at all. Upgrades have always been smooth with nothing randomly breaking. It just works.
User really has to pay attention to forums and such before updating their system on those type of rolling releases, and or acknowledge that there will probably be conflicting package issues and so on: delete the one for time being, pull the other package in and then return the first one. This is the reality on Arch-based distros and the "sacrifice" won't bring you any FPS really.
Be careful. Because you have a great experience doesn't mean it's the same for everyone.
Personally, I can't use Manjaro on my Desktop. Bluetooth 5 support for my Wifi card is hit and miss... Updates regularly break compatibility. Pretty annoying when you can't pair your controller anymore, on a gaming PC. After 3 or 4 times of these... Incidents, I decided to ditch it. I get the same issues with Bazzite, but Kubuntu and Pop_OS! never failed me. Go figure.
3 Likes, Who?
Quoting: RaabenI just moved back to Fedora (from Tumbleweed). Still feels like my comfortable home after all these years - stays up to date, no big issues with upgrades, fast. I do think Anaconda blows as an installer but after it's done and I check a few boxes for repos I have just about anything I would ever need.
I'm doing the same right now. I'm just ready to get off of rolling releases. I've had so many problems within the past year that have resulted in non booting systems, booting but with no GUI at all, and more. I've had to do so many snapper rollbacks I can't even count them.
I think fedora has a huge community and developer userbase which is really attractive to me. Fedora KDE here we come.
0 Likes
I would argue that Kubuntu is not necessarily the best, as many of the reasons given are simply personal preference. For example, I strongly prefer XFCE but for similar reasons that were stated, which boils down to preference. I find newer windows major versions to be annoying to use, and a little frustrating. Now-old windows was always more straight forward with a higher usability to me (due to being straight-forward and fast), while still be easy and attractive; I find this aligns more with XFCE then it does KDE. And yes, I'm not all that old, but I am in my early 40s and my first OS was MS-DOS and was very excited when my parents let me buy one of the MS-DOS version upgrades, although I don't quite remember the upgrade version.
Anyway, I would at least say Kubuntu is obviously a solid choice.
Honestly, I'm not entirely sure what I'd recommend out of the gate without giving it some thought. The base recommendations in my head for an average user would likely be:
- Avoid rolling distributions wholesale.
- (Probably) avoid Wayland for now. While it's fine, it's still not great with Nvidia, and other issues besides. While it's probably the future, it really shouldn't be considered mainstream ready.
- I generally avoid main Ubuntu, finding packages just a little too unstable. Too many times I've run into issues with packages, only to find out they won't be fixed until their next major release, which just trades problems in what feels like an endless cycle. Typically minor issues, but an annoying thing to deal with nonetheless.
- Don't recommend any new hotness, stick to distributions that have been around for quite some time, have a solid track record, and a good sized user base.
My personal bias would point me towards a Mint flavor as a good all-rounder that's a solid choice for any type of user, I don't love flatpaks or how they often give the appearance of being official packages even when they are not. Snaps are worse, I'm sure that a casual user just doesn't care -- but that doesn't mean they shouldn't. You don't need to ram an opinion like that down someones throat, but it wouldn't kill a person that knows better to shy away from recommending (and normalizing) it. That said, and (strong personal opinion incoming) I don't see a way to avoid it with how things are going in recent years, feeling that rolling distros are largely to blame for classic packing not making as much sense as it used to.
Anyway, I would at least say Kubuntu is obviously a solid choice.
Honestly, I'm not entirely sure what I'd recommend out of the gate without giving it some thought. The base recommendations in my head for an average user would likely be:
- Avoid rolling distributions wholesale.
- (Probably) avoid Wayland for now. While it's fine, it's still not great with Nvidia, and other issues besides. While it's probably the future, it really shouldn't be considered mainstream ready.
- I generally avoid main Ubuntu, finding packages just a little too unstable. Too many times I've run into issues with packages, only to find out they won't be fixed until their next major release, which just trades problems in what feels like an endless cycle. Typically minor issues, but an annoying thing to deal with nonetheless.
- Don't recommend any new hotness, stick to distributions that have been around for quite some time, have a solid track record, and a good sized user base.
My personal bias would point me towards a Mint flavor as a good all-rounder that's a solid choice for any type of user, I don't love flatpaks or how they often give the appearance of being official packages even when they are not. Snaps are worse, I'm sure that a casual user just doesn't care -- but that doesn't mean they shouldn't. You don't need to ram an opinion like that down someones throat, but it wouldn't kill a person that knows better to shy away from recommending (and normalizing) it. That said, and (strong personal opinion incoming) I don't see a way to avoid it with how things are going in recent years, feeling that rolling distros are largely to blame for classic packing not making as much sense as it used to.
2 Likes, Who?
Mountain Man about 16 hours ago
Quoting: MohandevirQuoting: Mountain ManQuoting: Fester_MuddGreat article! Ubuntu is highly recommended for beginners and stability seeking folk alike. It is always just a matter of time when a rolling release distribution such as Endeavour / Manjaro / plain Arch break or an update process gets borked.Have you ever actually used a rolling release distro? Because in the several years that I've been using Manjaro, that hasn't been my experience at all. Upgrades have always been smooth with nothing randomly breaking. It just works.
User really has to pay attention to forums and such before updating their system on those type of rolling releases, and or acknowledge that there will probably be conflicting package issues and so on: delete the one for time being, pull the other package in and then return the first one. This is the reality on Arch-based distros and the "sacrifice" won't bring you any FPS really.
Be careful. Because you have a great experience doesn't mean it's the same for everyone.
Personally, I can't use Manjaro on my Desktop. Bluetooth 5 support for my Wifi card is hit and miss... Updates regularly break compatibility. Pretty annoying when you can't pair your controller anymore, on a gaming PC. After 3 or 4 times of these... Incidents, I decided to ditch it. I get the same issues with Bazzite, but Kubuntu and Pop_OS! never failed me. Go figure.
It's not just me. Every major update that is rolled out, Manjaro posts a poll to their website asking for feedback, and every time, the overwhelming majority of respondents vote "No issues".
The point, of course, is that your characterization of rolling releases as a house of cards that will inevitably collapse without warning is not particularly accurate, which is why I wondered if you had ever actually used one.
1 Likes, Who?
Mohandevir about 16 hours ago
Quoting: Mountain ManQuoting: MohandevirQuoting: Mountain ManQuoting: Fester_MuddGreat article! Ubuntu is highly recommended for beginners and stability seeking folk alike. It is always just a matter of time when a rolling release distribution such as Endeavour / Manjaro / plain Arch break or an update process gets borked.Have you ever actually used a rolling release distro? Because in the several years that I've been using Manjaro, that hasn't been my experience at all. Upgrades have always been smooth with nothing randomly breaking. It just works.
User really has to pay attention to forums and such before updating their system on those type of rolling releases, and or acknowledge that there will probably be conflicting package issues and so on: delete the one for time being, pull the other package in and then return the first one. This is the reality on Arch-based distros and the "sacrifice" won't bring you any FPS really.
Be careful. Because you have a great experience doesn't mean it's the same for everyone.
Personally, I can't use Manjaro on my Desktop. Bluetooth 5 support for my Wifi card is hit and miss... Updates regularly break compatibility. Pretty annoying when you can't pair your controller anymore, on a gaming PC. After 3 or 4 times of these... Incidents, I decided to ditch it. I get the same issues with Bazzite, but Kubuntu and Pop_OS! never failed me. Go figure.
It's not just me. Every major update that is rolled out, Manjaro posts a poll to their website asking for feedback, and every time, the overwhelming majority of respondents vote "No issues".
The point, of course, is that your characterization of rolling releases as a house of cards that will inevitably collapse without warning is not particularly accurate, which is why I wondered if you had ever actually used one.
I'm not the one who wrote that, but I get your point. Generalization, either way, must be avoided. Unfortunately, Linux is still a case by case thing, no matter the distro. There are always exceptions to the rule.
This said, even the most used and supported OS, that I won't name, break compatibility on some PCs, with its updates... So...
Edit: I'm wondering how many "normies" are attracted to these polls... I didn't know about them. The "normies" that install Manjaro and hit an issue will probably just delete it and run back to "the other OS" without giving a shout to these polls. Just a tought.
Last edited by Mohandevir on 3 December 2024 at 4:13 pm UTC
2 Likes, Who?
PartyPanguins about 16 hours ago
Quoting: dpanterNever Manjaro for any reason, ever, at all. Do not. Ever.
How about let people decide for themselves. Anyway some of us have been using Manjaro (KDE version) for many years without issue.
4 Likes, Who?
Quoting: JarmerQuoting: RaabenI just moved back to Fedora (from Tumbleweed). Still feels like my comfortable home after all these years - stays up to date, no big issues with upgrades, fast. I do think Anaconda blows as an installer but after it's done and I check a few boxes for repos I have just about anything I would ever need.
I'm doing the same right now. I'm just ready to get off of rolling releases. I've had so many problems within the past year that have resulted in non booting systems, booting but with no GUI at all, and more. I've had to do so many snapper rollbacks I can't even count them.
Alot of my annoyance was using Packman and having it become out of sync and stay that way for days (or weeks) at a time. Heck, half the time without Packman, the updatews would fail with incompatible dependencies. Worst I had a few months back was the firmware package that completely broke the GUI and I had to manually get inm find and reinstall an old version. Most of my time with it was "boring" enough that I never felt the need out of my way to start over and I ran it for the better part of two years now. I just had free time not long after 41 came out and thought, why not?
I'm sure there are issues to be pointed out but I've had nothing but smooth sailing on Fedora except when I've gone in poking things and breaking them myself. I haven't compared how up to date it stays with a full rolling release, but the bigger things to me (kernel, Mesa) seem to be reasonably close in update time.
2 Likes, Who?
Mountain Man about 16 hours ago
Quoting: MohandevirQuoting: Mountain ManQuoting: MohandevirQuoting: Mountain ManQuoting: Fester_MuddGreat article! Ubuntu is highly recommended for beginners and stability seeking folk alike. It is always just a matter of time when a rolling release distribution such as Endeavour / Manjaro / plain Arch break or an update process gets borked.Have you ever actually used a rolling release distro? Because in the several years that I've been using Manjaro, that hasn't been my experience at all. Upgrades have always been smooth with nothing randomly breaking. It just works.
User really has to pay attention to forums and such before updating their system on those type of rolling releases, and or acknowledge that there will probably be conflicting package issues and so on: delete the one for time being, pull the other package in and then return the first one. This is the reality on Arch-based distros and the "sacrifice" won't bring you any FPS really.
Be careful. Because you have a great experience doesn't mean it's the same for everyone.
Personally, I can't use Manjaro on my Desktop. Bluetooth 5 support for my Wifi card is hit and miss... Updates regularly break compatibility. Pretty annoying when you can't pair your controller anymore, on a gaming PC. After 3 or 4 times of these... Incidents, I decided to ditch it. I get the same issues with Bazzite, but Kubuntu and Pop_OS! never failed me. Go figure.
It's not just me. Every major update that is rolled out, Manjaro posts a poll to their website asking for feedback, and every time, the overwhelming majority of respondents vote "No issues".
The point, of course, is that your characterization of rolling releases as a house of cards that will inevitably collapse without warning is not particularly accurate, which is why I wondered if you had ever actually used one.
I'm not the one who wrote that, but I get your point. Generalization, either way, must be avoided. Unfortunately, Linux is still a case by case thing, no matter the distro. There are always exceptions to the rule.
This said, even the most used and supported OS, that I won't name, break compatibility on some PCs, with its updates... So...
Edit: I'm wondering how many "normies" are attracted to these polls... I didn't know about them. The "normies" that install Manjaro and hit an issue will probably just delete it and run back to "the other OS" without giving a shout to these polls. Just a tought.
As someone who works in IT, I have to constantly remind people to reboot their computers at least once every 24 hours to prevent the "other OS" from randomly breaking. It's honestly surprising to me that it is the defacto mission critical operating system for so many businesses when it is such an unpredictable and unstable piece of software.
6 Likes, Who?
Quoting: MohandevirEdit: I'm wondering how many "normies" are attracted to these polls... I didn't know about them. The "normies" that install Manjaro and hit an issue will probably just delete it and run back to "the other OS" without giving a shout to these polls. Just a tought.
I installed manjaro for my dad about 3-4 years ago and he has had only 1 issue with DRM playback on Amazon that was resolved by updating Chromium a day or 2 later. Firefox worked in the meantime.
He is a total normie and I would be the one fixing anything, but there has been nothing to fix.
I used manjaro for him because I use arch (5 years on the same install) and if there were issues it would make it easy for me to handle without fussing with something I am less familiar with.
5 Likes, Who?
Quoting: PartyPanguinsNah, it's a genuinely horrible disto. The telemetry that's enabled by default alone should disqualify them. The developers pull patches without testing them and break things (see the Asahi/Apple Silicon debacle but also past cases with glibc), they arbitrarily hold back packages for no discernible technical reason which has caused breakage in the past, use the --no-confirm flag with pacman to force reinstall packages with updates for no real reason, they've DDoS'd Arch's AUR multiple times, and are incompetent enough to not only renew their SSL certs for their site at least three times that I recall but actually recommended that users change back their system clock as a workaround! This isn't even getting into the strange internal issues with their treasurer resigning after objecting to a dev using donation funds inappropriately.Quoting: dpanterNever Manjaro for any reason, ever, at all. Do not. Ever.
How about let people decide for themselves. Anyway some of us have been using Manjaro (KDE version) for many years without issue.
These are the things I can recall off the cuff and makes Manjaro a questionable project from a technical perspective and certainly from a security perspective. It is a distro that should not be recommended to people who are new to Linux. If someone wants Arch but doesn't want to do the text installer themselves, EndeavorOS exists and avoids all of Manjaro's pitfalls.
Edit: Correct BBCode and spelling.
Last edited by BTRE on 3 December 2024 at 4:41 pm UTC
6 Likes, Who?
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