this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2024
1276 points (99.7% liked)
Linux
49069 readers
311 users here now
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
To anyone reading this thinking "once SteamOS comes out, I'll switch", you should know:
Gaming on Linux is already here. Pick a distro and game. You can take advantage of Proton right now. You don't need to wait for one specific distro.
I've personally been gaming on Linux exclusively for about 3 years. Windows games, not Linux games.
Edit: based on other commenters' suggestions, I'll give you some.
I have gamed for those three years on PopOS. It is a distro based on Debian, ultimately, which means it's also related to Ubuntu and Mint. Realistically, you can pick any of those 4 and you should have a nice experience.
Arch is popular with the übergeeks, and I do use it on my laptop, BTW, but you shouldn't use it as a first distro.
The concept of "distro" doesn't really exist for Windows, because you pretty much get one monolithic product. But basically, it is a specific mix of software that works together and relies on the Linux kernel. Imagine it as a "version" of Windows with specific goals, some of which are overlapping (e.g. Mint and Ubuntu tend to cater to the same audience).
If you get far enough into it, the freedom that Linux allows means that you can turn any distro into any other distro.
Make sure your hardware is compatible. Otherwise you have to deal with kernel upgrades to get latest drivers, which is advanced linux stuff. My gpu (B580) is compatible with 6.12 and newer kernel. And I wasn't able to install newer kernel on linux Mint 22. Ended up installing Windows. And... It's not that bad. I haven't seen it for a while. Everything works better in my case. And you can uninstall all you don't need including edge. But I will go back when kernel I need will be shipped with distro.
This is generally true, but I'd also caution that the B580 is a brand new card with (somewhat lacking) Linux support.
In general, if you aren't using bleeding edge hardware, you won't have such issues. This is especially true of AMD hardware, which tends to be extremely Linux friendly.