I’ve ordered myself some parts to build a PC for Linux gaming. In the meantime, i’m deciding on which linux distro to use.

For the desktop environment I typically use KDE.

I have used Ubuntu in the past but i’m ruling it out because of snaps and other such annoyances. This also applies to Ubuntu based distros that use the same repos (KDE Neon etc).

I see the wikis recommend Nobara, but I’m reluctant to use a Fedora based distro because I’m so used to Debian/apt (both as a desktop and server distros). I’m not ruling it out completely though.

Any reason why I shouldn’t just go with Debian + KDE and install Steam? Will I be missing out on lots of performance improvements or is this easily addressed by using an additional repo for a tweaked kernel and proton version or whatever?

  • JoeKrogan@lemmy.worldEnglish
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    9 months ago

    I use Debian, KDE and steam and it works fine. My only limitation was the hardware itself , the os stays out of the way and proton does its thing.

    I mainly play on the deck nowadays as I can lounge around with it.

  • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.techEnglish
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    9 months ago

    Oh man, you’re in for a treat there.

    PopOS is what you’re looking for friend. Debian is a bit too bare and general use-case. Ubuntu is wrong for the exact reasons you laid out.

    Pop is built for the end users, with native integrations for flatpak/deb/whathaveyou. It’s built on top of Ubuntu with all the ubuntu annoyances removed.

    They even have a distro with pre-baked nvidia drivers should you need it.

    I tried it and swapped all of mine over

    • Impound4017@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
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      9 months ago

      Fwiw I switched off of Pop onto Debian cause I was annoyed with some of Pop’s bloat and I’ve been loving it. I game pretty heavily on Debian and it works just fine. I do mostly play the same older games rather than buying new releases, however, so mileage may vary if you’re looking at cutting edge games, as driver updates can significantly boost performance in that case.

      Make no mistake though, when I say ‘bloat’ I’m mostly nitpicking. Pop is a perfectly valid choice and a good option for gaming.

  • SurvivalMariner@lemm.eeEnglish
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    9 months ago

    I think WINE recommend an up to date distro due to rapidly changing stuff needing up to date software and kernel. I think Debian wouldn’t be great for that. I’d personally recommend OpenSuse. Rolling, up to date and great with KDE. Good luck.

  • circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
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    9 months ago

    Here’s the thing: some distros are aimed at gamers and have some useful gaming stuff in their default setup. But at the end of the day, if you’re comfortable installing stuff on your own, you can game on any Linux distro. It frankly doesn’t matter.

    So, yes, if you want to game on Debian because you can avoid bloat, by all means do it.

  • ono@lemmy.caEnglish
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    9 months ago

    Any reason why I shouldn’t just go with Debian + KDE and install Steam?

    No reason to avoid Debian unless you have hardware so very new that it requires the very latest kernel to operate.

    If you go with Debian Stable, you can enable Backports for a fairly recent kernel, currently 6.5.10. You could go with Testing or even Unstable if you’re addicted to upgrading as often as possible, but chances are you won’t need to.

    I’m gaming on Debian Stable with Steam in a flatpak. It works great, and is blissfully low maintenance.

    At some point, you’ll probably run into people claiming that Debian is bad for gaming performance because of “outdated” packages. In most cases, those people don’t know what they’re talking about. I suggest ignoring them unless they identify a specific performance issue that actually affects you.

    • Kühe sind toll@feddit.deEnglish
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      9 months ago

      Technically it is possible that outdated packages can decrease your performance. Some games may not work because of outdated libraries, but in most cases you should be fine.