this post was submitted on 03 May 2025

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Linux distro recommendations (discuss.tchncs.de)

submitted 4 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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tldr:
What reliable, up-to-date, linux distro would you recommend a gaming softwareengineer and privacy enthusiast?

Full text:
Hey all, I know this is the age old question, but I would like to ask it anyway. I am currently switching from windows to linux on my main pc and am on the hunt for a fitting distro. I am a software developer and used to working with wsl, debian servers, etc. I selfhost a bunch of things and know my way around the linux commandline and would call me privacy enthusiast that uses a lot of FLOSS software. I also do occasional gaming but I guess that should work on any distro with enough work.

My thought regarding a few distros:

I like to live on the edge of time and therefore have the feeling that debian based distros (although being very stable) are too "old" for my liking.
Ubuntu - Canonical is out for me.
I also looked at fedora, and liked it, but after reading more and knowing it is backed by IBM and that is US based I am not too sure anymore. I ideally would want to have something independent. Although being backed by a company promises continuous work in the future (with the risk of becoming bad).
OpenSUSE tumbleweed seems promising (german origin!) but also quite intimidating as it is apparently mostly targeted towards power users and I am not sure if it fits an all purpose desktop pc.
Arch based distros seem great as it contains all the newest packages and is infinitifly customizable. But the KISS nature of arch and the (as far as I understood) high effort to get everything running is a bit intimidating when switching from windows. But I also do like the fact that it ships with only the bare minimum and not anything bloated.

Further more I somehow think that using a base distro (in comparison to a fork of a fork...) is more ideal as they receive updates, etc faster. But that is just a feeling and I couldn't argue more precisely about it.

Regarding a DE I am definitely going KDE.

I would be very happy for some tips, opinions or pointers in the right direction to continue and finally get rid of windows... Well at least mostly. I guess i will keep it in dual boot as I do play a few games that unfortunately won't run on linux.

Thanks in advance already!

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 weeks ago

You summarize it quite well. But I would still recommend Arch (but as an Arch user since 2008 I am biased on this). Why?

Lightweight, ideal for gaming. My full-featured Wayland-setup with labwc runs with ca. 2 gigabytes of RAM, including Firefox, which on it’s own currently takes up 800 megabytes. Not that RAM would be an actual issue on modern gaming setups, but still, this shows how little resources the system needs for itself.
Gaming on Linux is pretty much solved nowadays thanks to Valve (Steam, Proton, etc.) and Flatpaks. Games that do not work are intentionally made to not work on other platforms than Windows due the games using ring0 spyware as DRM and for anti-cheat.
Privacy by concept – while there are no specific measures taken regarding privacy, the default installation just does nothing except initializing the hardware and allowing the user to sign in. Everything else is up to you.
Software development is – like gaming – a no-brainer. All common tools work on Linux. Even more: Dependency handling, setting up the environment, using different compilers – all this feels much smoother than on Windows.
Maintainability is great. Since there are no package changes from upstream, you can be sure that bugs are typically bugs in the software and not coming from Arch packaging.Thanks to rolling release you get much less updates at the same time compared to fixed release distribution – ganted you update regularly. I check the news and update every 1-2 weeks at the weekend.

And since you’re coming from Windows, you have to learn new stuff anyways. So why not dive head first into Arch?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

Similar thoughts and after hopping a bit I'm liking Solus really well. It's rolling release but what they call "curated" rolling release. They take a little bit of time to iron stuff out. There's a weekly update cycle.

The installation is through live ISO and was pretty easy, took only a few minutes. They have a Plasma ISO too, since you mentioned wanting KDE.

As a plus, I've not once used the command prompt in the past couple of months since I installed (GNOME first and then since the last week, KDE). I'm not averse to commands but I do want something that I can recommend to my less techy anti-capitalist friends. My games have all been working fine too.

Edit to add: I think they've also mentioned that their aim is for a personal desktop.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

I would recommend Arch, EndeavourOS or Garuda (awesome KDE gaming ed,) and a lot of peeps like CachyOS, mostly for their customized kernels/CPU optimizations. You can get CachyOS kernels inside of Garuda as well.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 weeks ago (7 children)

Well from what you're saying I'd go for something like EndeavourOS.

Based on arch, usable out of the box but without much preinstalled so that you can do your own mix. Manjaro is a bit similar but with more preinstalled (and maybe more bugs from what I read).

[–] [email protected] 22 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I NEVER recommend Manjaro. They hold back packages for "security/stability" reasons which is antithetical to Arch's structure. This can cause stability issues (happened to me) and even breaking your system.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

didn't manjaro break the aur twice?

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

You sound like a perfect fit for Arch.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

But arch seems so overwhelming in comparison to something user friendly like fedora :D And everytime I read something about arch, people complain about its complexity and their tendency to easily break things. I don't know if I'm ready for that.

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