Desktop Linux distros similar to Steam OS?
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Apologies, I don't understand. Is any modern Linux distro lacking "general usability" or applications? Anyway, for Bazzite, there's a bunch of ways to install software. (Though I haven't used it myself.) I'm also not sure what you're looking for when you're saying "support". Good documentation? A helpful community? Continued active development?
Just because there's a strong focus on gaming doesn't mean the distro would suddenly do bad at everything else, especially.. general home/office use. Linux is good with that across the board. I hope I didn't misunderstand. Please explain.
By support, I meant software installability.
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To be clear, this question is for general PC use, and not only gaming.
Desktop mode on my Deck has easily become my favorite PC experience in a very long long time, and I use it more docked as a PC than for gaming. I've used Windows and Apple my entire life before now, so I have zero experience with Linux, other than the Steam Deck, but the OS is incrediby friendly to newcomers, and I'd say it's essentially a modern and polished version of Windows 95.
So what would you recommend as a similar experience for desktop?
Edit: I should probably add that I'm an artist and designer, and play around with Blender and 3D modeling stuff, and maybe even some game dev at some point. So Adobe support, and GPU Blender support would be superfantastic.
Alright, y'all, I really appreciate all the feedback, I believe I understand the gist of most of it. Bazzite is sounding really nice, I just have one big concern: Can I put Adobe on it, so I can dropkick Windows out of my life? I did find this.
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The same folks who made Bazzite also have Aurora and Bluefin. Those are general purpose distros with the same ideas as Bazzite, just less gaming stuff bundled in. The difference between the two is just the desktop environment (gnome for bluefin, kde for aurora).
But even though Bazzite is focused on gaming, it is still a pretty good distro for general use too. The same stuff that enables windows games to run on it also help run any windows program just as well, so it might be a good pick if you use any software that only runs on windows.
Ah, so Adobe?? Say Adobe and I'm there.
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I had seen Bazzite, and yes it does sound exactly like what I asked, but then on their website, every single feature/selling point is about games or performance. I don't see one word about general usability, or applications, support, or anything, and I'm not sure who builds a PC used solely for gaming.
I'm an artist and designer, and play around with Blender and 3D modeling stuff. Adobe support, and GPU Blender support would be fantastic.
I am trying to dance around Linux distro concepts that are probably not super beginner friendly, so my descriptions might have been obtuse, but yes you can generally do anything on any distro.
Bazzite is a immutable distro, which gives you certian advantages, but makes it harder to accommodate some use cases. In general, if the software you want is on https://flathub.org/ you are golden.
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I am trying to dance around Linux distro concepts that are probably not super beginner friendly, so my descriptions might have been obtuse, but yes you can generally do anything on any distro.
Bazzite is a immutable distro, which gives you certian advantages, but makes it harder to accommodate some use cases. In general, if the software you want is on https://flathub.org/ you are golden.
By Adobe, I mean Photoshop, Illustrator, Substance, etc, which on Windows need to be installed with the Adobe Cloud app. Flathub only seems to have Acrobat.
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For some reason CachyOS hasn't been mentioned. Like others said basically any distro can do what you're describing, and this one is also one of those "with gaming in mind" distros. Didn't mean you can't do anything else on them, but anything making should "just work".
They also have a dedicated image/installer for "handheld" PCs like the steam deck that come preconfigured for that interface combination (but don't use this special image on a normal PC/desktop).Like SteamOS, it's based on Arch, but unlike SteamOS or Bazzite it isn't immutable. That's a matter of preference. Being a rolling release means frequent and direct updates of new releases of any kind (kernel, software, everything, ...). KDE is the default install option, like on the steam deck, but of course basically all other options are also available is you want (additionally or instead of kde).
So being not immutable, are there more options for installing typical Windows software, like Photoshop and illustrator? And would you recommend it to someone who's not tech illiterate, but also not an IT person, as evidenced by my previous question?
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So being not immutable, are there more options for installing typical Windows software, like Photoshop and illustrator? And would you recommend it to someone who's not tech illiterate, but also not an IT person, as evidenced by my previous question?
wrote on last edited by [email protected]Windows software is always the same (immutable distro or not), as it is run with "wine". To run Windows programs they are installed in what's called a prefix, which is basically just a folder containing stuff related to Windows. Things like "program files" and all the other folder structures a Windows program would expect, and will then appear as a drive letter. The prefix is generated inside your home folder (typically) anyway, which is always writable, and one can house multiple windows programs (or just the one if that needs special settings).
Immutability matters more for the actual Linux system and how you install Linux native software. Normally, you install software using a package manager (pacman on Arch, apt for Debian, ...), and each package knows what else is needed to run it, and that gets installed as well. Many programs needing the same library means that library will be installed once.
For an immutable distro this is basically fixed, and programs get run using "flatpacks" (there are similar solutions with other names, same idea). These are similar to packages from a package manager, but instead everything needed to run a program it's always contained. That means they are bigger, but this will run on any distro, as it doesn't have to tell the package manager what else to install. There are other technical details, like flatpacks are somewhat isolated, but nothing critical.I would suggest finding a YouTube video or article to go into more detail if this matters to you, or if you just want to know more about the differences and reasons for using each of them.
Basic idea: immutable distro has stable base, updates are rarer, but system harder to modify. Regular distro is easier to tinker with, and a rolling release means frequent updates (doesn't mean you need to install them frequently, btw), but occasionally things do break and might even require a manual fix.
Edit: somehow I forgot to answer your actual direct question. Generally anything from Adobe is a real pain to get to work. It can be done, but from what I heard it's rather involved (I never have, don't use Adobe). If you absolutely need that software and alternatives (paid it not) are just not an option, check first what is involved. There's might even be a specific distro recommended to make it easier, or some distro might have better guides or more up to date ones.
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By Adobe, I mean Photoshop, Illustrator, Substance, etc, which on Windows need to be installed with the Adobe Cloud app. Flathub only seems to have Acrobat.
I don’t believe those products have native Linux versions. You would need to run them from a compatibility layer. To be honest nothing on my desktop has needed that so not too familiar with the best way to do that.
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Windows software is always the same (immutable distro or not), as it is run with "wine". To run Windows programs they are installed in what's called a prefix, which is basically just a folder containing stuff related to Windows. Things like "program files" and all the other folder structures a Windows program would expect, and will then appear as a drive letter. The prefix is generated inside your home folder (typically) anyway, which is always writable, and one can house multiple windows programs (or just the one if that needs special settings).
Immutability matters more for the actual Linux system and how you install Linux native software. Normally, you install software using a package manager (pacman on Arch, apt for Debian, ...), and each package knows what else is needed to run it, and that gets installed as well. Many programs needing the same library means that library will be installed once.
For an immutable distro this is basically fixed, and programs get run using "flatpacks" (there are similar solutions with other names, same idea). These are similar to packages from a package manager, but instead everything needed to run a program it's always contained. That means they are bigger, but this will run on any distro, as it doesn't have to tell the package manager what else to install. There are other technical details, like flatpacks are somewhat isolated, but nothing critical.I would suggest finding a YouTube video or article to go into more detail if this matters to you, or if you just want to know more about the differences and reasons for using each of them.
Basic idea: immutable distro has stable base, updates are rarer, but system harder to modify. Regular distro is easier to tinker with, and a rolling release means frequent updates (doesn't mean you need to install them frequently, btw), but occasionally things do break and might even require a manual fix.
Edit: somehow I forgot to answer your actual direct question. Generally anything from Adobe is a real pain to get to work. It can be done, but from what I heard it's rather involved (I never have, don't use Adobe). If you absolutely need that software and alternatives (paid it not) are just not an option, check first what is involved. There's might even be a specific distro recommended to make it easier, or some distro might have better guides or more up to date ones.
Ok, thanks for that explanation, that's all really helpful, and starting to make sense. Im sure I could figure out Wine, or get help from friends, so Bazzite is sounding really good. I am excited to Uncle Phil Windows.
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Alright, y'all, I really appreciate all the feedback, I believe I understand the gist of most of it. Bazzite is sounding really nice, I just have one big concern: Can I put Adobe on it, so I can dropkick Windows out of my life? I did find this.
I would definitely recommend trying WinApps first, which that guide seems to be for. Never tried to get it running on Bazzite/SilverBlue/Universal Blue though, so can't help you there.
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To be clear, this question is for general PC use, and not only gaming.
Desktop mode on my Deck has easily become my favorite PC experience in a very long long time, and I use it more docked as a PC than for gaming. I've used Windows and Apple my entire life before now, so I have zero experience with Linux, other than the Steam Deck, but the OS is incrediby friendly to newcomers, and I'd say it's essentially a modern and polished version of Windows 95.
So what would you recommend as a similar experience for desktop?
Edit: I should probably add that I'm an artist and designer, and play around with Blender and 3D modeling stuff, and maybe even some game dev at some point. So Adobe support, and GPU Blender support would be superfantastic.
Since desktop mode is basically just KDE but without the ability to install software packages you could try Fedora.
They do a version just like desktop mode that has you install everything through the store, or you can get the regular variety to get a bit more flexibility.
Personally I'd steer clear of anything special as your first Linux install. Go with standard Fedora, then you can experiment and branch out if you're interested, but you don't have to if you like what you've got.
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I would definitely recommend trying WinApps first, which that guide seems to be for. Never tried to get it running on Bazzite/SilverBlue/Universal Blue though, so can't help you there.
Is this an alternative to Wine?
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To be clear, this question is for general PC use, and not only gaming.
Desktop mode on my Deck has easily become my favorite PC experience in a very long long time, and I use it more docked as a PC than for gaming. I've used Windows and Apple my entire life before now, so I have zero experience with Linux, other than the Steam Deck, but the OS is incrediby friendly to newcomers, and I'd say it's essentially a modern and polished version of Windows 95.
So what would you recommend as a similar experience for desktop?
Edit: I should probably add that I'm an artist and designer, and play around with Blender and 3D modeling stuff, and maybe even some game dev at some point. So Adobe support, and GPU Blender support would be superfantastic.
Adobe and Linux isn't a thing unfortunately
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I had seen Bazzite, and yes it does sound exactly like what I asked, but then on their website, every single feature/selling point is about games or performance. I don't see one word about general usability, or applications, support, or anything, and I'm not sure who builds a PC used solely for gaming.
I'm an artist and designer, and play around with Blender and 3D modeling stuff. Adobe support, and GPU Blender support would be fantastic.
Then get Kinoite, it's like Bazzite minus the gaming presets.
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Alright, y'all, I really appreciate all the feedback, I believe I understand the gist of most of it. Bazzite is sounding really nice, I just have one big concern: Can I put Adobe on it, so I can dropkick Windows out of my life? I did find this.
You can run many Windows applications in Wine, but not everything works well.
Creative Cloud (PhotoShop et al) is one of those that usually doesn't work well.
Here's a list of Photoshop versions on WineDB with how well they work. -
To be clear, this question is for general PC use, and not only gaming.
Desktop mode on my Deck has easily become my favorite PC experience in a very long long time, and I use it more docked as a PC than for gaming. I've used Windows and Apple my entire life before now, so I have zero experience with Linux, other than the Steam Deck, but the OS is incrediby friendly to newcomers, and I'd say it's essentially a modern and polished version of Windows 95.
So what would you recommend as a similar experience for desktop?
Edit: I should probably add that I'm an artist and designer, and play around with Blender and 3D modeling stuff, and maybe even some game dev at some point. So Adobe support, and GPU Blender support would be superfantastic.
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By Adobe, I mean Photoshop, Illustrator, Substance, etc, which on Windows need to be installed with the Adobe Cloud app. Flathub only seems to have Acrobat.
Unless your boss tells you that you NEED to use Adobe, get rid of them and use open source software.
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Is this an alternative to Wine?
No. If something runs in Wine, still use that. WinApp is basically a Windows VM combined with some other tools to allow Windows apps on the VM to run more seamlessly and native feeling. It makes picky apps like the Adobe and Microsoft suites happy since it's using full Windows to run them, but this means there's more overhead than running an app through Wine or natively.
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No. If something runs in Wine, still use that. WinApp is basically a Windows VM combined with some other tools to allow Windows apps on the VM to run more seamlessly and native feeling. It makes picky apps like the Adobe and Microsoft suites happy since it's using full Windows to run them, but this means there's more overhead than running an app through Wine or natively.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]Man, this has been the most helpful and informative internet post I've ever made in my entire life, lol. Thank you.
So it is an alternative in that it's a different way towards the same goal, but it's not a replacement, right?
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Man, this has been the most helpful and informative internet post I've ever made in my entire life, lol. Thank you.
So it is an alternative in that it's a different way towards the same goal, but it's not a replacement, right?
Correct, it's less efficient than Wine, but more compatible. Adobe and Microsoft software still has issues in Wine, so a VM is the best option for them.
To explain some terms in over simplified ways:
VM = Virtual Machine = Making a virtual sandboxed computer that runs full Windows inside it.
Wine = Wine Is Not an Emulator = A translation layer that converts Windows Program Commands into Linux Program Commands.
Wine has to be crafted for every needed Windows command, in order to translate the command into something Linux can understand. So if a program is using a Windows command Wine hasn't seen before, it'll fail.
VMs instead run an entire OS, in this case Windows, so that we don't have to craft every command, as Windows handles the program like normal, and then the VM provides Windows with virtual hardware to work with instead. Naturally, making pretend hardware and running an entire OS inside another OS eats up more resources, so VMs are worse than Wine in that regard.
