Planning to switch to Linux for my next PC
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I completely agree, cannot recommend Bazzite enough. Installed it a year ago, first time linux, has been just smooth sailing
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Super happy with Bazzite as a gaming PC. I think only a power user might find the "immutableness" of it annoying. You can still install OS packages, it's just highly discouraged. 90% of the time you'd just be running Flatpaks (a mostly self-contained app that is easy to install and remove). I'm using it with an old-ish NVIDIA card and at first it was troublesome but I think it worked itself out after a few updates. AMD has better compatibility from what I understand.
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The difference between NVIDIA and AMD/Intel is that Linux has a different way of handling drivers compared to windows (all drivers are part of the Kernel). AMD/Intel respect this. NVIDIA develop there drivers like on windows even though Linux is not designed this way. Also sometimes a new standard is made (eg Wayland) but NVIDIA has little to no support for a long time. Additionally there drivers are proprietary which limits how distros can/want to ship them.
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Bazzite is probably the best recommendation out of everything I've seen so far. It is meant to be like the Steam Deck experience on any machine, and if OP is already familiar with that, why not transition easily?
Couple the familiarity along with Bazzite being an immutable distro, OP can just roll back if they break something.
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If you want to really learn Linux, then absolutely Arch is the way to go. But OP is looking for something polished out of the box and probably doesn't want to know much more than that. Some people just want a box that does the thing - and that's totally fine.
I say all of this as a diehard Arch user (BTW)
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I personally started out with Debian given that a vast majority of distributions are Debian based, typically paired with KDE Plasma 5, and learned from there.
Now Debian is really stable but does require command-line configuration quite often so it may feel complicated but if you’re capable of reading & following documentation then you should be all good.
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I recently got a steam deck and that kinda demystified the (unrealistic) expectation I had of Linux was all command line stuff and techno babble.
Outside of gaming, browsing and flatpaks it still very much is. People here will lie and tell you it's not. It is. But as long it's just Steam gaming, it's very simple.
so is there a Linux… idk what to call it, type? OS? Thing??? that runs out of the box without me having to install additional software manually or at least automatic setup wizards
Not really sure what you're asking here but I think it's a "package manager". Basically an app store for Linux. Discover store in KDE or "software" in GNOME. Open it, search for your software, click the "install" button and be done.
Outside of the package manager, installations become complex quickly.
is there any specific hardware that works easier with Linux
Yes, generally new hardware won't work as well. Linux drivers are a second class citizen. Also you'll likely experience lower performance and extra difficulties with Nvidia vs. Windows.
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Ah so it’s just how the software works essentially
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So bazzite and mint seem to be recurring themes here for my needs of something that works out of the box, do those need any set up or stuff? I don’t really know exactly what I’m asking here
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So what does immutable mean?
But I’ve seen it’s similar to the decks desktop mode from some other comments as well so that seems nice
I haven’t really interacted with desktop mode outside setting up emudeck (mostly DS and switch games)
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Yeah bazzite seems like a recurring topic here so I think I’ll check it out first since others have all said it’s similar to the steam decks setup (which has been limited to me installing emudeck but seeing familiar stuff might help me
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Cool I've never seen this.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TX0f_vyV06k
This video explains it well
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While it could be functional as a cursory watch, it doesn't seem that Michael Horn has done a good job investigating the subject matter. So, no, I actually disagree with it offering a good explanation. Granted, I couldn't find any video that does this subject any justice; more often than not, they just tend to overgeneralize or oversimplify.
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On Mint, flatpaks is enabled in the Mint software center.
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So what does immutable mean?
The easiest explanation is: You can't screw it up
That's the reason I use it. It means that the system areas are read-only, and as a user you can't "wreck" anything by mistake.
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Linux mint is a common recommendation but I think a bad one, I highly recommend bazzite with kde, I have 15 years of linux experience and am willing to do infinite troubleshooting if you add me on matrix (which is on my profile)
in short, linux mint is bad vs bazzite with kde for 3 reasons
kde is much more well supported and developed than cinnamon
immutable distros are much more forgiving for new people
and finally bazzite has more up to date software
don't do mint if you don't know what any of that means, go bazzite
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I was just going for a very high level explanation.
If you feel like offering a more in depth definition, feel free to do so here. -
But the required config changes can affect those as well.
Like last week I had to change repositories in
pacman.conf. It also affected endeavour, as it doesn't have separate repos: https://archlinux.org/news/cleaning-up-old-repositories/This mkinitcpio config change should have effected all Arch based distros: https://archlinux.org/news/mkinitcpio-hook-migration-and-early-microcode/
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what does immutable mean?
Strictly speaking, 'immutable' means unchanging. For Linux distros, this means that (at least some part of) the OS is read-only.
On any distro, you could invoke the
chattr +i path/to/file_or_directorycommand to make a file or directory of your choosing immutable. Thus preventing you or anyone else from changing that until it's revoked.The so-called 'immutable' distros employ this at the OS-level. However, their implementations (and the implications thereof) may vary significantly amongst them, unless they share some 'heritage'.
Going over the many different implementations and their implications is out of scope for what this comment intends. Especially as the 'immutable Linux landscape' is fast moving. Thus, potentially making it outdated the very next landscape-defining change.
