Let me start by saying I think Linux Mint is one of the top 5 greatest distros of all time. It is an absolutely essential starting point for many people and their work is responsible for much of the user-friendliness you see in the world of Linux today. It is stable, has a nice aesthetic, “just works”, and doesn’t make you update constantly.
These things are great but they are the very things that make Linux Mint unsuited for online gaming. Is this a bad thing? No!! It’s just not a distro made for gaming purposes. It’s like showing up to a monster truck drag race in a Ferrari. I cannot count on my two hands how many times I have provided support to a user, to find their issue was outdated libraries due to using Linux Mint. It happens all the time. Go look at any game on ProtonDB that is currently working, and you’ll find 1-2 “not working” reports and they are always on either Debian on Mint.
I understand why we see it so often, because Linux Mint is awesome and users want to play their games on it. But if I suggested Hell Let Loose to a friend using Linux Mint right now, the first distro suggested for gaming in our FAQ, he wouldn’t be able to play because of his choice of distro. Making rolling distros look like a fortress in 2023 and suggesting Mint for gaming will only set new Linux users up for disappointment.
The so-called outdated kernel mesa drivers can be updated pretty easily. Having the very latest kernel and mesa drivers is not always a positive. Consider, bugs, regressions, feature omissions, etc. Even with the latest kernel, mesa and LLVM software bleeding edge hardware isn’t automatically covered. Support takes time and many cases it could be weeks or months before support shows up in stable releases.
For example, I purchased a Asus TUF Gaming A16 2023 Advantage Edition laptop in Sept of this year. It was released in Feb, Mar, or April of this year. There was an issue with the internal keyboard and touch pad that had to do some odd internal design. Of course the laptops works with Windows because it is made for and targeted at Windows gamers and comes with Windows 11. It took the work of an AMD developer and 4-5 end users testing over a 3 month period to get to a stable modified kernel version that worked with the odd internal design. Lots of trial and error testing, and reporting back via a discussion thread. By the time the changes coming from the dev were integrated into a new kernel release it would not have mattered if one was on an LTS distro or rolling release. The newer kernel with the support was readily available to everyone. In many instances the installation procedure wasn’t merely just install the new kernel and firmware.
If you want the nitty-gritty full details take a look ==> https://www.reddit.com/r/AMDLaptops/comments/159mj6i/anyone_have_experience_with_asus_tuf_gaming_a16/?sort=new