First, Welcome to the Linux community, the r/linux_gaming subreddit, and congratulations on starting your Linux journey. Use this post as a guide or roadmap to help speed you along. It is broken up into sections for easy reading. To our veteran Linux users you can save a link to this post and direct newbies looking for distro and gaming distro advice here. There is also the stickied guide here ( https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/16d7gj7/need_help_heres_how_to_get_it/ ).

Newbies:

If you have questions about specific distros or other general questions please ask your question(s) in a separate post to allow the community to respond. Comments in this post should be about improvements and corrections to this guide. Thanks.

What is Linux? Linux refers to a Community, an Operating System, a platform, and a long list of distributions (distros). The above are the most general uses of the term Linux.

If you are brand new to Linux, start with a newbie friendly distro. If you have some experience with Linux you might want a distro that provides less hand holding. If you don’t know the following terms consider yourself in the newbie category:

  • lspci
  • findmnt
  • find
  • ln
  • grep
  • sed
  • awk
  • inxi
  • emacs
  • Xorg
  • GPT table (not ChatGPT related)
  • chown
  • chmod
  • kernel
  • uname
  • nano
  • repos

There is no shame in being a newbie.

[4 Popular Newbie Friendly Distros]

The 4 popular distros above all sport newbie friendly desktop UIs and have newbie friendly communities. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and seek help when you needed it. I personally recommend Mint and Pop. The above 4 go out of their way to provide a newbie friendly experience where simplicity is a key ingredient in their secret sauce.

If you have bleeding edge hardware it might limit your choice of distro in the short term. No hardware stays bleeding edge forever so, over time more distros will come to support current bleeding edge hardware without extra effort needed by the end user.

[Bleeding Edge Hardware Examples]

If you have any of the above equipment and the 4 popular newbie friendly distros don’t have support for your hardware, you might consider the following distros:

  • Fedora
  • Nobara (gaming focused distro even though it is general purpose)
  • OpenSUSE
  • Manjaro
  • Garuda (has a gaming focus edition, but is still general purpose)
  • EndeavourOS

The above 6 distros have graphical installers and are slightly more complex then 4 popular newbie friendly distros. These 6 will give the user greater control over how the system is configured and what software comes pre-installed.

[Choosing a Distro]

  1. distro chooser website ( https://distrochooser.de/ )
  2. r/distrohopping which is a subreddit dedicated to folks exploring the different distros the Linux Community has created
  3. Bleeding edge hardware? (it can limit your distro choices)
  4. You prefer a Windows desktop look/feel or a Mac OS look/feel

The distro chooser presents a survey to the user. Based on the answers provided by the user the chooser offers distro suggestions. The r/distrohopping subreddit can be a resource where one can find greater details about the distros and user experience testimonials. This helps users make informed decisions before wiping their hard drives. If you prefer a Windows-like look/feel desktop then pick a distro that offers the KDE, Cinnamon, or XFCE desktop. If you prefer a Mac OS like look/feel then pick a distro that offers the Gnome desktop. For example, Linux Mint offers Cinnamon, XFCE, and LMDE. Pop_OS only uses Gnome. Fedora offers KDE, Cinnamon, XFCE, Gnome, MATE, and many more. All of the desktop environments are customizable and theme-able. A simple youtube search will let you see what they look like. Here are some easy youtube search terms examples (the numbers represent the major version numbers as of 12/2023):

  • Linux Mint Cinnamon 21
  • Fedora KDE 38
  • Manjaro Gnome 23
  • Fedora Gnome 38
  • Linux Mint XFCE 21
  • Manjaro KDE 23
  • Garuda Linux 2023

[Dual-Booting]

Most newbies are not ready to give up Windows completely for a variety of reasons. Dual-booting allows Linux and Windows to co-exist side-by-side. Take a look at this video to learn the details about it ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Crleyglb4mo ).

[Older Hardware]

If you have an older PC or laptop (think going back to 2012) it is still usable with Linux. I have an old core i5-4670k and a core i5-4130. Both run like a champ with Linux. I can toss something like Linux Mint on them, install Steam and enjoy some games. However, with older hardware do not expect to have 4k gaming at 160 FPS. Can you put “newer” GPUs in those older units for a performance boost? Yes. It can be a sub-optimal configuration but it will work. For example, I can install a RTX 3080 in my core i5, but I would not expect top tier performance from a CPU that was released in 2013. I can run Diablo 3, Overwatch 1, Grim Dawn, StarCraft 2, and many other games at 1080p just fine. Ray tracing will tax the i5 system a bit so I’m unsure if it could handle it. No, I would not try to run Cyperpunk 2077 ray trace enhanced on the i5. If you need a PC/laptop for simple web browsing, Netflix, Word processing, etc. These older units are perfect and they tend to be snappy with Linux installed.

[Resources]

Lastly, backup your data before you make any changes to your PC. Safety first. Ask questions (in separate posts). If you don’t get answers in this subreddit try another subreddit or a distro’s official forums. Good luck on your Linux journey and remember be kind and help other Community members you encounter along the way.

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