Setting up a Linux Gaming Environment: What Distro do/would you prefer?

[Lord of the Strings]

Hello there!

Hopefully I'm in the right place here.

Afair I'm not the only one who is preparing to move some gaming stuff to linux. Atm I'm running a dual boot system here with Win7 on the gaming side of life and am to update or reinstall the linux setup.

So, first question I have to answer is:

What distro seems the best to be used?

Steam OS native? Which can be easily extended to a full featured Debian System, but lets one willing or not be engaged in an open beta test :wink:

Ubuntu as the most frequently installed system?

Mint ?

Debian?

What else?

I'd like to see your comments:

Which Distro/OS are you running your games on?

What is your experience?

Which Distro/OS do you plan to use?

What are your cons and pros?

Kind Regards

[Username4]

SteamOS has a UI best for couch-gaming. For desktop a regular DE should be better.

Mint and Ubuntu are easy to configure and beginner friendly. And most companies only list support for the Ubuntu LTS.

 

I'm using a mix of Xubuntu on my Laptop and Xubuntu with KDE on my Desktop. And Debian on my server.

I think I will go with debian on the next install, because now I am capable enough to install the graphics-drivers without the Ubuntu-Software-Centre.

But any Distro should be fine.

If you like to fickle a lot Arch, or gentoo might be worth checking out.

 

For the Desktop environment XFCE ist light, configurable and fast. I had an annoying bug on XFCE I could not solve, therefore I use KDE now.

 

[Aragingmonk]

Do not use Linux Mint 18 if you use AMD GPU. Driver issue and steam will not launch. Not sure about Nvidia though you would have to check. Great OS but not really for gaming at this point.

 

P.S. I think this should have went under "PC Gaming" not in the console category.

[Lord of the Strings]

Ah, thank you for your posts! Time for a little update, but first things first:

 

@Aragingmonk: With regard to the subtitle of this forum: "Discuss games for consoles and other systems" I choose this one as I took "systems" for "operating systems". Often and historically, the "PC" label is read as a synonym for "Microsoft Windows PC" while linux users naming their "PC" a "work station" :wink:

 

@Topic

Meanwhile I made my decision and installed Ubuntu 16.04(.01) LTS for multiple reasons:

-- for a dedicated linux gaming setup steam matters and Valve afair recommends Ubuntu as operation system

-- most of the linux gaming *newcomers* that hopefully might join us in the future are supposed to start with this distro as it is the well best known so far

-- so discussion might ease up when it comes to installation and other problems

-- the four year long support offers a stable basis over time

 

Steam OS otherwise might also have been an option here as I'm in fact sitting in front of a 32" TV set connected via HDMI to the gaming PC, and installed on a separate disc this could have been an interesting project ...

 

Arch is a rolling release so iirc there is some trouble with proprietary drivers that have to be recompiled on every single update - not always a trivial task. But you are bound to them while using nvidia cards. On the other hand I presume that most of them new linux gamers will be new to linux as well.

 

PS: For the more serious purposes Debian stable is my distro of choice.

Edited October 31, 2016 by Lord of the Strings