Alright guys, I’m going to do it. Today I’m ditching Windows and trying to run Linux exclusively as my daily driver.
Over the past few days I’ve been reading up a lot about different Linux distros and DEs with their unique quirks and update philosophy. But since I’m more drawn to some rather niche distros that might suit my needs, I still have some questions, because a lot of more in-depth information has been nuked in the reddit fallout.
Basically, I’m looking for the best out-of-the-box experience for my specific needs, because I don’t really have the time to customize my OS from the ground up and have little Linux experience outside of docker. I also don’t want to spend months distro hopping, because I need to get some productivity done.
So anyway, here’s what I need from the distro out of the box:
- Gaming:
- Bleeding-Edge Nvidia driver support
- VRR support for Multi-Monitor-Setups
- Programming:
- mostly web development, so no real needs other than an intuitive DE with a good workflow
- Media Server:
- I’m running Plex with Sonarr, Radar etc. with multiple streaming devices around the house and VPN remote access, since I’m doing this in docker anyway, this should hopefully not cause any problems no matter the distro
- Tinkering:
- while I want something that just works out of the box, I want freedom. My goal is to tailor the system to my needs and keep learning for months to come.
So, what it has come down to is that I’m currently looking at the following distros with their pros and cons, let me know if I go anything wrong here:
- Pop! OS:
- it’s pretty and feature-complete out of the box
- I actually like their spin on Gnome DE and its productivity features
- probably the closest I’ll get to “it just works” coming from windows
- it’s not bleeding edge, drivers might not be the newest and bugs might persist for long periods
- their own version of Gnome has no VRR support
- seems to be more of a locked-down environment and less “open” than other distros. Getting heavy Apple vibes
- Nobara:
- Everything I need for Gaming OOTB
- Dev seems to have an insanely good reputation
- It seems to be pretty open and basic, as it doesn’t brand itself and is basically just fedora with pre-installed packages so you can just get going
- VRR support for Gnome out of the box
- As far as gaming and Nvidia support goes, probably closest to Bleeding-Edge you can get without going Arch
- Fedora appears to be more limited for tinkering with a smaller selection of software and extensions
- I don’t really like the default customizations or lack thereof
- Garuda
- everything I need for Gaming OOTB
- even more gaming and file system optimisations than Nobara does offer
- most open environment of the three with endless amounts of customization
- useful features to roll back problematic updates
- does come off as “too playful” and bloated and thus untrustworthy, dunno how to explain. Seems more like a playground than a serious OS
- EndeavourOS:
- Basically lets be do whatever the fuck I want and doesn’t hold my hand while at least providing a basic UI
- Basically lets be do whatever the fuck I want and doesn’t hold my hand while at least providing a basic UI
So basically, I’m looking for a distro that just lets me game with all the features (especially VRR) and do my work straight away but is as open as possible to customize and learn about Linux environments. It’s going to be Arch (btw) isn’t it? 😬
I’m thinking you want Arch btw. You can use archinstall to skip the tedious manual install process.
Don’t forget Linux Mint! May not habe the latest & greatest, but one of the best OOBE along with Pop
Mint is always a solid choice!
I would opt for fedora… And If you want less obstructive is Nobara… welll…
Fedora
Glorious Egg Roll!
I’ve gone back and forth with Garuda and Endeavor. Currently I’m on Endeavor and everything is pretty good, I definitely had a better time gaming with Garuda though.
Check out opensuse tumbleweed. It have been very stable on my Nvidia systems. Getting the packages out nearly without issues, often faster than Arch.
Best OOTB experience for a bleeding edge distrito imho.
Excellent snapshots with rollback from GRUB in case a bad nvidia update messes with your system.
I’ve used all of these distros and I always come back to pop. I will say though Nobara is an excellent project. I’m just not a huge fan of dnf as it’s notoriously slow compared to other package managers.
Give reborn os a go. It’s like Garuda but you can customize how you want with a multitude of options with the installer. It’s what I’m using and I think it would fit your needs and wants.
I would seperate the media server from gaming and work. Any old computer will do. 6 gb ram is more than enough. Put you dockers containers there for jellyfin, plex, web hosting, smb etc. It can run headless of course.
For your work station: install your home partition seperate from your OS. You can change your os at any time.
Endeavor works well but you will have to manually configure things like your smb shares, your firewall, etc. Other distros may have all that ready to go.
Having a separate media server is the long term plan. I’ll be setting up a NAS and Beelink then, but right now my workstation has to suffice. Actually I still have an old motherboard and a Ryzen 1500X lying around somewhere, which I could use for a build next time I’ll upgrade my gpu.
But being on Nvidia right now Linux sadly didn’t satisfy my needs in its current state. I’ll keep an eye on how Wayland progresses and make the switch once there’s adequate Nvidia support or I can afford an AMD gpu upgrade, because what I saw was damn sexy, it just wasn’t there yet for me.
Check out opensuse tumbleweed. It have been very stable on my Nvidia systems. Getting the packages out nearly without issues, often faster than Arch.
Best OOTB experience for a bleeding edge distrito imho.
Excellent snapshots with rollback from GRUB in case a bad nvidia update messes with your system.
I used nvidia with vrr on linux for a while before getting sick of the paper cut issues. I used gnome fedora which has pretty good support for nvidia wayland, and then whenever I wanted to game I logged out and into x11 with a single monitor config, as that would allow vrr to activate. it was janky but it worked and worked well. If you are stuck with Nvidia for the foreseeable future it is the only way if you are dedicated to the linux route.
