Mike 
Robert @ Tech Addressed@codemonkeymike I've had great results with Pop!_OS.
@techaddressed nice. Other than Nvidia stuff, what do you think makes pop good for this?
@codemonkeymike I like a .deb based system in general but more importantly you get timely updated kernels. You have to add a 3rd party updater for this on Ubuntu / other Ubuntu based distros.
@techaddressed I do love they do mainline kernel. Would you do steam in a flatpak or deb
@codemonkeymike I've never tried it as a flatpak to know if there's any issues there.
Amin Hollon 🏳@codemonkeymike
I'd probably use the complete wrong OS for the job, knowing me. ;)
I'd probably use the complete wrong OS for the job, knowing me. ;)
@amin hahha me too. I'm using nix. But I'm making this for someone else. So trying to keep it simple ish
@codemonkeymike
PopOS would be my guess.
PopOS would be my guess.
Linuturk
Michael Emory🎮🐧🔺@codemonkeymike I run Kubuntu
Zazzoo 🇨🇦@codemonkeymike SteamOS is built on Debian so personally I'd go with Debian, though you'd probably have great results with pretty much any downstream Debian distro like Ubuntu - or Pop like @techaddressed mentioned, System76 made some nice UI tweaks in Pop.
Edit: ^^^^ Based on outdated information, see Robert's response.
@zazzoo @codemonkeymike Steam OS is built on Arch actually but I've never had an Arch based system that didn't eventually become a nightmare.
@techaddressed @codemonkeymike You're right, apologies for misinformation! They switched distros after I first played with it.
@zazzoo @codemonkeymike honest mistake.
@techaddressed @codemonkeymike I'd still personally go with Debian. You're right about Arch.
@zazzoo @techaddressed yeah it's interesting they chose arch. But they made it immutable and control the packages. So it's not really arch anymore lol.
But yeah. Stable base, hard to beat Debian or pop etc
@codemonkeymike @techaddressed Back when I was playing with it, it wasn't so much stability of the base OS as much as the availability of an apt PPA that gave me automatic updates and kept all the system dependencies in order.
Twelve 
@codemonkeymike i don't think it really matters? Steam beeing in the repo I guess is nice.
Gaveen Prabhasara@codemonkeymike I guess Pop!_OS should be a good choice. But given how much patches and tweaks goes into Nobara specifically for gaming related things, I'd say give it a try as well.
WagesOf@codemonkeymike gaming only? Chimeraos. Gaming w some light other pc shenanigans? Nobara or popos depending on how new your hardware is.
TheOPtimal@codemonkeymike Fedora Silverblue or NixOS.
Xilabar the Dice Goblin@codemonkeymike I'm getting perfectly fine results with #zorin but I think that's more to do with where PC gaming is today.
Only problem I have is with the new Epic Games Launcher app. My fiancee loves the #Sims but Epic is owned by Windows, so they didnt accomodate any other OS other than windows. The new app isn't super well-studied yet, so I've had lots of trouble booting it up in Wine or Lutris
@Shkshkshk @codemonkeymike have you looked at Heroic Launcher yet?
@techaddressed @codemonkeymike I'll have to look into it
Thu Htoo San 
@codemonkeymike I'd go with Nobara.
I tried Pop!_OS on others' recommendation. But it was SO buggy (at least for my PC). I had to find bugs instead of actually using computer. So, finally I jumped to Nobara and I don't need to waste my time debugging anymore.
Nobara fixes many vendor and/or kernel related bugs that Fedora and Pop!_OS don't. Plus, it has better performance in gaming.
Slade Watkins@codemonkeymike I’m just gonna lurk in the replies… no reason… I’m deeeeefinitely not considering moving my gaming PC to Linux. 👀
@sladewatkins hahhaha. Do it! Honestly I've been using the steamdeck as a dedicated gaming PC lately and love it.
@codemonkeymike my friend expressed interest in switching to Linux for his gaming computer tonight—so I said if he wants to, I'll switch him AND myself over. And I meant it.
@sladewatkins good good good! What distro will you choose?
@codemonkeymike Still trying to figure that out. I grew up learning how to use computers on Ubuntu—so of course, my first instinct is to use something Ubuntu-based. But I'm open to suggestions for something new. I love Linux enough to try whatever, honestly!
stfn 
@codemonkeymike I'm running Mint with xfce and steam works with no issues
blackknight95857669@codemonkeymike
I used Linux Mint for almost a decade with no issues, esp once proton really got going. Recently my Mint broke (hardware failure, was a 13(!) yr old Dell) so I built a "new" PC (friend gave me a 6th Gen i7 so I built around that) and I've been meaning to get into Arch so I'm currently running Garuda. Still getting used to a rolling distro but I'm liking it so far.
I used Linux Mint for almost a decade with no issues, esp once proton really got going. Recently my Mint broke (hardware failure, was a 13(!) yr old Dell) so I built a "new" PC (friend gave me a 6th Gen i7 so I built around that) and I've been meaning to get into Arch so I'm currently running Garuda. Still getting used to a rolling distro but I'm liking it so far.
@blackknight95857669 I do love mint. Its my go to for other people general use. My worry it's a bit too out of date. But maybe not!
@codemonkeymike Yeah I still like Mint. What they do to "de-Canonical" it a bit I really like. And I mean, it's certainly stable out the box which is nice. I'm actually gonna make a liveUSB of it to take up to my parent's place for my Dad to test out on his Aspire from 2016 cause he keeps bitching about Windows lol.
It might be a bit stale but there's always PPAs? Tho that does get into the weeds a bit much for the average user.
It might be a bit stale but there's always PPAs? Tho that does get into the weeds a bit much for the average user.
@blackknight95857669 when the pandemic hit I started taking older donation laptops (windows 7-8 era ones), fixing them up, installing mint and donating them back out.
I did over 200 of these. Literally everyone loved mint. One person even said "I really love this Windows Mint version" lol.
@codemonkeymike hahaha! Yeah I always run XFCE which makes the comparison even easier. Mint/Linux was the only reason I was able to prolong the previous PC's life span soooooo long. Dell Studio XPS 9000, I got 2 of em for the price of a tank of gas in 2012. E-friend worked at a game dev that was moving to iOS so they were e-wasting these not quite 2yr old systems. Stuck in a HDD/GPU, kept updating GPU. It finally showed the age recently as even WoW went sub 30fps. HW fail meant a mercy kill lol.
r3vilo@codemonkeymike
I think all the 'gaming distros' are making no differnce. It's like whitening tooth paste. Nobody needs it 😅 I had very good results with #Fedora #Kinoite and #Nix as well. Most likely you only need protonup and the open source drivers for your graphics card and your good. Tried differnce things and the results were always the same. Just use the distro you like.
@r3vilo ohh I know. Honestly I have my personal setup on Nix and no issues. Buttt I'm building this for someone else who isn't going to want to update nix. So was looking for something with a bit more Out of the box experience.
hangint3n@codemonkeymike
I don't know which is best, but I'm doing that on Gentoo.
I don't know which is best, but I'm doing that on Gentoo.