stibFeb 23
My son bought a second-hand Windows 11 PC for games, and has been having BSOD issues with the graphics card since he got it. Out of desperation he tried installing Bazzite on it, which I encouraged, but was also trying not to get his hopes up, telling him that the some things might not work. But he reports that "absolutely everything works better than Windows".
I suggested he use KDE for the desktop, and he is blown away about how good everything looks, and how easy the user experience is. He has used Linux for a bit probably 7 or 8 years ago when he used a salvaged laptop at uni that had Ubuntu on it, and he remembers that being a bit janky and frustrating, but now he's decided that he'll wipe the Windows partition and stay with Linux.
So keep it up, clever people that are making Linux distros and software, you're winning.
#Linux #Bazzite #KDE #Steam
Show threadBernie the Wordsmith
@stib How's #Bazzite for a normal desktop usage aside from Gaming?
Feb 23 at 5:04amWeb
Show threadChris 🦑Feb 23

@berniethewordsmith

great. #writtenfrommybazzite

It's not a "gaming os". it's an atomic fedora with strong gaming support.

@stib

Show threadstibFeb 23
@sturmsucht @berniethewordsmith After looking around for a distro that played nicely with Davinci Resolve (they suggest Rocky, but I did Not Like) I ended up using Garuda, which is a similar gamer focused distro, but Arch-based. It provided easy installation and tweaks to get everything working without too much fuss. Apart from the lurid colour scheme (think 17 year old boy's idea of cool desktop theme) it was a rock-solid desktop for $dayjob. My later installs have all been Arch from scratch but it was a good way to get into the distro.
#GarudaLinux #Arch
Show threadHalaanaFeb 23
@berniethewordsmith @stib I'm using the Gnome version, it's a normal desktop as long as you don't set it up to boot into Steam. The only part that may feel strange to a Linux veteran is that it is atomic/immutable, for a new user I don't think it's normally an issue. Universal Blue also produce Aurora and Bluefin, which aren't gaming focussed, and they're all built on Fedora Silverblue/Kinoite.
Show threadstibFeb 23
@Halaana @berniethewordsmith have never got my head around the immutable distro thing. For someone like my son whose idea of fun is not doing sysadmin tasks on the command line (weird I know), it sounds like it might be a good thing … ?
Show threadBernie the WordsmithFeb 23
@stib @Halaana Was thinking about that. Immutability may appease certain groups of people that so not transition to Linix because something may break during the install-a-lot phase. Reversal is just a click away
Show threadstibFeb 23
@berniethewordsmith
A distro that you don't have to troubleshoot—where's the fun in that?
@Halaana
Show threadBernie the WordsmithFeb 23
@stib @Halaana You mean I would not spend hours in forums? What is this, a pirate ship?
Show threadHalaanaFeb 23
@stib @berniethewordsmith It's OSTree based in this case. Basically the system files are read only, and updates can be reverted if something goes wrong (basically swap an image). The downside is that if you do need to change something in OS it can be more difficult, but a lot of us are out of our depth at that point anyway. Distros like Bazzite come with most necessary customisation done anyway, whereas base Fedora you have to hunt codecs and nvidia drivers.
Show threadstibFeb 23
@Halaana @berniethewordsmith Ah, so that must be why you had to be very specific about hardware when you downloaded the installer.
Show threadHalaanaFeb 23
@stib @berniethewordsmith
For Nvidia cards and laptop etc. models, yes. Either proprietary drivers or, at least for old Nvidia, ones that aren't in the kernel.(I think part of installing those drivers is also disabling the ones on the kernel, so they can't just add them to the base image). For AMD/Intel GPUs and most laptops everything is in the kernel, with the result that you can use it on a different computer from what it was installed on.
Show threadMr BeeFeb 25
@stib @Halaana @berniethewordsmith I've been enjoying Aurora a good bit. For the few items I didn't want to (or couldn't) install as flatpak, it has been a rewarding learning experience in how to set up containers in distrobox, install apps the "old fashioned" way, and export to the host.
Show threadPiranhallamaFeb 23

@berniethewordsmith mostly good with the rare annoyance. I've been using Linux for fifteen years or so. On laptops I'll try a new-to-me distro every few months.

Desktop-wise on my gaming machine Bazzite on the whole just works. I think the only issue I see on a semi regular basis is being unable to interact with an in focus application until it's selected through the running applications picker or whatever it's actually called. Out of the box some Steam launches would take forever to load initially due to something like rendering shaders only it wasn't quite that. I had to add a few lines to a config file to resolve.

Show thread"Musty Bits" McGeeFeb 23
@berniethewordsmith @stib there's a couple other spins that are less gaming focused - aurora and bluefin.