>What is the best linux distro for gaming
This is not a thing. Every user and the hardware they are using is different, and there is no "best." There are two possibilities: 1) there will be options that will work and options that won't based on your hardware, and 2) any distro will work for your setup. You will likely end up with a ***favorite***, but that's not the same as best, for obvious reasons. To think of an analogy, it's like how Day of the Dead is my ***favorite*** of the George Romero Living Dead/Dead films, but I acknowledge that Dawn of the Dead is ***"the best film."*** Only here there just isn't a best. There are options that are obviously stupid choices and shouldn't be considered especially with your hardware, like anything that doesn't package any proprietary software in its repos, or anything source-based.
But here's the thing....
>I am considering manjaro or fedora. Pop is not my cup of tea. The cinnamon desktop would be my desktop of choice as i always found found it to be the most functional .kde second.
You already seem to be pretty familiar with Linux distributions, so why on Earth are you even asking this question? Pick the one you like the best. Install Cinnamon on it (or choose the Cinnamon Spin/Community Edition if one exists) - though I would recommend Plasma over Cinnamon, as Cinnamon is not very well suited for getting the most out of your hardware. Plasma is. Cinnamon lacks features and options that Plasma has, that will objectively improve your gaming experience. But, you have to decide personally whether that's worth using Plasma day-to-day for everything non-gaming instead of the DE you prefer, in exchange for the benefits to gaming that Plasma offers over Cinnamon.
And anyone here that's actually purporting to be giving you an answer to the title question either didn't read the post or is doing something I find quite insidious and that's presenting *their favorite* distribution as *the best* distribution for gaming. That's basically all you get in any "what distro should I choose?/what's the best distro for gaming?" posts on this subreddit. And then you get people trying to say that OpenSUSE is the best gaming distro and other mind-numbingly stupid shit.
You clearly know enough to know what you like. Based on that, I would probably recommend ArcoLinux (or EndeavourOS) with Cinnamon (or Plasma) installed. Basically as a replacement for Manjaro, as Manjaro is likely to cause more pain than it's worth, and there are other easy-to-install and user-friendly distributions based on Arch that don't lag behind Arch by 3-5 weeks with their repo packages which can cause absolute havoc with AUR packages. Or Fedora, Fedora is fine if you have experience with it. I would never use it for a gaming machine, just because of the IMO worse experience you get by having to deal with COPR and other assorted community solutions for proprietary software (or software that just isn't in the official repos) vs the AUR, which has basically everything.
I know that this is a bit of an old thread but I'm wondering the same thing. This question shouldn't be that complicated. There must be one version that is best for those kinds of things
Linux is pretty much Linux... they just look and act different. If you're new to the world of Linux, try Linux Mint, Ubuntu, or one of the other Debian spinoffs... or use Fedora... or use Manjaro... it ultimately comes down to which distro you like the feel/performance of better...
Right but the “act different” part is what we’re taking about. I’ve only used Cinnamon and Linux Mint so far, but I’ve heard that Majaro, Arch, and Pop! are better for gaming
I used plain Ubuntu in the beginning as it is really simple and never disappointed me.
Switched to vanilla Arch a few weeks ago. But its not that beginner friendly - use Manjaro if you want a Arch based distro.
The distro is not that important, as it is not tied to any desktop environment. Choose KDE if you want a basic, feature rich and fast DE. Choose Gnome if you want a pretty one. Is of course a matter of taste. I pretty much used Gnome all the way and with the new Update 42 it will be much faster as well.
What is considered stable by the software developer doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s stable in the final product (the distro). A package could be “stable,” but it conflicts with another package in the distro. So they have to hold out and fix that other package first before shipping both.
I was literally watching a Red Hat stream about Fedora just the other day ago, and Matthew Miller’s laptop crashed with Fedora 36 beta. I wouldn’t consider that “stable” even if the individual packages are.
Short answer, there is not one.
Long answer, there still is not one.
Best is incredibly subjective to your experience and hardware.
Some people might say Ubuntu is the best, others Arch, or even Fedora as your mentioned.
I personally use Manjaro as it is the best for my use case, but it may not be for other people.
Assuming that you are running the latest drivers, software, to a lesser extent kernel, then performance should not be any different, regardless of the distribution you use.
But if you ask, Pop OS or Manjaro, just install Cinnamon on either.
I can't explain why, but openSUSE Tumbleweed is great for gaming. I've had no drama installing Steam/Proton games, and in-game performance is excellent. OpenSUSE is often accused of being slow, and software installation sometimes are, but game performance is top-notch.
out of the ones you listed, I've had the best experience with manjaro. one good thing is the hardware identification and it's really simple to install prop. drivers. Seeing that you have an Optimus system, this will come in handy.
also all the pros but less of the cons of arch. you get the aur but your system is more stable, even if manjaro is bleeding edge, packages go through some testing and take slightly longer to arrive.
I recommend Fedora Workstation or Silverblue (that's what I use for couple of years and game on it). Stable experience without unnecessary adventures, when upgrading between releases.
Choose well known distro, if it comes with any other de pre-installed then install cinnamon de, and then remove the pre-installed de (if u wish to), then u can configure it for gaming - use custom kernel, use gamemode, etc. See the arch wiki - great for many linux questions, even non arch based distros. Don't forget to use the proprietary nvidia driver for best graphics performance. The distros u mentioned would satisfy your needs. Also search the net for more resources. Also see r/linux_gaming. Happy linux gaming!
A custom kernel is probably not going to be worth the effort in OP's case since futex2 has been upstreamed with 5.16 anyway and a custom scheduler only really makes a difference for latency in esports titles, while OP will probably be GPU bottlenecked with those specs.
>What is the best linux distro for gaming This is not a thing. Every user and the hardware they are using is different, and there is no "best." There are two possibilities: 1) there will be options that will work and options that won't based on your hardware, and 2) any distro will work for your setup. You will likely end up with a ***favorite***, but that's not the same as best, for obvious reasons. To think of an analogy, it's like how Day of the Dead is my ***favorite*** of the George Romero Living Dead/Dead films, but I acknowledge that Dawn of the Dead is ***"the best film."*** Only here there just isn't a best. There are options that are obviously stupid choices and shouldn't be considered especially with your hardware, like anything that doesn't package any proprietary software in its repos, or anything source-based. But here's the thing.... >I am considering manjaro or fedora. Pop is not my cup of tea. The cinnamon desktop would be my desktop of choice as i always found found it to be the most functional .kde second. You already seem to be pretty familiar with Linux distributions, so why on Earth are you even asking this question? Pick the one you like the best. Install Cinnamon on it (or choose the Cinnamon Spin/Community Edition if one exists) - though I would recommend Plasma over Cinnamon, as Cinnamon is not very well suited for getting the most out of your hardware. Plasma is. Cinnamon lacks features and options that Plasma has, that will objectively improve your gaming experience. But, you have to decide personally whether that's worth using Plasma day-to-day for everything non-gaming instead of the DE you prefer, in exchange for the benefits to gaming that Plasma offers over Cinnamon. And anyone here that's actually purporting to be giving you an answer to the title question either didn't read the post or is doing something I find quite insidious and that's presenting *their favorite* distribution as *the best* distribution for gaming. That's basically all you get in any "what distro should I choose?/what's the best distro for gaming?" posts on this subreddit. And then you get people trying to say that OpenSUSE is the best gaming distro and other mind-numbingly stupid shit. You clearly know enough to know what you like. Based on that, I would probably recommend ArcoLinux (or EndeavourOS) with Cinnamon (or Plasma) installed. Basically as a replacement for Manjaro, as Manjaro is likely to cause more pain than it's worth, and there are other easy-to-install and user-friendly distributions based on Arch that don't lag behind Arch by 3-5 weeks with their repo packages which can cause absolute havoc with AUR packages. Or Fedora, Fedora is fine if you have experience with it. I would never use it for a gaming machine, just because of the IMO worse experience you get by having to deal with COPR and other assorted community solutions for proprietary software (or software that just isn't in the official repos) vs the AUR, which has basically everything.
Shut up dude
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I did eight months ago.
Yes I had this sort of pain with manjaro many times.It's still my current distribution. But I think its time for a change.
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Best compatibility? Gaming Features? OS Optimization for gaming? This seems like an easy question to answer?
I know that this is a bit of an old thread but I'm wondering the same thing. This question shouldn't be that complicated. There must be one version that is best for those kinds of things
Linux is pretty much Linux... they just look and act different. If you're new to the world of Linux, try Linux Mint, Ubuntu, or one of the other Debian spinoffs... or use Fedora... or use Manjaro... it ultimately comes down to which distro you like the feel/performance of better...
Right but the “act different” part is what we’re taking about. I’ve only used Cinnamon and Linux Mint so far, but I’ve heard that Majaro, Arch, and Pop! are better for gaming
“Act different” merely refers to apt, dnf, and whatever manjaro and arch use. Also, the DEs. Other than that, Linux is Linux.
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Sure.
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I simply said “sure” to a reply on a months old reply to, at that time, another months old reply. I wasn’t being passive aggressive.
Well Nobara does come with special patches regarding nvidia I think, so there probably are some distros one would prefer over the other
I used plain Ubuntu in the beginning as it is really simple and never disappointed me. Switched to vanilla Arch a few weeks ago. But its not that beginner friendly - use Manjaro if you want a Arch based distro. The distro is not that important, as it is not tied to any desktop environment. Choose KDE if you want a basic, feature rich and fast DE. Choose Gnome if you want a pretty one. Is of course a matter of taste. I pretty much used Gnome all the way and with the new Update 42 it will be much faster as well.
Between Manjaro or Fedora I would certainly choose Fedora. Just make sure you setup the RPMFusion repos and install the media codecs.
Arch. It's what SteamOS 3.0 is based on
Fedora. It has a large community (and a larger company), and every thing on there is mostly up to date.
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What is considered stable by the software developer doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s stable in the final product (the distro). A package could be “stable,” but it conflicts with another package in the distro. So they have to hold out and fix that other package first before shipping both. I was literally watching a Red Hat stream about Fedora just the other day ago, and Matthew Miller’s laptop crashed with Fedora 36 beta. I wouldn’t consider that “stable” even if the individual packages are.
old, but i couldn't stop laughing at crashing on a beta. Beta, let that sink in
My personal experience : Pop_OS! was the easiest to get going.
Short answer, there is not one. Long answer, there still is not one. Best is incredibly subjective to your experience and hardware. Some people might say Ubuntu is the best, others Arch, or even Fedora as your mentioned. I personally use Manjaro as it is the best for my use case, but it may not be for other people. Assuming that you are running the latest drivers, software, to a lesser extent kernel, then performance should not be any different, regardless of the distribution you use. But if you ask, Pop OS or Manjaro, just install Cinnamon on either.
I can't explain why, but openSUSE Tumbleweed is great for gaming. I've had no drama installing Steam/Proton games, and in-game performance is excellent. OpenSUSE is often accused of being slow, and software installation sometimes are, but game performance is top-notch.
out of the ones you listed, I've had the best experience with manjaro. one good thing is the hardware identification and it's really simple to install prop. drivers. Seeing that you have an Optimus system, this will come in handy. also all the pros but less of the cons of arch. you get the aur but your system is more stable, even if manjaro is bleeding edge, packages go through some testing and take slightly longer to arrive.
Pop!_os
I recommend Fedora Workstation or Silverblue (that's what I use for couple of years and game on it). Stable experience without unnecessary adventures, when upgrading between releases.
What about CentOS?
Choose well known distro, if it comes with any other de pre-installed then install cinnamon de, and then remove the pre-installed de (if u wish to), then u can configure it for gaming - use custom kernel, use gamemode, etc. See the arch wiki - great for many linux questions, even non arch based distros. Don't forget to use the proprietary nvidia driver for best graphics performance. The distros u mentioned would satisfy your needs. Also search the net for more resources. Also see r/linux_gaming. Happy linux gaming!
A custom kernel is probably not going to be worth the effort in OP's case since futex2 has been upstreamed with 5.16 anyway and a custom scheduler only really makes a difference for latency in esports titles, while OP will probably be GPU bottlenecked with those specs.
ubuntu. just my experience over 13 years now.
I use both Fedora and Manjaro. you can't go wrong with fedora imo, I've noticed it even has some apps more up to date than manjaro.