Edit: Tumbleweed and bazzite are currently the most attractive options based on what I’ve learned from the comments. I will trial run those and 1 or 2 others.

I am currently on Pop OS.

I am dissatisfied with the DE/UI and I’ve been playing with others but half the point of this distro is it’s custom UI. So I figured I would try another. I have several criteria that may narrow it down.

  1. I am going to use KDE or KDE Plasma (preferred). This is the only non-negotiable criteria.

  2. I will be gaming. This means I would like relatively up to date kernel and software. Rolling or semi-rolling releases are preferred.

2.5. I also work from this pc. This mainly entails using discord and Firefox though so no special requirements. I do have 4 different sized monitors with 3 different refresh rates that I use for work. Only one for gaming. One is vertical. I can tell I’m pushing x to its limits with that setup.

  1. I would prefer Debian-based as that is what I’m used to and because .deb packages are so common.

  2. I don’t want it to be a ton of effort to set up. Pop OS worked out of the box with my Nvidia GPU and all other hardware. I am willing to put in some effort though.

  3. I have been using and very much like apt and flatpak. This is not a requirement, just an observation.

  4. Wayland is neat

  5. Active community with lots of support to search through. Pop OS has been good for this as it’s Ubuntu based and has its own great community.

Ultimately I want an easy to use desktop OS that uses some sort of KDE, supports up to date packages and drivers, supports most games and isn’t a pain to maintain.

Here are some contenders that fit at least some of my requirements.

KDE Neon user edition

Opensuse tumbleweed

Kubuntu

Endeavor OS

Debian

Manjaro

Bazzite

Mint Debian edition

Right now I’m leaning toward KDE Neon, Kubuntu, or Debian (whatever the rolling release version is), but the others all have their draws. I’ve heard the aur is great but I have come across several applications only available in website downloads of Deb packages so I’m hesitant.

I have been using pop as my first desktop distro after Windows and I’ve enjoyed it a lot. I barely run into anything I can’t solve with some effort and headache and not a single game I can’t play. I’d like to keep it that way.

Now that that’s out of the way, does anyone have suggestions? Am I looking in the wrong direction? Am I asking the wrong questions? Should I just install arch, live in the terminal, and throw away my mouse? /s

Thank you all for your advice in advance.

  • @[email protected]
    4•1 day ago

    Since you are narrowing down on Tumbleweed, here are my 2¢: After more than 15 years of Kubuntu I installed Tumbleweed a few years (two?) ago, because it offers a rolling release, system snapshots and KDE.

    Having a job and a family, I do not have the time to tinker anymore, so I expect things to work smoothly out-of-the-box nowadays.

    Tumbleweed let me down in this respect.

    Once I had to completely reinstall the system because the snapshots filled the system partition during an update, which made it unable to start KDE. I could roll back from the terminal to the previous snapshot, but couldn’t figure out how to remedy the problem, except for using a greater partition and reinstalling.

    And just a few days ago KDE (and many applications, when used in LXDE) wouldn’t start, because of version mismatches (caused by an incomplete update?) that broke the linkage of qt libraries. To resolve it I had to make a decision between two packages (tlp vs tuned) to finish the update, even though I hadn’t installed those manually and didn’t know anything about them.

    Besides those problems I find the administration suboptimal, with the divide between the Interfaces of Yast and the KDE settings. I didn’t manage to get my Brother network printer to work (except via direct USB connection), which worked out of the box with my android phone.