I’ve been using Ubuntu as my daily driver for a good few years now. Unfortunately I don’t like the direction they seem to be heading.

I’ve also just ordered a new computer, so it seems like the best time to change over. While I’m sure it will start a heated debate, what variant would people recommend?

I’m not after a bleeding edge, do it all yourself OS it will be my daily driver, so don’t want to have to get elbow deep in configs every 5 minutes. My default would be to go back to Debian. However, I know the steam deck is arch based. With steam developing proton so hard, is it worth the additional learning curve to change to arch, or something else?

  • @[email protected]English
    39•1 year ago

    I kinda hate this take flying around constantly. There is such a thing as a gaming distro: one that has sane defaults for gaming, has the important things pre-installed like Feral GameMode, ProtonUp and the Nvidia drivers, etc. Also having an up-to-date package manager for these essentials is vital.

    Yeah, technically all distros are very similar, but most people asking for recommendations specifically want something that just works for their task, not everyone can fiddle with packages and DEs to get what they want.

    • @GustavoMEnglish
      -6•1 year ago

      Distro with preinstalled packages =/= distro with exclusive features. The same packages available on “gaming distros” are available on any other “non-gaming” distro as well.

      • @[email protected]English
        14•1 year ago

        Aside from the fact that they do have exclusive features (Nobara has a number of kernal patches and general fixes not found on Fedora), a distro is way more than exclusive features. The theming, extensions, patches, tuned package manager, etc. make up a cohesive experience.

        Nobody cares that you can replicate the same thing on Debian or Arch after 20 hours of hammering things together and even more hours of research and choice paralysis. Anyone asking for a distro recommendation want something that works. Not something that needs time and effort.

        • @GustavoMEnglish
          -2•1 year ago

          Nobara has a number of kernal patches and general fixes not found on Fedora

          …which can be implemented on every other distro as well. Again, it’s GNU/Linux and not Windows – “all you can see/exist in a distro you can do/implement in every other distro.”

          • bgtlover
            1•1 year ago

            @GustavoM @simple hmm, interesting. How do I make pacman work on ubuntu? I mean, just because it’s technically possible, doesn’t mean it’s at all easy to do, in any stretch of the imagination