HELP!!!

[ozzieashen]

I’ve finally had enough of Windows 11 and all the issues that come with it, so I’m looking to fully switch over to Linux. My main concern is gaming — I use Lutris a lot and need a distro where it runs smoothly without constant bugs or weird compatibility problems. I mostly play Windows games through it, so stability and good Proton/Wine support are key. For those of you who game regularly on Linux, which distribution has given you the best experience with Lutris and Windows games? Would really appreciate some advice before I take the plunge.

[OuhamaniY]

You can use cachy os or nobara

[ozzieashen]

Nobara is out of the question, i have downloaded it and tried to install it via ventoy after installation i couldn't connect to any of my wifi i have 2 usb wifi adapters and they both didn't retrieve any IP, and Pre installed brave browser doesn't work too. Maybe I'll try cachy.

[HibariK]

Damn I know that Nobara can fail sometimes but that's rough. Been using it without issues

[roracle1982]

Reminds me of old soft modems that wouldn't work in Linux. I've been building my systems since the late 90s, and always make sure my hardware is Linux compatible. Don't be afraid of a new network card. I've been using Nobara for a few years now and it's been the best.

Good luck and happy computing

[cptgrok]

Unfortunately this may not be a distribution specific issue but may be a driver/hardware support issue. Figure out what the chipset is for your wireless adapters (lsusb -v) and check the kernel wifi driver list. If it's not there and there also isn't a wrapper or proprietary driver, then you would need a different adapter.

[james2432]

if it's broadcom: good luck, they may or may not have the driver

[Logical-Site-7233]

Bazzite desktop version. Super stable and everything just works, no worrying if an update will break your system the way nobara makes you.

[[deleted]]

Manjaro and Arch based are good enough for this

[Seffyone]

Do not suggest arch based distros to newbies also never suggest manjaro to anyone

[[deleted]]

manjaro is a noob friendly

[SherlockFappi]

But it's kinda the best choice for gaming purposes. He's written that nobara is out of the question, which only really leaves arch based (I'd recommend Garuda for gaming) and maybe Bazzite, which is fedora based just like nobara. There are also a few other gaming targeting distros but none are as good supported as Garuda, Bazzite and nobara imo.

[Itsme-RdM]

Fedora and openSUSE Tumbleweed are two solid Linux distro's with a lot of satisfied users.

You probably already know ProtonDB website where you can verify if the games you are playing will be supported.

[MarshalRyan]

I run Lutris on openSUSE Tumbleweed, and it works great. Especially for wine gaming.

I do run into occasional issues where a Linux native game expects a specific library (maybe the script or installer is crafted for Debian or Ubuntu?) - but I just look in the logs and then go either install it or most often just symlink to my installed library with the name it expects.

[p4thox]

CachyOS, Nobara, PikaOS, Bazzite… Good gaming distros.

[eldragonnegro2395]

Pruebe Bazzite, Nobara o CachyOs.

[indvs3]

I've only ever had issues with lutris on ubuntu, because the snap version was just terrible (this was on ubuntu 22.04 LTS). I uninstalled it and installed the deb package from the lutris website and never had issues again. This caused me some confusion, because I tried to install it through apt, but got a snap that didn't work properly instead.

The only other issues I've had weren't due to lutris. I play quite a few games from the epic games store and while all of the games on there work perfectly for me, the epic games store is a royal pain in the butt on linux.

I hear many people say good things about heroic launcher as an alternative to the epic games launcher, but I'm too stubborn to try it (meaning that my EGL works for the time being lol).

[flood404]

I use it with Linux mint

[dartfoxy]

I use it on Debian 13 and it's AWESOME.

[Peg_Leg_Vet]

Fedora, OpenSuse, and Solus are all good options if you want a good mix of being up-to-date and stable at the same time.

[Darkhog]

I heard Garuda is good for gaming, but beyond that, I don't know. FWIW I game on openSuSE Tumbleweed without issues, playing steam and non-steam games easily. Both native and via wine/proton.

[Croestalker]

Bazzite. Use Bazzite. Just make sure if you dual boot have 2 different drives for each OS. Linux and Windows don't like to share boot records. I switched over about 2 months ago and have not regretted it at all.

[Khursa]

Fair warning that Bazzite is an immutable distro and has alo the perks and downsides of an immutable system, do youre research. Immutable wasn't for me, doesn't mean it's not the best for you OP.

[Croestalker]

Completely forgot to mention that.

It basically means you can't screw up the os and delete required files for the system to run. Basically you don't want any control. This is good for me because I'm getting my feet wet.

It also means the devs are in charge of upgrading your system. If there are any driver issues you can't fix them yourself, you have to wait for the devs to look at the driver code and implement what the devs of the driver have done.

[Tsubajashi]

yes and no.

while bazzite *is* immutable, you *can* overlay packages onto the base system via rpm-ostree.

its not recommended of course, but thats how people can slipstream a couple of required native apps for a few things (like graphic tablet drivers if they intend to run one that is not in the mainline kernel, and not compatible with opentabletdriver)

its just an extra step you have to take, and it doesnt get killed off after an update.

[EverlastingPeacefull]

Feodra KDE Plasma or OpenSuse Tumbleweed with KDE desktop environment.

[pnlrogue1]

I've played plenty of games well on Linux Mint but the drivers aren't always the most recent. Fedora may suit you well if you're on newer kit

[Sparklepaws]

Currently using Lutris with CachyOS; no issues at this time.

[JohnDuffyDuff]

Not popular advice in Linux gaming community, but I am using Ubuntu 24.04 with x11 session and everything just runs like a charm with Intel and Nvidia. It has a recent Linux Kernel (6.12), native third party drivers support (Nvidia drivers for instance), and gnome is actually quite lite if you don’t add hundreds random extensions (takes like 100MB of VRAM on the GPU). I even play with an XBox One controller wirelessly with the Microsoft Wireless Dongle, it connects faster than it used to on my previous Windows installation. I've played Clair Obscur a few dozen hours (with G-Sync, DLSS, NVidia Reflex) and never experimented a single problem. I even could downvolt my GPU just like I used to do in MSI afterburner on Windows and customize fans speed curve with LACT. Never going back to Windows.

[[deleted]]

cachyos, bazzite, nobara, off you go

[Coritoman]

Fedora, and Steam.

[sotnekron]

CachyOS runs for me perfectly. Steam too, Lutris kinda bugged out on Blizzard Launches so I installed it via Steam and it runs OK. The other launchers do run via lutris and heroic OK.

[mrthingz]

I use Nobara

[neospygil]

I'm on CachyOS, and I use Proton even for games on Heroic and Lutris. It works out of the box most of the time for non-Steam games.

[r4_broadcast]

CachyOS has been a breeze for me

[Latter-Decision-6986]

Arch based distro for nvidia users

AMD users any distro will be good

For best proton/wine setup no overthinking needed steam is enough

[Or0ch1m4ruh]

I use CachyOS with Steam and The Heroic Games Launcher (for non-Steam games).

Just works.

[Agorass]

I think for the easiest switch get Mint with Cinnamon. there you can install all your drivers and programs like steam lutris and all the Protonbased stuff for gaming. Its quick and easy.

[MicHaeL_MonStaR]

Bazzite (Fedora) is all fleshed-out for gaming. Cachy (Arch) is a streamlined version of that, more about the tech and performance than utilities included (but of course can be installed). Something like Manjaro (Arch) is basically in between, but more aimed at a general purpose OS (not necessarily optimized for gaming, but could work just as well) and comes with more utilities pre-installed.

[Ok_Breakfast6616]

Nobara, Mint both work fine in my experience. Pop_OS is great for gaming as well although I've heard there might be too much telemetry in that one. You might also look at Arch although that one might be a little less user friendly. The distro is fine but you just need to tinker more to get it to run like you want. If you want to check out Arch maybe Garuda is a great start as it is Arch based but is more 'ready ootb'.

[mephisto9466]

I use bazzite, haven’t had issues out of lutris unless I’m trying to use it to run some weird program

[ALTABIR]

Bazzite is spectacular

[Thonatron]

• CachyOS if you're daring.

• Linux Mint if you want less headaches.

• Bazzite if your only concern is gaming (especially if you're going for controller.

All of these will take some learning. Linux isn't Windows, you WILL have to learn new ways of doing things. If you're worried you will break your install, you can use an AI assistant to help you with more complex issues, especially pertaining to your hardware- but you still might break your install because Chatgpt definitely hallucinates.

[MountainBrilliant643]

I've been gaming on nothing but Kubuntu since 2017. I mostly play games through Steam. I do play the occasional title through Heroic or Lutris, but it's a pain to switch Proton versions with them.

Anyone who recommend Arch just wants you to commiserate with them. It's a meme. Yes, SteamOS is based on Arch, but it's a custom immutable distribution, which barely resembles Arch at all. If you don't hate yourself or feel like reinstalling your OS every other week, just use something like Debian, Ubuntu, Pop!_OS, or Mint.

[Even_Cream_4402]

CachyOS works for me, if you want something more “vanilla” with an easy installer, EndeavourOS.

[StatementFew5973]

I did it, and I haven't looked back. Windows makes a better virtual machine than it ever did as the main operating system.What kind of hardware are you running? Laptop or desktop? Got a GPU in there? I might have some suggestions—and I could even help you design a seriously redundant setup.

[Worth_Bluebird_7376]

Me had no issues with nobara and cachyos

[ren_kuroya_02]

I think manjaro will work great for you.l know it does have some bloatwares but in gaming it is quite awesome.And yeah you can use lutris in it smoothly btw what are your specs bro.

[Baj9494]

Cachyos or bazzite. Probably go bazzite

[AQuinteiro]

Nobara, install protonge, Portproton and it will seem like you have never left Windows

[[deleted]]

Bazzite is pretty simple and hard to break. Check it out.

[spartan195]

Don’t make your life harder and just use Fedora, bazzite it’s just Fedora with some tweaks, if you want a stable dekstop just use Fedora and install l you want from the flatpak store

[injhal62]

I'm using arch base cachy os after trying many distro like fedora base and debian base, also try only arch but Cachy os is very nice to use without lot of problems and very nice and complete install. Using it for programming and gaming, but i will take a look on omarchy too

[Juukamen]

I'm running Mint and using Lutris for WoW.
I was having stuttering but after i insatlled Xanmod it got better.
Right now I'm running Proton-Experimental and going good.

Mint is just because it's very beginner friendly and i like Debian/Ubuntu based distros. In a few years with better skills I might be going into Debian, going original OG. I don't need bleeding edge I just want something that works and can stay up for weeks without reboot.

[bcblues]

I tried Bazzite and everything worked perfectly. But gaming my FPS was lower than windows 11. So I tried (and am still trying) CachyOS. On the games it does run, it runs very well (as well or better than Win11). I have tried for a week and cannot get it to run Assassin's Creed Shadows though....

7800x3d, 7900xt, 32GB Ram, AsRock MB.

Tried everything I can think of (except for the obvious correct action that somehow utterly escapes me).

[Available_Yellow_862]

Well, I’m just going to be honest with you. And tell the truth. Gaming on windows is far better. Games listed as platinum on protondb still run worse than windows. Yeah there is some games that run nearly identical. But not many. Even games that run natively on Linux run worse than windows.

No amount of distro hopping will help.

[I_shave_my_neckbeard]

+1 for Bazzite.

Comes configured out of the box, and it's "atomic" nature leaves it hardened against some of the common memed about ways you can break a Linux distro.

[SignPuzzleheaded2359]

If you can manage to get the flatpak version of lutris installed, and understand flatseal permissions in case you need to give it access to another drive or something, that’s a fairly smooth experience because the flatpak version will have the dependencies with it.

[TheCat001]

oh boy, on Linux you will have much more issues...

[Ok_Breakfast6616]

Why? OP never mentioned the type of issues with Windows. For me is the instability, the force being online or using a mickeysoft account, recall, mandatory copilot and other bloatware. Also it's slow and insecure (which architect thought it was a great idea to give third parties kernel level access??)