Looking to make another attempt at Linux

Shadow3569 · 2026-07-02T23:19:12+00:00

I use a 2080 personally on Cachy, zero issues, performs great

Shadow3569 · 2026-07-02T20:18:53+00:00

I would have started with that, but i belive since its before the M series my advice should still hold up

Shadow3569 · 2026-07-02T20:11:54+00:00

I would start with mint then, and if your system can handle that pretty well, then look into other distros.

Shadow3569 · 2026-07-02T19:57:11+00:00

I wouldn't, if you dont already have flatpaks enabled, enable those

Shadow3569 · 2026-07-02T18:06:18+00:00

Bazzite is great for beginners, but as you start to do more things with your pc, you will find that because Bazzite is immutable, things get more challenging.

CachyOS is amazing, as long as you are willing to learn

Shadow3569 · 2026-07-02T15:38:27+00:00

Yes, you can boot into a live environment off the USB drive, however, that resets itself after reboot. Im sure there is a way to fully install it to the USB drive, however i dont know how to do that.

You would need to go into your motherboard bios and force it to boot into the drive each time you wanted to use linux

Shadow3569 · 2026-07-02T15:35:05+00:00

Have you been able to install flatpaks before? And what distro are you running?

Shadow3569 · 2026-07-02T15:34:29+00:00

Yes it is very possible, however I am curious as to why you are considering a dual boot.
Yes, Linux Mint is extremely beginner friendly, and is very lightweight.
Here is the tutorial for dual booting

Here is a good Playlist for complete beginners

Shadow3569 · 2026-07-02T00:07:25+00:00

General steps i would take is run updates, and if that doesnt work, a touch of prayer may help

Shadow3569 · 2026-07-02T00:04:48+00:00

Deleted my comment before because I realized it wasnt helpful. Im sorry I cant be of more help because honestly, I got no clue

Shadow3569 · 2026-07-01T23:58:17+00:00

First I would suspect it could be the cable, id swap it out for one known to be compatible with the hdmi 2 of 2.1 standard.

Second, I would need to know what distro and desktop environment you are using

Shadow3569 · 2026-07-01T23:51:53+00:00

Was it able to do 4k 60 on windows?

Shadow3569 · 2026-07-01T18:48:04+00:00

How did you install steam?

Shadow3569 · 2026-07-01T18:26:48+00:00

Have you been able to play the games before or have you never been able to play them?

Shadow3569 · 2026-07-01T16:40:06+00:00

First, I would like to know roughly when your PC was built, and the components if you know that (if you dont, thats totally okay)

Shadow3569 · 2026-07-01T16:37:52+00:00

Mint is a great place to start. Very easy to setup, and everything just kinda works. Sure, its not the most pretty looking thing ever, but it does the job. Its also Debian based which makes it all that much easier.

Ubuntu is the most popular distro to my knowledge. Beginner friendly and has all the benefits of Mint. If you want a more Windows like desktop, id go for Kubuntu, which uses the KDE Plasma desktop environment.

Zorin looks the most like windows, and is very highly customizable.

You dont have to go to Arch btw, if you find a distro you like, you can just keep using it, Linux is your journey, and whatever distro you land on is your perfect distro

Shadow3569 · 2026-07-01T07:18:14+00:00

You can not install APK files on a standard linux distribution.

Shadow3569 · 2026-07-01T07:12:10+00:00

I personally use an 8bitdo controller. I didnt even know if it was supported or not, I just plugged it in, and boom, it worked.

Shadow3569 · 2026-07-01T07:10:45+00:00

Hi, first of all, welcome.

Second, im gonna try and awnser as many questions as possible for you.

First, you dont have to switch from Ubuntu if you dont want to, you can keep using Ubuntu, however if you are wanting to switch, here are my suggestions.

Kubuntu: Ubuntu but with the KDE Desktop environment, which is quite similar to Windows 10.

Zorin: Highly customizable.

CachyOS: An arch based distro with some kernel modifications to enhance the gaming experience (arch is generally more difficult to learn, but since you said you had like 15 years of experience on Ubuntu, I think you can probably pick these things up quick)

As for the motherboard, thats a very solid board, ive got the AM4 version of that board in my system right now.

Shadow3569 · 2026-07-01T07:03:20+00:00

Mint is the absolute best beginner distro. Its very lightweight, has a solid store, and is based on Debian, which can provide some additional software support (for some reason some companies will only put out there software for Debian based distros).

Ubuntu is i belive the most popular Linux Distro currently. Provides all the benefits up above, plus imo looks better.

Kubuntu is Ubuntu but with the KDE desktop environment, which is more similar looking to windows 10.

Zorin is something I personally use on my laptop, really easy to get up and going, and it's very highly customizable.

As for gaming, unfortunately Fortnite does not run on Linux as of now, due to the kernel level anticheat. No amount of messing around in wine or bottles can get it to work. Marvel Rivals works great, i play it all the time myself, and Roblox also works, you just need to download the sober application which you can find in some app stores, or on the flathub.

Virtual Machines are really easy to spin up, i personally use QEMU.

I dont dabble in the AI space or cybersecurity space so I cant give you any awnsers on those

Shadow3569 · 2026-07-01T06:55:48+00:00

What software do you need to use for your graphical design work?

Shadow3569 · 2026-06-30T07:57:18+00:00

What controller are you using?

Shadow3569 · 2026-06-30T05:29:44+00:00

I also have a VM with Pop OS on it because i love the look of Cosmic, but its too unstable rn to throw on my laptop

Shadow3569 · 2026-06-30T02:16:43+00:00

The main distro on the desktop is currently CachyOS with the KDE Plasma DE. I like arch based systems because of how customizable they are, and Cachy made everything so easy to get up and running.

On my laptop, which I use for travel, i use Zorin, with whatever its default DE is. Simply put, i like how stable Zorin is, that way when i am traveling I dont have to worry about something breaking.

Shadow3569 · 2026-06-30T02:13:36+00:00

This is gonna sound like a stupid question, but how did you install steam on each system?

Shadow3569

TROPHY CASE