Comment on SteamOS on my gaming PC?
MyFriendGodzilla@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
So the secret sauce here is that SteamOS is a version of Linux built for the deck, but all the cool stuff done by Valve can be accessed easily by other Linux distributions. So we can pick from a range of fully featured Linux distros designed for PC. I currently use and highly recommend Pop!_OS but another one called Bazzite is super popular for gaming setups. I think SteamOS could possibly be missing some things that you might want/need for regular pc stuff, although hopefully someone else can say more on that. GOG has native linux support for some games apparently but everything should work via Proton (the real magic of steamOS) anyway. I guess there is a learning curve here but installing SteamOS on PC would be its own (pretty similar) challenge.
foodandart@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
Penguins it is then!
I’m currenty an Apple user looking at the EOL of my ancient indestructible Intel kit (my newest Mac is a 2010 MBP which is running an unsupported macOS install) and deciding that, given Apple’s interminably frustrating OS decisions (walled gardens and all that rubbish…) on top of their switching yet again to a different platform - Apple SIlicon - that Linux is going to be my next adveture in OSes…
Will start with the PC and Bazzite, and may need a bit of help, as while I do know a few Terminal commands in the Mac, the PC presents a bit of a mystery (though I hope it’s gonna be less alien than I think, once the Linux OS is in…)
Much thanks to everone!
NutinButNet@hilariouschaos.com 3 weeks ago
Bazzite is built very similarly to how SteamOS looks and works but there is also Pop!_OS which a lot of gamers use as the person you replied to said.
There is also Garuda Linux which is another gaming centered distro, but it can be a bit intimidating for newbies.
You might also check out CachyOS (what I’m currently using) and Nobara, which a lot of gamers are also using now.
CachyOS is similar to both SteamOS and Bazzite in having a dedicated mode for gaming much like is found on the Steam Deck. I personally have not tried it but saw it and thought it was interesting.
I personally use CachyOS as a desktop on my gaming PC and it’s been working pretty well with very limited setup on my part. As far as drivers, I haven’t actually done anything and everything was dedicated and playable. Versus when I was on KDE Neon, I needed to manually configure the driver for my RTX 4080 Super because my monitor’s refresh at 180 was not coming across until that fix happened. Didn’t need to do any of that on CachyOS.
The big thing about CachyOS that a lot of people like is the speed, as it does feel very fast and loads my games up very nicely. I personally have not done any testing, but gaming has felt good on this over the last month and a half of me using it.
It looks and feels a lot like Windows 10 does but that is mostly down to it using KDE Plasma. So whatever distro you use, I highly recommend going with KDE Plasma as your desktop since that’s what you’ve been most familiar with. You’ll notice when you go to different distro’s download pages that they’ll have stuff like a Gnome or Plasma distro option or they’ll ask you when you are installing it what desktop environment you want.
foodandart@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
Ok, thats good to know. The limited access to Linux I’ve dabbled with in the past used Gnome - which was fine - but I’m always up for learning something new.