Linux Gaming 4 Noobs - Choosing a Distro in 2024 

Is gaming modding the same on linux as it is on windows? I play a lot of single player games and I love downloading me some mods.

@@99mage99 Yep if you install mods manually it's the same as Windows for the most part, they install through wine. Compatibility can be hit or miss though. Steam workshop mods have good compatibility. If you want to use a mod manager then those are available too. For example here's the link for Mod Organizer 2 which works for Bethesda games: github.com/rockerbacon/modorganizer2-linux-installer

Not a gamer. Started using Linux in 2017. Started with Peppermint 8, currently using MX Linux Xfce. Quick install, quick overall and important to me, stability.

Unfortunately, in both Kubuntu and Garuda, I cannot for the life of me get my xbox one controller to work. Only time it's worked is while playing a game from one of my Windows folders, so I know the Garuda distro recognizes it. But on Steam, there's no recognition. On Kubunto, Steam recognizes the controller, but it makes no difference because it won't work, and I have no idea if the distro does.

@@HankBaxter Some drivers for the xbox controller are wonky. I recommend using this one: atar-axis.github.io/xpadneo/ All the major distros are supported. I personally use this one on EndeavourOS without any issues.

lol yea they're gonna continue to push more and more AI features which can be a big privacy concern.

Yep, if my nvme dies I'll be happy. Just deciding when to switch without too much pain.

Just switched from Windows 11 to Pop_OS today I was so sick of windows they keep trying to get me to activate my windows 11 which I already did but because I switched hardware out they expect me to pay again..

how easy is it to switch between linux and windows?

Depends on the desktop environment imo, KDE looks pretty similar to windows, a windows-like distro could be Linux mint cinnamon, zorin os, or if you want a more "macOs" type distro go for Pop os! That was my daily for a while.

​@@Zenden1STswitch back and forth with a bootloader or go from Windows to Linux forever? One of the Mint Distros is best for painless switch, but they are painfully to install gaming. Not impossible, just a lot more work than installing a windows game. Usually it'd just a matter of installing Steam/Proton/Play-on Linux/W.IN.E. which will also give you access to most windows apps with the noted exceptions of native Adobe products. Although several minor Adobe products have always been on Linux. And web versions should work. In fact I think they did away with desktop versions last year? IDK I've been using the F.O.S.S. equivalents for over a decade now since Adobe pricing is beyond my wallet.

Do you know how the Fallout games do on Mint?

Other than anticheat compatibility, are there any performance related reasons (i.e. latency) that would make Linux unsuitable for competitive FPS titles that do work on Linux?

Welcome! Many people feel the same way as you and are switching to Linux. Stay tuned for more helpful Linux videos.

This is exactly what I'm sick of. The extreme lengths necessary to create a local account Time to give Linux a go

There is a "trick" to setup local account (using command prompt during setup), but yeah, hiding it like that is really a dick move

@ScorpioHR There shouldn't have to be tricks just to make a local account . But hey that's Microsoft for ya lol

Thanks, yes I'm trying to make these videos very approachable for new users. And it sounds like you've been using Linux for even longer than I have so I appreciate the positive feedback!

Damn, I use arch, but gentoo is a whole other league 😂

Great points, I'll be sure to mention flatpaks in my next video.

Fedora is the best distro

@@AyaWetts the more I use it the more I like it. About the only other distro I would consider using at this point is Debian Testing.

what gaming optimizations you used?

@@Ehren1337The ones highlighted in the guides I followed. Basically the major ones GE includes by default in Nobara.

Yes Endeavour has newer drivers but it's not a big difference. I recommend Kubuntu because it's easier for new users and there are more resources available for Ubuntu distros.

I definitely will, thanks!

Thanks glad you liked the video. I also run EndeavourOS as my daily driver :)

I switched from Manjaro to EndeavourOS. I was having a few issues with Manjaro, but after switching, my laptop runs much better. I found out (after having RU-vid videos start constantly buffering) that I had to switch my audio from PulseAudio to Pipewire and after rebooting my laptop, the problem was solved. RU-vid videos started working properly again. Other than that, I've had no problems with EndeavourOS. It is now my daily driver as well.

​@@denf6755 i have way better performance on regular arch than endeavouros for some reason

Nice, Fedora is a great middle ground and I think it's probably the better choice for general use when compared to Nobara. Everything that's included in Nobara can be installed in Fedora, and you can pick and choose only the things you want, so you're not really missing out on anything. And thanks for sharing your experiences with those other distros.

I'm just mad that Nvidia, AMD, and Intel, including Microsoft, want to force A.I. onto us through everything.. I want to avoid artificial intelligence at every turn.

Glad to hear that!

Thanks! The algorithm was nice to my previous Linux gaming video, so lets see how it treats this one.

Good choice!

It seems MS is their own worst enemy. People are leaving Windows in droves lately.

A.I. is the most evil, and even the hardware they want to put that crap in NPU chips and graphics cards. It's just sickening!

Endeavour is basically a shortcut for much of that early effort on Arch.

Thanks! The game is Titanfall 2. Hard to believe it's 8 years old now, but it holds up extremely well. When it goes on sale you can find it for as little as $5.

@@PhazerTech OMG tysm! I didnt think you would respond! You just got a sub btw.

Sounds like a plan. If you prefer Bazzite then go with that, in the end it mostly comes down to personal preference.

Glad you enjoyed the video! I agree EndeavourOS is awesome and it's my personal favorite too. The AUR makes package installation super easy and everything is on there.

Good info, yea the latest kernel is best for the latest hardware.

Yes I've noticed that too, in some cases it actually performs better!

One of my systems is full amd (gpu and cpu) should i try it out?

​​@@robqwert2696yes u wont even need to update ur drivers, if u update ur system, the drivers come w it

nvidia is now on the bandwagon, they have been killing it the last few updates. two years ago, if you told me linux distros would surpass windows in gaming or at least on the brink of doing so, I would have said you were trolling. It's been only two years and it felt still very far from being the gamer's choice. Funny how things move quickly since that time.

@@Xanatos0504 Yeah, the latest beta drivers solved most of the remaining issues. Just need explicit sync on KDE and we're good. That's about a month out on Arch.

Like I mentioned in the video I suggest Kubuntu for most people. Here are step by step guides to get set up for gaming: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-kNWZ3rRMnXo.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-5mOCwpS6sII.html

Nice! I think you should try several distros and pick the one you like best.

Yea, as far as I know KDE is your best bet for those

It should be good, it just wasn't on my radar. Too many distros to mention in one video.

It's a linux mint alternative basically. Same package base, similar interest in glitzing up. I'd pick mint out of higher confidence for the mint team but it's gala vs honeycrisp apples.

Thanks for the support! The issue is probably the driver and not so much the distro. I recommend using this driver: atar-axis.github.io/xpadneo/ All the major distros are supported. Scroll down to the Prerequisites section. I'm personally running this driver without any issues on EndeavourOS.

For fan management you can use CoolerControl: gitlab.com/coolercontrol/coolercontrol For RGB management you can use OpenRGB: openrgb.org/ And I'm not sure what you mean by power management. The CPU and GPU handle all that in the bios, and my most recent video covers GPU OC tools.

​@@PhazerTech Thank for respond. In laptops, the power is limited to the CPU and GPU to increase battery life. I tried the application you mentioned and it did not work. I found the Linux application made by community for my own laptop. But thanks anyway.

Glad it was helpful. Yea I'd also place IBM in the same bin as Microsoft when it comes to trustworthiness haha. And yes I think you'll enjoy Kubuntu!

@@PhazerTech I still have the huge hill of "Office365 whether I want to or not" to climb, as well. Dreading that.

My work laptop has auto updated to win 11 as well and holy shit I hate it so much. It's not enough that even if it did work correctly it'd be dogshit compared to 10, after the update the performance nose-dived completely and there's also some bug with the system leaking memory resulting in the work laptop crashing due to running out of RAM after 4-5 hours of system up-time. I'd rather get quartered than install win 11 on my personal desktop especially since windows 10 bricked twice within a month of installation when 8.1 was at end of life.

Thanks I'm glad you liked it!

Nice, if you know what you're doing then Debian is preferable for many people. Also running Linux on an old iMac is pretty awesome! 👍

I suggest Kubuntu. Also see my installation guide: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-kNWZ3rRMnXo.html

I haven't had any issues with my Nvidia systems using Kubuntu. Just make sure you check the box during installation "install 3rd party drivers".

Yep that's a common reason why people are switching. And as far as gaming performance goes, it depends. Some games run better on Linux but a lot of native Windows games still run better on Windows. This is because Proton/Wine are translation layers and sometimes require extra CPU resources.

M.S. has had their ups and downs throughout the years with various Windows releases and I go as far back as DOS 6.0 and Win 3.11 - OS/2. For me the last Desktop PC Operating System that MS put out that was an OS that was customizable, mostly worked out of the box, didn't get in your way, spied on you the least, etc... was and still is Windows 7. Windows 8 sucked, Windows 10 is an improvement over 8 in some regards, and there were a lot of nice features in Windows 10 {DirectX 12, WSL for direct linux - bash support being able to integrate it into CMD provided you have Windows 10 Pro..., and a few other small features like improvements to task manager}, however their added telemetry, their Tablet - Phone touch screen UI sucks, and their constant bloatware advertising machine is horrendous. On top of that, removing the option to either install or not install updates and forcing them onto you is probably one of their worst shittiest business practices throughout the decades. Also, many of the core functionalities of easily and quickly getting to various controls and settings that use to be 1-3 clicks away from Windows 8+ are 7+ clicks away buried behind a bunch of unnecessary bullshit. Windows 11 I have not used, but I assume it is still heading in that same direction and the fact that you must have Secure Boot enabled at all times, and you must have their TPM 2.0 module on your hardware to dictate to you what you can and can not do with the hardware you paid for, yeah FUCK YOU MICROSOFT! You are about 1-2 steps away from losing a 30+ year customer. So here I am, scouting out and doing some research into Linux alternatives. I still currently have Windows 7 on my 16 year old machine and I am about to put Windows 10 Pro onto it, but I do not think I'll go to Windows 11. I think Windows 10 Pro in conjunction with testing out a few Linux Distros might be my transition to drop MS like a red hat (pun intended). I've been debating between Ubuntu and Arch... Arch you have more control but is for more experienced users, Ubuntu perhaps not perfect but for most cases should just work right out of the box. Now, I'm not a noob to computing, and I can learn Linux fairly easy. For me I think the hardest challenge or part is unlearning Windows habits. We are talking about a good 30+ years of DOS commands vs Bash... And old habits do Die Hard: "Yippie-kai-yay Motherfucker" - Bruce Willis!

That GPU is new enough that you shouldn't have any problems with any distro. Perhaps try an Nvidia-focused distro such as Pop OS if you want the best compatibility straight out of the box. Any other distro should be fine too, you might need to manually install nvidia drivers though.

It depends on the game. Some games run better on Linux and some games run better on Windows. That's because Proton/Wine is a translation layer and sometimes requires extra CPU resources, but this is pretty minimal. Your 5800X3D should help in that regard. And yes I recommend EndeavourOS if you're going Arch based.

@@PhazerTech Ok, that makes sense. I've seen I can run non steam games as well, so I might jump into it soon. I'm really tired of some of the Microsoft shenanigans, and I can go without Gamepass.

@@TheCgOrion Yep my latest video shows how to run Epic Games, GOG, Battlenet and more. Feels good to be free of MS!

Sounds like a plan, hope it works out for you

There are also alternatives for Illustrator and After Effects, check out Inkscape and Natron. This link has more Adobe alternatives: itsfoss.com/adobe-alternatives-linux/ But yea it won't be easy to completely overhaul your workflow and will take effort to learn the new apps.

Yes it should work straight out of the box. It's not a very new chipset, it's been around for a while so support should be good. Let me know how it goes

@PhazerTech OS installation when ok wifi working but every time i restart the pc give me a blank screen the only way to by pass the black screen is to hit SHIFT key on splash screen en select kubuntu

@@ForceGMs Have you run a system update yet? I'd do that first. Also which version did you install? 22.04 or 24.04?

@PhazerTech i install 24.04 lts and all updates are installed

@@ForceGMs It looks like this is a bug affecting a number of Ubuntu 24.04 based distros. You can either wait for an update to fix it, or you can follow the instructions in this link: www.reddit.com/r/Kubuntu/comments/1cdko49/beware_kubuntu_2404_is_presenting_displaygraphics/ The third comment down explains how to manually fix it. You'll need to edit a file in grub and that should do the trick.

The only great thing about Kubuntu is it's running KDE Plasma, though not the latest version. It's still on Plasma 5, but I heard that Plasma 5 is the most stable. KDE is great for gaming due to it's Kwin compositor. People saying about Kubuntu slowness perhaps because they using software Snaps packages, though I recommend you to download software from Debian repo (sudo apt) instead of Snap packages. "Es cierto hay lageo en su ventana digo al abrir programas y eso demora un milisegundo mas?"

It seems Alt:V is the Linux alternative to that. This thread should be helpful: www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/violo3/how_to_install_altv_and_saltychat/

Yes a Ryzen system with 4GB RAM should work fine on Linux.

@@PhazerTech thx actually using kubuntu and watching movies Good system for this laptop,am thinking install in future EndervourOS for desktop gaming computer But for now am waiting tech service of mine intenet adsl2 company is bad and have to many cuts all days They come the last moth and they do nothing now is practically impossible play online games 😅 Is Movistar and am trying change to fibre optic but doesnt have port say me a lot of companys.😭

It will, but for the smoothest experience possible (without manual tinkering of graphics drivers) pick a distro that is bundled with proprietary NVIDIA drivers. Pop_OS! or Linux Mint provide installation images for such case, the option will pop up either before image download or during installation process

@@JiriPohanka Good advice. Most if not all Ubuntu based distros will have the "install 3rd party drivers" option during installation. As mentioned in the video I'll be using Kubuntu for my next video and it also has this option.

Fedora you just need to add RPM Fusion first, then installing and updating nividia drivers are simple along with everything else. They used to ask if you wanted this during Fedora install, but I think they took it out, and you have to go look it up yourself on how to add it (which is really easy though).

Which version of Kubuntu? What was the error message? Also I normally recommend installing to a separate drive, not the same drive as your Windows system. Even though the installer makes it possible to do this, I think it's generally better to have separate drives.

Also if you installed version 24.04 see the first comment here for a fix: www.reddit.com/r/Kubuntu/comments/1cdko49/comment/l1ht1l9/?

@@PhazerTech I appreciate the help. I think part of my issue is that my boot efi stuff is a mess from old Linux installs. I don't have windows installed on the drive I want to use, but I use it for storage, and I partitioned off empty space for Kubuntu.

@@uponeric36 No problem. I can't say for sure but it sounds like something weird happened to Grub. I'd try to repair/reinstall it: www.baeldung.com/linux/grub-efi-reinstall

Not really. It's required to update your system and it's the easiest way to install applications. Why don't you want to use a package manager?

@@PhazerTech - Don't so much care if I have to use one for system updates, but I got in a situation where I had multiple copies of the same software, and none of them were up-to-date -- keep in mind I don't mean betas or nightlies or debug software, I just mean the latest stable releases. It annoyed the crap out of me, especially since I had to remember which one was the right one.

Nobara is a good choice if gaming is your main priority. Its default desktop is KDE, I think you'll like it better than unity.

@@PhazerTech I am going to give Garuda another shot and see. If it annoys me I'll try nobara. It's more important to me to really try to get away from MS I am sick on their crap.

@@chrisgraff2103 I hear you man, MS is doing some really sketchy things. I think many people are going to switch over now.

@@PhazerTech so back to report. With Garuda I had some graphical issue that would not display setting windows and wifi windows etc, I moved to nobara and it would not see my wifi7 card due to the old Kernal, endeavoros works but fml trying to install via terminal alone lol. Not sure who to try next or if I should tinker with endevor more.

​@@chrisgraff2103 EndeavourOS is what I use on my daily driver so I might be biased but I suggest sticking to that lol. Installing via terminal isn't hard at all, and I'm sure you'll get comfortable with it faster than you think. To install most applications all you need to enter is: yay -S app-name So lets say for steam, all you would do is enter: yay -S steam Some applications require dependencies but again you'd install those the same way, just Google for a guide or instructions on how to install a particular program and the dependencies will be given, all you do is copy and paste. Also be sure to see some of my other videos which have detailed instructions, and you'll get the hang of it. EndeavourOS guide: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2U1_Vi6zsNA.html Running Steam games: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-kNWZ3rRMnXo.html Running Epic, battlenet, & other game launchers: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-5mOCwpS6sII.html

I wasn't familiar with it but it looks nice. Based on OpenSuse. Thanks for the suggestion

Yes they're extremely similar and both use apt but Ubuntu has newer software by default and is more noob friendly.

Have you tried Kubuntu? I think it looks a lot better than vanilla Ubuntu

These articles might be helpful for you: wiki.archlinux.org/title/laptop austingwalters.com/increasing-battery-life-on-an-arch-linux-laptop-thinkpad-t14s/

Interesting perspective, I'd be curious to see performance numbers. But Apple is also going all in on AI, so personally I wouldn't trust them any more than Microsoft. Apple has already shown applications for its AI where it needs user's personal data to work. For example, they've shown a feature where phone calls will be summarized after you hang up. Also text messages will be prioritized for you, and so on. All these things require the user's personal data. I realize the features I mentioned are for the phone, but they'll be using their entire ecosystem of phones, tablets, and computers to collect data. Also it's true Apple's CPUs are very power efficient but I imagine the Snapdragon CPUs and other ARM alternatives will reach similar levels of efficiency once they mature a bit which will give Apple some competition in that regard. As far as productivity on Linux goes, I haven't had any issues doing music production and video editing. There are suitable alternatives for any type of application. The only scenario where I can see it wouldn't work is if your job requires you to use certain software.

Bottles makes it easy, but there are a few apps that will have bugs. This video has more info: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ILu8YQ1vwso.html

Call me the software to me,amd doing the change too newer in linux For say good bye to the 16gb ram minimun of next windows 11-12 this year. Other thing u can emulate windows to and run some software

you don't buy it

It’s freeeeeeeeeee

Well I haven't had any issues with my Xbox controller and a 3rd party controller. But you're right, steering wheels and joysticks don't have the best compatibility at the moment. Some will work, but not all models will.

I do music production in Linux without any issues. There's software such as yabridge which allows you to run Windows VST plugins. But when it comes to VR, that still isn't supported yet.

Many people are feeling the same way, it's a good time to switch.

Yes that's very true, thanks for the clarification

Which controller? You probably need to install a driver for it. And yes unfortunately a few games use incompatible anticheat software, but lets hope those developers change their ways.

I ended up using linux mint, felt exactly the same as ubuntu for the most part and used 3gb less ram

How is Zorin? I was thinking of trying it. Does it have the latest Mesa drivers?

@@PerfectLynk it's great and its my main distro. Very beginner friendly. Mesa drivers do seem to get updated frequently enough. Their windows app support app is a lazy but effective way to use wine.

According to the comments in this thread the packages in Debian sid are only slightly older than Arch. www.reddit.com/r/linuxquestions/comments/167cpnk/is_debian_sid_more_stable_than_arch/ I never said they're exactly the same, my point was that Debian can be modified to use much newer packages than stock Debian. Also this video is meant to help new users choose a distro, it's not meant to give advice on backup software and I don't think new users should start with BTRFS.

Are you OCing or using really fast memory? If you're having frequent issues then I'd double check and make sure your system is actually stable. It might be right on the borderline of stability. I've been using EndeavourOS for years and everything still works great. In rare cases a bug might break a program, for example this happened to Brave Browser before. But after a week or two a new update fixed it. Stuff like that is rare though.

@@PhazerTech The pc in general has always been stable, it was just the opening of some games ones in a while that didn't really work. In the end I was able to open everything, except Dragon's Dogma 2 on Garudo. But let's be honest, DD2 has some crashing issues yet even on windows. I only have DDR4 3600 Mhz, did not go to DDR5 when I upgraded from DDR3 ram because of all the instability, and I honestly don't need that kind of speed. I'm distro jumping now, so I have already moved over to something else than Garudo 😆 even though I got everything to work before doing so.

@@PhazerTech You actually got me to try out Kubuntu now, and so far everything I have done as I usually did on the other distros has just worked perfectly. Kde Desktop is my favorite and thought ubuntu didn't use it, so had to try it out now that you showed me an Ubuntu Distro that has Kde. Like it so far, even though it feels odd not getting to use yay.

You're half correct. It's true all those flavors are the same OS just with different desktop environments and some have additional software pre-installed, but Canonical isn't involved with any of them except Ubuntu. The rest have their own developers.

​@@PhazerTech you are wrong Contents Copyright © 2005 - 2024 Kubuntu devs, licence CC BY-SA 4.0, icons Copyright Breeze artists GPL 2+. Kubuntu is a trademark of Canonical Ltd.Advertica Theme by SketchThemes Source Kubuntu website

​@@PhazerTech Herr another proof Directly from Ubuntu sitr Ubuntu flavours offer a unique way to experience Ubuntu, each with their own choice of default applications and settings. Ubuntu flavours are owned and developed by members of our global community and backed by the full Ubuntu archive for packages and updates.

Actually looks like you're correct about Kubuntu, Xubuntu, etc.. my mistake. But other distros such as Linux Mint and Pop OS have their own developers.

I don't know my reply allays get error​@@PhazerTech

Personally I'd go with Mint or Kubuntu for home use, but there's nothing wrong with openSUSE if you prefer that. It seems to be more geared towards business use though.

Haha yea I don't like that either

That's actually a good question. A distro with a lightweight desktop environment is your best bet. Try Linux Mint with XFCE: www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=313

@@PhazerTech Thanks, I'll check it out