Hey there i consider myself a relative noob, but I’ve been using Linux as my main operating system for about four years now, transitioning from Windows 7 to Linux Mint and then to MX Linux. Recently, I encountered a login issue, and I know I’m partially to blame for this. When I try to install projects from GitHub and things don’t work out, I often give up without deleting or cleaning up the configurations and fragments. Over time, this has led to a huge clutter on my system, which is why I’ve been wanting to do a fresh install for a while now, and I’m taking this as the opportunity to finally do it. My Hardware:
CPU: AMD Ryzen™ 7 5800X
GPU: AMD Radeon™ RX 6700 XT
RAM: 32 GB
What I’m Looking For:
I’d love suggestions for a Linux distro that:
Has relatively up-to-date updates
Can optimize the performance of my hardware
Supports both programming and gaming
Currently, I have a minimal installation of Windows 11 set up for dual boot, but I’m considering moving it to a VM if the performance impact is manageable. If that doesn’t work out, I’d like to continue with Windows 11 in dual boot. I want to play games like Space Marines 2, and while I know about tools like Proton, Wine, and Lutris, I just don’t wanna dive into that right now. Please, no fundamental debates about how I don’t really NEED Windows. I fucking know! And just wanna know if its possibly or not. ;)
Additional Preferences:
I’d like to use Flatpaks wherever possible, except for programs that aren’t available or those where permissions issues arise, like password managers with browser integrations.
I’m interested in some "ricing" but don’t want to spend all my time troubleshooting or making constant adjustments.
I’d like to run a local AI on the machine so i hope for something that can squeze the last drop of performance out of my hardware.
I appreciate the extensive guides available for Debian-based systems but am open to exploring new options.
I’m excited to hear your recommendations!
Thanks in advance!
Edit: I loaded Fedora Kde, Nebora and AuroraDX on Ventoy and explored the systems.MyFavorite at this time is AuroraDX
Your case sounds like a perfect fit for Bazzite or Aurora.
- Both come already set up ootb, with all quality of life tweaks you want and need.
- They are image based distros (“immutable”), so you mainly work in your /var/ and /home/ directory, and all the other stuff is untouched and clean.
- They are very modern, getting the same updates at the same time as upstream Fedora.
- Running Ollama is just one
ujustcommand away, many complex things are made easier with those commands - You probably won’t get a lot more performance I believe. At least when I switched from regular Fedora/ Silverblue to Bazzite, I didn’t notice many more FPS in games for example.
You might want to try Bazzite if gaming is a major requirement.
Second Bazzite. My use case is almost identical to OPs. Been using Bazzite for a while and I haven’t had a single issue. Everything works. Gaming is a breeze. Even works with my work dock with keyboard, mouse, webcam, and 2 1080p monitors attached. Plug n play.
Never had that experience on Linux before in my LIFE
Fedora
Been using PopOS for 2 years, it is nice and stable But I found it lacking in package department (cus Debian based), lots of things are outdated and I find myself constantly building apps from source. I’d go with Arch or Endeavour in a heartbeat, but my machine is a production machine at this point in time thus I can’t afford downtime at all. I absolutely recommend Arch or derivatives. It is worth getting used to.
I have an almost carbon copy of your hardware and I run endeavour OS dualbooting with a mini win11. Been doing it for about 3 years now. For software, I just install bauh and call it a day. This app has every thing from flatpaks to app images to the AUR (except snaps) and you go from there. I’ve been very happy with my set up. I have 4 separate drives in my machine so I have each OS on its own drive since windows loves to mess with grub every time it updates. Having them on separate drives makes it easier to recover if anything goes wrong.
EDIT: forgot to mention that I, too, play games and code on this machine. No issues whatsoever. I have KDE plasma on Wayland
