Iāve been meaning to make the leap for some time, but I had a hiccup with Mint a little while ago, and my key reason for choosing Mint above all others has disappeared. My Windows machine is doing the usual āyouāve had this installed for a while so itās just going to keep getting slower unless you do a fresh re-installā thing that Windows seems to do, and Iāve got more time on my hands than last time I tried, so I figure why not put that time to use.
The first thing is that Iāve got an nVidia card. Iām not allergic to having to play around with settings and download drivers, but itād be nice to have something that just works with that card and which is designed to work with that card, rather than having to bodge something together out of sellotape & string.
I also have 3 monitors. And they donāt all connect with the same kind of socket/lead. I believe that both nVidia & multiple monitors, and especially nVidia and multiple monitors is a bit of a sticky point with many distros.
I am something of a gamer, but I donāt tend to play stuff which is resource-intensive. No AAA titles. Think more āgames which cost Ā£20 or under on Steamā. So I donāt think I need a distro which is optimised for gaming, but I would like one where Iām likely to be able to play most things I own with a minimal amount of fudging.
I do have some utilities that I use. Iād like to avoid dual-booting, if possible, but I understand that it might be necessary. Reaper has a native Linux version, so thatās not a problem, but if I understand correctly using vst & clap plug-ins might need some attention? Again, if that can be done with as little difficulty as possible, then thatād be great. I also have a usb keyboard/controller (piano, not typing), so if thereās any potential issues with that, itād be nice if the distro had been built with something like that in mind.
I also do some video/photo stuff, which donāt have Linux-native versions. I use Affinity (v2 and the newly-released version), Magix Vegas, and Wondershare Filmora. I donāt know if itād be possible to run any of them in a virtual machine or something. I have tried the Linux-native alternatives, and while they have their merits, I wonāt be able to use them as full replacements.
Now, perhaps unusually for a newbie, when it comes to wanting something Iām familiar with, Iām actually not bothered by having an envirnment which resembles Windows. In fact, I think itād probably be a plus if the distro does things differently. Itās fun to try different things, and if someoneās genuinely thought āthis is a better way of doing thisā, then Iām happy to give it a go. As long as thereās decent documentation. Iām not allergic to the idea of the terminal or otherwise having to use typed commands (I have a Raycast-ish-like app on Windows which I use to launch apps and search for files, for example), but Iām also not very experienced with that and would need very good, very newbie-friendly documentation.
And for customisation, Iād like to be able to be able to make it look pretty. Juxtopposedās recent Linux video was very cool, and I could see myself wanting to do something like that but, unlike her, Iāve got very little coding experience and if there were any coding involved Iād need even better documentation than I would for the command line stuff. And, this really isnāt important, but ATM I run an app called Lively Wallpaper, which allows me to make it look like the glass looking onto the desktop has rain running down it. If there just happens to be a reasonably simple and non-resource-hogging way to have animated wallpapers, then thatād be a lovely bonus.
So thatās it. Sorry for the long, rambly wall of text, but I feel like for responses to be truly helpful, people should know exactly what it is Iām looking for. Please ask any follow-up questions if thatāll help with suggestions. I think Iāve said everything which could be important, but I donāt know what I donāt know.
Pop!_OS and CachyOS are the two I always recommend for people with nVidia. The best option for Linux, quite frankly, is to switch to AMD. However, both of those should be preconfigured for your GPU. Iāve been loving CachyOS, and my friend with nVidia has been too.
Thank you. The consensus seems to be Cachy OS, so Iām going to give that a go.
I really love CachyOS. Itās so fast. Iāve been seeing lots of reports of performance issues in The Outer Worlds 2, and Iāve gotta say Iām not experiencing any of that.
Just make sure you familiarize yourself with some of the quirks of Arch, such as why you might want to use a program like Timeshift for backups, or the risks of the AUR.
Also, get a flash drive and back up your important files, just in case. I have done full system upgrades every time I upgrade, and I havenāt had issues with my system yet. But with Arch, you gotta be careful.
Thanks.
Generally speaking I tend to just leave the C: drive for utilities and use external drives for data, as much as possible. I understand that Linux handles files and stuff somewhat differently, but that would still generally be my plan.
Bazzite. It was the absolute smoothest spin-up I have had in my distro hopping, and has been nice and stable the whole time. KDE gives lots of pretty options. Gaming stuff and Nvidia stuff is ready to go out of the box. Unless you need to be bleeding edge, which it seems you donāt, youāll be just fine.
I would recommend bazzite as although it is gaming orientated it has nvidia version, is hard to break and by default uses KDE the same desktop enviroment juxtopposed used. But for the editing software I canāt help with that maybe winboat would work.?
Thank you.
Bazzite.
nVidia? Check.
Gaming? Check.
Customization? Yesā¦ish*
If you want a bit more tradition (by that i mean it works like a typical linux system) and a good base, choose CachyOS.
nVidia? Check.
Gaming? Check.
Customization? Check.
(extra) The AUR? (the second biggest software repo in the entirety of linux) Check.
.
If you arenāt much focused towards gaming, choose Pop!_OS.
NoVidea**? Check.
Gaming? No.
Customization? Check.
*Jux customized KDE Plasma using Kvantum (an extra package, not preinstalled), Panel Colorizer, System Settings and RTFM. Some of those packages may be hard to install or unavailable on Bazzite due to itās atomic (something either happens or not) and immutable (you are phohibited to touch system directories) nature.
**=joke
Thanks. I think Iām going to start with trying Cachy.
Good choice.
fun fact: you can choose your DE/WM while installing, and all* of them are available with customizations in the looks :)
fun fact#2: there are deck images too
+1 for Bazzite, itās working perfectly with Nvidia for me. Only have one monitor, so donāt know about multi-monitor setup (might be a desktop environment thing, as well?)
Bazzite on AMD with ultra-wide and 1440p dual-monitor setup here, zero problems
I have been using pop 24.04 with cosmic DE since alpha and itās great. I use it for all desktop needs but also have had no issues gaming with it.
I am aware you can game on Pop. But, itās not focused towards gaming. You can game on every distro nowadays.
But, itās not focused towards gaming.
Except it is
Others have answered your question but nobodyās explicitly mentioned GNOME so I think I should.
Most distros have the option to install with GNOME or KDE (or a different one). Never pick GNOME. GNOME is very āmy way or the highwayā desktop and itās way is to emulate an iPhone.
I actually would recommend it for that reason. Itās different from traditional desktops and polished at the same time, you dont need to fiddle with it. I think itās good way to show people that alternative (to windows) doesnt mean bad.
I have not once had a good experience with gnome since the gnome shell was introduced. And I exclusively used gnome before for years.
Iām enjoying Cosmic desktop.
Unfortunately, disagree.
Last time I checked it still had double menus all around the place, not a sign of a āpolishedā experience.
And since a lot of users still recommend to install the dash to dock extension before doing anything else, doesnāt seem plug & play, either.
Thank you.
XFCEās been going the longest and strongest, unbroken.
Though, the user can install them all, try them all, on almost any distro. GNOME, Mate, Trinity, KDE Plasma, XFCE, Cosmic, Cinnamon, etc etc. And/or just window managers, Icewm, i3, fluxbox, for a fairly easy time from the start, or more fangled things like xmonad, herbstluftwm, dwm, etc. ā¦ I dont know the wayland things. Dozens to try.
Point being, well raised here, is that the distro does not matter so much, and new users need introduced to what the freedom means, specifically in how when you select your distro, youāre not stuck with the desktop environment it first provides.
PS, GNOMEās bad news, on multiple levels. Donāt get me started. NSFL horrors lurk.
Well GNOME can be recommended for new coming macOS users tho
On any Fedora based distro you can quite easily install the proprietary nvidia drivers (this is necessary for a good experience btw). For windows programs you could take a look at winboat, it basically spins up windows in docker and it doesnt need any configuration whatsoever. For an animated wallpaper, KDE Plasma has a wallpaper engine plugin. Its a bit fiddly as I remember and not every wallpaper works, but its good enough for me.
Thank you
Use Lutris and Libretro
Thank you
The first thing is that Iāve got an nVidia card.
This can well cost you a lot of extra frustration and time. You have been warned.
Yeah, Iām prepared. I hope.
Normally Iād say go Bazzite if you want easy NVidia support.
Since youāve got some āother thingsā then an immutable distro might not be the way you want to go. In which case Iād check out Nobara or CachyOS. I really like CachyOS
Thanks. The consensus seems to be Cachy, so thatās what Iām trying first.
I also do some video/photo stuff, which donāt have Linux-native versions. I use Affinity (v2 and the newly-released version), Magix Vegas, and Wondershare Filmora. I donāt know if itād be possible to run any of them in a virtual machine or something. I have tried the Linux-native alternatives, and while they have their merits, I wonāt be able to use them as full replacements.
The unfortunate thing is if this is non-negotiable, I think this will kill your Linux dreams at the moment. At the moment, the only ways I know how to run these well is on a VM with GPU pass through which is a pain for people who have tinkered with Linux for ages and damn near system breaking for the average user.
Now, perhaps unusually for a newbie, when it comes to wanting something Iām familiar with, Iām actually not bothered by having an envirnment which resembles Windows. In fact, I think itād probably be a plus if the distro does things differently. Itās fun to try different things, and if someoneās genuinely thought āthis is a better way of doing thisā, then Iām happy to give it a go. As long as thereās decent documentation. Iām not allergic to the idea of the terminal or otherwise having to use typed commands (I have a Raycast-ish-like app on Windows which I use to launch apps and search for files, for example), but Iām also not very experienced with that and would need very good, very newbie-friendly documentation.
If the previous part isnāt a deal breaker, based upon this part of your post, I would highly recommend running endeavor os or cachy os which are both run on an arch base. My preferred of the two is endeavor since it is essentially just a base arch install without the hassle that is installing arch. Using one of these distros will require you to familiarize yourself with the package manager pacman and the aur wrapper that they use, but that is the extent of CLI interaction that is needed. This will allow you to have a hassle free install while having the tinkering capabilities that arch is known for, just donāt touch anything that requires sudo without making sure you understand what it is doing.
Cachy is what Iāmgoing to try first. Iām semi-resolved to dual-booting for the video/photo stuff.
Iāve also got a vague plan at some point in the future to buy a desktop mac and one of those boxes where you can just switch monitors/input device routing at the press of a button. Maybe put the video/photo stuff on that. Although, that said, Iāve got a colleage who is a graphic designer on the side and the only reason heās got a Windows machine is that even the biggest mac he owns canāt handle the graphics. Heās an Apple evangelist yet even he says that Apple does not do graphics well.
The stuff I do is nothing like the stuff he does and I donāt need anything as powerful as him, but I am still aware that āget a mac to do video stuffā isnāt necessarily the best plan. But Iām likely getting one anyway for other reasons, so it canāt hurt to try.
Since you are going the dual boot route, I highly recommend that you keep the OSās on separate drives and never use systemd, or GRUB boot for windows, ie always switch your boot order in your uefi. This is mainly because there are countless formatting and system repair issues with using one drive, and regardless of where the OSās are, windows has a strong tendency to overwrite your Linux bootloader.
Yeah, thatās kind of what Iād gathered. Iāve got a few dead computers around and Iām going to take a drive out of one of those and use that for the Linux while keeping Windows on the drive itās already on.
I donāt know why thereās so much nvidia hate going on here. Itās MUCH better than it used to be. Lots of distros mentioned work out of the box with nvidia cards, and if you pick something else - itās just a matter of installing the right driver. On fedora for example you just go to the rpm fusion site and follow the very easy directions.
Thank you.
Itās not about just installing. Once you installed, welcome to the nightmare. Secure boot error, Suspend issues, kernel and driver version incompatibility etc.
Should go for arch. Vanilla arch or cachy os would be great for you. I know on KDE thereās a wallpaper engine extension that might be good for this use case, not sure if there are any other alternatives
Thank you. Cachy OS seems to be the majority suggestion, and thatās Arch.
Have you checked out zorinOS? Zorin, popOs! And mint are all great distros. I think anyone trying to switch would be very comfortable with any, but especially zorin as you can make it look like and feel like any os, https://zorin.com/os/
If your into something arch based you and try Garuda Linux. https://garudalinux.org/
Iāve not tried any fedora distros yet.
Thank you.
So thatās it. Sorry for the long, rambly wall of text, but I feel like for responses to be truly helpful, people should know exactly what it is Iām looking for.
absolutely! no reason to apologize
Thanks.
I use Manjaro, an Arch flavor. Manjaro is amazing at identifying and installing the proper drivers. I canāt imagine Iād ever switch to another distro. I use gnome desktop and I like to customize it every so often, keep things interesting. The community is very supportive. It seems like people prefer KDE for aesthetics.
Thank you.
