DescentBB

As the title says, what's the best distro for a gaming rig, a gaming laptop and a noob to Linux? Zorin, Mint? Microsquish is soon going to require that you MUST have an online account for Win 11 to receive updates. No more local accounts. I'm quite sure they'll find a final way to screw Rufus very soon too. I'm getting sick of this required spying nonsense and I'm already using Libre Office. I have 2 computers that need to be upgraded to Win 11 and one currently on 11, but now I'm thinking otherwise for all 3 systems AND 2 older computers that run fine with the exception they don't qualify to run 10 or 11. Effing Microsoft.

Tunnelcat wrote: Sat Oct 11, 2025 12:32 pm...what's the best distro for a gaming rig, a gaming laptop and a noob to Linux?

Any major distro will work. Gaming on Linux requires an additional software environment and that software runs on all the major distributions. Also, you'll have better luck with AMD GPUs over Nvidia, generally. My advice is to download and install a distro that looks cool and see it you feel comfortable using it. Mint is always recommended for Windows users since it feels the most like Windows, but honestly there is a lot of convergence with modern desktop environments so they aren't really too different from each other.

Steam runs on Linux and there are lots of games have native Linux ports. For things that need Windows, you can install Proton (though Steam might already take care of that step). There is also Lutris which is like a library of emulators, but if you mostly play games from Steam then you probably won't need this.

Note: I don't really play modern games and I haven't used Windows for 15 years so I don't have a lot of experience with this stuff, but from what I've heard it all works great.

How about other clients like Ubisoft, Rockstar and Epic? Unfortunately, all my GPU's are Nvidia.I might try messing around with Linux on my old Win 7 computer to get a feel for it before committing the 2 newer systems to Linux. Meanwhile, I have to update to 11....

I'm not super familiar with Linux, but I think you could probably create a live USB (or CD) version that you could boot up and test out on your PCs, to see how well it works before you install it.

I'm in a similar situation with my gaming PC, running Windows 10 and not able to upgrade it to Windows 11. I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do. I seem to be gaming less.

Tunnelcat wrote: Sat Oct 11, 2025 1:56 pmHow about other clients like Ubisoft, Rockstar and Epic?

Less likely though some are available using Lutris, usually older versions. You can check here:

https://lutris.net/games?q=launcher&paginate_by=100

You still have to be somewhat of a computer geek to get some games working on Linux, but this is also true on Windows if you've ever tried to install a game purchased in 1998 from a CD.

x2 for Lutris. Though I'm not a heavy gamer, I have a 1999 game I love to play still.

Fyi,I'm just a causal Linux user (not an expert), but I'm using Endevour OS on my daily driver, Lubuntu on my Frigate mini-pc, and a specialized NVIDIA version of Ubuntu for my ai pc... I wouldn't recommend any of those to you, though my favorite so far is Endevour.

Also there is no "best". You see, Ubuntu has a lot of support features for industry grade applications, like Docker, but I wouldn't ever go back to Ubuntu. And "easy" distros make it easier to install and run Linux but that's not a substitute for being curious and inventive, which is what you'll need to be a Linux user. The more advanced distros seem to require more steps from the user, but you ultimately always arrive at the same place.

For running windows desktop applications, things have gotten much better these days. I think Bottles is a new one people are using. I haven't tried it yet. However Ubuntu's Snap does that really well except the apps are pre-packaged and come from a repo. Flatpack does virtualization as well, but Snap has much more in the way of pre-packaged free windows apps. It just costs so much more disk space... I avoid it.

Most important: Don't get upset when things don't automatically work, because with linux you're not a customer: You're joining a software community that exists despite Microsoft, Adobe, Apple, and other large corporations trying to kill it.

edit:

For testing, Linux runs great in a VM. So get your favorite virtual machine desktop application and try a few (and break a few) there. Try to install Arch by following the instructions. It's fun!

Well, for the time being, I'm going to stay on Windows since I have so many games, at least on this system. However, I've run into a problem with my 6 year old ASUS motherboard. It seems that it won't boot from a USB stick formatted in NTFS. On ASUS's site, they want it in FAT32, even though my system has a UEFI BIOS. Does that sound right? When the USB is formatted in NTFS, it just won't show in the boot menu. Since Microsoft has shut down pretty much all the ways to install with a local account, that leaves Rufus, which won't allow me to choose FAT32. I'm now stuck.

Tunnelcat wrote: Mon Oct 13, 2025 11:19 amOn ASUS's site, they want it in FAT32, even though my system has a UEFI BIOS. Does that sound right? When the USB is formatted in NTFS, it just won't show in the boot menu.

I don't understand what you are trying to do. USB drives are bootable if there is a proper boot partition and have nothing to do with the UEFI. Every UEFI I've seen has a legacy fallback and I've never encountered a disk making utility that doesn't support FAT. If FAT32 isn't an option try FAT16 or xFAT, buy I don't know why you would set this in the first place if you are creating a boot disk from an image. The image should have the correct file system and boot partition.

Try a different port, not all USB ports are available to BIOS/UEFI for booting. The most likely candidates that should reliably work would be a USB2.x port in the rear I/O of the motherboard. Or if your system supports USB flashback, whatever port is labeled or specified to use in the manual should for sure be available to boot from. Typically the FAT file system requirement is only for USB flashback, not for actual booting. If it can boot NTFS from a fixed disk/SSD/etc, then it should be able to boot NTFS from a USB stick, there isn't any real difference.

Tunnelcat wrote: Mon Oct 13, 2025 11:19 am Well, for the time being, I'm going to stay on Windows since I have so many games, at least on this system. However, I've run into a problem with my 6 year old ASUS motherboard. It seems that it won't boot from a USB stick formatted in NTFS. On ASUS's site, they want it in FAT32, even though my system has a UEFI BIOS. Does that sound right? When the USB is formatted in NTFS, it just won't show in the boot menu. Since Microsoft has shut down pretty much all the ways to install with a local account, that leaves Rufus, which won't allow me to choose FAT32. I'm now stuck.

Try unetbootin... Rufus is good but try the alternative. See if that somehow fixes it.

I used Rufus to create a bootable drive without issue, until I went to boot from it. Absolutely none of the rear motherboard ports would show that USB drive in the boot order to even select, either in the BIOS menu or pressing F8 to get to the boot menu. I certainly wasn't going to try the front add on ports since the system builder made a weird mess doing that. In fact, you should see the USB devices list in Windows 11's Device Manager. Microsoft couldn't find drivers for a huge list of HID devices, so none of those ports or the SD Card reader work anymore. That mess will be pulled out and replaced because I bought a new better case.

The motherboard is a 6 year old ASUS ROG RAMPAGE EXTREME VI Omega and ASUS claims on their website that bootable USB drives need to be in FAT32. I kind of thought that this was weird since I have a UEFI Bios anyway, but others online have complained of the same problem. Sometimes switching ports worked, most times not.

There's one little USB partition on the C: Drive set aside for the Ryuo CPU cooler's lighting. It's labeled H: at the moment. Well, every time the OS is installed, it has a fit with that one drive, sometimes labeled H, sometimes L, and it keeps throwing constant notifications that the drive needs repair. The first thing I have to do when I get to the desktop after a new install is to bring up the Device Manager and disable that one drive, at the suggestion of ASUS, as a "fix". So far, the lighting effects and CPU temps still function, but they will stay on the last settings I made before I upgraded, because Live Dash is no more and I refuse to install that buggy mess Armory Crate. Most of ASUS's software is a buggy mess anyway.

Ventoy works great. Instead of constantly reformatting your USB drive, you can simply copy one or several ISO files onto it. When you boot from the drive, just select the ISO you want, and Ventoy handles the rest automatically.

https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html

As for Windows, I'm pretty sure someone out there will find a workaround for the Microsoft update nonsense.

Not all usb image writers are the same or use the same process, so it might be worth trying a different one to see if it's better. Unetbootin is kind of a simple dd script with a gui, but its simplicity might be why it works better for you than a more advanced image writer.

However, before you do that, I still recommend installing something like virtual box and trying a few distros in there.

If you're not sure what to check out here's a popularity board, ranking each distro, but it's not super accurate. Though it does give a general view:

https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=popularity

I recently installed Mint on a 9 year old laptop that had Windows11, and it works fine and is easy to use.
When Windows 10 and 11 were updating (constantly it seemed) they would slow the laptop down to where it was literally unusable for most of the day, but I'll probably get a few more years out of it now.
I don't game on it though. I mainly use it for running FreeCAD and playing music in my workshop.

I've got an older HP workstation that doesn't meet the Windows 11 boot security standard. It's currently not being used, so I'm going to install Linux on that as a test box to play with. It would be a shame to recycle it since it still works fine.

My problematic gaming rig now has Win 11 Pro installed with an MS account. It had that account on Win 10 anyway, so it's really no skin off my nose and I don't use it for a lot of personal stuff anyway. OneDrive and CoPilot are disabled and I'd love to uninstall them, thank you GPedit, but that's probably not likely. I'm also staying away from the My Documents folders. I'm not sure what to do about all the broken HID drivers. The current wiring for the front USB panel is a rat's nest install anyway, so I may look for a newer one and clean it up. It's got a weird NZXT USB extension box inside that the front panel and some RBG lighting with a Corsair controller is plugged into, so that will go since I gave up on the lighting a few years ago due to problematic software of course.

Tunnelcat wrote: Tue Oct 14, 2025 1:59 pm I've got an older HP workstation that doesn't meet the Windows 11 boot security standard. It's currently not being used, so I'm going to install Linux on that as a test box to play with. It would be a shame to recycle it since it still works fine.

Specs plz

Let's see, it was built in 2014.

HP motherboard

Intel Xeon E3-1270v3 (3.5 GHz 8 MB cache, 4 cores
16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 ECC Unbuffered RAM ( 8X2 GB)
500 MB Crucial SSD

It came with Windows 7 Pro and was updated to Windows 10 Pro. No TPM 2.O module or chip, so no more Windows. It's a little slow by now, but for office work, it's fine.

My other older system is still on Win 7 Pro.

ASUS Rampage III Gene Intel X58

Intel i7-960 3.2 GHz 8M Intel Smart Cache LGA1366 [ +290]

I can't remember the RAM because I upgraded it. I'd have to boot it for that info. but I increased the amount.

Zorin Core will easily run on either of those systems.

Oh that's not too bad at all. You should give a distro a try that uses a KDE desktop. It's going to look so pretty and I think it's faster than Gnome3 these days. People used to ★■◆● on KDE back when Gnome2 was king, but those days are gone. And the dolphin file manager has nice features, especially if you mount ssh and ftp severs and drives. And you can play with desktop widgets by just right clicking the desktop and going into "edit mode". It's so easy, but you can get almost artistic with your setup.


I attached my desktop screenshot ... it doesn't do it any justice because you can't see the animations and the all graphs moving.

edit: Don't feel like you have to go crazy with decorating like I did. I still recommend trying KDE.

Kubuntu perhaps? I'm going to play with it on the old HP workstation. How about the old Win 7 gaming system? Something favorable for older games and an Nvidia 2080.

How about Bazzite?

Kubuntu is very stable. However, since the update to Plasma 6.0 and later, many global themes have stopped working correctly. The solution to that is to use Kvantum, which frankly is the better option anyway.

From personal experience, avoid KDE Neon. It's buggy, and something will always break. I stopped using it earlier this year.

One example.
https://www.descentbb.net/viewtopic.php?t=25103

Isaac wrote: Thu Oct 16, 2025 10:02 pm I still recommend trying KDE.

Yeah, Plasma has been a favorite of mine for a while now.

Tunnelcat wrote: Fri Oct 17, 2025 7:18 pm How about Bazzite?

Bazzite Fedora-based, which is very popular and supported, but it's not as supported as a Debian or Arch based distros. Debian has a lot off official support and Arch has a lot of "we forced it to work... it's in the aur repo" support.

Given what TigerRaptor has said, I'll suggest trying Kubuntu for that Debian based official support.

Then for your games and windows apps, look into Lutris and bottles (which I haven't tried myself). Also I put a copy of windows in a virtual machine. If you ever need the install files form a game, it's sometimes easier to just copy them out of windows then run them in Linux. Also, if you have games on steam, you can get almost all of them to work on Linux by going to their properties and selecting "compatibility" and "proton". This allows you to install the game on Linux. I've got many hours of Path of Exile on Linux, which does not have any support for Linux. Note that I'm using Endeavour OS, which is Arch Linux based.

TigerRaptor wrote: Fri Oct 17, 2025 11:36 pmavoid KDE Neon.

This is the first KDE desktop that really resonated with me and I hate that I had to stop using it because of the bugs. It's really cool.

vision wrote: Sat Oct 18, 2025 1:01 pm

TigerRaptor wrote: Fri Oct 17, 2025 11:36 pmavoid KDE Neon.

This is the first KDE desktop that really resonated with me and I hate that I had to stop using it because of the bugs. It's really cool.

Maybe it's hit or miss with certain hardware? I guess TC won't know until she tries.

Isaac wrote: Sat Oct 18, 2025 2:02 pmMaybe it's hit or miss with certain hardware?

I'm sure that's part of the problem I had, Neon wouldn't recognize some hardware. The main issue I had was the main panel sometimes crashing and the file manager locking up. I might be using it today if not for buying a System76 desktop and running PoP_OS.

Asking best Linux distro... this is like asking what is the best pair of jeans? We might have different taste, and what might look good on you might not look good on me.

Jeff250 wrote: Tue Oct 21, 2025 11:37 am Asking best Linux distro... this is like asking what is the best pair of jeans? We might have different taste, and what might look good on you might not look good on me.

But there is a best beginner distro, if that's the context of TC's post. It might be LInuxmint, since she's coming from Windows.

Yeah I can get behind that recommendation.

vision wrote: Sat Oct 18, 2025 1:01 pm

TigerRaptor wrote: Fri Oct 17, 2025 11:36 pmavoid KDE Neon.

This is the first KDE desktop that really resonated with me and I hate that I had to stop using it because of the bugs. It's really cool.

Yeah, I tried to make it work, but having to keep fixing things got tiring. I’ve been using Kubuntu since February, and I’ve been really happy with it.

Isaac wrote: Wed Oct 22, 2025 7:49 am

Jeff250 wrote: Tue Oct 21, 2025 11:37 am Asking best Linux distro... this is like asking what is the best pair of jeans? We might have different taste, and what might look good on you might not look good on me.

But there is a best beginner distro, if that's the context of TC's post. It might be LInuxmint, since she's coming from Windows.

Yeah, I'm coming from Windows and have never used Linux. I'm still eyeing Mint for that reason, more Windows-like. I might put it on my old HP workstation and play with it. Does Mint have a way to deal with Network NAS drives? Would using Mint help with familiarizing myself with Kubuntu or even Zorin?

But what frosts me is that Windows is rapidly becoming a subscription-based pay them for spying on you as a required piece of crap. Windows 12 will cement that problem and I don't intend to stay on Windows once MS goes to that version. I mean, MS has recently lost around half a BILLION Windows users and they still don't get it. Greed has fully taken over their business model. I mean, they're helping to pay for Trump's compensating for something tiny ballroom, along with most of the other tech giants kissing his ass.

What I really want is a Linux distro that supports gaming at it's core and so far, older games have an issue or won't work and Nvidia is being a laggard in adopting that OS. Since Intel screwed the pooch on the 13th and 14th generation Intel chips, which my current workstation has and I've already had to install the new BIOS Microcode to help keep from frying the CPU via overvolting, maybe it's time to go to AMD, but that means a totally new system for gaming. In the meantime, I have a 3 year extended warranty from Intel for their fast but burns itself out prematurely CPU on my new workstation.

Krom wrote: Mon Oct 13, 2025 3:07 pm Try a different port, not all USB ports are available to BIOS/UEFI for booting. The most likely candidates that should reliably work would be a USB2.x port in the rear I/O of the motherboard. Or if your system supports USB flashback, whatever port is labeled or specified to use in the manual should for sure be available to boot from. Typically the FAT file system requirement is only for USB flashback, not for actual booting. If it can boot NTFS from a fixed disk/SSD/etc, then it should be able to boot NTFS from a USB stick, there isn't any real difference.

I've tried everything, except for the BIOS labeled USB port in back and ASUS is still saying FAT 32 for that port even, which is not an issue with a BIOS update. Right now, just to get it working, it's got a MS account, which it had on Win 10 anyway so I reused it. I just couldn't get the motherboard, a ROG Rampage VI Extreme Omega to see and boot from a USB stick. Currently, I've really hobbled Windows. I've uninstalled OneDrive and Teams. CoPilot is turned off. CoPilot on Office 365, which I don't have, is uninstalled. Thank you RevoUninstaller. More hobbling is coming IF I keep things setup this way and don't find a way to use Rufus and Win 24H2, which I have a copy of that ISO. Their latest security update broke the mouse and keyboard in a recovery mode, but I'm afraid to install the "fix" for that fiasco because it's been reported that it now breaks the control panel for the Realtek sound system, which I have. Effing A.

I'm also going to uninstall OneDrive and Teams on my workstation, even though it has a local account and is still on 24H2. But who knows how long MS will allow that going forward. Bastards. I will eventually put Linux on that machine as well. The evil empire needs to die.

Tunnelcat wrote: Fri Oct 24, 2025 12:37 pmDoes Mint have a way to deal with Network NAS drives?

How do you currently connect to it? Via a Windows file share? It should work, but at some point you just need to try it.

Tunnelcat wrote: Fri Oct 24, 2025 12:37 pmWould using Mint help with familiarizing myself with Kubuntu or even Zorin?

Yep.

Tunnelcat wrote: Fri Oct 24, 2025 12:37 pmWhat I really want is a Linux distro that supports gaming at it's core and so far, older games have an issue or won't work and Nvidia is being a laggard in adopting that OS. Since Intel screwed the pooch on the 13th and 14th generation Intel chips, which my current workstation has and I've already had to install the new BIOS Microcode to help keep from frying the CPU via overvolting, maybe it's time to go to AMD, but that means a totally new system for gaming. In the meantime, I have a 3 year extended warranty from Intel for their fast but burns itself out prematurely CPU on my new workstation.

Thanks to Proton, the Windows gaming situation has gotten a lot better on Linux, but I think you should be ready to accept that if you switch to Linux you won't be able to play all of your Windows games. There are so many games on Linux that it's not a problem for me. If I wanted to pick up a new one there are already too many for me to pick from. But if you have to be able to play every Windows game that comes out or even every Windows game already in your collection, you're frankly going to be stuck on Windows for the rest of your life, and there's no way around that.

I connect to my NAS drive via Windows Explorer.

I think that method you'd use smb://yourNASserver.pi/ in the file explorer in your distro and you'd get prompted for your credentials

I think in the Mint file manager you could also go to File -> Connect to Server and select "Windows share". It might also just pop up automatically in the left pane under "Network". I don't really work with Windows shares though, so I can't do more than give some things to try.

Thanks everyone. Now if I can just find the time to mess with Linux.

In a few years, Windows 12 will roll out, forcing the issue, because it WILL be subscription-based. I will never pay a subscription for a Microsoft product, especially the OS. MS can go eff itself.

I got samba working on my raspberry pi without too much trouble. Maybe the most annoying thing about reading linux guides online is how often the guides fail miserably at telling you to use admin/root/sudo when you SHOULD NOT use them, so you end up with a bunch of stuff that only runs in root when it could function perfectly and be actually easier to interact with if you had done it in your ordinary user space.

It actually isn't that different from windows: you use admin to install a program, but do not use admin to actually run the program. So many guides screw that up.

Tunnelcat wrote: Sun Oct 26, 2025 12:57 pm Thanks everyone. Now if I can just find the time to mess with Linux.

I think that Linux is most successful with two types of users. The first is the type that uses their computer for nothing more than basic Web browsing and couldn't even tell you if they use Windows vs. Mac vs. Linux. In fact, many of such users have been switched to Linux by friends and family members without their even knowing it. I take it you don't fall into this camp because you post on an online bulletin board for nerds interested in an obscure computer game.

The second type is the nerd who enjoys tinkering with their computer, getting things just the way they like it, and generally learning new things about it.

One group of people with whom Linux doesn't really stick well is the "Linux is free only if time doesn't equal money" folks who don't see the time they spend learning Linux as an inherently enriching experience but rather a waste of time. There is nothing wrong with this attitude. There are plenty of things in life that I am glad that someone else knows or that I can pay someone else to do because I have no interest in ever learning them. But if this is how you feel about tinkering with computers and you feel that any time you have to spend doing something other than getting Real Work (TM) done on them is a waste of time, Linux probably won't be a good fit.

Sort of like learning a new foreign language, learning Linux can be frustrating at first when you are immersed in the unfamiliar. I already know the other thing, so why can't I just use that? I can say though that at some point, if you stick with it, the familiar will become the unfamiliar, and vice versa. For instance, I have a lot of trouble finding settings these days if I am ever on a Windows machine, and it can really get my blood pressure raised...

If you do decide to give Linux a spin, be sure to let us know if you run into any issues.

As a lifetime very regular Windows user let me say that having trouble finding settings on a windows machine is not a result of becoming overly familiar with Linux. I presume you have no issue finding settings on say an android phone for instance. It is entirely a windows problem and not a you problem.

TC, if I could say one more thing about temporarily trying KDE, which Kubuntu uses: Tiling windows that supports edge dragging, so you can adjust all the tile sizes with one mouse drag. (No the mouse is not in drag)