this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2025
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Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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I've been toying with Linux on and off for almost 20 years now.

Started with damnsmalllinux on some ancient 600mhz Thinkpads. Dual booted Ubuntu for a long time, back when 3d desktop cubes were all the rage, so I'm used to gnome, synaptic and apt.

Tried to stick with it, but never could get away from Windows entirely. Especially for gaming, and a few critical apps. Eventually I kind of drifted away, and went full Windows for years. I always keep an Ubuntu LTS thumb drive around, and would use it occasionally for various reasons, testing etc etc.

Recently I installed Ubuntu 24.04, and had tons of stability issues. Mostly involving video output and the GUI. Screen would jitter left and right a few pixels. And sometimes maximized windows would be transparent to clicks, so you'd be clicking random stuff below the window. This was especially bad with Firefox and VLC, separately. I also had issues with removable drives not mounting properly. Standard stuff, I wasn't doing anything weird. Practically a fresh install.

So I tried Mint, cinnamon. And so far I really like it! I've not been running it daily, but just the same tinkering. And so far no issues at all. But that got me thinking, what else am I missing?

I'm comfortable in the command line, but not proficient, I appreciate a good GUI for most things.

I plan to do some gaming, so steam proton compatibility is important. I don't think that's hard to achieve, but I wanted to make sure, it's important to me.

Last time I played with KDE was a decade ago, I hear there's lots of new developments going on there? In plasma? Unless plasma is different now, IDK I haven't looked extremely hard.

I don't care much about customization, I don't want arch. I want something that is a pretty solid base, with decent features, and good support for when this go sideways. I feel like that's not Ubuntu anymore. Especially with them pushing into Wayland and flat packs.

I guess my question is, does Mint seem like a good distro to start with? Or am I not looking hard enough?

Thanks!

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[–] PerogiBoi@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Mints fine, but if you are looking for stability, gaming, and you don’t care too much for customization, I’d recommend Bazzite.

Bazzite has all gaming tweaks built in already (including device drivers) so things just work, you never have to use the command line unless you want to (I just had a BIOS update from the KDE Discover store where I get all my updates from).

I’ve always ran Ubuntu of some flavour in the past but would run into things eventually breaking or not working well. Coming up on the 2 year mark for Bazzite on my laptop.

[–] beastlykings@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago (6 children)

Another poster talked about it being atomic? Almost immutable? Have you ran into problems with anything like that? Changes you've made getting reverted?

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[–] PseudoSpock@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I wanna new distro
One that won't make me sick
One that won't make me crash my PC
Or make me feel like a d**k
I want a new distro
One that won't hurt my head
One that won't make run CPU too high
Or make my NAS disks RED

One that won't make me defrag
Watching squares of blue
One that makes me feel like I feel when I use UNIX too...
When I get to boooot you.

[–] SatanClaus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

CachyOS is great for gaming but arch based

[–] beastlykings@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago

Good to know thanks!

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