PopOS is really great for your usecase
this post was submitted on 08 Aug 2023
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Try pop os. It's based on gnome and uses debian, so stable and similar to what you're used to. It doesn't need any configuration and handles hybrid graphics(when laptops have both an integrated gpu and a dedicated gpu) by default.
+1 for pop os. Didn't take much to get the programs I needed to work (davinci resolve needed a little help recognizing the graphics cards on my laptop and desktop which are Nvidia and AMD respectively), and every game I've tried on steam has run just fine (except vermintide 2, but that's a proton issue).
Ended up installing it on my surface go 2 as well, because the default desktop environment (gnome) works well with touchscreens, though I had to switch to Wayland to get smoother scrolling.
- it uses ubuntu
I've been using Linux Mint and found it to be great. Not a single issue so far, whereas I was having quite a few with PopOS, which was my daily for about two years prior.
Haven't had to do any special tinkering at all. Currently hopping between Cyberpunk, Baldur's Gate 3, and BattleBit without any problems.
It's Ubuntu-based (which is based off Debian?) BUT Ubuntu it is not. Now I'm confused. 😁
I'll definitely give Mint a go! I'll give pop os a try as well since they have their new DE coming soon.
Edit: spelling
I’ve been using OpenSUSE Tumbleweed. I believe it’s the most stable rolling release.
You could also look at the Fedora-based Nobara which is designed specifically for gaming.
Both come with Gnome and KDE versions. They’re both RPM based, in case you were looking for a deb-based distro.
I tried Nobara once and it doesn't play nicely with my computers secure boot. It didn't recognise it as a valid boot disk. I never got further than that since every other distro allowed me to boot. OpenSUSE would be a good one to try, I appreciate it's a stable rolling release! It almost sounds perfect!
Installing nvidia drivers on opensuse was a major pain in the ass for me.
What issue did you have? It was very straight forward for me. Nvidia have a repo specifically for OpenSUSE. You just need to add the repo and install the driver.
First Iinstalled, and then my system wouldnt boot into gui. And then I fixed it by doing a btrfs rollback and then couldn't uninstall the nvidiai repo no matter what I did and it would get installed with zypper dup.
You can also manage repos with Yast which is one of the best things about OpenSUSE.
It’s possible the driver version wasn’t the right for your card.
The guide on the OpenSUSE wiki is worth reading: https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:NVIDIA_drivers
I actually started looking around for this myself as a way to recommend some easier intro points.
I'll have to take a look at popos from the comments, but anyone have any experience with how well maintained Manjaro is these days?
Manjaro is poorly maintained and, if you use the AUR, broken by design. If you want an easy way to install Arch, use EndeavourOS.
Arch Linux
I'd love to do this someday but I really don't have the time to experiment at the moment. I need something that allows me to be lazy so I can just work on things.
Was a joke, but tbh, I use Arch myself and it runs pretty ok. The problem is rather that you are tempted to experiment and waste your time (because you can).
Well maybe once I get a job in tech (I graduate at the end of november) I could justify spending the time... it will give me a better understanding of computers after all.