1. CachyOS
2. More than a year
3. I had to setup snapshots and timeshift
4. A bug between kdrive app and key wallet from KDE (I can still not auto log in the app on Wayland at start.)

I decided to set the snapshots in order to recover in case of bad update. Then I decided to update the system at least once a week brainlessly, just to see how much time it takes to break. so far, I’ve never used the snapshots.

For gaming and having it work out of the box ?

• Based on Debian : pikaOS
• Based on fedora : Nobara
• Based on Atomic fedora : Bazzite
• Based on Arch : CachyOS
• Based onUbuntu : PopOS (not so sure about its current state, their cosmic desktop isn’t released yet)

Beginner friendly : Mint, most of gaming distro (cachy might be a bit more advanced )

I do not know much about the current state of snaps, so I won’t recommend Ubuntu and derivatives (kubuntu, Xubuntu…). I guess it is easier to use .deb now, but I can’t call beginner friendly a distro that require terminal or tweaks to change packages you can install on it.

What I love the most from bazzite team, is their work with distrobox . Install the distribution you love, follow their tutorial, boom, you get access to the AUR, and it has a minimal impact on your system.

Bazzite felt great to me, but too slow on my computer to enjoy it, so I hopped. But still, I love what they do.

7 months distro hopping sober here ! All thanks to CachyOS.

The installation is seamless thanks to calamares, there are some graphic tools that can help for beginners on arch. Their kernel might be one of the most optimised one to have a smooth experience while gaming. I do not play ressources hungry games, so I can not really tell.

After setting snapshots, I decided to experience it totally blind folded, just to see how long I can last on it. I update the system around 2 times a week, never read any changelog, just like any of the other distro I used… And for now, I’ve never had any trouble.

My system seems to be way smoother and more responsive than with fedora or tumbleweed.

I use my computer mostly for steam, heroic, librewolf and LibreOffice.

I use lawnchair as a replacement of the launcher from /e/OS. It is fast and customisable and has a more android type look. Fossify could be another option, maybe lighter than lawnchair.

The original one is smooth, but I do not like IOS launcher and icons type.

I use /e/OS on my OP7.

• Their tracker/ad blocker is great.
• Their app store has a rating about privacy/tracker for each apps.
• They implemented tor in the OS, and you can choose if you want to activate it and for which application.
• They have a mock location feature.
• I get monthly update, and it works smoothly.
• You do not need to use murena account to use the OS

For the drawbacks :

• They have an app store that can install both applications from the play store and from Fdroid, but it isn’t very convenient as you can’t add Fdroid repos, nor uninstall applications with it. (and I’m unable to use it to install applications from the play store for more than a month, I’ve installed the aurora store )
• Most of their system applications are open sources applications available from Fdroid but with a different icon and name.
• Their navigation application named “Maps” is a rebrand of magic earth.

It’s all I have in mind at this moment.

When I’ll change for a fairphone, before turning to /e/OS, I’ll probably try iodé OS. It seems they have similar privacy /anti-ad features but the OS might be less bloated and the system app are not rebranded, they keep their original name and icons.

Vanilla gnome isn’t for me so I used to install some extensions when I used it.

After a few hopping, I stopped using Gnome, because I find that painful to :

• install the extension app (the one that allow you to download and manage the extensions, and that is usually not the one installed, it might have changed, as I stopped using Gnome for a year or even more)
• install the extensions I want
• configure the extensions

On KDE, I just have to set it as I need it.

If you do not change distributions everyday, then it’s not a big issue I guess.

But it might be troublesome for beginners trying distributions that have vanilla-close gnome to know that extensions exist. My needs are not complicated, so I only used extensions that allow me to have a dock on both of my screens, and to have the minimize button.

What an horror ! What are you gonna do ? Use your working system ? That’s sad…

It will create a default profile in your home (games/heroic/Prefixes) where everything will be installed, and if you have steam installed, it will detect the proton version of steam, and use it.

If some dependencies of the game are not installed, you’ll be able to run winetricks and install it in the profile of the game or to use steam runtime.

Using Windows-only games on Linux is getting better at an impressive rate those last years. There is more and more games working out of the box with steam or heroic. But yeah, sometimes, you just have to give up (or use Windows ).

Try the heroic game launcher. It usually works well. It let you log into gog, epic and prime account and games easily.

If the game doesn’t run well, try your luck on protondb to see if there is a way to fix it : https://www.protondb.com/app/22380

I’ve install the gog version of fallout 1 with the heroic game launcher, it worked out of the box. Maybe you’ll have some luck with new Vegas.

Linux has been the biggest rabbit hole I’ve been in. There are too many distribution for me to choose one without testing as much as I can. It made me change what I wanted/needed. I went from “I don’t want to use CLI at all” to “man, GUI is too slow for that”.

I tried many Debian children and grand children distributions, Fedora based ones (Nobara, atomics bases,…), Opensuse, NixOS, Solus, arch based distributions…

Now, I’m on cachyOS, that seems to be the good balance I need (for now), between GUI/already configured and “I can do it the way I want”.

One year after starting using Linux, I’ve switched from a 3060ti to a 6700xt, just because it made hopping easier.

If you exclude me not being able to settle down on a distro, Linux is a funny experience to me. My needs are not that big, as I just play some games, have a light need of an office suite. I can do anything I used to to in windows, but without Microsoft and his friends looking above my shoulder.

KDE : it’s the only DE where I can have 2 identical panels (app pined+ full system tray) on each of my 2 screens without installing extensions.

KDE can do what I want without having to look for extensions. Breeze theme is good enough for me, I don’t need to look for something else. So far it’s the best out of the box experience I had.

I prefer Gnome look, but I distr’hop too often to have the courage to setup the desktop every time.

GNOME with dash to panel. It allow you to clone it I guess. dash to dock allow you to copy the dock, so only the applications, not the systray.

KDE allows you to create panels on every screen, with the systray. You’ll have to replicate them manually (pin the applications or whatever you put on your first panel).

Others DE I tried had flaws for that :

Cinnamon cannot have all the systray on the second panel.

Budgie doesn’t allow you to have a panel on the second screen (but you can clone the panel on the same screen).

Mint is far better, I usually recommand it. But Ubuntu is still more popular.

I didn’t use Manjaro in many years, so I can’t judge it. The biggest problem I see with Manjaro is that it has access to AUR.

Manjaro has its own repos, and they take more time to release packages than Arch, which can be a good thing stability wise. But if you have applications from AUR installed then you might have conflicts with the dependencies needed and the dependencies used by the system.

As I said, I didn’t use Manjaro in a while, so I don’t know if it still a problem. If it is, then it’s a shame that the biggest advantage of Arch, the AUR, become that much a risk for the system.

I’ve seen a video where the guy installed steam on Ubuntu 24.04. Of course it was the snap. The guy usually tests distro to see of it’s easy to game on it. If the drivers are easy to install, etc…

He usually launches steam, then tests Valheim, Overwatch, Tomb Raider and cyberpunk.

Overwatch didn’t launch, cyberpunk neither. Valheim reported that a service didn’t launch. Tomb raider was OK.

Then he uninstalled the steam snap and installed the .deb one. Everything worked.

Enforcing packages is already something that people don’t appreciate on Linux, enforcing packages that don’t work is surprisingly hated.

Ubuntu is supposed to be a distro for beginners, how am I supposed to recommand a distro when I have no confidence the applications will work ?

It is on izzyOnDroid repo :).

It depends on the DE you use. I only know about 3 of them :

KDE can put as many panel as you want with all the system tray you want. You’ll have to pine the applications on each panel individually.

On Gnome, you’ll have to install extensions as dash to panel to have a panel that can be cloned.

On Cinnamon, you’ll be able to create a panel on the second screen, pine applications on it, but not all of system tray can be duplicate. There is a ticket opened for that : https://github.com/linuxmint/cinnamon/issues/9889

there are a few options to make gog/epic games works with heroic, if it doesn’t work out of the box :

• using proton from steam/GE
• using steam runtime
• using protondb to know what to tweak the launch options or windows component to download via wine tricks
• copy the game in steam.

I’ve seen that a protondb user posted about cyberpunk 2077 working on heroic launcher. I hope you’ll manage to have it too.

It depends of your definition of “hassle”.

I have 2 screens, I like to have the same panel on each screen, so when I use one in fullscreen, I can use the other one. So far, the only Desktop Environment that can give me that without too much difficulties, is KDE (even if I had to do it manually).

If you have the same use, maybe Kubuntu is a great choice. Tuxedo OS would be the same as Kubuntu, but you don’t have to change the priority of the package manager, because the snaps are already disabled. ( they got another load of malicious softwares in the snapstore recently, and some snap might not be as good as .deb or flatpak).

If not, Linux Mint is an out of the box distribution. If your hardware is the most recent one, they have a “edge iso”.

I’m looking for a stable rolling too. But since yesterday, I’ve quit tumbleweed for fedora.

I left tumbleweed because I wasn’t able to find/install/update non flatpak application. The bug is only for KDE (gnome last ISO works fine, but not the KDE ISO). It was not much of a problem since everything else worked for me, but I find it weird to not fix that kind of bug, even on a ISO.

I guess void Linux would be the answer, but it requires a bit of work to set it up. Maybe, when I’ll have time to learn a bit more about it.

Slow roll would be another option I guess : 1 month slower than Tumbleweed, but it is still flagged as experimental by suse.

Solus has been revived last year. I tested their first iso from 2023. I found it laggy and didn’t liked the package manager, but 1 year can make big changes on Linux.