Good day nice people.

I, like many I’m sure, am taking Microsoft’s discontinuation of Windows 10 support as an opportunity so switch over to Linux. As such, I have some questions about various things. I have included some context as to my personal use case at the end of the post should it be relevant.

  1. Does the distro I pick matter? There seems to be a lot of debate around which distro is best but a lot of the discussion I’ve seen breaks down to what each distro comes packaged with. This confuses me as if a distro doesn’t come prepackaged with something can you not just install it? Or is there some advantage to preinstalled packages other than mild convenience? Are some components difficult to integrate into your local environment?

  2. One of the more salient differences I’ve seen between distros has been what the various companies and teams include aside from installed packages (such as snap and rolling out amazon search as a defult search), and the data they choose to retain/sell. Part of the reason I’m switching is due to Microsoft’s forcing in of unwanted features and advertising. Is the company that owns whatever distro I choose likely to be a problem in the future? Are there particular ones to avoid/ones to keep an eye on?

  3. I am the sort of person who does like to tinker with things from time to time but I do also want to use my computer most of the time so I’d like to end up using a mature distro. I have identified a few frontrunners in my search but I have seen conflicting information on which of them is “mature” (sufficiently stable so I spend less time fighting my computer than I do using it as well as having a large enough community and resources to help me remedy issues I might come across). Do any of these seem like they wouldn’t fit that bill? The frontrunners are: fedora, kubuntu, mint, pop and tuxedo.

  4. Does linux have issues interfacing with multiple monitors? Does it handle HDR okay?

  5. In terms of UI and workflow I really don’t mind putting in some time tinkering with the DE, exploring it and getting it how I like. It seems Plasma KDE might be good for this? Please let me know if this is an incorrect assessment. If it is, does it matter what DE I choose? If so, is there something you could recommend for my use case.

My use case: I have a Nvidea build (RTX 2080). I have heard this can be an issue with Linux. I also have intermediate experience with linux through university and my job (with servers) as well as tinkering with SteamOS.

Things I use/do on my PC (roughly ordered in terms of priority):

  • Gaming including emulation
  • Firefox
  • VLC
  • Spotify
  • Discord
  • Godot
  • Visual Studio
  • Git
  • Photoshop cs6, audacity, davinci resolve
  • Misc “Tinkering” (Handbrake, dvd burners/rippers, Really any weird thing I come across that I want to tinker with)

Thank you very much for your time and help in cleaing up my confusion.

  • GaxsunOPEnglish
    5·
    5 days ago

    I think your response has so far been the most comprehensive. Thank you so much.

    This is a thing of the past. With the excellent Distrobox, you can install any package from any distro on whatever distro you’re running.

    I’d not heard of Distrobox sounds to me to be a perfect foil to the disparate package solutions out there. It gives me some peace of mind about not being locked into a package manager (Although as you point out, even without distrobox that wouldn’t be an issue).

    Lastly, some distros and/or (so-called) desktop environments might collect telemetry to improve themselves. But this is done in a way that suits free and open source software. Thankfully, if you’ve got problems with this, you can always turn it off.

    I’ve really not got any problems with telemetry so long as it’s just limited to the technicals and for OS improvement purposes. Sounds like I should be fine.

    So, all distros allow you to tinker. My question is: What is it you’re tinkering with?

    “Tinkering” in my case is pretty broad. You’re correct when you suppose that I like to mess with UI aesthetics and workflows. The other misc tinkering I more mentioned in case there’s some distros that are unsuited to working with strange or niche programs (such as the media encoding and physical media management stuff I mentioned). It sounds like that’s not really much of a problem though. Anyway what counts as “niche” is very subjective so probably wasn’t that helpful to mention.

    Have you considered Bazzite?

    I have not heard of Bazzite. It kinda looks to be perfect if I end up going with Fedora (It’s the most recommended so far). My only concern is longevity, It seems to be quite new and I don’t want to jump on just for it to be a flash in the pan. As I understand it though, even if it is, it’s easy enough to change distros. Others have said to not be worried about locking oneself in and to just jump in and try. Also not a fan of “Gaming Mode” style UI but I guess I can just not use it.

    Out of everything, this could be a slight concern. You could make it work through Wine, and it seems to have decent results. If you’re not opposed to using Photoshop CC 2021, there’s this GitHub repo worth looking at as well.

    Honestly, not married to Photoshop at all. That’s just what I use and I’m not any sort of power user by any measure.

    Again, thank you very much for your detailed response.

    • jamesbunagna@discuss.online
      4·
      5 days ago

      I think your response has so far been the most comprehensive. Thank you so much.

      It has been my pleasure :D ! Thank you for reading through all of that 😅.

      “Tinkering” in my case is pretty broad. You’re correct when you suppose that I like to mess with UI aesthetics and workflows. The other misc tinkering I more mentioned in case there’s some distros that are unsuited to working with strange or niche programs (such as the media encoding and physical media management stuff I mentioned). It sounds like that’s not really much of a problem though. Anyway what counts as “niche” is very subjective so probably wasn’t that helpful to mention.

      Thanks for the clarification!

      I have not heard of Bazzite.

      Interesting. Its fan base can be rather vocal. Furthermore, it has been enjoying a very healthy amount of media coverage. Digital Foundry dedicated a video on it. And even LTT briefly mentioned it recently.

      It kinda looks to be perfect if I end up going with Fedora (It’s the most recommended so far).

      I didn’t quite capture the intent of this sentence. My bad. Would you mind elaborating/clarifying/explaining? Apologies if I’m coming across as obtuse 😅.

      It seems to be quite new

      Correct.

      and I don’t want to jump on just for it to be a flash in the pan.

      I understand. I absolutely agree with you that e.g. Fedora’s future is more certain than Bazzite. Even if the latter recently reiterated their continued support.

      As I understand it though, even if it is, it’s easy enough to change distros.

      FWIW, the complete Fedora Atomic ecosystem -that Bazzite is part of- allows changing distros with a single command. The only limitation being that the designated distro has to be part of the ecosystem as well. So, even if Bazzite would implode one day after you’ve switched to it, you could just ‘rebase’ to (say) Fedora Kinoite.

      Others have said to not be worried about locking oneself in

      Agreed.

      and to just jump in and try.

      Kinda. It’s more nuanced I think 😅.

      Also not a fan of “Gaming Mode” style UI but I guess I can just not use it.

      Exactly. Bazzite on desktops/laptops defaults to the DE after logging in. So, as you’ve noted already, you don’t have to use it ;) .

      Again, thank you very much for your detailed response.

      You doubled down on the kind words. I appreciate it. Thank you for being you!

      • GaxsunOPEnglish
        2·
        5 days ago
        It kinda looks to be perfect if I end up going with Fedora (It’s the most recommended so far).

        I didn’t quite capture the intent of this sentence. My bad. Would you mind elaborating/clarifying/explaining? Apologies if I’m coming across as obtuse 😅.

        Ah, sorry. Just wanted to express that Bazzite seems to fit my needs quite well and that fedora has been recommended to me more than any other repo so far. So if after my investigations I do end up choosing fedora, Bazzite seems to be a good flavor to try.

        • jamesbunagna@discuss.online
          3·
          5 days ago

          No worries fam. And thanks for clarifying! With that clarification, I think I’ve found what has caused the confusion for me.

          Bazzite, even if it’s ultimately derived from Fedora, is actually not closely related to (‘traditional’) Fedora, but instead to Fedora Atomic.

          Most of the people that have been recommending Fedora, actually meant the non-Atomic variants. And while this might seem minor, which arguably it is, it is important to be conscious of this distinction.

          (‘Traditional’) Fedora behaves a lot like most other distros. Fedora Atomic, instead, introduces a new paradigm. Bazzite goes all-in on this new model and we might even refer to it as next-gen (if you will). Though, it’s important to mention that the next-gen part is only true within the context of Fedora. This is because Fedora has been the only distro to have clearly pronounced their ambitions in this direction. They even reiterated this in their Fedora Strategy 2028 and I quote: “Objective: Immutable variants are the majority of Fedora Linux in use”. (Note that atomic is a rebranding of immutable)

          So, within the context of Fedora, even if I don’t see the traditional model being sunset anytime soon, the atomic variants do seem more promising in terms of longevity.

          Personally, I’m a huge fan of Fedora Atomic; in particular the uBlue projects, so that includes Bazzite. Therefore, I absolutely welcome you on board for Bazzite. But, it’s important to be aware that Bazzite is not representative of what (‘traditional’) Fedora is (or vice versa); it’s not a “flavor”.

          • GaxsunOPEnglish
            2·
            3 days ago

            Understood, I will continue aware of that distinction.