I want to get some experience with Linux before win 10 goes end of support. I won’t be using this machine for work. Gaming primarily but also 3d printing and possibly some light piracy. Is there any reason not to install steam os?
Thanks in advance kind and wise nerds in my phone.
You must log in or # to comment.
I went with Bazzite. It’s built on Fedora and intended to be installed on both Deck and desktop.
It’s been working out well so far!
Running Ryzen 3000 and RTX 4000 hardware.
From quick reading, SteamOS 3.0 is only really available for the Steam Deck. As such, I would not recommend it for a desktop user. Earlier versions of SteamOS are no longer supported. Don’t take this as gospel, as I may be mistaken.
Still, I would personally suggest looking in to a more desktop oriented OS for now.
SteamOS is currently only supported on Steam deck and while there are efforts to make it work on desktop I would advise against using them because of reliability concerns. However if you want a SteamOS like experience made for desktop I recommend Bazzite. You should be fine with it, but if you want the easiest experience possible then I would highly recommend Linux Mint. I would just put them on USB drive and try them both, check if your 3D printer is working and then install the one you prefer
Go for Bazzite, it’s freaking easy and there’s no way you can brick it.
Use a more standard distro, that way you have a community to help you with desktop needs.
SteamOS for PC is long outdated and similar distros are made specifically for handheld hardware. Go for a general desktop or gaming distro instead.
Proton, which is the main enabler for Linux gaming given that not many games are released with a native Linux version, is provided via Steam already with no need to install SteamOS. If you are coming into Linux brand new from windows I’d recommend installing a very popular distro like Ubuntu, or Mint. Learn the basics, and make sure to learn how to backup your data on Linux. If you are a) frustrated with missing some feature or software in your current distro or b) just curious about tweaking your system, start learning about how to work in the Linux shell (start with bash). Then come have some fun on a distro like openSUSE Tumbleweed (my current distro), where you always have access to the latest software and can change tons of things about your system in exchange for having to put in some more time to manage it. If that still doesn’t satisfy your needs and you have decided you love Linux and are never going back, then check out Arch Linux or its derivatives where you have nearly unlimited freedom but the highest time investment.
hehe. Agree Ubuntu is probably your best bet for ease of install and getting up to mischief quickly.
OpenSUSE is not for beginners.Neither is Gentoo. Nor Slax. I mean - don’t let that stop you - but I tried all three recently and . . . it was more frustrating than fun. They’re powerful, yes, and I know some old heads that won’t go near anything else. But for beginners? Noooooo.Edit: Sorry, OpenSUSE is probably fine, they didn’t have a 32bit version so I didn’t try it. Also, elementary os 8 is pretty slick. And PopOS. Both have very easy install & setup wizards.
Agreed of course, just letting them know the choices they have haha… my path was long, from Windows to Ubuntu to Lubuntu on an old PC, then dabbling with Qubes (daily driving was too painful) which introduced me to Debian and Fedora, back to Windows for gaming, dipped my toe back into Linux gaming with Fedora, and finally settled on openSUSE Tumbleweed for all my machines. It was all worth it tho!
SteamOS is an immutable variant of Arch Linux specifically tailored for handheld hardware. A new user would have a hard time ensuring it boots to an actual desktop instead of Steam. It is not a casual distro.
I believe SteamOS is designed only for the steam deck, I wouldn’t recommend it as a general purpose OS for a desktop or laptop.
I would recommend Bazzite, it’s like a general version of SteamOS. It comes with a version that boots directly into steam’s big picture mode (like SteamOS) or one that boots into the desktop (I run this on my desktop)
It also has improvments like nvidia drivers, printer drivers, package layering and because it’s built on top Fedora Atomic you can rollback the system to a stable snapshot if an update doesn’t work with your system.
I’ve been running on my desktop since September (I was in the same boat as you) and it’s been really good. A lot of the stuff I would’ve had to configure and mess around with is already setup for gaming
Can’t answer before SteamOS 3.0 releases, but hopefully it wil be ok for other things while focusing on gaming.
In the meantime I’ve just been recommend Linux Mint as a first time experience but there are other alternatives better for gaming than Mint.
I had nearly no idea what I was doing and starting with Debian seems to have gone ok. Others said Linux mint is beginner friendly but I haven’t tried it.
Debian is not a beginner distro. It requires some knowledge and advanced setup. Mint is the default for new users nowadays.
I dunno, I just installed 12 on a 32-bit oldster and it was smooth and painless. I guess you need apt but any linux distro is going to have a little bit of a learning bump.
I say any distro you want to try - go for it. You’ll likely overwrite it in a week or two anyway. In the process you’ll pick up the 1337 sk33lz and eventually find your flava.
deleted by creator
Ive been a Debian user for more years than I want to think about. Its what I use the most, more so if derivatives are included. Even more if you count all the Debian VMs and LXCs.
I’d still recommend LMDE for new users. My comfort is not the same as new user comfort.
Well I personally think having to read documentation ,manually set up sudoers and add repos is worse for the first impression than installing a distro that mostly just works.
deleted by creator
I started with Ubuntu and it was super easy. You can technically use it pretty much the same way you use windows, you’re not forced to use the terminal. It’s super easy to find step by step tutorials and instructions through a search engine, too.
Steam OS is not available to the public. There are some derivatives like Bazzite. I’m not sure if i would want to use that for productivity. Mint will game just fine and it’s generally easy to use and a good distro for getting into Linux.
