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A few beginner questions about the differences between distros.

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.

103 comments
    1. The main fundamental differences are the package manager, the way the system is setup (partitons, immutable distros), and possibly software you don't want installed. Aside from that, you can install basically anything on any distro. Some do make it easier than others to install new things though.
    2. Canonical (Ubuntu and direct spinoffs) and Manjaro are the ones I recommend avoiding, because their marketing and "general sentiment" goes against my opinions of the distros/maintainers. However, switching Linux distros (especially to another one with a similar base) is not nearly as daunting of a task as switching from Windows to Linux. Some corporate distro owners might pull something like advertising, but there's often an easy way out (except with snaps).
    3. As for the distros you mentioned, Fedora, Mint, and Pop!_OS are all good options. Mint and Pop!_OS are both based on Ubuntu, which could cause issues in the future, but Mint is working on a Linux Mint Debian Edition. Aside from that, my general recommendation is to stay close to upstream. Distros further downstream tend to break more often (think spinoffs of Ubuntu, Arch derivatives, forks of Fedora, etc). There are exceptions to this rule, like when a distro stays close to upstream.
    4. In recent times, it should all be working okay! We're "in the middle of a long time switch" from X11 to Wayland. Those are protocols for the way applications display to the screen. X11 is lacking features, like HDR, and can have issues with "weird" multimonitor setups. Wayland is being actively developed, multimonitor works fine, and HDR is available for some desktop environments (like KDE or GNOME). Not all distros default (or support) Wayland yet, so if you need HDR, pick a distro with KDE or GNOME as its desktop environment.
    5. This situation has gotten more complex with Wayland (one of the pain points still being worked on). The features you get partially depend on which DE (or wayland compositor) you choose. Previously on X11, this wasn't the case. For Wayland DEs, KDE is moving relatively fast, with new features nearly every release. GNOME is moving slower, but should cover most people's needs. As for tinkering around with your choice of UI/DE, there's many options available, but KDE offers by far the easiest customization possible (it's all in the settings menu). There's more complex, more customizable options available, but I wouldn't recommend them as a starting point.
    6. As for nvidia, it has been progressively getting better, but there are still nvidia specific issues that come up from time to time. There's not really much you can do about it, aside from following changelogs and updating when the thing you're running into is fixed.

    Now for your list of applications:

    • Gaming (through steam) works great! There's definitely still issues, but I'd argue there's not really more issues than on Windows, just different issues. There is one category of games that's still problematic, games with kernel level anticheat. They do not and likely will never play on Linux. Other launchers (EA Play, Ubisoft Connect, Epic) can have their own issues, although there's often fixes/workarounds available rather quickly.
    • Firefox works just fine on Linux.
    • VLC works great too, although there are other options available that are more modern or better in some ways. It's up to you to decide what to use.
    • Spotify works just fine, there's always the website in case nothing else works, but the "app" as a flatpak or even through repos works too.
    • Discord has some issues accepting that Linux exists, but have recently started making some changes with that. Most people either use Disocrd in the webbrowser (to prevent too much system access), or run a custom client like Vesktop.
    • Godot works great on Linux, I don't have much else to say about it tbh.
    • Visual Studio Code too, it's basically just a webapp. Some integrations might be slightly different (like the terminal), but otherwise stuff "just works".
    • Git was quite literally made for Linux first (as a project, but also as a platform to run on).
    • Photoshop is going to be difficult to get running, if it works at all. You can certainly try, but it might be a good option to find an alternative for this one.
    • Audacity works great
    • Davinci Resolve does have a Linux version, but the free version can be picky about codecs. There's always tools to reencode your inputs, but it's not always convenient drag and drop.
    • Misc. tinkering is going to be much more fun, as things in Linux ecosystems are often open source. Not only can you mess around with tools that already exist, you can edit them, or even make your own. Some "niche" hardware might give you issues (like iirc the goxlr, or some capture cards).

  • I would recommend you visit distrowatch.org as they have reviews of a great many distros over a long period. That would prepare you to form an opinion on what kind of experience you want to have.

    Example - UI, ie. Desktop Environment: chose Gnome if you like Apples way of making things very polished and giving the user few (visible) options to tinker. Choose KDE if you like a "busy" UI with all the options exposed and a ton of desktop widgets. Choose MATE or LXDE if you like a snappy and minimalist approach.

    Possibly the biggest differentiator between distros is their native package manager. You can take any distro and swap out eg. KDE for Gnome, but the package manager is fundamental and probably(?) impossible to replace fully.

    Example: All the Debian based distros use DEB packages. You'll find a ton, though dine distros lag behind the most recent versions. Others use Redhat's RPM system, while still others build everything from source (which is slow as fuck but gets you to the cutting edge with all the knobs and dials). There's also the Snap and Flatpak systems which strive to supply platform agnostic packages, but do so with very different approaches.

    Good luck!

  • I LOVE this comments section with so many correct, yet opposite views.

    For reference I am on Mint where I installed KDE.

    1. My impression is that the distro does matter (a bit) but that lots of distros are very similar. The front runners you have listed all seem quite appropriate for your use case, but Fedora unlike the others updates more frequently and therefore is slanted towards more features.

    The other ones are all based on Ubuntu and will offer a similar experience IF you took the time to switch out all the desktop environment, apps, settings tweaks, etc. However, the fact is that you probably won't do that, and unless there is a good reason to, why would you when you could install a kde/gnome distro anyway?

    1. I wouldn't worry about the ones you have listed at least, not comparable to Microsoft and at the end of the day it is still linux so it will be way way way easier to switch again if the companies try anything shifty. Ubuntu has made some controversial decisions around snaps but it seriously is on a different level to M$.
    2. All mature afaik. Mint and Fedora are both extremely popular.
    3. Multiple monitors has been fine for me. Not sure about HDR but look up and understand wayland vs X11.
    4. Plasma KDE is good! I would recommend Plasma or Gnome over Cinnamon if you know you want to tinker.

  • I, like many I'm sure, am taking Microsoft's discontinuation of Windows 10 support as an opportunity so switch over to Linux.

    Welcome on board!

    Does the distro I pick matter?

    In short: Yes.

    There seems to be a lot of debate around which distro is best

    TL;DR: There's no distro that is best for everyone. Each individual has their own best. You just gotta find what suits you best.

    but a lot of the discussion I've seen breaks down to what each distro comes packaged with

    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.

    This confuses me as if a distro doesn't come prepackaged with something can you not just install it?

    Even if we would disregard Distrobox, you should be able to install software that's not packaged. So, you're intuition is right.

    Or is there some advantage to preinstalled packages other than mild convenience? Are some components difficult to integrate into your local environment?

    Exactly. Managing software that's not packaged in any way comes with its own set of jank. So, new users are definitely discouraged. However, as mentioned previously, this whole issue is solved with Distrobox. And if you don't like CLI, BoxBuddy provides an excellent GUI and more. Again, this is mostly a solved problem.

    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?

    So, what you're referring to is mostly a Ubuntu problem. They've made a couple of bad decisions in the past. Other than them, this is mostly non-existent.

    Some peeps got question marks regarding distros like deepin, but I don't know if there's anything conclusive on this.

    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 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.

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

    • If you just want to have complete control on how your desktop environment behaves without going into (unofficial) extensions or editing text files, then you should at least take a look at the KDE Plasma desktop environment; which is literally found on all distros and very well supported.
    • If, instead, your definition of tinkering is more broad or otherwise different than what I suggested, then please feel free to elaborate.

    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.

    • Fedora is a good pick. Though, I've been daily-driving (a) Fedora(-derivative) for almost three years now. So I might be biased :P .
    • Regarding Kubuntu, let's just say that it's at least a controversial pick; problem being the Ubuntu part of the equation. I'd personally discourage you from going that route, but it's ultimately your choice.
    • Linux Mint is cool. I'd argue it does more hand-holding than Fedora, which is great to have as a beginner.
    • Pop!_OS is interesting. It has garnered a great fanbase for a good reason: System76 sells hardware with their software (i.e. Pop!_OS), so they obviously care. However, Pop!_OS has definitely seen better days. It's currently in limbo; the ambitious COSMIC desktop environment is just around the corner. But how smooth will the transition be? How much longer will Pop!_OS users have to endure with the relative lack of work put to the system they actually daily-drive? A lot of questions, but not a lot of answers. I'd personally discourage this as well.
    • Tuxedo OS is similar to Pop!_OS. But where Pop!_OS first went to champion the GNOME desktop environment to later 'abandon' it for their own COSMIC. Tuxedo OS, instead, turned their eyes towards KDE Plasma. From what I've heard, it's a good pick. As TUXEDO makes hardware just like System76 does, it's unsurprising for them to care as well.

    Does linux have issues interfacing with multiple monitors?

    Unfortunately, I'm not very familiar with multiple monitors. The few times I did need it, which was on Fedora with GNOME, it did work well. I suppose it should be fine.

    Does it handle HDR okay?

    On KDE Plasma, yes. On GNOME, from what I could gather, it should work starting from GNOME 48. Which is a couple of months away. Though, IIRC, some 'GNOME-powered' distros may have tried to support HDR in its experimental stage already. On Cinnamon, what we find on Linux Mint's flagship distro, AFAIK it's not great (yet) 😅.

    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.

    You hit the nail on the coffin. KDE Plasma would probably serve you best, yes. Eventually, you may want to explore Window Managers for how they could further enhance your workflow. But, let's take it easy :P . One step at a time. Start with KDE Plasma. Get comfortable with Linux and the whole ecosystem. And if it so happens that you're not satiated with KDE Plasma's workflow options and you'd like to explore other possibilities, then looking into WMs is definitely a worthwhile endeavor.

    I have a Nvidea build (RTX 2080). I have heard this can be an issue with Linux.

    Yup. It has been better lately, but thank you for bringing this up.

    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

    Have you considered Bazzite?

    Photoshop cs6

    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.

    davinci resolve

    This is notoriously difficult to install. Thankfully, the excellent davincibox comes to the rescue. Furthermore, it's also found in the AUR and nixpkgs. Note that the Nix package manager can be installed on (almost) any distro, though it's relatively advanced.

    Misc "Tinkering" (Handbrake, dvd burners/rippers, Really any weird thing I come across that I want to tinker with)

    Assuming this "Tinkering" is the same as the one I asked you to elaborate/clarify before, then I can inform you that most distros handle it pretty well.

    Alrighty, I think you've clearly demonstrated to have done your research. Thank you for that!

    FWIW, assuming that KDE Plasma is your DE of choice (at least for now) for both its (relatively mature) HDR support and tinker-friendliness, then -out of your selected distros- only Fedora and Tuxedo OS remain to be considered.

    • 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.

      • 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!

  • If you do not want your distro to force changes down your throat like Microsoft, maybe avoid Ubuntu.

    “Stability” on Linux means two things. “Stable” distros like Debian or RHEL change their software infrequently. This is indeed stable. However, you will likely be unhappy with the old software and want to install newer stuff. Many of the ways this is done will cause actual instability (bugs and crashes). Also, old software may be missing features or hardware support. If you are a gamer for example, this could be a big deal—especially if you use NVIDIA.

    Things are a bit better than they used to be with tech like Distrobox and Flatpak.

    The frequently updated distros can actually be “more stable” for the same reasons as above. However, every once in a while some package is going to have a bug that may hit you before it is found. Arch or EOS are examples of such distros. They have massive software repositories that probably contain everything you will ever need. If you use one of these, check out the AUR (user contributed software repo).

    Distros that fall in the middle, like Mint or Fedora, are what I would recommend for a new user. Compared to Windows, you will find them very tinker friendly and tweakable. Fedora is more Wayland ready (see below).

    HDR is very, very new and is part of a change in core graphics tech from something called X11 to something called Wayland. From this point forward, Wayland is the better bet but, today, the quality of your experience is going to be very dependent of the “age of your software” issue above. For NVIDIA on Wayland, you want very up-to-date versions.

    KDE Plasma is the most mature Wayland environment today, in my assessment. Others are coming along quickly. That does not yet help you now though.

    Photoshop is going to be a problem for you. The most often recommended replacement for PS is GIMP. Unfortunately, GIMP has been on the verge of a major update for years. GIMP 3 has not shipped yet and most distros ship a far older version (2.10). Version 3 is a massive upgrade. However, you may still find it an unsatisfactory PS replacement. Some people use Photopea online.

    Gaming on Linux works really well now. However, multi-player anti-cheat systems are Windows kernel only and so these games are going to be a problem. So, your experience will depend on what you play.

    The other stuff on your list will work well. Linux of course has a lot more to offer, especially if you are a dev.

    Good luck!

    • Thank you kindly. Sounds like wayland will be just dandy for me. Not married to Photoshop. It's just what I use. I'm sure I can figure my way around something else.

    1. It matters as some distros have one maintainer or will offer you something ideological at great sacrifice, but you seem to already know that.
    2. No, the biggest difference is package manager, community forum in case you meed troubleshooting, default DE (eases troubleshooting), and release type.

    There are three big families of distros: Debian / Fedora / Arch. Any distro that is a derative of either of these three use their package manager.

    1. Drop tuxedo and take a look at endeavourOS. It's arch-based and arch has the best package manager of all. Also KDE is their main DE. I use Manjaro because I prefer Xfce.

    In case you do use EndeavourOS, one warning, DO NOT USE THE ARCH FORUM FOR TROUBLESHOOTING!!

    (If you've heard of 'Sheldon Cooper' from the tv-series 'Big Bang theory' or 'Young Sheldon'. This forum is run by a real life version of him and you will get banned there immediately or very quickly, unlike other forums. Rule #1 of many is that any user troubleshooting admits that the issue is occuring on any OS other than Arch, including the closest deratives, will get banned.)

    1. No. Don't know what HDR is.
    2. Tinkering with the DE is definitely fun and you should play with it. Be careful though, because the freedom you're allowed also allows you to break things. But tinkering with the DE isn't the worst thing you could break.

  • re: Distros. Tuxedo is a strange one. I'm not saying it's bad or anything, it just doesn't normally feature in these discussions. I don't know much about it, so I couldn't say if it's a good option or not, but I'm curious what drew you to it?

    • Couldn't say anything in particular. I think I was looking for Plasma KDE default and it claims to have the stability, support and ease of use of Ubuntu while ripping out the stuff people didn't like that canonical put in.

  • When you like to tinker with the DE, e.g. customising to your liking, then there would be no way around KDE as it is imho the most customizable DE. Gnome is rock solid and its UI is very concise and coherent but also not that customizable (out of the box).

    When it comes to the Amazon and Snap Scandals, you might want to steer clear from everything that is Ubuntu based since it was Canonical who did those two things. Ubuntu based is for example Mint (unless you go Linux Mint Debian Edition which skips the ubuntu middle man) and Kubuntu.

    HDR is afaik still maturing in Wayland: https://arewewaylandyet.com/

    But Multi Screen support is not a big issue anymore.

    nVidia used to be a problem since their opensource and also proprietary drivers were quite lacking. But this was afaik remedied last year.

    Regarding the packages: yes in essence you could just install it afterwards, but there are three/four/five package formats that are only compatible with each other after some repackging has been done, one of those package formats only exists on one branch of Linux (snap), twos are universal (AppImage which is similiar to portable Apps in Windows, Flatpak) and three that are fundamental (DEB for debian based systems, RPM for IBM red hat (fedora), ZST for Arch based systems)

    With your software list, you may run into issues regarding Photoshop CS6 as it is not supported in Linux and you would need alternatives (which includes relearning workflows) e.g. Krita and GIMP (both you can already run in windows to check them out and learn a bit)

    Gaming is simple: check protondb.com to see if a given game runs in linux; steam exists, lutris exists for non-steam games.

    1. By and large, distros package the same software so which one you pick is a matter of taste. As a beginner, you won't have the knowledge to take advantage of documentation/instructions that are not written for your specific distro, so pick one of the more popular ones.
    2. No, distro owners won't be a problem in the same way that Microsoft or Apple are. Don't worry about that: the moment they do something unsavory (even remotely) their projects will be forked, and switching to a different distro is not that big of a deal anyway.
    3. If you like to tinker you will break your system, not because linux is fragile (it is not) but because knowledge of low-level stuff is widespread and the temptation to thinker with it is too great. I recommend you look into system snapshots and how they integrate with boot options (eg. opensuse tumbleweed automatically snapshosts your system when you update it and during boot you can choose to boot into a previous state - surely other distros do the same and, if yours doesn't, you can set it up yourself).
    4. The short answer is "use KDE" :)
    5. KDE is great and seems to suit you. The DE you choose matters (IMHO) more that the distro, because once you are familiar with a DE and its shortcuts it's a pain to switch, and also because once you are used to some feature it's enormously frustrating to switch to a DE that doesn't have it :)

    From what I hear (I switched to AMD years ago), it's not hard to make the Nvidia cards work properly, but it's a recurring hassle and there are lots of things that are more fun to thinker with. Unless specific reasons you need an Nvidia card, I'd suggest selling it off and replacing it with a second-hand AMD/Intel one.

    • Yeah, I've been thinking of Upgrading my PC once I have the capital. I might end up fully switching off Intel. I chose Intel when I did my build because AMD had a bit of a reputation of poor reliability. I understand though that they've since far outgrown it.

  • Shameless self promotion: https://lemm.ee/post/37682729

    It won't answer all of your answers, but it should at least give you a good primer on what distros are and what are the main key takeaways.

    1. Does the distro I pick matter?
      Packages
      When you install a distro it will have repositories of apps that you can easily install and easily keep updated using either the GUI (GNOME Software for GNOME, Discover for KDE) or the package manager in terminal (dnf in Fedora, apt in kubuntu and mint). It's similar to how you install apps on a smartphone.
      The good thing about the apps from the default repository is that they're (in theory) tested to work well with the distro.
      You can also install applications from other sources when necessary.
      Update Frequency and new tech
      Another difference is how new kernel and software you get from the repos.
      The latest Debian Stable runs kernel 6.1 while Fedora just updated to 6.12 and arch has been running 6.12 since december.
      If you're running the newest hardware then the chance of having drivers available automatically increases with a newer kernel.
    2. Company-run distros and alternatives:
      In my opinion Ubuntu is the ones doing the most forcing as of now, and even they are angels compared to Microsoft.
      Fedora had discussions about including opt-out Telemetry to aid them getting data to improve the distro. They listened to community feedback and backpedaled that into opt-in metrics:
      https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/Telemetry
      https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/Metrics
      Debian and Arch are both examples of distros without enterprise involvement and that have no upstream distro that can affect their releases.
      Map of distros here: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Linux_Distribution_Timeline.svg
    3. Stability of the distro:
      Of your frontrunners I've only run Fedora but that has been stable and been working well for me for my primary PC. So has Debian which I run on my servers (I have a Debian VM running Portainer for dockers, one for running Jellyfin and a third for Forgejo).
    4. Monitor support
      Multi monitor support
      I don't have the desktop space for double monitors personally, but I've heard that KDE 6 (Plasma) handles multi monitor support well.
      HDR
      Should be working since November
    1. Both KDE and GNOME are customizable. KDE is more similar to Windows and I realized that most of my GNOME customizations was to make it more similar to Windows and KDE. I've since switched to KDE and must say I really enjoy having a proper file browser as default. Nautilus (default GNOME file browser) has been simplified to death and caused me to create a script to replace it with nemo.

    Nvidia is a whole lot simpler to use than people make it sound like, though I'll stay team red:
    https://rpmfusion.org/Howto/NVIDIA#Current_GeForce.2FQuadro.2FTesla
    Fedora guide for Nvidia drivers unless you're running a really old card: 

     
            sudo dnf update -y # Update your machine and reboot
    sudo dnf install akmod-nvidia # Installs the driver
    sudo dnf install xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-cuda #optional for cuda/nvdec/nvenc support (required for Davinci Resolve)
    • Gaming including emulation
      First person shooters with kernel intrusive Anticheat won't work in Linux as they expect to spy on a Windows OS.
      Other than that gaming on Linux is really getting there as I'm sure you've realized when using a Steamdeck.
      Outside of Steam you have Heroic Games Launcher, Lutris and Bottles for running windows games on Linux.
      I'm mostly using Lutris but I think Heroic Games launcher is the more popular one.
    • Firefox
      Default browser in most distros
    • VLC
      Available in most default distro repositories.
    • Spotify
      Available as a Flatpak on Flathub, haven't used it myself.
    • Discord
      I know people has had some trouble with screen sharing but that the DiscordCanary (think Beta version) solves it.
      https://github.com/flathub/com.discordapp.Discord/issues/380
    • Godot
      Can be downloaded as a simple bin file from their own site: https://godotengine.org/download/linux/
      Also available as a Flatpak on Flathub
    • Visual Studio
      The closest you get is VSCode.
    • Git
      Not a problem.
    • Photoshop cs6, audacity, davinci resolve
      Photoshop might be trouble, Audacity and Davinci Resolve should work.
    • Misc “Tinkering” (Handbrake, dvd burners/rippers, Really any weird thing I come across that I want to tinker with)
      Handbrake is available as a Flatpak on Flathub, there's dvd burner applications available too.

    • Wow, that was really comprehensive and clear, thank you. I'll digest and factor into the deliberations. Reckon I'll also switch to AMD with my next build. Main reason I went Intel/Nvidea is cuz AMD's old reputation was still ringing in my ears when I build it.

    1. the distro matters, but as a general rule, start with mint cinnamon because it's easy and super stable. different distros use different components and they are configured differently, so if you face issues and incompatibility on mint, fedora may work better for example. for me it's the other way around. also on debian or ubuntu based distros you have the biggest selection of programs available. not sure what packages you are referring to..just applications in general? it's as easy as just installing or uninstalling them from your package manager / software center or whatever.
    2. ubuntu is owned by canonical, I'd say avoid that. mint is derived from ubuntu, but it has a debian edition so it's not threatened if ubuntu gets further enshittified.
    3. I recently used kububtu for a week, something to note: it's running very far behind, using plasma 5.27. in my experience, kde in general seems to have lots of customization but a lot of it is just broken. all the themes you can find, most won't install, animations are laggy (I suspect nvidia issue). downvotes incoming, but that's just my experience. it may work for you though idk. fedora official and pop use gnome, which I have very limited experience with, but I remember it not giving too much control to the user with customization if that's what you're after, also what's with the full screen app launcher? in cinnamon you will find a lot of customization and it all works. it's also very familiar to use if you're coming from windows.
    4. do your monitors have different refresh rates? that was an issue, I think that got fixed in wayland. x11 will not be your friend. someone correct me on this one if I'm wrong.
    5. I stand by what I said in 3, but go ahead and try them in usb live environment and see if you find it okay to use. btw you can install KDE plasma in mint too, you're not married to the DE that your distro ships with.

    you are probably going to need to set up a virtualbox and use photoshop in windows, I hear it doesn't work well in wine.

    1. Not really unless you're hyper-focused on a very specific type of performance. Even then, you can always enable/disable whatever bits and pieces because it's all software, and it's all open. There are guides or threads for absolutely everything out there. A distro only organizes it simpler on base install to make it easier ootb.
    2. Linux itself does not do any data collection. Never heard of any distro enabling anything by default, and you can rip it right out anyway if you want, though it's more work. If you're concerned about this though, stay away from Ubuntu, as that is the one corporate backed distro that is more likely to lean into this.
    3. Fedora is probably what you want. It's taken over the helm Ubuntu used to have as the default to try. Clean, simple, no bullshit, huge community.
    4. Linux, no, but you're conflating a few things. Linux is the kernel. The desktop you choose to run is what does the graphical session management. Both KDE and Gnome are fine with this, though there is an argument that KDE is a tad ahead in this realm with their VRR implementation.
    5. Gnome is more akin to MacOS. KDE is more Windows-like (but still not at all). Try both on a liveUSB for a bit and see which you like.

    At the end of the day you can run practically anything on a liveUSB for as long as you want before installing, even games (within reason). Be comfortable in the knowledge that if there is something you don't like about a particular thing, you can change it to act however you want. Like I said above, it's all just software. It's going to be a little tough coming from a Windows-centric world to realize this at first, but I assure you, installing and running one distro absolutely does not lock you into anything at all because you can just install and remove absolutely everything.

    Now, hardware compatibility is a different story. The Linux kernel itself is what does all the hardware management, so if your hardware is too new, there may not be full support for a particular thing. It sounds like you're on an older machine though, so unless it's got some really obscure hardware in it, everything should be detected and load straight out of the box. Again, try a few liveUSB runs and make sure, it's that simple.

    • Copy that. Got myself a USB so I'll do some playing. Thanks for the clarification. As for hardware, only weird thing might be my sound card but we'll see how that plays out.

  • 1). It matters a little bit, but not a ton. A big difference will come down to what package manager comes with a distro, and whether it is a "rolling" distro that gets updates as soon as they come out, or one which withholds updates until after they have some time for bug testing, etc. Given that gaming is one of your primary use cases, I would recommend a rolling distro. If your distro does not come prepackaged with something you can usually install it. Minimalist distros like Arch come with almost nothing pre-installed, not even a desktop environment, so you can be very granular about what gets installed and keep you system lean.

    2). Most distros will not have as much in the way of corporate control/privacy concerns. A few like Ubuntu or Fedora are more closely linked with a single company, but most are more community driven and this is not a concern.

    3). The advice I always give to people first trying Linux is to go into it with the mindset that you are learning a new skill, as many things are simply done differently to Windows. Most things work fine, but every once in a while, especially when setting something up for the first time, it may require additional configuration steps. Very popular distros like Mint will usually have the most community resources, and you can often find posts or guides of people who have already solved some issue you run into. I would also throw one of the Arch-based distros onto your list: Endeavour OS, which is essentially a pre-configured Arch installation. The Arch wiki is one of the most highly regarded resources in the entire linux community, and even if you are not using an Arch distro, many of the guides on it can be helpful.

    4). Generally speaking, my multi-monitor usage with KDE has been seamless. No issues that I can think of. HDR support has only very recently been added, so I am not sure how well it works, but it is improving rapidly.

    5). I think Plasma would be a good fit for what you are trying to do. Honestly, it is very customizable, but perfectly usable right out of the box even if you do not want to do anything to it. The layout is very familiar for a Windows user.

    • Thank you for the advice. I'm definitely approaching this as a learning experience, something I've never really shied away from.

  • So I don't really have experience with the gaming aspect as I pretty much get what I want from a steamdeck. I think its likely you would want to go with one of those (a gaming setup someone else suggests) or dual boot to have your gaming system and your doing other things setup. Just in case I will mention the one I use called zorin. It is based on ubuntu with gnome and its main claim to fame is its an out of the box distro that tries to emulate windows (other systems to but the paid for version unlocks that. its default is a general windows type experience). Out of the box means it has foss office, video file viewing, audio file listening, image file viewer, browser of course, rdp client, mail client, calendar, contacts, also image,video,audio file creation and editing, optical disk copier/image creator, wine with play on linux so that you can right click a windows executable and run it and such. It does non free software things like nvidia drivers right off the bat. Its great for an install and get going right away type of thing. Its always a bit out of date because its emphasis is stable, just works, get going type of thing. I have a few complaints. Mainly it does not have the windows key, right arrow thing to half screen by default. It could be a stability thing that they don't want to mess with the compiz or whatnot. Then the other thing is I find the software gui interface it have an aweful search for getting more software so either just use apt at the command line or download the .deb installation file which things like various browsers have as a linux option for download and then its really just like adding one to windows or mac. download and run the installation.

    • Hadn't heard of zorin. Will add it to deliberations. Thank you kindly

  • Others have already answered your questions, so I'll just drop in my anecdotal experience to moving over my desktop to Linux last year. I tried a few different distros but settled with Fedora KDE edition. It works with everything exotic in my laptop out of the box, except for the gyro that doesn't work with anybody else either. The desktop feels familiar and is easy to customize. I tried to like Gnome and variants but it is really settled on The Gnome Way of doing everything. Fedora is a fresh experience from previous attempts of going full Linux desktop with Ubuntu and even Mint. The GUI for software and package management is neat and includes native packages, flatpak both the fedora builds and mainline. Some minor things are not quite there but I believe that will be the Linux experience forever and I'm okay with it. I recommend to try it.

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