Pop!_OS, PikaOS, CachyOS, and Bazzite are the top gaming distros right now.

I recommend Pop! if you have Nvidia cards. If you have AMD, any of them will work.

PikaOS or Bazzite with the KDE Plasma desktop are going to be closest to Windows 10 in terms of how you use them.

Pop! has a super different UI, almost Mac-like. But it's based on Ubuntu, the most-used distro. Which means that if anything goes wrong you can search "[problem] Ubuntu" and get hundreds of solution pages.

CachyOS is based on Arch, which is the big, scawy Linux that all the nerds say they use. It's easier to break than the other ones, and won't officially offer some of the apps that something Debian/Ubuntu based might have. I would recommend it when you're looking to get a bit more technical.

That said, I haven't broken my install yet and CachyOS is like the fastest OS available right now. Serious FPS gains for a LOT of games compared to Windows, and even other Linux distros. I also have not had to sit and troubleshoot it over anything. I was shocked at how smooth it was for an Arch system.

So, there's not really a bad choice in those 4. I'd recommend Pop! if you never want to have to tinker, Pika or Bazzite if you want to feel like you're still using Windows, and Cachy when you feel comfortable taking some training wheels off (and that could be right now!).

For browsers, try LibreWolf. It's a locked-down version of Firefox. Or just use Firefox. It ain't perfect, but then again it ain't Chrome.

Linux Mint. If my 85-year-old dad can get used to it after over 30 years of Windows, you’ll be fine.

/edit Also Firefox comes with pretty much every Linux distribution, but if you need something Chromium-based, I’m partial to Vivaldi.

https://yearofthelinuxdesktop.net/

According to the flowchart there, cachyOS or bazzite, also some other tools and recommendations, good luck!

bazzite and librewolf

LInux mint or bazzite, I'd take a look at both, and firefox with ublock origin

Mint is very similar to a Windows feel

CachyOS could be great! If not, Zorin and Mint are great.

Bazzite and Librewolf

I've had a good experience with Bazzite. It worked out of the box for steam, and the "bazaar" app store built into it had everything I needed. Heroic is in there and good for handling PC games from other stores. Use Proton+ to get the latest Proton GE if you run into any windows game compatibility issues and it may solve them.

If you have a Nvidia card, I've found mint and neon to be really poor performing. Kubuntu and Q4 have been amathiugh, I wouldn't use Q4os unless you have low end hardware though.

That being said mint is just the best os in the sphere for performance and usability, if it runs well for you that would be awesome.

Libre wolf is an amazing Firefox branch, runs well, super private, good overall, though in my opinion it fails to perform well on beefy websites with alot of visual goodies (like sketch sketchfab and other 3d model websites.) Best to have both Firefox and Libre Wolf.

On a side note some fun apps to use on Linux I found: qdirstat (winderstat replacement.) Portmaster (take control of what can access your pc via the internet, also has built in dns, a wonderful user interface, its just amazing.) Vencord (yeah I know discord sucks, but its almost impossible to get away from. Seriously I've tried to get my friends to use matrix, no Bueno.)

Also, Plasma is the greatest thing ever. My god is it good.

You could literally go into any "technology" post and there will be dozens

About the same for me. Genuinely happy and cant understand why more people dont just install it. Its soo easy these days.

How is it for gaming? Im hesitant to switch just for that one use case, but its a big one.

Had Win 11 on my laptop (came with it) swapped to Mint 2 days ago. First Linux device. I cannot express how much faster it loads shit now.

Yeahhh, I'm going with Linux when I get my warrantied laptop back after some research on drivers.

You don't need to "crack" anything. Massgrave can activate any version of windows through the official process.

It technically probably breaks the EULA but no one gives a shit (including MS).

What software do you use?

I worked with 3D for decades and Blender replaced almost everything. The performance is actually better on Linux. I personally use Linux mint, but regarding software it barely matters what distro you use nowadays.

But support, compatibility, ease of use can vary a lot. I haven't used another distro for many years so I can't say much.

If you rely on autodesk and adobe stuff you will probably suffer. But personally I would say it's deserved because there are not a lot of companies more evil than them. The sooner you start trying alternatives the better.

Invoicing I just used inkscape but it's not great. Be prepared to make some sacrifices, but it's all worthy to get rid of microsoft.

alternativeto.net

Have fun! It's a learning curve, but a very accomplishable learning curve, and at the end you get to say that you don't use microsoft

It's just so much better than Windows in every way.

i used to think this too; but seeing tech literacy rate drop since the widespread adoption of smartphones makes me wonder if people will go with whatever works well enough and for the least about of effort.

and linux still takes effort.

No. More people will just keep using Windows 10.

Nah most people will just create an account. They literally have no idea what they are doing.

The meat of the work Valve did was with the compatibility layer, not SteamOS itself. This means you can choose any distro you're comfortable with and games will work as well as they do in SteamOS. I recommend Bazzite.

I ran steamos for a few months on my gaming PC.... You can download the iso and run it on just about any hardware (so long as it's team red).

Cachyos is better

The immutable nature of steamos made sure i wouldn't ever be able to fuck it up, but it also means you cant really sudo anything, plus it's missing basic PC functionality like printer drivers etc.

For anyone else on the fence, you don't need to wait. Lots of distros support gaming right out the box. I switched my gaming desktop (nvidia card) to Pop_OS!, installed Steam, and it just works.

What factors lead you to select Cachy?