I’m sick of Windows, and especially what it’s become, and the way its trending looks like it will only get worse. I’ll be building a brand new PC this summer and want to choose a Linux Distro instead. In preparation, I’d like to try out a virtual machine with a Linux distribution. I am solidly familiar with Ubuntu, but I think it’s time to try something that may cater to my specific needs more.

I use my machine for work and gaming (mostly Steam). I am a fullstack software developer and use a second MacBook as well for my daily work needs.

I’ve had Manjaro, and OpenSUSE recommended to me by a friend who likes both of them but he doesn’t game much and doesn’t need various software development tools.

Are Manjaro or OpenSUSE good choices? I know there’s a tonne of distros out there, and I’m trying to narrow things down a bit. Hopefully this community has some helpful advice.

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: First of all, thank-you everyone for your help and positivity. It’s been less than a day and the amount of advice and ideas is fantastic. Not too mention the noticeable lack of negative comments (a huge reason I left reddit more than a year ago), thank-you all for reaffirming my reasons.

I’ve got to admit, I’m a little overwhelmed by all of the advice, but in a good way. I will be scrutinizing all of this advice and laying it out into a roadmap for both my distro testing, as well as PC building. You are all making this community a helpful and spectacular place. I hope one day to be able to pay it forward! Please keep it up!

  • Gormadt
    9·
    7 months ago

    I hear Bazzite is good for gaming but I haven’t personally used it.

    I use Linux Mint on my machines (except my NAS which has TrueNAS going on it) and I’ve got no complaints so far other than my vertical monitor being a little tough to have a vertical login screen (though that’s so niche it’s barely even worth bringing up) and I’m not even sure that’s an issue on other distros (I don’t distro hop)

    My experience with Manjaro is from a decade ago (oh God I’m old) so it really doesn’t apply to anything modern but I have heard it recommended at least a few times and a friend of mine swears by it for everything (he always reminds me it’s based on Arch BTW)

    My other friend who uses Linux swears by Pop!_OS and he loves it. I personally don’t really dig the default look of it.

    All three of us primarily play indie titles if that makes any difference for you.

    Personally I’m moving away from Windows this year (ideally before the end of June) so I’m curious what distros others here recommend as well

    • Sips'@slrpnk.net
      7·
      7 months ago

      I second Bazzite! I daily drive this for my gaming and every browsing, with some occasional forensic analysis. It’s really really great!!

    • SqueakyBeaverEnglish
      5·
      7 months ago

      I use bazzite, and it admittedly isn’t the best for out-of-the-box development work because of it being atomic

      You can just make a container for your development, but I’d rather not (I just layer packages atm and I’m working on making my own image based on it that has the stuff I want)