Best Linux Gaming Distributions
Best Linux Gaming Distributions
Wondering which Linux distro is best for gaming? We got a list of 9 gaming Linux OS for you here.
Do you agree? Why? Why not? Do you have an alternative suggestion?
Most distros are suitable for gaming. No need for gaming specific distro choice
Exactly...
- Does your package manager (apt/yum/portage/etc) install the correct gpu drivers?
- Does the package manager install steam + dependencies?
If yes to both, you have a gaming distro
Does it even matter what distribution you use?
I gamed on Debian 11 (now 12) with no issues at all on an nvidia card.
I feel like any distro can do gaming well, the only thing a distro can offer now is having things set up out of the box for you (Novara being a prime example of this).
@matt @original_reader I feel like with Debian 12 especially it just gets better and better
Yeah, no. Maybe if you are using a Nvidia card and are stuck on older Linux kernel versions.
Otherwise Fedora is a great choice. It comes with different editions, but IMHO the KDE version is the best.
Without copying and pasting what's on every linux websites for the past 10 years with only changing the year and talking from personal experience i get great results on fedora silverblue.
I actually really like openSUSE Tumbleweed for gaming, personally. It's rolling release, keeps up-to-date with the latest feature and security releases, and manages to be far more stable than any other rolling release I've tried, and I've tried my fair share lol.
It does require a little extra work at the beginning to get all your stuff sorted out -- non-free drivers and libraries, though they're easier to get access to than ever -- but once that's done, it's largely minimal tinkering to get games up and running on Steam or Lutris or Bottles or whatever else launcher you choose to use. I was running Elden Ring the day after it dropped and all I had to do was switch to ProtonGE, for example, and while that's not the greatest achievement ever I think it's pretty great.
Valve has really done a lot of good work though, and using most Linux distros to game seems largely trivial compared to how it used to be.
I switched to Linux recently and been researching on Distros for weeks with tables and stuff. I decided for Tumbleweed with KDE and it just feels so good. Wrote some scripts so I can run a system update with pre and post snapshots and a restart and it gives me so much confidence to tinker around and learn more about Linux. Snapshots in general are just so damn great.
That's the same list we see years after years... They didn't even bother to add Nobara, which is probably, one of the few "gamer distro" that include that many useful patches for gaming...
Instead of Manjaro, I'd recommend EndeavourOS which does basically the same thing but doesn't have the history of being dodgy and unprofessional.
so true. i geniunely dont understand why a lot of people recommend manjaro when it has so many issues and there's other much better distros
nixos seems nice
I've kind of shifted my thinking on all this over the past year. I used to use Arch since I wanted bleeding edge access to features. This would always eventually leads to something breaking, and headaches fixing.
I've since been using pop_os, and moving over to the flatpak and NixOS ecosystems to stay on top of the latest package versions, while having a more stable and tested base. It's working for me, I don't worry about my system borking all the time, and I get plenty of new package updates to satisfy that want.
I wouldn't really consider any specific distro as being the best for gaming. As long as it provides an up to date kernel and libraries, it will work well. Just don't use a DE that takes up a lot of VRAM or GPU power.