Hey everyone! I'm a computer science student currently using Windows 11 on my main computer. I've been considering switching to Linux for a while, but I have two main concerns: first, I love gaming, especially titles like Forza Horizon that I've bought through the Microsoft/Xbox store, and I want to make sure I don't lose access to them. Second, I'm worried about messing up my system while trying to customize things and potentially losing all my data.
I'm not a complete beginner—I run a home server with a Debian distro and I'm comfortable with the command line. However, I'd still like to test out a distro live using a USB drive since I've found virtual machines a bit laggy for my hardware, which includes an older Radeon RX 580 GPU and a Ryzen 5 2600 CPU with 16GB of RAM. I'm aiming for something stable but flexible and configurable. Any insights or recommendations on what distro to try? Thanks!
5 Answers
As someone who uses Ubuntu 24.04 LTS for work, I can say it's pretty user-friendly and works well with most applications. You shouldn't have a lot of issues with compatibility, especially for Steam games. However, I'd recommend brushing up on some command line basics—it's really handy!
Not really! Most games are supported well, so I haven't faced serious performance drops.
If you're already familiar with Debian from your server setup, why not use it on your main PC as well? The latest version, 13, is solid and would give you that stability. It's also quite customizable, though gaming can be hit or miss depending on what you're playing.
I recommend trying a few distros out by testing them in a virtual machine first. Jumping straight into an install can be tricky; I learned that the hard way. I really like EndeavourOS with KDE plasma, which might be a good match for you. But definitely try it out in a VM before committing!
First off, before you switch anything up, I suggest you shrink your Windows partition using Disk Management. Aim for at least 256GB for Linux if you're serious about testing. For distros, Mint is often recommended for newcomers, but if you want something that feels similar to Windows, consider a KDE-based distro like Kubuntu or Fedora KDE—these don't require a lot of terminal commands, so they minimize the risk of breaking things. You can also install on the partition you've made once that's all set up. I've personally been using CachyOS, which is a bit more advanced but very efficient; I would still suggest getting comfortable with the package manager.
Another option is to use Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) since you already have Windows running. You can test different distros there without needing to mess with partitions.
How's the gaming experience on Ubuntu? Do you find significant performance issues?