I'm planning to give my old gaming laptop to my sister, and she's interested in switching to Linux after I set it up for her. I thought choosing a suitable distro would be simple, but I realize I've been so entrenched in technical aspects that I'm out of touch with what beginners actually need.
She'll primarily use the laptop for gaming (she has a Steam Deck), web browsing, document editing, watching movies, and possibly some light image editing.
Here are my requirements for the Linux distribution:
- It should have the KDE Plasma desktop environment by default.
- Needs to be updated enough to support gaming.
- A graphical package manager is essential.
- Should work well with Flatpak.
- It has to be stable enough to avoid frequent breaks (twice a year is my max for fixing issues).
What distro do you all suggest?
5 Answers
I had a great experience with Bluefin; it rarely broke and allows rollback features for updates. It works primarily with Flatpak, although it's better suited for Gnome. If your sister is comfortable, Bazzite is another great KDE option for gaming.
Just to clarify, the environment you're looking for is called Plasma, and KDE is the development community behind it. Fedora KDE fits your needs well since it's modern and powerful for beginners.
Linux Mint is a solid choice! However, if you're set on having the KDE desktop, I'd suggest checking out Fedora with the KDE Plasma version. It's up-to-date and supports gaming well.
Definitely go for Fedora KDE. It's reliable and performs well for casual desktop uses and gaming. If she wants something more user-friendly, Aurora is a fantastic option too.
If gaming is the primary use, I'd honestly recommend keeping Windows on the machine. Most games are optimized for Windows, and the Linux gaming experience can be hit or miss depending on the titles.
That's a fair point, but considering advancements like Proton, gaming on Linux has improved a lot. It might not be perfect, but it’s getting close!
Fedora does sound promising as a choice!