I'm looking to set up a PC for gaming, music mixing and mastering, and general daily tasks like browsing and office work. Here's what I have: an AMD Ryzen 3900X CPU, an AMD Radeon 5700XT GPU, and a Presonus Studio 1824 audio interface. I've been using Void Linux on my laptop and Ubuntu/Debian on my vServer for a few years now. I'm considering switching to Arch Linux with the labwc window manager and the linux-zen kernel, using features like preempt=FULL, threadirqs, and the BFQ scheduler, along with schedutil governor. For audio work, I'm planning to use Reaper and yabridge for VST3 plugins. However, I want to make sure it's not overly ambitious to go with Arch, and whether I should consider a more pre-built option like Bazzite. Additionally, I'm curious if labwc and wl-randr are suitable for borderless window gaming, and if anyone has better suggestions or tips to consider?
4 Answers
Using Arch can be a great choice if you're comfortable with some setup and maintenance. Just be prepared to face potential breaking changes since it's a rolling release. A lot of users automate their third-party software installations to ease the update process. It'll help reduce the hassle during updates, as you’ll likely need to rebuild software that's not managed by the distro. So if you can handle that, Arch should work well for you!
Red Hat backs a lot of the ecosystem, which can be a plus since they contribute a lot of stability and features. Don't dismiss it just because of the name. It’s solid for most use cases, so finding a distro based on it could be beneficial.
I appreciate that perspective! I wasn't looking to start a debate, just wanted opinions!
If you want to keep it simple, consider looking at some distro selection resources like the wiki on Linux4Noobs. It's a great starting point to figure out what might work best for you. And remember to take regular backups just in case!
Honestly, you seem to be overthinking it! Just choose a mainstream distro that fits your needs, like Arch or Fedora. Both should handle gaming and audio tasks well without too much complication. Focus more on getting your environment up and running instead of diving deep into distro specifics.
Thanks for the insight! I get now why rolling releases can be tricky during updates.