What about steamOS for a steam machine that has all AMD hardware so Nvidia drivers will not be an issue.

I’m building an htpc that will never be used in desktop mode just couch gaming used by kids too. Still trying to decide which os to go with.

Just want to know what the downsides if any of installing SteamOS if I just want valve to handle it for me.

I’m out of the loop here, what’s the context?

As I understand it, it’s atomic Fedora with virtually everything you might need to game on Linux baked in (no need for layering) and more or less preconfigured. Off the top of my head, proprietary Nvidia drivers, Steam, Lutris, Hero launcher, support for Xbox One wireless controller dongle, plus a number of useful tools like Tailscale. An app with a catered list of gaming-oriented flatpacks, one click updating. Also a lot of effort into replicating the Steam Deck experience for handheld devices or devices connected to a TV.

I believe they also do Aurora, which is similarly geared toward workstations with a ton of container-related tools like distro box readily available to easily use containers instead of layering where possible. The same tools may be available in Bazzite but I never checked. I have Aurora on my laptop and use a dedicated gaming device with Bazzite.

I’m not a Linux veteran by any means but I was hopping distros looking for something I could install on my family’s computers I tried atomic Fedora. When using it for myself, I became frustrated with the number of tools I use that needed to be layered or run in a container and eventually found myself on Bazzite and Aurora. So far so good.

Besides the reasons others mentioned, it’s also popular as an OS for gaming handhelds, like the Steam Deck, Lenovo Legion Go, ASUS Ally X and what have you.

Imagine you like video games. You install Bazzite. You have Steam, with only a little checkbox (to allow playing on linux). It works, you can play, you have a “playstore” if you need something. You have really little to do if you don’t go outside Steam and the playstore.

It’s the “just works” distro for people who want to play games.

A lot of things are built into it to be easily installable with less user effort. Has nice defaults. I use cachyos on my pc but on my handheld a lot of stuff wasn’t working by default, like the handhelds buttons/joystick. On bazzite everything works by default. (Think it’s one terminal command to install what is needed for controls in cachyos, but it didn’t work by default) You can still download whatever using rpm ostree, as a user idr know the difference. Grabbed gparted that way. Bazzite has the ujust command which gives you a lot of options for modifying and installing stuff easily like waydroid, emudeck, plugins, etc.

Also prefer gnome with extensions on touchscreens and handhelds, while everything else comes with kde and it’s apps by default. Kde isn’t bad at all and only 1 extension on pc (window thumbnails to pip any window) has me staying on gnome, but gnome works so much better for touchscreens and smaller devices.

As someone who has gone from windows to mint, what is wrong with it? So far I have 0 issues and can run all the games I want. What am I missing out on?

I’m perfectly fine with Mint as a recommendation. It’s not what I would choose, but it does work for a large portion of people without issues.

I am very glad that I hardly ever see Manjaro recommended to new comers anymore though - that’s a curse/trap. There are so much better “Arch but easier” distros now that are rock solid.

I recently got a mini PC for couch gaming / HTPC functionality, and I installed Mint without ever booting Windows. I’ve been using Mint for a while after years of distro hopping, but I’m having issues with Bluetooth XBox controllers randomly disconnecting. Maybe this is the excuse I’ve been looking for to try Bazzite, although I might just need to get a USB dongle with a chipset known to work on Linux. What I’m really waiting for is an immutable distro with Plasma Bigscreen.

mint aint that bad
besides all its desktops not supporting Wayland (ig X11 is better for beginners??)

Mint’s mouse acceleration was what killed it for me. Setting acceleration to “constant” still felt rubber-bandy and fucked up, and there’s no obvious “Off” option. That was a hard stop. It never felt like I was using my PC but instead a rubber-bandy immitation. I immediately switched. It’s frustrating considering that the rest of the OS seemed OK, I could have seen myself using it if not for that.

Bazzite immediately felt “good” to use right out of the box. No baked in acceleration weirdness. Kudos to the team for really putting in the effort to make this old gamer feel right at home in it. Now going on over a year of it and still loving it.

I think cinnamons a better de to demo linux than gnome. I do use it now but itd turn ppl away (like me initially). Kde these days is def a better choice, but it was kinda easy to delete all your panels and end up with nothing last time I used it. Should really prevent you from deleting your last one.

Why though? I don’t like it personally but it’s my #1 recommendation usually. (can’t recommend slackware to noobs)

If they have issues they’re gonna ask me for tech support, and I don’t know how to use immutable distros (lol)

Immutable?

It’s been working perfectly for me with no tinkering.

At most you might have to switch to the closed driver image

It’s been flawless for me with similar performance (slightly better in some areas) than Windows.

If it’s doing what you need it to do, no reason to rock that boat! It is fun to try out other distros without distro hopping, just to see what’s out there. That’s what a good thumb drive is for!

afaik theyre parasitizing microsoft this way by compiling and distributing everything on github, makes it cheaper too. they have a way for local computers to distribute software as peers at least so you only really need to download it once if your server or w.e. runs it too