My current rig is featuring an I7 10th gen and a nvidia 4070ti. Is there a distro that you recommend me to use as a linux beginner that is also good for gaming and streaming, that will work with my pc parts? Because I heard that intel and nvidia are famous for causing issues on Linux.
I boarded my friend on arch and he took it like a champ. Beware, it has a very steep learning curve and needs patience. But otherwise, a more pre-configured distro is better. Cachy os, endeavour, or as much as hate to say, fedora.
The more important thing is the DE. I strongly suggest Plasma (kde).
Now board another friend on NixOS and break their soul :)
I had very few issues with a GTX 970 and i7-4790k. The only issues I hear about with either any more is the linux kernel not supporting some of the features of newer GPUs (e.g. I know ray-tracing was a pain-point at one point).
I don’t like recommending distros based on such a general use case, mainly because every distro can be tweaked and configured to exactly what you want. Instead, you should research the different mainline distros that have been around for decades—Arch, Debian, Fedora, Gentoo, Guix, NixOS, OpenSuse, Slackware—and see what they’re about, what sets them apart from others, what the maintainers’ philosophies are, and what kind of package management system they work with. Once one sounds better than the others, look into it and try it out.
#Dos and Don’ts:
Don’t try a niche distro. They are harder to troubleshoot and less likely to be actively maintained.
Don’t use Ubuntu. It’s just a suckier version of Debian. It used to be user-friendly Debian, but now Debian is more user-friendly than it.
Don’t dual-boot with windows. This just solidifies your reliance on windows, especially if you’re the type to give up on problem-solving issues that you didn’t have in Windows. It also can cause issues with making Linux unbootable.
Do try a live usb with persistence before you commit entirely. It’s not exactly the same as a complete install, but it’s close enough to let you know how the OS feels and what hardware will or won’t work with it. Some people say try a VM first, but that won’t have direct hardware access.
Do problem solve the little things. Anything that irks you or bothers you or just slows down your workflow. It doesn’t have to be an actual bug or glitch, just anything that could be better. This not only solidifies the feeling of ownership over your OS—you no longer have to settle for anyone else’s lousy design choices—it teaches you the resources for troubleshooting larger issues.
Do plan around things not being plug and play at first. Want to test if a game runs on Linux? Great, set aside a couple of hours beforehand: first to install steam and set it up, then to figure out Proton, then to troubleshoot the game not even booting up, then to fix any glitches or whatnot, then to get your controller working. This won’t always be the case, but it will irk you a lot less when it is if you expect it. The more you make time for solving these issues now, the less time they’ll take up in the future (either they’ll be gone, or you’ll immediately know how to fix them, or your troubleshooting will be more streamlined).
Do set aside time to learn about Linux “under the hood.” You don’t have to become a computer scientist, but it will save you a lot of headaches, show you cool things you can do, and make your computer a smoother experience. It especially helps if you take the time to learn as they come up: e.g. installer asks you what “bootloader” you want, but you’re not sure what that is, what it does, or why it’s necessary? Now’s the best time to take a little learning detour.
Do ask questions on forums.
Don’t listen to the people who shame you for asking.
Do listen to the people who try to show you a better way of doing things, even if it’s not your way.
I’ve been using Mint for almost a year now and what few problems I’ve had have been fixed with a few easy searches and a bit of forum help. Love it! :)
Stay away from the “bandwagon” distros for your first time. Bazzite, Pop_OS, Cachy, etc. There’s nothing wrong with them, but a lot more people use and have been using the more established distros such as Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora, etc. So if you run into any weird edge case issues it’s much more likely that someone else has already been there and discovered solutions. Once you’re comfortable with Linux you can start exploring the more niche distros that are better tailored to you. Have fun!
I’m not sure about this. I’m my experience, 90-99% of the solutions originally for Ubuntu worked for me in Pop.
Every Linux distro will work with your hardware, aside from edge case components in certain situations. There is no difference in distros for hardware compatibility, unless you’re thinking of running a very old versions of something. Anything will work.
There is also no major difference between distros for gaming performance. The only difference in “gaming” distros is that they have certain software preselected and installed. You can just do this yourself anyway.
I currently suggest Fedora for beginners because it’s dead simple. The big difference between any distro is going to be the default Desktop Environment, and you can choose whatever you want after you install anyway.
If you like Windows’ UI, give KDE a shot. If you want something more like MacOS, go for Gnome. Either work great.
If you want to try multiple, download some LiveUSB images, start em up and poke around a bit. If you change your mind after install, you can just install a different DE and switch over without needing to reinstall the entire OS.
1: You’re not yet ready for Arch and Arch derivatives (CachyOS, EndeavorOS, etc.)
2: Fedora KDE
3: Fedora KDE
4: Fedora KDE
Linux Mint is good, but it, like Ubuntu and Debian, are “vintage” linuxes that are very behind on software versions. Things are moving very fast right now with a lot of back end linux stuff changing rapidly to support more people and programs coming off Windows. Fedora is the best “middle ground” in that it’s not Arch bleeding edge, but it is also not Debian stable “vintage”.
You do need to install RPM Fusion for Fedora to go from nvidia open source driver to nvidia proprietary driver, though.
KDE is a fully featured desktop that will give you familiarity with Windows-like layouts. Some other desktops, like GNOME, tend to reinvent the wheel and have very different desktop workflows. You’ll have to boot the live discs / sticks and poke around to understand what I mean.
To make a boot disc, use an 8GB+ usb stick and rufus - https://rufus.ie/
I’ve been using fedora for 3 months now and second this. fedora gud.
I recommend EndeavourOS to newbies because I’m biased towards Arch. I think it’s a relatively low BS distro that gets you up and running. You also have access to the AUR which is awesome.
If that seems like too much I’ve heard Linux Mint is dead simple and stable.
I love EndeavourOS and I use it myself, but inflicting CLI package management and pacnew files on someone fresh from Windows is like throwing a baby into shark-infested oceans to teach it to swim.
My recommendation for new users is Fedora KDE:
- Almost never has any problems
- Works out of the box
- Up-to-date packages
- GUI package management and upgrades with Discover
- Lots of useful features vs. other desktop environments (such as GNOME that doesn’t even have a minimize button)
Mint is what I’d recommend for an elderly person who just needs to browse the internet and reply to emails, but for someone who needs to get work done it’s Fedora KDE all the way.
I’ve had a great experience as a Linux noob using Garuda. It comes with an Nvidia version and has worked great out of the box.
Ubuntu, linux mint, Bazzite… they’ll all work great. My advice? Download all ISOs into a USB with Ventoy installed in it, so you can drag and drop .iso files into the usb, and boot each live image so you can play around for a bit and see which one you like more.
Kubuntu is what I use to game/VR/stream, it also asks during install if you want non-free repo which will install your nvidia drivers then you can choose which version you use in the settings menu, I used official for VR as that was the recommendation.
My current rig is all AMD (for compatibility) my previous rig was ryzen and rtx 2070 super upgraded to 4070 ti super, works great for streaming and gaming, the gf had an intel with 4 numbers, my rig before my previous rig, and it worked as well under linux as win 10.
As others have suggested, get the ISO’s of several distros: Kubuntu/Ubuntu/Mint/Fedora/Cachy/etc and try them all before you blow your current setup away. My last system was my transition system, kept win 10 and installed a second drive for Kubuntu and used “bios” to chose when to boot it (duel boot on same drive will be problematic after a specific win update, you won’t know which until you do lol) then found replacement software that I needed to move over 100%.
Good luck
Nvidia occasionally can be a pain, but that is mostly in laptops in my experience, desktop drivers are generally fine. Try whatever distro you want, might wanna start by burning some distros on flash drives and booting from them to see which one you like the most. Lazy recommendations are Mint, Fedora, Bazzite, and maybe endeavorOS. Also, the most you might have to do with regards to the Nvidia drivers is install them via terminal (which for a lot of people is literally copy/paste the command into a terminal and follow what it says, usually to enter your password and y/n do you want to install), but there are a few distros that have the option to install via GUI.
On the CPU side, the only Intel procs I’ve used are old enterprise gear for my homelab. No issues there.
On the GPU side, I’ve exclusively used Nvidia for… Actually I don’t remember the last time I used a non-nvidia GPU. The most common problem I’ve run into is updating my drivers and forgetting to reboot. the only other problem I’ve had is years back, I bought the latest gen card, and Nvidia hadn’t updated their official Linux drivers yet.
With your hardware, I’d expect things to work fine.
ZorinOS or PopOS with nvidia drivers
