I’ve been using Pop!_OS for a few years now, and it’s worked like a dream. Everything works out-of-the-box, and gaming on Linux has never been easier. But it almost works a little too well. Learning Linux as opposed to Windows for all my games was a fun challenge.

But, now that I’m familiar with how to set up any game that needs a little help besides Proton, I’m starting to want to delve into my OS more to see what I can customize, and I think picking a new distro with slightly different architechture will be very nice.

Don’t get me wrong, I still want something that works by itself more often than not. But I would love to have something a little more cutting-edge that gives me a little more control.

I started with Linux by installing Kubuntu, and I really miss KDE Plasma. I know Kubuntu is still on Plasma 5, and I’ve been wanting to find a distro that lets me use Plasma 6.

I’ve narrowed my choices down to three distros: Nobara, Garuda, and Bazzite.

So far, I’ve confirmed that Nobara and Garuda come with Plasma 6, but I haven’t found that information for Bazzite yet.

So, what do you think about these distros? What are the pros and cons for you?

I’m leaning the most toward Garuda - but I’m worried Arch may be TOO big of a leap. I really just learned that Fedora is not Arch-based, so I know Garuda will be a bit of the odd one out of the three.

TL;DR: Nobara, Garuda, Bazzite - which one is good and do any suck?

EDIT:

Thanks, everyone, for the insightful and helpful comments! From what everyone has said, I’ve come to find that either CachyOS or Solus will fit my needs best.

CachyOS seems optimized for gaming, while Solus’ curated rolling releases seem (to my untrained eye at least) to be somewhat of a step between the way Debian-based distros upgrade and the way Arch-based distros upgrade.

I’d love to hear people’s experiences with both of these! I think I’m going to try to dual-boot them and see what setup looks like for both.😄

  • Urist@lemmy.mlEnglish
    8·
    2 days ago

    I used Solus for years, it was actually my first long time Linux distro, and I have fond memories from that time and deep appreciation of the project. Note that I say used, because I have moved on (to EndeavourOS and later NixOS).

    The reason why I moved on is the same as why I would recommend against Solus: the project have lost a lot of its core contributors. At the time I left there were no package updates for quite some time (used to be weekly).

    I am not quite sure Solus really got a future. There are talks about converging it with AerynOS, former SerpentOS, which is innovative but still experimental software built by the original team, i.e. those that left Solus in the first place. Though they are really proficient in making the software, I do not think they have the same skillset for securing longevity through contributions.

    In the end you should not care too much what people think. You will get the popular options for the intersection of Lemmy and Linux users, but popular is not always good nor what is right for you. Just try stuff and be ready to move a little through rigorous backups, you do have backups?

    • malfisya@piefed.socialEnglish
      4·
      13 hours ago

      I don’t agree with your assessment of Solus condition now. Granted I am biased as I am part of the staff. After the outage in early 2023, we have been going strong ever since. There are more contributors than ever. The bus factor problem has been mitigated by more people now have access to critical infrastructure.

      Sure the old-heads are all gone but the future of Solus couldn’t be more clear than right now. eopkg was ported to python3 and now it is (finally) the default. We switch installer to calamares and in process of replacing our software center. Documentation also now looks better than ever. We already shed so many technical debts that is been going on for years, long before the outage. In the future the plan is for Solus to use AerynOS tooling and on their side development is going rapidly. You can read this all about this on our blog, devlog and forum.

      I wrote the monthly “Contributor Roundup” in the forum, it summaries what the contributors been doing in the month. I would say we have pretty steady contribution rate and there is always new contributor coming in. If you have not tried Solus again after the outage, please do. You might be surprised on how things have changed and hopefully for the better. If you find anything that is not good, do not hesitate to tell us. We always appreciate a constructive feedback.

      Anyway cheers!

      • HayadSont@discuss.online
        1·
        11 hours ago

        This sounds pretty exciting. Thank you so much for your continued contributions!

        In the future the plan is for Solus to use AerynOS tooling and on their side development is going rapidly.

        Should I interpret this as Solus going ‘immutable’? Or is it something else?

        • malfisya@piefed.socialEnglish
          1·
          10 hours ago

          I am not the technical guy, so I might explain some terminology wrong. So, I will give you a few article you can read in my answer. AerynOS tooling right now is focused on the “atomic” part, you can read about it here. The “immutable” part of the original proposition (when it is called Serpent OS) is not set in stone yet. Solus will adopt what make sense for us and right now we are very encouraged by atomic update that AerynOS tooling can already achieve.

          TL;DR: Solus going immutable? No plan for it right now :)

    • VerilyFemme@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
      2·
      1 day ago

      Hmm, thank you for your point about Solus. I was interested because it seemed the most interested in the desktop experience. But it does seem they’re updating and getting back on track. I love the idea of a weekly rolling release for beginners who still need the idea to click.

      I do have backups ;)