I’m sick of Windows, and especially what it’s become, and the way its trending looks like it will only get worse. I’ll be building a brand new PC this summer and want to choose a Linux Distro instead. In preparation, I’d like to try out a virtual machine with a Linux distribution. I am solidly familiar with Ubuntu, but I think it’s time to try something that may cater to my specific needs more.

I use my machine for work and gaming (mostly Steam). I am a fullstack software developer and use a second MacBook as well for my daily work needs.

I’ve had Manjaro, and OpenSUSE recommended to me by a friend who likes both of them but he doesn’t game much and doesn’t need various software development tools.

Are Manjaro or OpenSUSE good choices? I know there’s a tonne of distros out there, and I’m trying to narrow things down a bit. Hopefully this community has some helpful advice.

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: First of all, thank-you everyone for your help and positivity. It’s been less than a day and the amount of advice and ideas is fantastic. Not too mention the noticeable lack of negative comments (a huge reason I left reddit more than a year ago), thank-you all for reaffirming my reasons.

I’ve got to admit, I’m a little overwhelmed by all of the advice, but in a good way. I will be scrutinizing all of this advice and laying it out into a roadmap for both my distro testing, as well as PC building. You are all making this community a helpful and spectacular place. I hope one day to be able to pay it forward! Please keep it up!

  • Eugenia@lemmy.mlEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    I personally prefer Debian or Linux Mint (Edge edition). They’re very, very solid.

    But the real question is, why are you building a new PC? If you already have a PC and you want to leave Windows behind, all you have to do is nuke Windows and install Linux (after trying first a live CD to make sure it works for your computer). You see, if your PC is a bit old, as long as you have 8+ GB of RAM, and a CPU of the last decade, you’re ok with Linux. Linux needs ~1/3 the RAM Windows needs. Only 3D games might require a faster cpu and gpu, but Linux won’t.

    • shaggy@beehaw.orgOP
      0·
      6 months ago

      I’m building a new PC because my current one is quite old. I won’t retire it though, and have yet to figure out what I’ll do with it (probably stick another Linux distro on it too 😆). I’m hoping to take advantage of having a brand new setup as an opportunity to be done with Windows completely.

      • cRazi_man@lemm.ee
        0·
        6 months ago

        That’s exactly what I did at the start of this year. I made it a point to get an AMD graphics card. Glad I’ve never had to deal with Nvidia issues.

      • ares35@kbin.social
        0·
        6 months ago

        definitely keep windows on it to begin with. once you’re fully settled-in on linux and haven’t even looked at windows for at least a couple weeks, make one last backup… then nuke it or repurpose it.

      • Ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        0·
        6 months ago

        That’s what I did a couple of months ago. New PC, got rid of Windows and moved to Arch. The old PC is running Arch as well, and acts as our media PC.