SteamOS is Valve’s Linux-based operating system. It features a seamless user experience optimized for gaming, while retaining access to the power and flexibility of a PC, and plays tens of thousands of games on Steam. SteamOS officially ships on Steam Deck, and will soon ship with certain Legion Go S models. We’re currently working on adding support for more devices.
Bazzite, Kubuntu, and Fedora are all great options for you. Bazzite can boot into a SteamOS-like dedicated gaming mode. If you want more flexibility over your system, Kubuntu or Fedora are both great choices. Since Proton works on all Linux flavors, there’s no need to wait. You can get the Windows-free gaming experience now.
If you are completely new to Linux, try Kubuntu first. If you want your system to feel more game-centric, choose Bazzite. If you want a little more control and freedom over your system, choose Fedora.
It’s hard to go wrong with Linux. The most impactful choice is your desktop environment (DTE), and all of the ones I mentioned use KDE Plasma 6+, which is fantastic. It’s like what Windows could be if Microsoft wasn’t so aggressively anti-UX.
Tbh I don’t agree at all that kubuntu is easier for beginners, that may have been the case 5 or so years ago, but bazzite and aurora are the best now, also there’s literally no reason to use fedora over bazzite or aurora since they’re literally the same thing except with some added packages and important fixes (especially the ffmpeg fix that makes twitch work)
I honestly think ubuntu based distros are an outdated suggestion for beginners, I think immutability is extremely important for someone who is just starting out, as well as starting on KDE since it’s by far the most developed DE that isn’t gnome and their… design decisions are unfortunate for people coming from windows.
I think only immutable kde distros should be recommended to beginners as a result, the mere fact that bazzite and other immutables generate a new system for you on update and let you switch between and rollback automatically is enough for me to say it’s better, but it also has more up to date software, and tons of guides (fedora is one of the most popular distros, and bazzite is essentially identical except with some QoL upgrades).
How common is the story of “I was new to linux and completely broke it”? that’s not a good user experience for someone who’s just starting, it’s intimidating, scary, and I just don’t think it’s the best in the modern era. There’s something to be said about learning from these mistakes, but bazzite essentially makes these mistakes impossible.
Furthermore because of the way bazzite works, package management is completely graphical and requires essentially no intervention on the users part, flathub and immutability pair excellently for this reason.
I have 15 years of linux experience and am willing to infinitely troubleshoot if you add me on matrix.
in short yeah I think it’s a pretty bad place in the modern era, but was a great one a few years ago, recommendations are slow to change with the times.
I like Fedora simply because you don’t have to take extra steps to remove Snaps. I’ve gone from being fan of Ubuntu to avoiding it because of the way Canonical has behaved in recent years and the negative impacts that behavior has had on the distro (and community). It feels immoral preferring a Red Hat/IBM distro over Ubuntu, but unfortunately it’s the better product.
I recommend Kubuntu to new users simply because the documentation, website, and learning material is better. Bazzite is also not without it’s quirks, especially if you want to start learning more about Linux in general and branching out beyond gaming.
I specialize in giving new users linux and documentation has not been an issue at all with bazzite, I just let them know to use rpm-ostree as little as possible ( and that it replaces the normal fedora package manager ) and only when necessary and search for atomic fedora for guides.
so far I have run into zero documentation issues that weren’t just general linux ones. I think your claim might have been true a while ago but no longer is.
Unless you specifically want Steam OS’s gaming mode, any Linux distro (Arch definitely) with KDE Plasma 6 will give you more or less the same experience. Not that I don’t think Valve should do so.
Bazzite is basically just Steam OS but support for more hardware. And easier to extend. You could drop it on your steam deck and if you don’t muck around in the terminal you probably wouldn’t know.
Other distros have been competing forever. SteamOS is built on top of Arch, which updates multiple times per day. Valve pushes a lot of updates tied to the Steam experience, some of them are also shared with normal Linux desktops, so that makes it somewhat of a moot argument. I run normal Linux (Fedora Workstation) and play games with Steam, and they run the same as my Deck, even day 1 releases.
Like, I get the appeal of a Valve-blessed Linux flavor, but as far as their stack goes, the Linux side of SteamOS is somewhat conservative (not many updates) and limited (due to read-only OS images) compared to normal Linux distros and the gaming side also gets pushed to all Linux distros. As a Steam Deck owner, I personally think Bazzite is more interesting for a real world gaming desktop usage than SteamOS, where you can’t even print documents because it lacks the required stack!
To show how conservative it is, I call recall a few examples:
The desktop side, which runs the KDE Plasma desktop, was stuck on version 5.27 for ages and just got recently updated to 6.2. Meanwhile, Arch and Fedora/Bazzite are rocking Plasma 6.3 and should receive Plasma 6.4 in a month or so, pretty much day one.
The Linux kernel (although patched and tweaked) in SteamOS was still on 6.5 until a few days ago. It was bumped to 6.11 with SteamOS 3.7. Meanwhile, Arch and Fedora have been on 6.14 for weeks now, with new hardware support, performance fixes for existing hardware and some new features.
Lots of people like don’t know much about Linux. We just want it simple and easy . SteamOS is mainly for Steam users who game only.
I know some people use their SD like a PC. I have a handsome why people>don’t just built one. SD is so underpowered and not optimeised for regular users.
Release for pc!!! I want to replace windooze with this
Bazzite, Kubuntu, and Fedora are all great options for you. Bazzite can boot into a SteamOS-like dedicated gaming mode. If you want more flexibility over your system, Kubuntu or Fedora are both great choices. Since Proton works on all Linux flavors, there’s no need to wait. You can get the Windows-free gaming experience now.
If you are completely new to Linux, try Kubuntu first. If you want your system to feel more game-centric, choose Bazzite. If you want a little more control and freedom over your system, choose Fedora.
It’s hard to go wrong with Linux. The most impactful choice is your desktop environment (DTE), and all of the ones I mentioned use KDE Plasma 6+, which is fantastic. It’s like what Windows could be if Microsoft wasn’t so aggressively anti-UX.
Tbh I don’t agree at all that kubuntu is easier for beginners, that may have been the case 5 or so years ago, but bazzite and aurora are the best now, also there’s literally no reason to use fedora over bazzite or aurora since they’re literally the same thing except with some added packages and important fixes (especially the ffmpeg fix that makes twitch work)
I honestly think ubuntu based distros are an outdated suggestion for beginners, I think immutability is extremely important for someone who is just starting out, as well as starting on KDE since it’s by far the most developed DE that isn’t gnome and their… design decisions are unfortunate for people coming from windows.
I think only immutable kde distros should be recommended to beginners as a result, the mere fact that bazzite and other immutables generate a new system for you on update and let you switch between and rollback automatically is enough for me to say it’s better, but it also has more up to date software, and tons of guides (fedora is one of the most popular distros, and bazzite is essentially identical except with some QoL upgrades).
How common is the story of “I was new to linux and completely broke it”? that’s not a good user experience for someone who’s just starting, it’s intimidating, scary, and I just don’t think it’s the best in the modern era. There’s something to be said about learning from these mistakes, but bazzite essentially makes these mistakes impossible.
Furthermore because of the way bazzite works, package management is completely graphical and requires essentially no intervention on the users part, flathub and immutability pair excellently for this reason.
I have 15 years of linux experience and am willing to infinitely troubleshoot if you add me on matrix.
I hear a lot of people recommending Mint for a first timer, would you generally disagree since it doesn’t use KDE?
Tbh I copy and pasted a lot from a previous post I made about mint
https://lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz/comment/18486270
in short yeah I think it’s a pretty bad place in the modern era, but was a great one a few years ago, recommendations are slow to change with the times.
I like Fedora simply because you don’t have to take extra steps to remove Snaps. I’ve gone from being fan of Ubuntu to avoiding it because of the way Canonical has behaved in recent years and the negative impacts that behavior has had on the distro (and community). It feels immoral preferring a Red Hat/IBM distro over Ubuntu, but unfortunately it’s the better product.
I recommend Kubuntu to new users simply because the documentation, website, and learning material is better. Bazzite is also not without it’s quirks, especially if you want to start learning more about Linux in general and branching out beyond gaming.
I specialize in giving new users linux and documentation has not been an issue at all with bazzite, I just let them know to use rpm-ostree as little as possible ( and that it replaces the normal fedora package manager ) and only when necessary and search for atomic fedora for guides.
so far I have run into zero documentation issues that weren’t just general linux ones. I think your claim might have been true a while ago but no longer is.
How is HDR support? One of the only reasons I updated to Win 11 was Auto HDR features.
Unless you specifically want Steam OS’s gaming mode, any Linux distro (Arch definitely) with KDE Plasma 6 will give you more or less the same experience. Not that I don’t think Valve should do so.
With the same game comparability as steamos? Idk much about this stuff…
Bazzite is basically just Steam OS but support for more hardware. And easier to extend. You could drop it on your steam deck and if you don’t muck around in the terminal you probably wouldn’t know.
Yes.
If you want the same UX, check out Bazzite, it’s designed to replace SteamOS directly.
Why wait for steam os? Bazzite and others already do everything steam os does and probably better and more.
I agree but steam OS is going to be a hell of a lot more popular and have more support as a result.
Just don’t tell people is Linux, they’ll switch for steam and get out of windows’ grasp
Steam constantly updates their ID. I agree with you.
Other Linux distro can’t compete with valve. Valve constantly updates their OS and drivers. There is no way other distro can compete.
I have a steam deck. Valve releases updates almost once a month.
Other distros have been competing forever. SteamOS is built on top of Arch, which updates multiple times per day. Valve pushes a lot of updates tied to the Steam experience, some of them are also shared with normal Linux desktops, so that makes it somewhat of a moot argument. I run normal Linux (Fedora Workstation) and play games with Steam, and they run the same as my Deck, even day 1 releases.
Like, I get the appeal of a Valve-blessed Linux flavor, but as far as their stack goes, the Linux side of SteamOS is somewhat conservative (not many updates) and limited (due to read-only OS images) compared to normal Linux distros and the gaming side also gets pushed to all Linux distros. As a Steam Deck owner, I personally think Bazzite is more interesting for a real world gaming desktop usage than SteamOS, where you can’t even print documents because it lacks the required stack!
To show how conservative it is, I call recall a few examples:
Lots of people like don’t know much about Linux. We just want it simple and easy . SteamOS is mainly for Steam users who game only.
I know some people use their SD like a PC. I have a handsome why people>don’t just built one. SD is so underpowered and not optimeised for regular users.