this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2025
441 points (99.1% liked)
Linux
55556 readers
944 users here now
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Two of my friends switched recently.
They had none to very little experience with anything Linux before, their previous win11 installs just over bloated and the copilot bullshit pushed them over. Both (indie/non-pop shooters) gamers btw.
This is the year of linux.
Do they choose distros made for gamers?
One is trying Bazzite the other one is just classic fedora
Do they make much difference? Genuine question
Sometimes.
They tend to make sure stuff that gamers care about are up to date and working.
You'll likely need the newest kernels and software packages if you're running the latest gen of GPU and/or CPU, to get the most out of them, or even get them to worl at all.
Wouldn't a rolling distro be enough forma that?
Some of it, yeah.
All a distro is, really, is a preset. It comes with some package manager or other, along with a collection of pre-installed packages.
The reason one chooses one distro over another, is because it's closer to what you need. I could install arch, and spend a day setting it up exactly the way I like. Or, I could start with Endeavour, and get to essentially the same state in an hour.
I'm familiar enough with linux that I could strong-arm any install into doing whatever I need, but at times, to get from preset A to preset B, it's faster to just start over from a known preset that's closest to what I want.
Rolling releases typically mean the software available is recent, but that's only one aspect of what your starting point could look like.
"Gaming" distros are going to be a preset that contains a bunch of configurations, defaults and software, that gamers typically care about. That steam is usually already installed, is an example of one such thing. The same way my mention of GPU and CPU support is only an example.
Maybe instead of "They tend to make sure stuff that gamers care about are up to date and working" I should have phrased it "They tend to make sure things that gamers care about are easy to set up and supported, if not even ready to go, out of the box".
Okay, I see. Thanks for the detailed explanation.