
Best Linux Distros for Gaming in 2017 - nickreiner
https://thishosting.rocks/best-linux-distros-for-gaming/
======
Fletch137
It's quite surprising that he doesn't mention Solus - quite a lot of effort
has gone into making Steam run as well as possible. The readme at the
following URL goes into detail about the problems with the steam-native-
runtime, and how Solus tries to rectify the issues.

[https://github.com/solus-project/linux-steam-
integration](https://github.com/solus-project/linux-steam-integration)

~~~
darklajid
Can you explain what that (Solus) is? The website is rather light on details.
Maybe a distribution. With three different DE editions, one being 'home-
grown'.

I haven't found any information about the history of the project, if it's
built from scratch or based on another distribution's work. Can't even figure
that out by looking at the 'how to install software' documentation - it just
gives a screenshot of a GUI package installer, no clue what the package
manager is.

Searching Google for Solus (or Solus Project) comes up empty or with a
survival game based on the Unreal 4 engine.

What is Solus?

Edit: While their website answered none of my questions, distrowatch and
wikipedia did. Started as Debian based distribution, seems to be something
completely new/different now.

~~~
Fletch137
It's not something I've used to any great extent, just that I use the steam
runtime developed for it on my arch system and the lead developer has been a
guest on a few podcasts I've listened to. That said, this is my impression of
it so far:

Solus is a distribution built from scratch. I believe the main target is non-
technical end users, rather than, say, servers or power users. What that quite
equates to, I don't really know beyond missing certain development or server
software from the base install and in some cases the repositories. I currently
can't see a way to install external packages (like the AUR or PPAs). I've had
a play with it for a couple of hours and it's pretty slick, with really fast
start up times. It's probably not ready for you to hand to your Grandmother
just yet, but it seems very user-friendly to me. I have it currently running
on a laptop I gave to a friend around 4 months ago, and so far it's the only
distribution I've been able to hand over to a non-technical user and not get
called to fix/change/etc. every couple of weeks.

------
hd4
Ubuntu would be the smartest choice. It's got the best support of any Linux
distro, and you can install Steam on it just fine with the deb.

~~~
Jedd
Would Debian be a smarter choice? Ubuntu's based on Debian GNU/Linux, and
hardware support tends to come downstream from there. Steam based their OS on
Debian, not Ubuntu. Do you know of any issues installing the .deb onto Debian?

~~~
izacus
Installing proprietary drivers is harder and pretty much all game devs test
only with Ubuntu so you might get issues due to slightly different versions of
some libraries.

Ubuntu is the distro everyone is targeting so for seamless experience you
kinda need to stick with it.

(That doesn't mean other distros won't work tho.)

------
em3rgent0rdr
I just install steam on my arch linux machine, seems to work fine, with only
the occasional issue for the lastest game.

~~~
tacticalgoose
I could imagine this article caters to the less experienced on the linux
gaming subject. Haven't used Arch linux my self, but I've heard that it
requires tinkering to get it to run like a shelf OS. Which is something that
can be daunting for someone with no experience in linux

~~~
anc84
Well, I would be surprised if people install Linux just for gaming. OP
basically said that Steam works just fine on the distro they are already
using.

------
JamesMcMinn
Solus[1] has a good reputation for gaming in my experience.

[1] [https://solus-project.com](https://solus-project.com)

~~~
bromonkey
For sure man, installing Nvidia drivers on Solus is a breeze compared to some
other distros (I'm looking at you Fedora). Unfortunately I find Solus package
repos to be rather lacking, but it works well enough that I use it on my
desktop.

~~~
jug
Hm, I use an nVidia 970 GTX and all I had to do on Fedora to install those was
(following enabling RPM Fusion):

    
    
        dnf install xorg-x11-drv-nvidia akmod-nvidia "kernel-devel-uname-r == $(uname -r)"
        dnf update -y

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tjpnz
It blows my mind that only five years ago gaming on Linux was but for a few
exceptions a complete non-starter. The big argument being made then was there
was simply no money in it. The number of titles available now certainly says
otherwise.

~~~
Al-Khwarizmi
Or maybe it says that multiplatform game engines have become popular.

~~~
tjpnz
True but the companies involved wouldn't have bothered porting to Linux if
they didn't expect to see growth in that space. What's really interesting is
that there are Linux ports for some of the SDKs. Really makes me question
those who downplay Linux as serious platform for anything that isn't server
related.

------
la_oveja
Any info about making a VM running Windows that takes all the power from GPU?
I'd want to do that, but I'm not sure it's possible

~~~
onli
The keywords you are looking for are PCI-passthrough, KVM and VT-d. It is
possible and performance is as great as it sounds, but it does not work on
every hardware. [https://scottlinux.com/2016/08/28/gpu-passthrough-with-
kvm-a...](https://scottlinux.com/2016/08/28/gpu-passthrough-with-kvm-and-
debian-linux/) is a howto. I did not do this myself yet, would need a second
gpu (I think that is about to change, but support for shared passthrough gpus
- really not sure how that is called - is not there yet).

------
arca_vorago
Manjaro hands down these days for me at least. All the arch edge but with a
bit less crashing. The hw detection tools is second to none, steam just works,
so does wine, etc. I'm even devving my own project on the Linux editor of UE4,
which crashes all the time because Epic.

I tend to distrohop very frequently, but I haven't moved from manjaro for
months now.

~~~
foob
Do you really notice better stability with Manjaro or is it more about the
straightforward installation and configuration? I ask because I gave Manjaro a
try and I encountered many Manjaro-specific problems over time (notably, a lot
of issues with their custom kernel builds). I've since been much happier with
Antergos which I view as the best of both worlds. It doesn't try to fix the
things that aren't broken in Arch but does make desktop configuration a
breeze.

~~~
arca_vorago
I am really picky about the kernel choice, so maybe that's why I haven't run
into similar issues.

------
onmobiletemp
A while ago i tried dual booting elementaryos on my windows machine. Steam and
counter strike global offensive work just fine. Half life 2 as well. After
realizing that i could play cs on eos, i simply had no reason to go back to
windows.

------
msh
Streamos:
[http://store.steampowered.com/steamos/](http://store.steampowered.com/steamos/)

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orschiro
Doesn't any distro do the job on which you can install proprietary graphic
drivers and Steam?

~~~
aquabib
Yes.

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tofflos
No mention of the Windows Subsystem for Linux? Seems like the obvious choice
for a gamer.

------
ensiferum
none

~~~
pbhjpbhj
Steam works fine on my Kubuntu, more games than I can possibly play in a
lifetime, and of every sort imaginable.

It _is_ limited for those who want to, say, play a new AAA FPS game ever day.
But that's got to be pretty unusual?

