As another commentor said, Bazzite is a good bet. It’s an atomic OS based on fedora silverblue, so it’s very difficult to accidentally fuck up your system, and if anything does go wrong you are able to revert to the previous bootable state.
It also supports the popular patent-encumbered video codecs, as well as Nvidia drivers (with the Nvidia edition), out of the box.
You shouldn’t need to mess with the command line at all. It’s set up for (non-game) software distribution via Flathub, so you are unlikely to run into software compatibility issues and you don’t need to use a command line software package manager.
It does come with basically all the popular Linux gaming software already installed, which is a pro or con depending on your preference.
I reccommend the GNOME version, not KDE, for the smoothest and most straightforward/convenient user experience. (don’t come for me)
Yes there’s a difference between atomic and immutable but Bazzite (and Fedora atomic which it is based on) is both atomic and immutable. Immutable means much of the system is normally read-only at runtime (the system libraries and software, but not your user software and home folder), and should only be modified under certain circumstances, if at all. In Fedora Atomic/Bazzite, updates to system software either 1) update the upstream system image, or 2) are “layered” by you on top of the base image. When a new package is layered, it is added to the system at startup.
Immutable doesn’t truly mean immutable though, as you can switch the filesystem from readonly if you want to. It’s just not recommended.
99% of the time though, you shouldn’t need to layer any packages. The only packages I’ve ever needed to layer have been the codecs on fedora atomic that fedora isn’t willing to package in its own repos for patent/legal reasons. Bazzite has all of these by default. So on my bazzite PC, I’ve not had to modify the base system at all for any gaming, office, creative, or coding activities I’ve done.
As another commentor said, Bazzite is a good bet. It’s an atomic OS based on fedora silverblue, so it’s very difficult to accidentally fuck up your system, and if anything does go wrong you are able to revert to the previous bootable state.
It also supports the popular patent-encumbered video codecs, as well as Nvidia drivers (with the Nvidia edition), out of the box.
You shouldn’t need to mess with the command line at all. It’s set up for (non-game) software distribution via Flathub, so you are unlikely to run into software compatibility issues and you don’t need to use a command line software package manager.
It does come with basically all the popular Linux gaming software already installed, which is a pro or con depending on your preference.
I reccommend the GNOME version, not KDE, for the smoothest and most straightforward/convenient user experience. (don’t come for me)
Thanks - I think I read once about “immutable” distros… is this the same as what you mentioned about being able to revert to previous bootable state?
Yes there’s a difference between atomic and immutable but Bazzite (and Fedora atomic which it is based on) is both atomic and immutable. Immutable means much of the system is normally read-only at runtime (the system libraries and software, but not your user software and home folder), and should only be modified under certain circumstances, if at all. In Fedora Atomic/Bazzite, updates to system software either 1) update the upstream system image, or 2) are “layered” by you on top of the base image. When a new package is layered, it is added to the system at startup.
Immutable doesn’t truly mean immutable though, as you can switch the filesystem from readonly if you want to. It’s just not recommended.
99% of the time though, you shouldn’t need to layer any packages. The only packages I’ve ever needed to layer have been the codecs on fedora atomic that fedora isn’t willing to package in its own repos for patent/legal reasons. Bazzite has all of these by default. So on my bazzite PC, I’ve not had to modify the base system at all for any gaming, office, creative, or coding activities I’ve done.