I'll be honest, I'm holding off only to do more research into what version of Linux I want installed and - more importantly - how to install it without fucking everything up.

I've never dual booted, but I think that's the most likely solution for me right now so I can get used to it.

Since getting a Steam Deck, I think what I want is essentially a desktop that is very similar to the Deck. All I really use a desktop for nowadays is Steam and Firefox.

I've seen Pop!OS being mentioned in several articles I've read, along with Mint and Bazzite. I've heard of Ubuntu, of course - I think that's one of the more well known distros.

The whole thing can be overwhelming when you're not used to it. I had the same issue when originally joining Lemmy!

[–] Lemongrab@lemmy.one 9 points 4 months ago (1 children)

The steam deck uses the desktop environment called KDE Plasma if I remember correctly. I recommend using the Fedora KDE spin since, right after Debian, most apps will support Fedora. It is user friendly, feature rich, stable, secure (with massive community and corporate backing for timely Security updates), and simple.

Dual booting is a smart decision. If you opt to dual-boot, I recommend encrypting your system through the built-in OS installer. This stops Windows (or malicious software) from spying on your new install. It is also just a good idea in general.

Pop!OS doesn't yet support Wayland, which supersedes the old and slow X11 with better security (on X11, any app can capture what you type, their is no isolation).

Bazzite seems neat but I wouldn't go for a gaming focused distros in my experience.

Canonical, Ubuntu's parent company, is trying hard to create a closed ecosystem. Even though Ubuntu is Debian based, they are making it hard to install native applications, instead enforcing the use of Snap, which uses a closed-source backend to provide the app repository. Snaps are also slower than native or Flatpak apps.

If you need any help, explanations, suggestions, or other thoughts about Linux, I am willing to help best I can or point you in the right direction. Ive installed linux maybe 50+ times on most of the major families of distros (Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE, Arch Linux, and some others), and have personally used many distributions that are derivative of these. I'm not like crazy experienced, just familiar (with a focus on Security).

[–] princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 4 months ago

There's always Bazzite's vanilla KDE cousin, Aurora: https://getaurora.dev/ It is essentially the Fedora KDE spin with way better hardware support and QoL features.

But Bazzite isn't really a distro in it's own right anyway, it's an unofficial Fedora spin that gets updates pretty much immediately (<24hrs) from upstream. It kind of "solves" a lot of the issues with most gaming distros.

I'd highly recommend both to new users as well, as they are immutable (like the Fedora Atomic Desktops) and make it a lot harder to completely mess up your install while you're still learning.

[–] TheCoolerMia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I use the Steamdeck as my main PC and I have Bazzite on it! :3 and yeh Mint is the one I see being recommended to new people the most so I bet its a great choice :3

[–] v4ld1z@lemmy.zip 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I thought you'd be an Arch gal for sure :D

[–] TheCoolerMia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 4 months ago

Hehe actually I am x3 The Steamdeck is the only PC I dont run Arch on but apart from that Im such an arch fangirl >v<

[–] drosophila@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 4 months ago

If you want to dual boot I suggest getting a second hard drive (a little SSD maybe) and installing Linux on that. Then you can select what OS to boot through the BIOS

It'll be way easier and less risky than trying to install Linux alongside windows on the same hard drive, and it'll also stop windows from screwing with the bootloader when it updates.