Any other Linux users here? And has anyone fully migrated?

[_oBSOLEte_]

As much as I'm satisfied with Arch on the laptop, I'm fully prepared to jump ship when Valve inevitably enshitify it, now that they rely on their money.

We all know where Gabe started his career after all.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

I got an old Rasberry Pi back and it still works.

On the other hand I'll have to learn how to run Doom on it.

 

[Sheepy765]

I use Void. It's like Arch, but it uses less memory and, according to what I've heard, breaks less often-though I never managed to break Arch in the first place.

I don't care about gaming since I like my PCs like I like my women---there's no way I can save that one. Old? Dumb? Used? x86 architecture? I dunno, you put the pieces together and see if there's a joke somewhere in there.

I like my women like I like my PCs, with a reliable graphics card.

 

[DorfleFlorp]

what linux distro(?) is similar enough to windows in terms of usage?

Linux mint cinnamon or lmde is the most windows like I think. Mint runs on ubuntu and lmde runs on Debian.

Post automatically merged: Apr 13, 2025

I got an old Rasberry Pi back and it still works.

On the other hand I'll have to learn how to run Doom on it.

gzdoom will allow you to run doom, heretic, hexen, and many other WAD files.
go to terminal and type
sudo apt-get install gdebi
this will install the gdebi package installer that you can use .deb files with.
then download the .deb file from https://www.zdoom.org/downloads
then you put the wad files in the folder it installed in. you might have to show hidden files in the file browser to see it i cant remember.

or you could try this https://github.com/madame-rachelle/RaspZDoom
but i have not tried it so idk if it works.

 

[diapered]

@_oBSOLEte_ I wanted to post a reply to your comment on 3DO emulation from the other linux thread here because I think I was making that thread go OT (my fault, as usual >_< sorry everyone!) and others here will probably find it interesting.

I tried it myself yesterday for fun. Yes, you are correct that 3DO emulation seems to require the AUR (since opera is not in extra repository with most other libretro cores), but the build of libretro opera in the chaotic-aur for Garuda DOES work OTB, no hassle at all for me ^_^ I installed the opera core with octopi, and the only time it took me was 5min of googling to figure out the bios I needed for the retroarch system folder. In no time, I was playing some Battle Blues...

A pretty interesting trpg. Is there a particular 3DO game you like? Honestly, scrolling through them I didn't see anything that looked that worthwhile >_> Finding a 3DO game that looked worth playing was the longest part of this process

Anyway, it's starting to get a little scary to me how easy Garuda makes everything O_o To be fair, I have not needed to use the AUR for anything yet. So far, everything I have needed that requires AUR is in the chaotic-aur.

If the garuda team developed their own equivalent of pamac that ships with the distro, I would say Garuda would blow even manjaro out of the water as the best user friendly distro. Garuda is kind of close to that already with their gui tools like the assistant. The assistant works great handling updates and all that, but the software management leaves a bit to be desired You absolutely need to install octopi, if you don't what to use cl for that like me. Some things work, but some programs threw errors when I tried to use the "garuda gamer" to install and HAD to use octopi (duckstation, iirc). Not a big deal, because I think the software repositories for Garuda work BETTER than manjaro's (the chaotic-aur build of zoom works better than the flatpak version which you would need to use on manjaro), but since you do have to know to use octopi for software management (a complete beginner would not know to check that box at setup), that would make me not recommend it to beginners

 

[_oBSOLEte_]

@_oBSOLEte_ I wanted to post a reply to your comment on 3DO emulation from the other linux thread here because I think I was making that thread go OT (my fault, as usual >_< sorry everyone!) and others here will probably find it interesting.

I tried it myself yesterday for fun. Yes, you are correct that 3DO emulation seems to require the AUR (since opera is not in extra repository with most other libretro cores), but the build of libretro opera in the chaotic-aur for Garuda DOES work OTB, no hassle at all for me ^_^ I installed the opera core with octopi, and the only time it took me was 5min of googling to figure out the bios I needed for the retroarch system folder. In no time, I was playing some Battle Blues...
View attachment 57770
A pretty interesting trpg. Is there a particular 3DO game you like? Honestly, scrolling through them I didn't see anything that looked that worthwhile >_> Finding a 3DO game that looked worth playing was the longest part of this process

Anyway, it's starting to get a little scary to me how easy Garuda makes everything O_o To be fair, I have not needed to use the AUR for anything yet. So far, everything I have needed that requires AUR is in the chaotic-aur.

If the garuda team developed their own equivalent of pamac that ships with the distro, I would say Garuda would blow even manjaro out of the water as the best user friendly distro. Garuda is kind of close to that already with their gui tools like the assistant. The assistant works great handling updates and all that, but the software management leaves a bit to be desired You absolutely need to install octopi, if you don't what to use cl for that like me. Some things work, but some programs threw errors when I tried to use the "garuda gamer" to install and HAD to use octopi (duckstation, iirc). Not a big deal, because I think the software repositories for Garuda work BETTER than manjaro's (the chaotic-aur build of zoom works better than the flatpak version which you would need to use on manjaro), but since you do have to know to use octopi for software management (a complete beginner would not know to check that box at setup), that would make me not recommend it to beginners

You're beginning to stretch the notion of "out of the box" a tiny bit dont you think?

Opera on Debian packages is available *directly* inside Retroarch, via the online updater. On Arch and al it's an AUR package. Not "out of the box". You'll have to update it with yay or your GUI. You take RetroArch as an example of things to test on distros and see if they work "out of the box", it's only true for the libretro packages in the Arch repository. For the rest, you'll have to search the AUR.

I don't claim that I'm expert in linux enough to tell if Garuda is better than Mint for beginners. I'm not a beginner anymore so frankly IDGAF. What I can tell, tho, is that dual booting and having multiple distros, both Debian and Arch based, makes my system more robust.

 

[diapered]

You're beginning to stretch the notion of "out of the box" a tiny bit dont you think?

I don't think so... I just clicked on the emulator I needed in octopi (knew it would work when I saw it was in chaotic-aur <3 <3 <3 chaotic-aur team!)

And yea, had to search for which bios file but anyone here knows that is to be expected. And bam, it worked no problems. What is your notion of otb? because...

Opera on Debian packages is available *directly* inside Retroarch, via the online updater. On Arch and al it's an AUR package. Not "out of the box". You'll have to update it with yay or your GUI. You take RetroArch as an example of things to test on distros and see if they work "out of the box", it's only true for the libretro packages in the Arch repository. For the rest, you'll have to search the AUR.

I did not have a good experience on linux mint recently while distro hopping, and to be fair that uses the ubuntu repository and not the Debian repository, but it did not work otb at all. Online updater would not install (or find) any cores and had other gui problems. Yes, the arch approach of installing individual cores is not as "direct", but it works and I think it is more reliable, for reasons I don't understand. That makes it more otb to me >_>

Good point on updating though... So far, my gui has been maintaining my chatoic-aur packages fine, but things can always break So far (~3months of garuda) no problems, so I think the assistant is really robust!

 

[_oBSOLEte_]

I don't think so... I just clicked on the emulator I needed in octopi (knew it would work when I saw it was in chaotic-aur <3 <3 <3 chaotic-aur team!)

Well i think it is not out of the box, you still had to use your thing that look like Synaptic. So let's agree to disagree.

And much much love to the Opera devs maintaining the code on github and other places, and having proper documentation on how to build it *anywhere*.

Those guys keep it free as in FOSS, despite corporate interests trying to get a piece of the pie and corrupt everything with their bloat.

 

[popckorn]

I want to kindly invite you all to search for "LinuxRuleZ!"

He repacks proper cracks in WINE wrappers to be installed "A La GOG" with a shingle shell that asks for install location and creates a selfcontained WINE drive inside said folder.

You only need to install WINE and then just run his installers.

You will find him at <link snipped>
Just sign-up and click on the Bananas, then just click on "Search" with an empty query box after checking the "Linux Games" box.

You will also find his repacks at <link snipped>
Just sign-up there and go to the Linux P2P section of the forum and then access the LinuxRuleZ! thread.

He is KOSHER for real. No "JohnChina" obscure compressing runtimes and esoteric installs in order to run proprietary repacks.
These are the simplest, cleanest, most consistent Linux Crack Repacks in the whole WildWildWest.

Honorary Mention to <link snipped> which are all NATIVE LINUX GAMES, no WINE wrapper, no crack repack.

P.D. LinuxRuleZ's repacks are tested on LinuxMint and Arch for compatibility, and they should run on most Debian/Ubuntu/Arch distros 99% of the time.

 

[LeprosyMessiah]

View attachment 6380

I am curious if there is any other Linux users here and if you do what's your Distro and your experience with it ?

In my opinion while PC game can be hit or miss with proton (But mostly hit) emulation with the exception of the 3DS works flawlessly, I love using Gnome and swich between virtual desktop effortlessly, I also love the convince of being able do download emulator using my package manege instead of going to the website to dowload the EXE files there.

Of course I do have issues with proton from time to time, but I don't imagine myself going back to windows anytime soon, I love using Linux since I started using it in setember of this year.

Never gamed much on Linux but migrated my server to Ubuntu recently because windows can kiss my ass with updates that brick it every 4 days

 

[_oBSOLEte_]

I want to kindly invite you all to search for "LinuxRuleZ!"

He repacks proper cracks in WINE wrappers to be installed "A La GOG" with a shingle shell that asks for install location and creates a selfcontained WINE drive inside said folder.

You only need to install WINE and then just run his installers.

You will find him at Zamunda.net/bananas
Just sign-up and click on the Bananas, then just click on "Search" with an empty query box after checking the "Linux Games" box.

You will also find his repacks at Torrminatorr.com
Just sign-up there and go to the Linux P2P section of the forum and then access the LinuxRuleZ! thread.

He is KOSHER for real. No "JohnChina" obscure compressing runtimes and esoteric installs in order to run proprietary repacks.
These are the simplest, cleanest, most consistent Linux Crack Repacks in the whole WildWildWest.

Honorary Mention to FREELINUXPCGAMES.COM which are all NATIVE LINUX GAMES, no WINE wrapper, no crack repack.

P.D. LinuxRuleZ's repacks are tested on LinuxMint and Arch for compatibility, and they should run on most Debian/Ubuntu/Arch distros 99% of the time.

You know the GOG and Fitgirl installers run fine on Wine, sandboxed in their prefixes with GUIs like Lutris. So why bother?

 

[popckorn]

You know the GOG and Fitgirl installers run fine on Wine, sandboxed in their prefixes with GUIs like Lutris. So why bother?

Single shell installer.
I still use Lutris to index my games folder.
Not all games are the same some need specific configurations to run fine on Linux, all of that is solved out-of-the-box.

 

[_oBSOLEte_]

Single shell installer.
I still use Lutris to index my games folder.
Not all games are the same some need specific configurations to run fine on Linux, all of that is solved out-of-the-box.

You guys willing to click on bananas on warez websites for an "out of the box" experience on linux should really consider going back to windows IMO. XD

 

[popckorn]

You guys willing to click on bananas on warez websites for an "out of the box" experience on linux should really consider going back to windows IMO. XD

No. Thank you.

 

[diapered]

Well i think it is not out of the box, you still had to use your thing that look like Synaptic. So let's agree to disagree.

Yea, garuda does not ship with octopi Since it is a separate package manager you need to install, that is completely fair to then not consider that otb.

I wonder if garuda team is thinking of developing their own package manager like how manjaro has pamac? They already designed a lot of their own gui tools, just not package management so you need octopi if you want that. But octopi works great, so they probably don't see that as a need?

I want to kindly invite you all to search for "LinuxRuleZ!"

He repacks proper cracks in WINE wrappers to be installed "A La GOG" with a shingle shell that asks for install location and creates a selfcontained WINE drive inside said folder.

You only need to install WINE and then just run his installers.

You will find him at Zamunda.net/bananas
Just sign-up and click on the Bananas, then just click on "Search" with an empty query box after checking the "Linux Games" box.

You will also find his repacks at Torrminatorr.com
Just sign-up there and go to the Linux P2P section of the forum and then access the LinuxRuleZ! thread.

He is KOSHER for real. No "JohnChina" obscure compressing runtimes and esoteric installs in order to run proprietary repacks.
These are the simplest, cleanest, most consistent Linux Crack Repacks in the whole WildWildWest.

Honorary Mention to FREELINUXPCGAMES.COM which are all NATIVE LINUX GAMES, no WINE wrapper, no crack repack.

P.D. LinuxRuleZ's repacks are tested on LinuxMint and Arch for compatibility, and they should run on most Debian/Ubuntu/Arch distros 99% of the time.

lol wut? what am I reading?

 

[popckorn]

Ok dude, you 1337 hax0r
me lov3 jew big time

Gatekeepers always insufferable and pedantic.

 

[_oBSOLEte_]

Ok dude, you 1337 hax0r
me lov3 jew big time

Gatekeepers always insufferable and pedantic.

Bro just tell me which game you had trouble installing with Lutris, that forced you to click on warez bananas... If anyone is gatekeeping stuff here it's you.

Lutris > + (Add Game) > Install a Windows game from an executable > Read and follow the installer wizard.

Simple as.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

It depends which kind of gatekeeping.

 

[_oBSOLEte_]

The kind of gatekeeping that would pretend that things are too complicated and you'd need to sign in on a warez website to get things working. Obviously.

But maybe someone taking the piss and saying "me lov3 jew big time" for answer doesn't really need help with linux really. Or maybe their box is already soiled by malware and it's just a bot advertising their site. XD

 

[nattybohman]

I'm switching to a Linux distro for my older PCs after October of 2025. I'll probably go with a Red Hat family distro because that's what I've used at work for the past few years. However, I've heard of something called Ubuntu Game Pack that has me interested.

 

[popckorn]

I love my Ubuntu without SNAPS.

Linux Mint is very comfortable and streamlined, it just gets out of your way so you can focus on whatever you are doing. I really like it a lot. I came to it after Windows 7 was over and was horrified by Windows 8.

Linux Mint for me is everything Windows 7 could have been, and then much more.

But pros tend to go for Arch based stuff, because it is great to geek-out with fine-tuning, and entertaining maintenance rituals. I just like to use my OS as platform to geek-out with hobbies other than the OS itself, so I really love my Linux Mint Cinnamon. It is light despite being visually appealing.

Otherwise Mate seems to be the best light option with Classic Gnome.
But I am really ignorant about this, I am a humble Writer with a Bachelor in Arts.

 

[_oBSOLEte_]

I'm not an IT expert or a dev but I worked with many and when it comes to computer, when someone say that something is too complicated to use, 90% of the time it's just because they're going to sell you something they'll pretend to be simpler, or just justify their salary.

So far EVERYTHING I've thrown to Lutris has worked. Most of the times directly, and even with some tweaks, stuff that was only running on WinXP and nothing else. With current Wine or Proton the only modern games I know about that tend to need additionnal tweaks are live services with intrusive online stuff like EAC, that I lost any interest to play. And the only game cracked specifically on linux and nowhere else that I know of is Total Warhammer 3. I dont know if it's clean tho, and if you want to sudo install that you better have it on a spare linux machine kept offline, or be comfortable with dual booting or rescuing your system and having all your important stuff backed up.

 

[SpikeSlania]

I did not have a good experience on linux mint recently while distro hopping, and to be fair that uses the ubuntu repository and not the Debian repository, but it did not work otb at all.

There is a Linux Mint Debian edition which I would recommend over the standard edition of Linux Mint, but that's because I'm biased being team Fedora and anti Ubuntu.

I'm switching to a Linux distro for my older PCs after October of 2025. I'll probably go with a Red Hat family distro because that's what I've used at work for the past few years. However, I've heard of something called Ubuntu Game Pack that has me interested.

You will have a bunch of gaming centric distros to choose from under the Red Hat banner with Fedora being under the umbrella. Nobara would be the choice if you want a traditional Fedora experience but the Discover store is stripped down to just being a front for Flatpak and they have their own repo instead of using RPMs that are built from Arch packages. Then there's Bazzite which an immutable distro so you won't be able to accidentally brick your system but all additional programs you install will be flatpaks. Both options I listed have one button click set ups for Steam, Lutris, and various gaming focused additions. I'm at the point now where for my desktop experience I don't want a gaming focused distro and just a nice clean Fedora Workstation with GNOME set up. I like being able to use the App store for more than Flathub and enjoy my RPMs. If I were to change to a different distro now it would probably be a Debian based one that has GNOME 42 at least and Wayland support.

 

[Leon]

There is a Linux Mint Debian edition which I would recommend over the standard edition of Linux Mint, but that's because I'm biased being team Fedora and anti Ubuntu.

You will have a bunch of gaming centric distros to choose from under the Red Hat banner with Fedora being under the umbrella. Nobara would be the choice if you want a traditional Fedora experience but the Discover store is stripped down to just being a front for Flatpak and they have their own repo instead of using RPMs that are built from Arch packages. Then there's Bazzite which an immutable distro so you won't be able to accidentally brick your system but all additional programs you install will be flatpaks. Both options I listed have one button click set ups for Steam, Lutris, and various gaming focused additions. I'm at the point now where for my desktop experience I don't want a gaming focused distro and just a nice clean Fedora Workstation with GNOME set up. I like being able to use the App store for more than Flathub and enjoy my RPMs. If I were to change to a different distro now it would probably be a Debian based one that has GNOME 42 at least and Wayland support.

I consider ubuntu the schmuck bait distro, everyone who doesn't use linux thinks ubuntu = linux, while everyone who does avoids it like the plague.

The gaming centric distros i know of are like you said, nobara, bazzite as well as garuda and to a extent maybe chimera os depending on just how gaming you want, my....not so nice opinions of bazzite aside it's good for beginners, but generally of all the gaming distros i consider garuda the best myself for gamers due to the versatility of arch and the fact it mostly uses the chaotic-aur.

 

[SpikeSlania]

I consider ubuntu the schmuck bait distro, everyone who doesn't use linux thinks ubuntu = linux, while everyone who does avoids it like the plague.

The gaming centric distros i know of are like you said, nobara, bazzite as well as garuda and to a extent maybe chimera os depending on just how gaming you want, my....not so nice opinions of bazzite aside it's good for beginners, but generally of all the gaming distros i consider garuda the best myself for gamers due to the versatility of arch and the fact it mostly uses the chaotic-aur.

If I were to go beyond the Red Hat umbrella for gaming centric distros I would have also tossed in CachyOS (arch) and PikaOS (debian). Don't think I would have included Chimaera since it is an immutable steam deck clone (arch) even though I currently use it on my couch gaming rig until Valve releases a full SteamOS for couch set ups. Chimaera is a very stripped down OS with it being immutable that I don't see me using it for anything other than Steam.