cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/30792652
Support for Windows 10 ends on October 14, 2025. Microsoft wants you to buy a new computer. But what if you could make your current one fast and secure again?
If you bought your computer after 2010, there’s most likely no reason to throw it out. By just installing an up-to-date Linux operating system you can keep using it for years to come.
Installing an operating system may sound difficult, but you don’t have to do it alone. With any luck, there are people in your area ready to help!
5 Reasons to upgrade your old computer to Linux:
- No New Hardware, No Licensing Costs
- Enhanced Privacy
- Good For The Planet
- Community & Professional Support
- Better User Control
Can I bother anyone in this thread to help with suggestions for a Linux distro that works for a gaming PC that won’t require me to have a computer science degree? I’m not afraid of some troubleshooting here and there, but I’m
kind ofdumb.Edit: I should have known there’d be a shotgun load of different distros, good thing I’ve been gifted with e-“waste” for years, I’ve got some tinkering to do. Hyper-fixation, here I come.
Bazzite is generally the go-to for gaming.
Thank you!
Bazzite is phenomenal. Just know that it works a little differently than what I’d call “legacy” distros. So when googling things, just know that a lot of instructions for Linux won’t work for you.
If you run into trouble, hop on the discord and someone will help you.
Might be helpful to append “fedora” to any searches, as that’s the distro that serves as the base for Bazzite
My journey was: Kubuntu -> Tuxedo OS -> Garuda Linux.
Kubuntu was painful, lots of issues. Maybe just got unlucky, but cannot recommend it.
Tuxedo OS was phenomenal until I bought a GPU. Then stuff broke left and right. I wasn’t able to get Steam to launch anymore so I switched.
Garuda Linux is the one I still use. I had it for 53 days and had no severe issues to date. There’s still a bunch of stuff that needs ironing out, but that’s the case with all Linux distros, it’s never “fire and forget” like Windows, in my experience.
I chose Garuda because it’s advertised as “the Linux for gamers”. It’s packed with extra goodies that make life easier - you can pick and choose popular apps to be installed right away (things like Lutris, Steam, Heroic Launcher, Proton, Vivaldi browser), and you get an application that helps with maintenance.
The only major issue I had was due to my ignorance (but I kind of blame it on the OS because it was supposed to be “noob friendly” and this bit was very much not so) - just after installation and updates you’ll get the system maintenance app ask you to “merge pacdiff files”. This shows up a comparison window of two files, and if you’ve never used Linux you have no clue what’s going on. When you get that, just don’t overwrite the one on the right with the one on the left - you’ll break the entirety of your package manager. :D
Other than that: I’m having a great time. The OS looks pretty, games run great. 9/10
I installed mint on a new laptop recently and it was completely painless. To be fair I’ve used Linux before but it’s been over a decade and I didn’t have any major hiccups. I installed steam and was playing games within 15 minutes of finishing the install. The UI is very familiar and comfortable for windows users and the entire ux seems to be designed around not making you use the terminal unless you have to. I highly recommend trying it out.
I’d say anything mainstream and not esoteric should do the trick. I’m talking Ubuntu, PopOS and so on.
My partner is currently running PopOS. They somehow managed to combine the chronically outdated Ubuntu packages with a rather counterintuitive UI.
Updates frequently fail, commonly used packages like gamescope aren’t available, overall wouldn’t recommend.
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oh… never actually tried it myself. welp too bad, it seemed like a fair distro to check out. nvm…
I’m on PopOS and my experience is the exact opposite. I love the UI- it’s the main thing I like about it actually. Never had an update fail.
I don’t use gamescope, just run everything from Steam or Heroic and never had an issue gaming.
YMMV
Yes, most times gamescope isn’t required. Thing is, sometimes it is and not having the option is an inconvenience in the best case and makes games unplayable in the worst case.
I just looked it up and people are saying you can install the Ubuntu PPA with no issues.
It may not be (probably isn’t) the latest release, but that option exists at least. I’m glad I never had to use it. What games have you had to use it for? Do you have an AMD GPU or Nvidia?
I just wanted people to know that not everyone thinks Pop-os is shit. Part of the issues you experienced may have been due to the fact that they are currently hard at work writing their own DE (Cosmic) using Rust and they are waiting on that to be finished before upgrading to the newest LTS release of Ubuntu. We are currently still on 22.04.
If you want all of your software packages to be on the bleeding edge, I wouldn’t recommend PopOs. But I definitely would recommend it for someone who just wants a solid distro and doesn’t ‘have a computer science degree’.
YMMV, but from my personal experience using it for almost a year now it’s been rock solid.
Edit: I just realized that my post said “Don’t use gamescope” when what I meant to say was “I don’t use Gamescope.” I wasn’t intending on advising people not to use it. My bad.
Edit2: I also forgot that I stopped using “Pop!_Shop” for updates and software search. That was getting really slow. I would advise your partner install the “COSMIC Store” instead, it’s way better :)
Maybe Q4OS, but if you a Gamer, which want to play the most recent games (logically in a Gaming PC), Linux sadly isn’t the best option, the most modern games are Windows only, the advantages of Linux are others. In this case the best option is to use Linux in dual boot with Windows. I hope that it change in the future.