Mint or Manjaro?

[D4rkKaizen]

what distro is better for games?

[N1GH7KN1GH7]

Manjaro -or just use Arco Linux , or Garuda to be honest. Garuda is the best choise but u have to have some knowledge .

[Kepos]

Both distributions are good.

Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu, so it might be better for Linux starters or when you migrate from any Windows. With it's Window's like desktop it is easy to migrate. I used it a couple of years, but migrated to Arch a few years ago and never spent a thought to come back to it.

Manjaro is based on Arch, but comes with a graphical installation instead.
While Manjaro is actually on it's road to build their own 'fork' from Arch, @NightKnight offered some alternative Arch distributions. Manjaro is a strong and well done distribution with plenty of different desktops availible.

I myself am actually using Garuda Linux with Cinnamon DE and think so far it is one of the best Arch distributions for gaming from my view.

If you have some idea about how Linux is structured, Arch is quite fascinating.

[Marlock]

I usually tell people to start with Linux Mint when they're coming from Windows

it's very well polished, familiar enough to windows on the surface (but different enough where it matters, like no forced updates or nagging), holds your hand just the right amount if configuring the OS and learning to use it isn't fun or your job... and keeps you 99% safe from papa Ubuntu's shenanigans

for an arch-based distro I heard great things about Endeavour OS... basically Arch with an initial setup that delivers it more ready to use, plus a few tweaks and patches to make it more friendly, but afaik not a completely separate repository like manjaro

also Arch itself now seems to have a new/improved installer, so maybe that's no longer a reason to go for a derivate distro...

...i wouldn't really know... I started on Mint and stayed on Mint

[Marlock]

"Linux Mint" is also a good distro but "Manjaro" has the most up-to-date kernel software and graphics drivers

it's not that there is nothing true about the above statement, it's just that it is easier (out-of-the-box) on Manjaro, but not really hard to get fresher kernels and gpu drivers on Mint either, so this shouldn't stop you from considering other aspects of those distros


on Linux Mint you can easily get an updated graphics drivers: Kisak Mesa PPA

Kisak is a Valve dev coordinating public code releases for Mesa and other projects Valve contributes to, so this is not provided by some curious nobody

do not use Oibaf, too bleeding edge, will eventually have a bad update


on Mint 21.2 linux kernel 6.2 is currently the default once you apply all updates... you can use even more recent mainline kernels from kernel.org (the latest stable version is 6.5) instead of the Ubuntu ones, via UKUU and some other sources

[Marlock]

the time of "often needing to type commands in terminal" is long gone for Mint users

you can need them one day, but it's more likely you'll use them out of being easier to follow online help instructions via terminal than out of not having a way to do it via GUI

there is a convenient GUI for everything, even stuff that afaik no other distro provides, like managing PPAs, reverting packages to distro-default versions safely, applying distro version upgrades, etc

I also honestly don't see file residues as a big issue on linux in general so I find it hard to imagine as a real con of going to Manjaro... it was a much bigger issue on windows historically, that's certain

[noRules]

I mean, manjaro is buggy ♥♥♥♥.
If you want an easy arch-based distro just use EndeavourOS.
If you don't want to learn linux commands, try ZorinOS

[MothEaterYummy]

Първоначално публикувано от D4rkKaizen:

what distro is better for games?

No right answer here , I game on mint and have done for a few years now , this is because it is Ubuntu based there is a wide range of software available as well and it works fine for gaming, I have some custom repos for quicker drivers as sometimes they are slow to release them but that's not a big deal to setup. It might be worth getting a perspective from a Manjaro user as well.

[Marlock]

Първоначално публикувано от D4rkKaizen:

what distro is better for games?

The one you already have installed

The one that will suit your other uses better if you're not just gaming on it

One that will ask for minimal manual intervention and you'll adapt to easily or is more familiar to you, if you're coming from windows. Suggestions will vary, mine is Linux Mint
https://linuxmint-installation-guide.readthedocs.io/

One that's made for tv + controller instead of keyboard+mouse, if you don't even want to do that sort of light configuration to put linux on your living room (install steam and tell it to run at boot and go to BPM by default on launch)... again suggestions will vary but SteamOS 3 and ChimaeraOS are solid options

[tide pod₆ₓ₆]

go for mint and be happy

[Ussul w+m1]

went from win to mint just bc it has most stuff build in and I had to do only 2 commands :-D Felt for me ez, but it is just my opinion.

[Kivit]

I recently got fed up with windows constantly freezing and hanging and installed manjaro on a HDD. It was pretty damn good. I did notice that on Manjaro the performance for most of my games was pretty ♥♥♥♥ even with the proper drivers installed. (this could be because its on a HDD idk)

I eventually decided to fully switch over to linux with a proper SSD. This time I went with mint because I prefer getting software and drivers from the developer/manufacturer rather than 3rd parties as much as I possibly can, and the fact that everything was packaged for ubuntu and debian based distros most of the time didnt help.

Everything on mint works flawlessly. Just be aware that you may need a smartphone and a data plan that supports USB tethering to get wifi card drivers going incase those dont work out of the box.

Another thing to note about Mint: For some reason this OS really doesn't like it when themes try to change the look of the logon screen. Chicago95 specifically worked absolutely flawlessly on mint and its great but when it comes to the loading screen the only things that work are the text and cursor.

[Marlock]

you can choose the login screen theme independantly from the global theme in the login screen settings page in mint's control panel

[Ormgryd]

I would go for mint, Just beacuse i don't like manjaro and i like mint just a tad better than manjaro.

[Kivit]

Първоначално публикувано от Marlock:

you can choose the login screen theme independantly from the global theme in the login screen settings page in mint's control panel

Im aware of this.

The thing is, themes for whatever reason just do not work. It could be an issue with this specific theme though, I noticed last night it is actually listed as an issue on the theme's github page

[kitty]

first thing Linux user should learn from this - never ask which distro to use because it starts distro wars :)
pick any mainstream distro, you'll be fine.