I play a lot of games over steam, and I am coming from windows.
It looks like you found a cat instead. Please pet the cat.
Use Fedora. Or not, I'm not your parent.
this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2026
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Fedora KDE is what I use and recommend.
Its easy, to setup, no frills, reliable and very easy to use with a just gui if you're not into the terminal.
If, and only if, this is not your primary computer. Eg, it's only for gaming, I'd recommend Bazzite.
Bazzite is great and I use it on our couch pc for a true console experience. I call it "our better Xbox".
After distro hopping for decades, I've ended up just running Mint for almost all desktop use cases. This includes gaming via steam.
I watched a video recently of a german Youtuber that created a Linux chooser with questions about usage, experience etc.
The language is only in german, but you could try the translation feature in your browser.
Fedora KDE.
Looks similar-esque to Windows, Steam and most/all your games will run great on it.
Packages and kernel are kept current and it’s stable.
It has an App Store called Discover for finding most anything you will need out of the gate.
You will feel at home with anything kde
Pop_OS
For sure choose some Debian-based distro. As a beginner maybe stay away from Arch or Fedora derivatives - most tutorials are for Debian-based distros and it will be easier that way. Pick something like Ubuntu, Mint, Zorin or sth like that. Don't be owerwhelmed. The distro doesn't really matter as long it's not Arch. Learn that the look of the desktop is independent of the distro you choose. The look is called "desktop environment". Look it up. You can install any desktop environment on any distro so you don't have to pick distro based on looks. Good luck and have fun.
I run mainline Ubuntu and there has only ever been one game I wanted to play that I couldn't play, and that's because Epic Games deliberately made it incompatible.
I'm running CachyOS and love it. Great performance and easy to use IMO
I recently made the switch to Kubuntu. I wanted KDE and Wayland all setup for me after arch issues a couple years ago.
Another big reason is that I can install the discord .deb files easily without thinking much, cause discord has an update like every other day.
I might switch one day but it should be easy cause my OS drive doesn't have any games on it
I'd probably say mint, reasonably newbie friendly. I've not tried Bazzite but I hear good things about it.
I currently run Arch btw, it's not what I'd recommend as a first distro.
Anyway don't over think it. Get something easy up and running and after a while get curious or annoyed and try something else.
Hope you have an AMD gpu. Been a while since I had a Nvidia but they were twice as annoying to deal with some 7 years ago.
I would say SteamOS if you can run it. Otherwise, CachyOS.
Thank you
Worth noting if you take this advice: SteamOS (and Bazzite, recommended elsewhere) are immutable distros, which, to over-simplify it to an extreme degree, limits your ability to install things that modify the system directly. This can be a good thing, but it can also make it difficult to install certain things that you might want. There are workarounds, but you might find this frustrating at first.
If you primarily game, this is probably not an issue for you except that some non-Steam games may require some extra work to run (particularly ones that, for example, require you to install .NET Framework or specific Java versions.)
Not trying to discourage you from these - they're great OSes and the 'downside' of immutable distros can actually be beneficial when new to linux, as they prevent you from breaking things through inexperience, but it's something you should be aware of up front. (FWIW I use Bazzite as my daily driver for everything, and it works fine.)
I use nobara as a gamer and it works well for me
I started on Bazzite when I switched, and it was ok but never felt quite right. After that I switched to Garuda, which is also designed to be a ready right out of the box experience that is gaming and performance focused.
It is based on Arch, so it is currently being kept up to date and has been extremely reliable. Pretty much every issue has been solved with an update and reboot.
As an aside, everyone always pushes KDE, but I personally love xfce, it's worth a look.
mint
Want easy starting point..... Linux Mint.
Later down the line move to more complicated ones.
CachyOS with kde. Nvidia + wayland + wifi + proton and lutris with umu all work out of the box
I have been using Nobara OS for a few years, it is based on Fedora, comes with Nvidia and other proprietary drivers if you want. Plus, it also has an HTPC (home theatre PC) mode, where you boot directly into steam's big picture mode, like steam deck.
It is fedora. Just a fedora install with some preticked boxes. That said there’s some differences to note such as nobara doesnt come with selinux like fedora workstation does. It uses apparmor. Which you won’t bump into an issue with until you install certain softwares. I think if you’re just gaming it won’t matter
Your new phone and GameNative. If you insist on a PC- Bazzite have a cool idea where they use Fedora atomic, the downside is that it's Fedora. If you feel like you can get alone with Arch try CachyOS. I use Nobara but I'm not quite happy with in because I've had so many issues with updates, and stuff not working properly and in the past was very confusing what you should've to install programs. I'm not sure if there's a reason to use Nobara now when they use the kernel patches from CachyOS and removed all patches for specific vendors (like Asus and Lenovo) except for Surface laptops. The initial setup is great. If you have legacy or in the short future legacy Nvidia GPU don't go with Nobara. If you want to set it up yourself like you want check out openSUSE. I didn't mentioned Debian and Debian-based because Steam is recommended to be installed as system app and Debian have very old packages. Debian unstable or maybe better PikaOS can work for that.
Since you posted a kitty, I will help. I adopted Mint with Cinnamon, and it works. It's not perfect, but it's good enough for me not to spend ages playing with distros.
What kind of GPU do you use ?
Should be fine for the most part on any distribution. Just install lutris, heroic, steam. Wine and wine tricks and proton as your emulator.(glorious egg roll or latest is pretty stable)
The only games I’ve had issues with so far have been an old game from bungee and maybe a few old ones from Ubisoft
CachyOS for performance, Bazzite for stability. None of key features I've mentioned about these two OSes are overwhelmingly better on each side. Barely makes any difference imo.
My perspective: I fly Bazzite on my main rig (HX99g) and it's been epic. Gaming mode unfortunately doesn't detect 165Hz but desktop mode does. Upsides: seems to run games slightly better than windows, and does most daily computer tasks with ease. Downsides: doesn't run windows native apps. Can be ran though winboat, but say Whatsapp wont have mic unless you add device in settings, but then you'd lose sound of Bazzite.
Other than that, it has been an epic ride. In fact, so good that I have nuked internal SSD windows and clonezilla'd my external Bazzite ssd to internal SSD. Windows hasn't been installed yet. It is in the plans.
Zorin OS
Fedora’s solid for me. I left Ubuntu distros because they’re always out of date with the latest desktop environment updates.
Okay, but that's not what you found. What you have there is a cat, which is also very good! In fact, the excellent news is that you can keep the cat and continue searching for a Linux distro.
For me, my recommendation is:
- slightly older hardware, go with Linux Mint (based on Ubuntu, so will have slower updates than something based on Fedora so will not support the latest hardware)
- if you have newer hardware, I would go for something based on Fedora.
Fedora Workstation (GNOME) and KDE are both great well-rounded options.
If you want a gaming-centric distro, Bazzite is a nice option (if you have nvidia GPU, pick the option that has those drivers!). Bazzite is atomic, meaning it's slightly harder to break the OS and it's easy to roll back (there are a few limitations though, like most apps will be installed via flatpak rather than with dnf). If you have a living room PC, Bazzite also offers a console-like experience with Steam Big Picture Mode.
If you like tinkering and want to squeeze out performance, CachyOS is a great option, it's essentially Arch Linux that is easier to install and has a bunch of performance tweaks.
TLDR: Mint for older hardware, Fedora/Bazzite for newer hardware, CachyOS if you know what you're doing
If you can't decide between distros, I would test them out with live boot (you could use VenToy for this) and mess around in them, see what works and what doesn't. That's how I did it, I hopped from Mint to Fedora Workstation then landed on Fedora KDE. I am currently thinking of switching to EndeavourOS later (nothing wrong with Fedora, I just want to try out something Arch-based for a change!)
Also, one thing, if you're installing Fedora, make sure to enable third-party repos when setting up in the little guide! This will allow you to install Steam and, if applicable, Nvidia drivers. It's pretty stupid that they make it sound all scary, it really would be better if they just asked whether you want Steam and Nvidia drivers, but it is what it is.
Strange to see no one recommending plain old Fedora yet 😢 it's stable, performant, up to date, and compatible with just about any hardware. I'm daily-driving it on my notebook, playing tons of games without issues. As for desktop environments, I'd highly recommend KDE plasma since you won't have to relearn everything at once (compared to GNOME), and also the KDE apps are a lot more configurable than GNOME's. Keep away from Cinnamon (default for Linux Mint!) or Xfce unless you really know what you're doing 😄
I was thinking the same thing about Fedora since I have installed it on two purpose built gaming PCs using new or last gen hardware and a very old Dell Inspiron laptop and the experience has been very good outside of a couple minor issues like installing the WiFi driver on the Dell.
One of the best things I have found with Linux is the live-disk distro testing option since you can test how much you like the interface and execution of each OS+DE and how well they behave with your hardware situation without having to reformat anything first. Personally, since my goal was to move as far from the windows experience as possible, I opted for Fedora Workstation since I also tested the KDE version and I just didn't like it at all. GNOME seems to have its detractors (and for valid reasons) but after using Apple computers and Ubuntu a long time ago, I just preferred the intuitive layout and clean desktop experience. Using Windows11 at work is horrendous and I look forward to being back on my own machine every evening.
Another thing to consider is X11 vs Wayland since that ended up being what made me give up on Mint when my new hardware refused to run without persistent and horrendous screen tearing in 3D games. X11 just didn't work for me and everything I tried to tweak was either not helpful or would leave me in an un-bootable condition that required recovery via rollbacks or terminal commands using the live-USB.
Did I mention that I also got my kid on the Linux train? He is using Fedora Workstation and loves it compared to his old Win10 laptop and the POS Chromebook the school district gave him. In any case, as a Microsoft refugee I think Linux is a wonderful and viable alternative and while there may be some bumps along the way, the community is very helpful and you can often find solutions or you can just ask.
You should recommend Nobara then.
not really, that's just Fedora with a fake Moustache glued on :) OP didn't say they were incapable of installing a few packages, which in my opinion is the only selling point for Nobara.
They also said they play a lot of games so might as well have everything included. Especially when "onboarding" a former Windows user...
Can't argue with that, I think that's true. On the other hand, it creates dependencies on a one-man project which in the long run might not be a sustainable and secure choice. Also, does it still have Brave as the default browser? Because that is honestly a huge dealbreaker for me, Brave as a project is disgusting.
Edit: forgot to add a source in order to be a credible internet stranger. https://thelibre.news/no-really-dont-use-brave
Honestly, if you're mostly using Steam for gaming, pretty much any major distro will work. Linux Mint is my personal choice for newbies but if something else strikes your fancy, go for it. I second the recommendation for checking on ProtonDB to see if your games are supported. I would also recommend ProtonUp-Qt as a program once you've installed Linux; it's really good for managing different Proton installs on Steam quickly and easily. Also also, I have personally had better luck with the Flatpak version of Steam, rather than the native distro versions, because it has less weird dependency issues, but YMMV. Good luck!
A lot of these new distros people mention and threads like this look really sleek and fancy. I'm still using Arch Linux with i3 instead of a desktop environment, and can play whatever games. It's all the same shit under the hood once you've installed what you need.
I also game a lot and made the switch a little over a year ago. I use a 3090 so i chose Pop!_OS and it has been treating me super well! Highly recommended, especially their new Cosmic version.
I don't recommend anything Ubuntu related for newcommers, it's full of weird stuff that is hard to debug when it breaks. But other than that anything will do really. And even Ubuntu is passable to be honest