It really isn't. I'm not digging on PopOS, but articles like this make it seem like there is a world of difference in performance between distributions, and that's just not true.
this post was submitted on 19 Jan 2025
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I have nothing against Pop_OS or what not, but this article gives absolutely zero info on why/how.
It's an ads for Pop_OS! paid by System76 or it's AI generated.
This article is total shat.
Is there really much of a difference in game performance between "game focused" distros and other ones like mint?
Not really. Nobara comes prepackaged with a plethora of game related utilities and tons of kernel tweaks and packages to optimize it for gaming, but I highly doubt any gamer could tell the difference, between it and mint in the middle of a game. Use the distribution you like that works well for you.
That's kinda what I was figuring. I've been using mint for several months now and I really like it and I've gotten it all adjusted to my preferences. I've checked out pop os, but I'm not a fan of the OS layout. It reminds me of android lol.
I'd argue it's more about having all the things preinstalled rather than the tweaks. Having steam ready with all the proton versions available in the compatibility drop-down (including GE) plus heroic, gamescope, mangohud, etc. waiting to be discovered, that all reduces friction for newcomers.
Steam and the other loaders (lutris, bottles...) take care of all the compatibility stuff just fine; the tweaks are actually the ones that can be bothersome to get, not that the performance difference matters much anyways...
Oh I see, that is pretty handy. It was kinda annoying and unintuitive to get mangohud running.
Agreed. Long time Linux user here. The distro is just supposed to get you near what you want or need. There are science distros for different science labs. Because there is a certain set of tools and software that all the researchers would be using. And likely, the distro is not useful for anybody else. I think there is only the big gaming distro issue because, gaming hasn't really been a huge thing on Linux. Now it is, and new people to Linux have no clue what all is needed or what all is possible. Most don't even realize they could install and switch DE's without having to "distro hop". But, 100% agree with you.
The layout is just gnome, pretty sure you can change the DE if you want to, and yeah it does look like android which isn't necessarily a bad thing considering desktop usage is getting replaced by mobile.
Performance? No. But some of the new distros include Gamescope, which is kind of a big deal.
But is there any difference between installing a distro that includes Gamescope, vs. installing it yourself afterward?
Not sure. I don't even know if that's possible.
It is, it's just a command you type in. Similar to most other software.
Yeah I've spent far too many hours "just typing a command in" so I'll stick with the ones that come pre-installed.
Isn't gamescope more used with handhelds?
Uhhhh I mean only because Valve put it on Steam Deck and then sold millions of them. I use it on my desktop.
Gamescope is great to use even on desktops, it runs the games in its own little shell which is particularly good for compatibility with old games where you can change stuff like resolution, fullscreen, keyboard layout... without impacting your distro.
Oh I see. That is pretty cool. Can you launch that with steam in the desktop version?
Desktop version of what?
You can use gamescope with anything, it's a micro compositor. You can add it to the launch parameters in steam, lutris has an option to start games with gamescope, or you can simply open the game with gamescope and wine from the terminal.
Thanks for the info.
Depends what "much" is but there can be a measurable difference if the distro comes with it's own kernel, like cachyos.
Between different distros on the same kernel the difference in performance is negligible.
I just left Pop!_OS for Fedora because it being based on Ubuntu 22.04 means that it's getting fewer and fewer critical updates for me, and their website doesn't make any indication that they intend to change that any time soon.
I've never used arch or manjero, but I've used Ubuntu, Fedora, Bazzite, and Pop, and Pop has been the best for me for a desktop experience. Definitely for people looking to switch it's the least intimidating
Genuine question, doesn't PopOS requires to disable secure boot to install? Not a big fan of distros that request it
Because you as a Linux user still want to hang on the insecure leash of MS? Or why do you want to be forced to wait for MS again and again? UEFI is still a nasty disease and should be eradicated.
The idea is the opposite, to not rely in MS for Secure Boot. True that they created the secure boot but not because they created that is a bad idea. Many Linux distributions support Secure Boot through their own signing keys or by using tools like Shim (Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, OpenSuse, Arch, Gentoo and NixOS), allowing us to maintain control and security without depending on Microsoft. Secure Boot is a security feature that ensures your computer boots only trusted software, reducing the risk of malware. It checks the signatures of boot software and only allows signed, trusted components to load. This helps protect your system from unauthorized access during startup. Not flawless but is better with than without. Also, along with other strategies it may some day be used by the gaming vendors as a potential via to validate anti cheat. Recently the systemd made some progress in the area enhancing the TPM config.
https://lwn.net/Articles/1001730/
"the TPM PCRs could be used either to lock a disk-encryption key to only be used on kernels signed by a particular OS vendor, or to lock a disk-encryption key to specific local things, such as the firmware version, available hardware, etc. Now, with systemd 257, the user can configure both these kinds of requirements at once."
I've never used it myself, but I've also never heard a bad word said about it. Seems to be a pretty solid little distro.
Maybe Imma consider it when Cosmic becomes the desktop.
I’m sorry but I really don’t see the point in these distros way down the line. You can add anything to Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Arch, etc.
That's fair. But people are busy/lazy/not interested. More downstream distros that require less customization or tweaking will always be there for those people.
As an example, why would I install Ubuntu and remove Snaps and go on a massive customization spree when Mint has already done half of the work for me? It makes it easier for me to just sit down and get started and that is what many users expect. Those that want to tinker or are more picky and want to have it just so can install whatever they want and customize as much as they want.
I also sometimes feel there are way too many unnecessary options, but they're obviously not for me. The more choices, the better chances to find exactly what you're looking for and that's not a bad thing in my opinion.
If you want to tinker a lot, you can always use Arch. But if you're like me and just want your computer to work, Mint is absolutely fantastic. And I've run all my steam games on it without any issues. Mind you, those games were all bought for the Steam Deck, so compatibility is already sorted.
Good point
The current stable release is a Gnome fork abomination and the current alpha has a trillion issues. Absolutely terrible for games.
And the comments: Here is 30 reasons Pop_OS sucks for gaming