No Stupid Questions

I recommend Debian for new users and Arch fir experienced users, but use what feels right to you.

Look at zorinOS or Mint. Those are good starting points

Worth mentioning that if you’re on AMD, you’re pretty much open for choice. If you have nVidia, make sure the OS you go with calls out nVidia support as a feature. Even then, your specific config may require that you try out a couple before finding the right fit.

I personally tried Bazzite and had a rough experience with performance and haven’t had issues on EndeavorOS, but have read reports from other nVidia users that had the opposite experience. All to say, your mileage may vary, and don’t give up right away if the first one doesn’t feel right.

I don't think you can install Linux on a cat. Please do not the cat

I switched to Bazzite on my gaming rig a month ago and felt great. I managed to install and mod Skyrim effortlessly and yesterday I installed Tarkov and SPT with no problem whatsoever. Highly recommend.

But check if your favorite games are compatible, mainly the multiplayer ones: Tarkov can only be single player PvE, GTA is story mode only and forget about Destiny 2. Not a problem for me, plenty of alternatives, but you should check for yourself.

Can'tbelieve no one's said this yet, but first you should check protondb.com for all the games you play a lot. It will show you how well they work in Linux. The biggest issue are competitive/esports titles because of their anticheat systems. Most other games run fine out of the box, but some run better with some tweaking.

I was in the same situation a few months ago. I wanted to try Linux but had no real experience with it. To experiment safely, I built a computer from old parts and installed Linux Mint. I then swapped it with my Windows machine and committed to using Mint exclusively for a month. That hands-on approach helped far more than reading guides. I now use Mint on my primary system.

Here is what I learned along the way. Mint has excellent documentation because it is one of the most popular Linux distributions. When I ran into problems, I could generally find reliable answers through the official forums, community wikis, or by asking ChatGPT for step-by-step instructions. So far, there has not been a single issue I could not eventually fix with some experimentation.

If you are coming from Windows and want to game, there are several points worth knowing upfront:

1. Steam on Linux is straightforward

Steam has a native Linux client. Most Windows games work through Proton, which Steam handles automatically. For many titles, you simply install the game and press play. Performance can be very close to Windows.

2. Expect some trial and error

Although many games work out of the box, some require you to switch Proton versions or install small compatibility tools. It is usually not difficult, but it is different enough from Windows that patience helps.

3. Modding takes more effort

My most recent challenge involved getting game mods working. Tools like Proton, Wine, and mod installers sometimes interact in unexpected ways. It took me a few hours of reading and experimenting, but I eventually got everything running. Once you understand where games store their files and how Proton prefixes work, modding becomes much more manageable.

4. Linux teaches you how your system works

If you are willing to tinker, Linux rewards you. You learn how your files are organized, how applications install dependencies, and how to fix problems yourself. That knowledge makes troubleshooting less intimidating over time.

5. You can always dual-boot

If you are nervous about switching completely, you can dual-boot Windows and Mint. That way you can learn Linux without losing access to anything critical.

If you are starting from zero, the biggest advantage is the size and friendliness of the Linux Mint community. You do not have to figure everything out alone. With a bit of persistence, you can build a fully functional gaming setup that performs well and is easier to maintain than you might expect.

I recommend Mint for a beginner friendly stepping stone. Works right out of the box and is really easy to jump to from windows.

My experience is that Linux Mint is the closest we have to a "it just works"-distro that is also decently up to date. Try that first.

It looks like you found a cat instead. Please pet the cat.

Use Fedora. Or not, I'm not your parent.

I play a lot of games over steam

If my main concern is playing game with Steam, most mainstream Linux OSes should be fine. If I have to pick one... Linux Mint is very beginner-friendly, and I've heard great things about Bazzite too. SteamOS works flawlessly with Steam out of the box (owns Steam Deck, can verify), but I don't know how easy it is to set up by yourself

If you happen to also like non-Steam games: a lot of them can be added as a custom application/game via your Steam Library, which does most of the heavy-lifting: you only have to specify which compatibility layer to use & sometimes do keymapping. Setting up wine on its own is not for the faint-hearted

I personally use Arch because AUR (a user-uploaded repository, a lot of popular Linux OSes have their own versions) makes it easy to play a lot of FOSS games... but I can't recommend Arch Linux for beginners

Bazzite, Linux Mint, CachyOS

Try each of them out, see what you mesh best with, join their respective discord/matrix for further help and details 👍

After distro hopping for decades, I've ended up just running Mint for almost all desktop use cases. This includes gaming via steam.

I'd love to help you, but unfortunately I can't think of a single distro that would run on a cat.

The beauty of asking a linux advice from linux nerds is that you will get as many different advices as there are comments and then will have to do your own research anyway.

I usually recommend Linux Mint. Its based on Ubuntu, so when searching for help online everything that works for Ubuntu should work for mint. Another Advantage mint has is, that it has quite a lot of UIs for a lot of applications/settings. This means, that you dont have to work with the terminal that much when doing something. However, I Am highly recommending that in the long term you should try to find your way around in the terminal. A lit if help that you will find online is based around the terminal, and knowing what commands do is quite valuable.

I recommend Mint if it's your first time. It's really easy to set up and use and there are thousands of guides online for fixing any issues you encounter with it. I do not recommend Bazzite like others are recommending because you literally can't change anything with it. That is fine if everything works out of the box and you're basically just using it for gaming, but if literally anything is wrong with your install or you have a device where the drivers that come with Bazzite don't work, you literally can't fix it. Not as in "it's really difficult" I mean it literally won't let you do it. Updating drivers on Linux is notoriously frustrating, but it's very often required especially if you have older USB peripherals you want to use.

I'm running CachyOS and love it. Great performance and easy to use IMO

I'm just glad that someone FINALLY asked this question!

Kubuntu is the best. It's Ubuntu with KDE tools and programs. You have Plasma as a desktop environment, which is very close to Window but that you can customize to your need.

Ubuntu is very popular so you get pretty much everything available and with tutorial, ressources and everything. KDE really push it to the most user friendly, GUI for everything kind of state.

Steam is easy to install, take charge of Proton or anything needed for your games to run.

I was very frustrated by Gnome (the default desktop environment for Ubuntu), failing miserably to make it more like Window. I guess Gnome is more for Mac users.

The only thing I recommend is deactivating Snap and installing Flatpack. It's easy to find tuto on how to do that. Both Snap and Flatpack are doing the same idea, to bundle a program and it's dependencies in a format that allows easier distribution to many distro. But Snap is not as good as Flatpack. You are free to leave it or to use both.

Either way, you can also install program made for Ubuntu or Debian. And with KDE come Discover that is like an App Store and updater.

Linux Mint is also good but I really think Plasma is the best desktop environment. Good thing to know you can always install more desktop environment then the one already installed, so don't hesitate to try other.

If you are already engaged in a very pro open source stance, you might look at Fedora.

Anyway you choose, there are community of people passionate with Linux that can help you every step of the way. LLM can also help you get the basic. Good luck and welcome 🤗

Pick something with a good window manager, typing into a terminal without fingers and thumbs is going to be tricky.

I would say SteamOS if you can run it. Otherwise, CachyOS.

Fedora KDE Plasma is what I use. It's solid.

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 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.

https://themorpheus407.github.io/LinuxChooser/

I'm going to go out on a limb here... If you have no Linux experience, download virtualbox and a handful of distros to try out in your current machine.

CachyOS is great for gaming, I'd suggest the KDE desktop PopOS is also a great choice, their native cosmic desktop is nice. Mint with cinnamon is also a good choice for gaming and daily use Bazzite is also a popular gaming distro that also uses KDE Xubuntu is also a great choice, Ubuntu base with XFCE desktop, great for gaming and a big supportive community

Try these and maybe a handful others to play with until you find a desktop that you find intuitive and easy to find what you need. Once you play with a few of these pick one and try to stick with it as you learn Linux in a full native install.

From what I hear, gaming = bazzite.

Also you can check compatibility of your games with ProtonDB.

Mint is beginner friendly. The Cinnamon desktop is very Windows-like. But if you want HDR support I don’t recommend Mint because its desktops are mostly on X11. It updates the kernel less frequently, so it’s more stable, less cutting edge.

Pop!_OS is also beginner friendly, gaming oriented, makes installing NVIDIA drivers easy, and since its desktops are on Wayland, you can get HDR support. Its kernel updates more frequently, so newer hardware gets support sooner.

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.

https://fedoraproject.org/kde/

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 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.

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".

Want easy starting point..... Linux Mint.

Later down the line move to more complicated ones.

https://youtu.be/e2wB9r1SYrY

Try this: https://distrochooser.de/en

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

Ubuntu is the starter distro. Start there. Figure out how this shit works and learn what you love and what you hate about it. Then you’ll be in a better position to find what you actually want.

Do not start with arch. That is not what it is for.

You don’t want kali. It solves a specific problem you do not have.

Avoid all immutable distros at first. They are great but add a layer of complexity that will fuck you if you don’t have the basics down first.

CachyOS with kde. Nvidia + wayland + wifi + proton and lutris with umu all work out of the box

What kind of GPU do you use ?

mint