Yes, Bazzite was my first. Immutability sounds great in theory but it wouldn’t let me change my login screen background and wouldn’t explain why. I bricked my drive permissions trying to get access and had to reformat.

That got me looking for alternatives and I learned about immutability and found Garuda, which let me do whatever I wanted, was also gaming focused, and has great helper applications.

I’ve used both Bazzite and Garuda. Both have an Nvidia install, both are gamer focused, and both have been easy.

Bazzite was immutable, which I ended up not liking.

Seconding strawberry 🍓

I tried Bazzite first and switched to Garuda after. Both were easy and good for gaming.

Garuda is a gaming focused Arch distro. Super easy and works great. It’s what I switched to after Bazzite.

I use the xfce version and it’s pretty bare bones. Other than a background image I replaced, it didn’t have any annoying UI stuff in it. It still runs all the gaming stuff just fine out of the box.

If anyone likes Bazzite but doesn’t want the immutability, Garuda is also gamer focused and easy.

Haven’t tried Cachy, but can vouch for Garuda being stable and easy.

I use Garuda, which is Arch based. Pretty much every time I’ve had a problem it’s been solved by update, restart.

If you want to try and build a raw Arch system from scratch, maybe it’s still complicated, I don’t know, but there are easy Arch options these days.

Super helpful info, thanks!

That makes total sense. I haven’t dipped my toes into AUR, so I’m not surprised I missed it.

I’ve only been on Linux about a year. I started with Bazzite and then switched to Garuda. Garuda is Arch based but has always been fast and easy, even with an Nvidia card.

Am I missing something? Arch seems fine.

Me too!

I started with Bazzite but wanted a system that wasn’t immutable, so I switched to Garuda. Both have been easy and reliable.

They’re new, and they make decisions for you.

As a new user, I’ve never had trouble with them.

I don’t know what all these doomsayers are doing. I installed Bazzite and it just worked. I decided I didn’t want an immutable system so I switched to Garuda, and it just worked. I have Nvidia and didn’t have to do anything extra.

My first Linux was Bazzite. It was great but I didn’t like immutability so I switched to Garuda, which was also very easy.

As you are deciding, consider the differences between the main branches, Arch, Fedora, Ubuntu, etc., and their operating philosophy. Next look at the distro, specifically the helper apps and tools. Many distros now have “at startup” apps now that will help you with updates and installing common software. This help, or lack of it, will make a big difference to you as a beginner.

Garuda does will with Nvidia too.

I assume you mean raw? Because I’m a noob and I installed Garuda, which is Arch, and it’s been dead easy.

Everyone could use Arch! Let’s all flex together!

Garuda is also very user friendly and gaming focused if you want something that isn’t immutable.