I was in your boat a few years ago. I was familiar with a few linux distros because of my job but I was hesitant to switch because the games I was playing didnt have native linux support. Eventually, I started daily driving Ubuntu and after some minor tinkering with steam and lutris, I could play any game I wanted without any issues.
That said, while I think Ubuntu is a great distro over all, there’s a part of me that worries that its only a matter of time before it goes to shit… So within the last year, I made the switch to Debian 12 and I flatpak’d everything. It was seriously one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in the context of personal computing. Seriously, its fucking seamless. Fuck windows 4 lyfe. All my homies hate windows.
By running your applications in Flatpaks, you’re isolating them from the rest of your system. Essentially, Flatpaks save you from ruining your system because you installed 10 different copies of the wrong graphics drivers, while following random guides on the internet.
Running games in flatpaks ensures you’re using the latest drivers, so you dont really have to worry about it. It makes things SO much easier to manage from a linux gaming perspective.
That said, Flatpaks introduce a different kind of complexity to your system and there might be a bit of a learning curve before you feel confident troubleshooting any issues that come up, especially if you have no experience working in containerized environments.
Personally, I’m coming up on a year of daily gaming in Flatpaks and I’ve never had any issues.
I was in your boat a few years ago. I was familiar with a few linux distros because of my job but I was hesitant to switch because the games I was playing didnt have native linux support. Eventually, I started daily driving Ubuntu and after some minor tinkering with steam and lutris, I could play any game I wanted without any issues.
That said, while I think Ubuntu is a great distro over all, there’s a part of me that worries that its only a matter of time before it goes to shit… So within the last year, I made the switch to Debian 12 and I flatpak’d everything. It was seriously one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in the context of personal computing. Seriously, its fucking seamless. Fuck windows 4 lyfe. All my homies hate windows.
Those last 2 lines really sum it up don’t they. If Windows was a family member you would disown them.
Many of us would say Ubuntu has already gone to shit. I started on Ubuntu and always did Ubuntu server for running websites. Never again.
Flatpaks are pretty great. I think rpm-ostree is cool in a kinda similar way, so I’ve been looking into those distros.
Why flatpacks?
By running your applications in Flatpaks, you’re isolating them from the rest of your system. Essentially, Flatpaks save you from ruining your system because you installed 10 different copies of the wrong graphics drivers, while following random guides on the internet.
Running games in flatpaks ensures you’re using the latest drivers, so you dont really have to worry about it. It makes things SO much easier to manage from a linux gaming perspective.
That said, Flatpaks introduce a different kind of complexity to your system and there might be a bit of a learning curve before you feel confident troubleshooting any issues that come up, especially if you have no experience working in containerized environments.
Personally, I’m coming up on a year of daily gaming in Flatpaks and I’ve never had any issues.
Thanks!