Linux

Hi, in my opinion, the best distro is always the one that everything builds upon. So if you want maximal control, etc. Just use arch. Its also great if you want to learn how to troubleshoot.

Cachyos has a meta gaming package which will install steam, Lutris and a couple of launchers like heroic games launcher. Should have some extra optimisations as well. Lutris can install emulators too, as well as showing games in your steam library. I'm not sure if it can go full screen like retroarch and use a controller to select games, maybe it can.

I used to experiment around with various distros some years past until I got into Arch. Haven't distro hopped once since, I've completely erased Windows from my life and I'm gaming exactly as I would if I was on Windows. I never have trouble finding a package since almost everything exists either in the official repositories or in the AUR, and I get the latest versions with all the new features and fixes. Rarely some things do break because of the rolling releases, but it's almost always just a matter of a single google search to fix. For me it's worth it for having all the latest versions of everything.

My opinion would be different for a server or a work laptop where stability is much more important. For servers I would pick Debian for sure, for work laptop I'd consider Fedora probably

I tried it, liked it, bricked my system, and now I enjoy EndeavourOS because it's simple and easy.

I use Artix btw. Pretty stable, I guess I have to fix something a few times a year.

Used to be Manjaro, because it's got sane opinions and I'm not looking to make maintaining that machine a new hobby. I don't mind the curated "almost" rolling release, but they're getting worse about simple things (like maintaining their own certs) and I've decided to move on.

i use arch but garuda and endevor are also good to look into

Arch, on well supported hardware. That means no Nvidia. No Ultra 5 series CPUs.

aight let me tell you MY arch experience. itll be a long one.

i first installed arch with the install script and later manually, i ran this setup for quite some time, and as time goes, small erros cascade into bigger ones. it got to the point where i was reconfiguring system configs every week to fix something that broke from an update. the thing that ultimately caused the most trouble was converting my existing ext4 system to btrfs. this caused all sorts of issue primarily with gaming performance (i had to disable cpu boosting in order to not have constant lag spikes for example). this old system was a mess held together with duct tape and hope, it broke with EVERY update, and not at small scales. at some point i had to reinstall grub everytime i changed something in my boot order. Ultimately i decided 2 days ago it was time for a reinstall. i tried installing it normally, i followed the official install instructions and got greeted by a grub shell. i fucked something up during the install, so i decided fuck it, i will use archinstall script again. then it took me legit 6 hours to get my system running in a way i could use it, tgen the next day an additional 3 to get everything set up so i can game with proper OBS recording and all.

now i have a perfectly functioning Arch setup. and a lot more performance (even tho the setup should be the same, like i really dont know what was wrong with my old setup)

arch WILL be a hassle at some point. in turn you get bleeding edge packages, no bloat, complete customisation, a great learning opportunity, the AUR, and (if properly set up) great performance.

i like arch. i wouldnt use anything else.

SteamDeck, so yes.

On desktop, SBCs, servers, etc Debian.

I just found out that what I pictured was EndeavourOS was ElementaryOS. I was so confused with the Endeavor recommendations because i thought it was based on Ubuntu 💀

Ahhhh more I gotta at least check out EndeavourOS now x_X

I don't have much experience with Arch but I did briefly use EndeavorOS in a virtual machine. While I didn't use it enough to form a proper opinion on it, it did seem pretty good and it'll probably be what I use if I need an Arch-based distro (which I think I might but I don't remember what it was I needed Arch for).

Debian+KDE for workstations and servers, arch+kde for specialty needs and playtime.

Not since the 2022 GRUB incident. Now use Tumbleweed.

I used to use manjaro for four-ish years. Good times.

I now run Guix btw.

Artix

If you're going to use Arch you should use Arch. One of the biggest advantages for Arch is the AUR which can cause many issues on Arch based distros that are not Arch.

That being said, for a media center, if you're not used to, I wouldn't go with Arch, Debian is a much better choice since you're already used to it and should be good for that use case.

garuda is the easiest arch for new people, endeavour is pretty much just arch plus calamares and cachy is notable bc of its kernel.

artix, and honorific mentions to parabola and hyperbola (hyperbola is moving towards becoming a gnu + kopenbsd thing, like there was an attempt for a debian gnu + kfreebsd effort though this one got dropped)

I use Arch. I haven't tried Endeavour or Cachy as Arch just works for me. That's not to say I had an easy time installing it as my first Linux distro after leaving Windows, but after reading through the wiki and installing it a couple times in my PC, I like how much control over my system it gives me.

Hell yeah I use Arch btw. It's been a really solid experience and nowhere close to as sweaty as one might assume.

I see there is a lot of concern(hate?) over Manjaro. I have used it on three machines continuously for the last 6 years without any major issues. Some updates would break some packages but going to the forum gave me answers.

I know about the issues they have had but I don't agree with the negativity.

Vanilla arch

In no case manjaro

The only Arch distros I know that are solid are Arch itself, Steam OS, and Cachy OS. The latter 2 have meaningful optimizations for their intended use which is really the only excuse for a new derivative IMO besides things like different release schedules.

Check out the Fedora Atomic distros Silverblue, Kinoite, etc. You can just run arch in a distrobox for your arch needs while keeping a clean and stable core.