Hi everyone, new to the forums, but long time fan of TekSyndicate on YT. I've been looking at linux for some time now, out of curiosity and out of interest for open source projects in general.
So first off, what Linux Distro do you reccomend for a first time user?
Also, will Linux support any form of gaming? I'm a big gamer so thats a priority as well.
Lastly, while I have an 8350, I also have a 970, and I've heard that nVidia is being a complete ass about support for Linux; will this create serious issues?
Thanks to everyone
A lot of games are supported, but a lot of older games and some aaa games are not supported. (email the devs telling them you want GNU/Linux support if you like)
Current binary drivers (propitiatory ones) are ok, the problem they have is sometimes there not great at installing and are slow to update.
AMD are coming out with a new driver stack amdgpu which should give much better support for open and closed drivers (actually getting the closed ones to work smoothly) it should work in some of the current cards and all new cards going forward. Its not out yet though, should see it in Linux 4.1 initially.
As for a distro. I suggest picking a few and trying them out.
Theres the usual Ubuntu, a lot of people like it, i always find it has some od problems that only it seems to come up with.
There Fedora, this follows much more closely to the Free Software side of things and doesnt have propitiatory software by default.
OpenSUSE is one you might want to try as well.
Keep in mind that your hardware should work fine with Linux but if you have some funny bits of hardware that are very reliant on software drivers in windows then it might not have full functionality (killer nics, etc)
check the first post here. You will find a lot of resources.
https://forum.teksyndicate.com/t/1-year-linux-challenge/74682
Personally I would recommend Linux Mint for beginners besides Ubuntu. It uses the same packages as Ubuntu but has better out-of-the-box compatibility and its easier for newcomers to maintain because of the very good update manager.
Thank you @Eden and thank you @turin231, il definitely check these out, right now I'm leaning towards either Mint or Fedora. I'l also try and get on board the 1 year challenge if i can manage it, sounds like fun.
Out of curiosity, @turin231 ma te sei italiano di torino? perche se é si che presa a bene.
If you try out Fedora, youll likely not want to go full free software only, so make sure an add the rpmfusion repos.
what about Linux Arch though? Is it substanitally different from other distros? heard of it only recently.
and then I guess i'll drop fedora, i want to go as free and open as possible.
for now then probaly either mint or opensuse, until i figure out exactly what Arch is
Arch Linux is quite good. Im running it justnow. Its a rolling release so you get updates as software releases come out. It works well with AMD and Nvidia. Its harder to install if youve never used GNU/Linux before. But if your technical minded its worth giving it a go, you might not get it quite right first time around. But if you try it come on IRC and well make sure you have everything setup.
It has a good guides on the wiki for isntallation, though in my opinion they are not the most well structured.
Only reason i didnt suggest Arch is because of its initial installation may not be the most easiest to follow if you've never done anything like that.
Alright then, Mint, OpenSuse or Arch, I'll have to go do some research now. Might start off the hardway and go Arch. We'll see. Thank you everyone for the qucik responses, I'll be sure to PM you guys if I indeed get Arch.
Quick question, do you mean IRC as in Internet Relay Chat? Cos I've never done that, might have to look into it.
Actually no. turin is a Tolkien reference. I am greek.hehehe
Also if you wanna try Arch based stuff you can try Manjaro before you go to actual Arch . Its a good start before you go to Arch which is more an enthusiast distro while Manjaro is more user friendly .
Fedora is full open and free in its default state. So is Debian. But will have to add non-free stuff for things that there are no alternatives. Ubuntu and Mint already have many of these non-free/open things pre-stalled. That is why they work out-of-the-box . So if you want to go full free then Fedora and Debian are good choices. But they need experience and time to setup properly.
Edit: Basically try a more user -friendly distro first and after you get some experience you can try to go full Free with one of the above (plus all the extra good things Fedora and Debian have)
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Yup thats the IRC I mean. We have one http://teksyndicate.com/chat come on #teksyndicate or #teklinux
Or if you want to use your own cleint, hexchat is very good.
OOOOHHH nice, i'll definitely come bug you guys on the IRC! ;-)