Basically heres the deal: Use the standard drivers when running any edition of Ubuntu if you want basic desktop graphics support.
If your a debian user then stick with it. Your desktop environment is variable you can use anything from KDE to Cinnamon or any other flavor on virtually any type of linux distro.
Dont expect proprietory drivers from GPU vendors to work very well, some do, nvidia support for Linux has improved quite a lot, but AMD still has some work to do in this area.
OpenGL, um gaming on linux whilst improving is still not at the level most windows / directx users are comfortable with. Often you have to install a 3rd party OpenGL library to enable decent support for linux games even those purchased from steam. It also depends greatly on whether the developer of the game supports porting their game over to linux or not and whether the code is interchangeable to provide adequate support.
Sadly the number of distro's make it difficult for linux to be a stable environment for devs to make games for, there needs to be better standardization of certain modules and graphics is one of them, we are in hopes that Vulkan will bridge the gap and utilize hardware and increase driver support but we are still years away from realizing this, and the Linux community has to come to some sort of agreement on what the standard should be for games in particular.
As a desktop environment though you should have no problems whatsoever with any ubuntu or arch or for that matter any other version of linux as they all support a good array of software and productivity apps. In terms of drivers its all about research, the more you are willing to invest time in learning linux and how it works, the better your results will be. It is not impossible to get everything you want to work running on linux it just takes a bit of time.
As much as I don't like the way Ubuntu compiles the kernel, as a kernel developer I have to say, we don't test every know set up of hardware. In fact, drivers break all the time. Not to mention AMD release the beta driver on June 29. keyword is beta. Also, I am assuming you have already sent your logs and debugging information to AMD so they can fix. You can always go write you own driver and maintain it.
Linux was and is not created with gaming in mind(Infact like DOS it was originally a console OS). You wont find a more powerfull back end system. IF linux ever takes over the gaming/Desktop world, it will be the complete OS by our standards today, the useability for a desktop release of the OS would be redicules since you can game comfortably on your home server with near to no impact. The reason for your problems is most likely that either. 1. M$ Are holding their IP to directx close and wont allow any usage in the open source world. or. 2. AMD from what i understand has a driver problem with linux, i believe there are 2 release lines for their cards. Forgot the name of them though, but im sure google has the answer. Specifically Xubuntu is released as an extremely lightweight desktop, and it is my favored aswell, since it has a massive performance boost due to the lightweight desktop, but the driver implementation is the same as reg. ubuntu. The main diff is that Xfce doesn't have all the fancy animations which weighs on your GPU/CPU. The problem doesn't stem from debian, ubuntu, what ever, it stems from a driver problem(Which deffinetly happens on windows as well), or something being defective on your system, which could even be some software you run which hogs memory and qualls your system. If linux has a problem with you gaming/using your GPU. Simply dual boot window$ and just reboot into linux when you have todo some serious work which doesnt require 3D rendering of your GUI.
Eden has the right idea. In order to get full compatibility, you have to use ubuntu 16.04 vanilla.
Run ubuntu 16.04, run a distro upgrade, and then install the amd-pro driver.
From there, you can install a new DE such as XFCE.
Can you run AMD pro drivers on debian? Probably. Is there an elegant and easy solution to do so? Ehhhhhhh probably not. You would have to include a lot of ubuntu packages on debian in order for the driver to have a chance of working right.
Well, the one AMD wants you to have to use with AMDGPU-PRO. Xubuntu is an official flavor but I'll give ubuntu a try. Didn't think of that. I installed a new kernel because I found multiple reports that stated it could fix the freezing issue. I did install only the driver first. I installed like this. I know it says 14.04 but it is linked from here as the method for 16.04.
I here you, I know what you mean. Thank you. But I have quite a lot of games that run on linux and despite the performance difference compared to windows in some titles, the freezing problem is the only thing that is holding me back.
Uhm, no ....... just no. Yikes! But seriously, I am not trying to play games the best way possible. That isn't the point here. I'm trying specifically to run games on linux. Natively.
Well linux wasn't intended for phones either.... SteamOS is pushing the development of linux gaming. Look what changed in the last few years. Gaming is coming to linux, no question. But I don't want to derail this thing. The focus is AMDGPU-PRO.
I know the old drivers, the open one (well the one I know) was kind of ok, the proprietary one was better for most games but kind of shit in other things... The new AMDGPU open driver is miles ahead of both of those. And AMDGPU-PRO is an additional part to this driver. Both new driver parts are official AMD stuff. And I bet when the PRO part is out of beta the crimson stuff will follow with overclocking and everything.
I know what a DE is. And as mentioned before windows is out of the question.
This is the information I was hoping to get. Thank you.
Im hanging to hear how RX 480 goes with linux. Im Ubuntu but 16.04 is Impressing me less than the news of PCI power draws on the Reference RX 480.
Im waiting with baited breath if a get a decent priced RX480 non reference card or save for a 1070 to replace my GTX670 in a old system as well. But the system upgrade follows after.
I like to update to a product with legs and support....Very hard now since legs in Linux now so I need 3rd party commitment.
Actually Linux was created to be a platform free kernel where you adapted the kernel to your architechture. Any platform which can compile your software, and has a kernel, that can run your software(ofc. dependeicies has to be available as well). The fact that linux was build this way is both it's doom, and it's glory. Like i said Linux is not a GUI based OS it is a back end(And doing god damn well at it just ask microsoft) based OS. A phone is "just a distro written to arm"(obviously google did other stuff). Raspian is the same deal, not to mention SteamOS where their biggest achievement is making it boot into steam big picture rather then x11(gnome, xfce, what ever). There is like 2-4 raspian distros which does the exact same. "All" Steam does is convert games to be compatible to linux. eg. bypass the whole DX. crud. since M$ has IP on DX down to a certain version, im not saying what steam does is not noble and i deffinetly advice you to follow their steps, just dont proclimate what they do as magic.
You're main problem is due to the fact linux just doesn't like amd. Really I'd just try SteamOS sense that seems like the best solution for gaming on linux. If that doesn't work then I dunno??? Use windows.
Both AMD and NVIDIA has their strengts drivers wise for linux. Just wait until you have to release a Nvidia driver from your OS for lets say kvm passthrough. Linux is a crap shoot when it comes to this stuff. Deal with it, and read up on your drivers. 9/10 times google has your exact problem at hands, and if anything the meta data collected from you googling "my amd card is being dildo!!!!!!!!! how do i install AMDGPU-PRO ubuntu", or "AMDGPU-PRO Fking sucks in ubuntu", will help AMD make better drivers. https://www.google.dk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=AMDGPU-PRO+Fking+sucks+in+ubuntu Which allready yelded me usefull results. Dont rant be acceptable to info.....
Use anything but ubuntu. The only thing you can count on with any debian based OS is that someone in the office will be lazy and not want to do it so they'll say that it isn't stable on debian systems yet.
Theres a reason why Wine 1.6.2 is still in the ubuntu repo's.
Use suse. You'll have better stability and YaST is jesus.
As a non programmer that at least knows a fair share of programing, might I ask what makes you dislike the way ubuntu handles the kernels? - I am a veteran ubuntu user/poweruser/admin now and so far it pretty much always delivered the best experience on newer hardware for me. (of course, tweaks, patches, ... needed usually for the first months ;) )