hey there, im looking for the best distro for swapping entirely from windows 10 to linux, while keeping my steam library useable. i have over 300+ games and would like to use the distro thats most likely to support most of them now, and into the future.

thats basically it. just looking for recommendations, warnings, do’s and dont’s, etc. and maybe a guide on removing windows entirely once its all said and done. i dont want microsoft having access once i make the move to linux.

they disgust me.

edit: thanks for the advice, super helpful everyone!

  • BombOmOm@lemmy.worldEnglish
    12·
    3 days ago

    “Gaming Distro” just means some various gaming softwares are preinstalled, like Steam and Heroic (for GOG, Amazon, and Epic games). I mention this just to keep you from overly worrying about picking the “wrong” distro.

    • Bazzite is basically SteamOS.

    • Mint Cinnamon was my choice as it feels very familiar to a Windows user, and comes with a bunch of desktop productivity stuff pre-installed. It tends to remain on more time-tested, stable versions of software.

    • Fedora Plasma is also very popular, and will feel familiar coming from Windows. It tends to have the latest and greatest version of softwares.

    and maybe a guide on removing windows entirely once its all said and done

    If you plan to switch over all at once, during the install, tell Linux to use the entire drive (ie, do a full format). That will completely remove Windows during the install.

    If you are going to dual boot, you can format the Windows drive at some later time.

    do’s and dont’s

    If you are going to dual boot, don’t dual boot on a single drive. Windows likes to fuck with other things on the same drive as it, including other Windows installs.

    If you get a prompt about codecs during the Linux install, install them.

    • elucubra@sopuli.xyz
      12·
      3 days ago

      A bit reckless giving advice, aren’t we?

      We don’t know if OP has personal data in the windows drive, or copies thereof, and yet, you write:

      If you plan to switch over all at once, during the install, tell Linux to use the entire drive (ie, do a full format). That will completely remove Windows during the install.

      Also:

      If you are going to dual boot, don’t dual boot on a single drive. Windows likes to fuck with other things on the same drive as it, including other Windows installs.

      Would you please enlighten me about why you shouldn’t dual boot on a single drive? I, and millions of others have been happily doing it for decades. As a matter of fact I’m willing to bet some money that that’s precisely the most common desktop setup in the world for Linux. The major caveat is that sometimes Windows upgrades/updates won’t respect your dual boot setup, which is usually trivial to fix.