I’m using pop os (24.04 cosmic de in alpha state) and it’s been my daily driver for about a month now. Generally everything works without fussing. I’m eagerly waiting cosmic beta, but to be honest I’m not sure I’m expecting anything to get “fixed” because everything is already working.

Regarding games, some things need a tiny bit of fussing (open game, unmaxamize and then remaximize screen… Just as an example) and some don’t work quite yet, but I’ve been shocked at how many games “just work” even though they’re not made for Linux.

There are others worth checking out but I went with Nobara, it’s been the easiest distro to switch to for gaming on my main PC. It’s developed by the same guy who develops Proton (the compatibility layer that Steam uses to be able to play Windows games on Linux) so I trust his work. Lots of tools and configs out-of-the-box. Very beginner friendly and nice looking too.

There is no such thing as a “gaming distro” in implementation. Some are tweaked in specific ways to make some things a tad easier sometimes, but there is no appreciable performance diff between any distro in reality. See Phoronix benchmarks.

“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.

I just installed openSUSE Tumbleweed because I was having problems with Bazzite. My issue was pretty specific. I use a USB WiFi adapter, and Bazzite refused to recognize it. Tried to get it working for months, but gave up on it today. Tumbleweed was pretty easy, and it has GNOME and KDE plasma for the desktop (I went with plasma). I’d love to use Bazzite, and would recommend it if you don’t use a USB WiFi adapter.

My first Linux was Bazzite. It was great but I didn’t like immutability so I switched to Garuda, which was also very easy.

As you are deciding, consider the differences between the main branches, Arch, Fedora, Ubuntu, etc., and their operating philosophy. Next look at the distro, specifically the helper apps and tools. Many distros now have “at startup” apps now that will help you with updates and installing common software. This help, or lack of it, will make a big difference to you as a beginner.

if this is your first time, then please buy a new SSD for Linux. You can replace the windows drive with the new drive, and have no worries of deleting data you might have forgotten. Your data is worth a lot more than the cost of an SSD.

Here you go - this will find you a distro you can game on: distro.moe

I have only used Bazzite and Nobara and both have worked very well. The former is an immutable distru while the latter is a trsditional distro. Just depends on what kind of system you prefer. They are both worlds apart.

You didn’t say where you have those games! On another entire separate drive? A separate partition on the same drive?

Check your games against areweanticheatyet and protondb for their general compatibility with Linux

It doesn’t matter much if you choose a “all purpose” or “gaming” distro. They are mostly the same.

I’m personally a huge fan of Bazzite. It just works and you get a very robust and user friendly piece of software.

For a complete Linux newbie, there’s something to be said for immutable distros. They really limit how badly you can break things.

Once you’re more comfortable with the software, terminology and administration you may want something more flexible.

Bazzite seems to be a really popular immutable distro. Don’t start with Arch unless you’re a masochist.

Just a reminder that Linux was never intended for gaming and shouldn’t be used solely for gaming. However, you can find distros that claim to be optimized for gaming. If you want a Linux-based console, check out the Steam Deck. You will not be able to play most of the main popular games.

I just use regular Fedora 42 Workstation and it works without issues. Bazzite is basically gaming focused Fedora 42 Silverblue (immutable) but I personally don’t like immutability.

CachyOS is worth a try as well, that’s a gaming focused Arch distro, though I just like Fedora too much and didn’t enjoy using CachyOS

Honestly though, any of those will work fine for you, especially if you have no point of reference to compare in between them.