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PayPalHere is your up to date list of what distro you should be picking if you want to start gaming on Linux in 2026. The latest edition of you telling me I'm wrong.
Back in the 2025 edition of the article I suggested Kubuntu, and while it worked reasonably well overall it feels a bit like an unloved child. I used it for a long time and was mostly happy with it, but times change and so does the Linux and open source world.
Despite what you read elsewhere - you don't need to go with the latest random "gaming" distribution. The best thing to do is to stick with the crowd, and go with the bigger more well-known distributions. Most "gaming" distributions just throw a few random tweaks and a new theme on top of something else, they can usually just be ignored. Don't fall for their hype. There are literally 100s of Linux distributions, so GamingOnLinux is here to help you just cut through all that noise.
Desktop
My overall recommendation for 2026 on desktop? Fedora KDE. Fedora is generally a lot more up to date than Ubuntu / Kubuntu while not being constantly bleeding-edge like Arch Linux, and apart from an unfortunate snafu with a Mesa driver update, it has been one of the most pleasant and stable experiences I've ever had in all my years running Linux. With Fedora KDE also now promoted to a front-row seat too, it has never been a better time for it.
You don't get the multiple-year long-term support that you do from the likes of Ubuntu, so you need to jump between Fedora versions more often but that's not exactly a bad thing. Fedora is a lot more leading-edge with updates, and for gaming with system updates that's actually quite a nice bonus.
Fedora do a new release around every 6 months, with ongoing updates to each release for around 13 months. So realistically, you can do a major upgrade only once a year and be done with it.
An annoying downside to Fedora — Installing NVIDIA GPU drivers on Fedora still needs more steps than it should. Hopefully with the rise of better open source drivers for NVIDIA eventually this will be a thing of the past. That, or the Fedora team just make it easier out of the box. Not a huge downside though, with the right instructions for GPU driver updates you can be done in a couple of minutes.
Handhelds and TV PCs
An addition for this year is the Handheld and TV PCs suggestion, because it's a rapidly growing segment of the market. With the Steam Deck, Legion Go, ROG Ally and many more. That and small form factor PCs for hooking up to your TV - there's need for something a bit different here. You want an experience that's good with controllers.
For all of you, I will definitely suggest you go with Bazzite. It works very similarly to Valve's own SteamOS including booting into Steam Big Picture Mode, but comes with various tweaks and tools to make the experience great across many different devices. It's also updated a lot faster than SteamOS, so fixes and improvements for newer handhelds comes a lot sooner.
You still get a full desktop mode with KDE Plasma too for all your work, web browsing and other uses. Bazzite has been growing nicely through 2025 and I fully expect 2026 to be an even bigger year for it.
I've been using Bazzite on my Lenovo Legion Go with the Z1 Extreme processor and it has been overall really great. Bazzite is a wonderful replacement for Windows on handhelds.
If you need help and support for Linux and Steam Deck gaming, you can try asking in our Discord. Don't forget to follow me on Bluesky and Mastodon too while you're at it.
Don't agree with me? Am I so wrong that you just have to do something about it? Leave a comment below.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Fedora was great when I used it too, but I didn't like that nonsense from last year so I switched. I'm on gnome now (I had issues with kde) so I think this year I'll do a full system wipe and stay on cachy but with cosmic de. So excited to see that have a full release!
Petethegoat a day ago
wouldn't recommend it to anyone i wasn't gonna be able to support myself, but cachy seems in my experience to be a very solid way to get arch with sensible defaults. i do think the various optimised repos and kernel are not really very impactful, but it's very functional and well put together.
If I didn't have as much Linux experience as I do, the freakin' mess that is trying to get instructions on how to set up Nvidia drivers on Fedora would have driven me screaming from the distro altogether. And if I was new altogether I'd be back on Windows and hesitant to look again. That's what matters far more than whether the OS is optimized for gaming, whatever that even means these days.
Mountain Man a day ago
Quoting: NezchanI'll be honest, for a new user who's not familiar with Linux, or like me an established user who's bad with complicated tech stuff, what really matters is ease of being able to type "problem + distro name" into a search engine and have a reasonable chance of a cut & paste solution 95% or more of the time.This typically works the same as long as you know your upstream. "problem + fedora(v#)" will typically produce workable solutions for Nobara, for example.
If I didn't have as much Linux experience as I do, the freakin' mess that is trying to get instructions on how to set up Nvidia drivers on Fedora would have driven me screaming from the distro altogether. And if I was new altogether I'd be back on Windows and hesitant to look again. That's what matters far more than whether the OS is optimized for gaming, whatever that even means these days.
Kimyrielle a day ago
Quoting: CarollyI wasn't aware you needed a specialized distro to install these. Learn something new every day!Quoting: ExplosiveDiarrhea¨gaming optimized distros" are the dumbest thing everBecause nobody at all uses Proton-GE patches
Oh... wait...
Quoting: Cley_FayeWhen a friend came to me about PopOS telling me "now I can switch between the integrated GPU or the Nvidia one in one click!" I put my ubuntu laptop in his face, clicked on "nvidia-prime" in the menu, where I had that exact same feature.tbh your attitude seemed a little condescending towards your enthusiastic friend. If they found a solution to a problem on linux no matter how inelegant it was then that's a good thing, because they are more likely to stay on linux.
That said i wonder in the past just how many excited newcomers got bummed out by the well known "smart ass know it all" linux user and went back to windows or migrated to Mac?
(or console if they were interested in linux gaming).
Thankfully a lot of that elitism has died down now.
Last edited by Lofty on 5 Jan 2026 at 9:35 pm UTC
Woodlandor a day ago
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Given that most people in need of a "which distro to pick" article are going to be on Nvidia, that's reason enough to not pick Fedora.Counterpoint: I don't think the friction produced by not having immediate access to Nvidia drivers is that big you switch distros. In fact I'd say it's more beneficial than harmful. It grooms users into learning an absolutely basic and absolutely essential thing in Linux for newbies: package management. We can dumb Linux down all we want, but I think making people go through computing the Right Way when they come from Windows is important.
I do wish Fedora had a better reason for not including nvidia drivers (like mine above), than their empty illustrious %100 open source policy (also I'm pretty sure it's been fixed recently even on KDE).
I'm glad I picked Fedora when switching too. Other distros could be similar, I only ever tried a tiny bit of Mint and Pop_OS!, but I greatly appreciate how Fedora made me learn exactly what I think one should learn about a Linux system, nothing more, nothing less. Before switching I was a buffoon when it comes to PC, barely able to do basic stuff, and that wasn't for lack of trying, it's because windows is that bad in so many ways but most importantly it also discourages learning. Now, with Fedora (Linux), I actually feel quite comfortable with a computer despite my knowledge not being nearly as extensive as anyone who's really tech savy.
Works out of the box and more secure with immutable underpinnings. It just works, it's fedora, it's Nvidia & AMD ready, and thanks to distro shelf / distro box/ podman it does literally everything i'd ever need.
Quoting: Cley_FayeThat said i wonder in the past just how many excited newcomers got bummed out by the well known "smart ass know it all" linux user and went back to windows or migrated to Mac?\
(or console if they were interested in linux gaming).
Thankfully a lot of that elitism has died down now.
I know my opinion isn't popular, but remember that the elitism is exactly what built linux in the first place. As more "normies" come over to linux and want one-click everything, you will get a more windows like experience whether you like it or not. It won't happen overnight. It might take a decade, but you'll see every bar lowered, everything distilled for the lowest common denominator, and more fracturing (in the case of 100 "different" distros).
New users won't argue about systemd/init or wayland/X or how packages should be managed as they won't ever understand what is going on under the hood. It will move linux in general from an enthusiast OS to an everyman OS.
While that might seem nice, to those of us who like linux for its ability to be whatever we want it to be, we see a loss of choice as resources will inevitably be funneled into those lowest common denominator users that want "just works" and "one-click" and "no terminal".
My question to those cheering for the mass adoption of linux boils down to: if I am right and linux gets watered down (time will tell) is it a good thing that there will no longer be an enthusist OS and 3 "normie" OSs? Where is the real choice in that?
All this said, if a new user wants to "join" linux, go for it! Please though, learn the linux way and don't try to map everything linux does into some windows-like experience. They are different things!
clatterfordslim a day ago
Quoting: CarollyI use ProtonUp and CachyOS proton version, have not figured out how to configure Cachy OS game-tuned Kernels to run on a Ubuntu based Distro. I used Cachy OS Xfce Edition, but NVIDIA drivers mucked it up, leaving me with opened Windows Terminal, Brave-Browser, Steam flickering on and off like a lightbulb. So thought screw it, go back to the drawing board and try Mint Xfce out for gaming on. Would love to get Cachy OS's tuned Kernels going though. Games would flow better.Quoting: ExplosiveDiarrhea¨gaming optimized distros" are the dumbest thing ever, hobby projects that do not contribute anything upstream and do not teach their users anything.Because nobody at all uses Proton-GE patches or Cachy kernel optimizations amirite?
But they are always fast and efficient when they have to setup their patreon...
Quoting: WoodlandorWho brought the popcorn?Me! Here they are: 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿
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I hope there's enough for everyone 😁
Arguing over which is best is kinda like arguing over which colour is best.
CachyOS is my choice for gaming because it seems to work best for me on my hardware. If Fedora had, I'd be running that. Or Ubuntu. Or whatever.
One-size-fits-all has never been true in the Linux ecosystem, why would that change in 2026? Just, uh, avoid distro hopping unless you have a good reason to do that. Note: trying to find the best distro for a new machine does not count as hopping.
fenglengshun a day ago
You are, of course, subject to the policy of the maintainer of your distro of choice, but with Fedora, they have a policy of marching to the beat of their own drums. They will adopt new technology before they're fully ready for many (sometimes it's not even ready for most of their users), or drop old technology before many are ready to migrate (with the worst example being how they almost dropped 32bit support before Steam for 64bit is ready - most subject don't get nearly the same backlash and no backtracks).
Personally, I think Nobara is the better middle-ground between normal Fedora, CachyOS (which is Arch-based and thus may require manual intervention sometimes), and Bazzite, to use on Desktop. GloriousEggroll having their hands on the pulse of Linux gaming, Red Hat, and ProtonGE makes me trust him better with maintainer policies.
I personally like full-blown CachyOS better, but I would put it as a second after Nobara - I outright think CachyOS is better, but that Arch-base carrying the "Arch manual intervention" caveat emptor makes it a rank down for recommendation for me.
Ofc, as can be seen from how I use Linux, I care a lot about what goes on in my machine. While I don't believe in Red Hat conspiracies, I have experienced the absolute annoyance when Fedora policy don't align with your preference, so that's why I prefer something less... Fedora, and really would rather people just use CachyOS, and maybe Nobara if they're wary of Arch, or Bazzite if they're completely new.
I personally don't see the reason to switch to "hype" distros. I also hate reinstalls, so i keep rolling with my 2013 install. Ofc i have been a linux user since 2007, so i have way more experience than someone who recently switched or planning to switch.
$ grep -a -m1 filesystem /var/log/pacman.log
[2013-01-21 17:45] installed filesystem (2012.12-1)That being said, I honestly don't know what to suggest to new users these days.
We are in a mess of wayland transition also. Lots of edge cases where things are buggy on wayland when it comes to gaming and at the same time x11 has its own quirks. So we basically have 2 "broken" systems.
Quoting: eggroleMy question to those cheering for the mass adoption of linux boils down to: if I am right and linux gets watered downWhat the hell does "watered down" even mean in this context, and why should I mind?
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