Honestly, the best thing for newcomers really is just to start with Ubuntu. Anyone who tells you otherwise is likely biased towards their choice. Ubuntu is the most widely supported especially for gaming (as it's generally what developers test on as well).

Just be sure to make sure your wireless is supported.

What GPU?

ASUS GeForce GTX 1070 TURBO-GTX1070-8G 8GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI
Express 3.0 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card]
ASUS GeForce GTX 1070 TURBO-GTX1070-8G 8GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express
3.0 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Copied straight from my wishlist on newegg. I am not dead set on this as I just went thru and compiled a list of components that were (apparently) compatible with one another. Is the GPU the only thing I have to worry about with Linux compatibility, or are there other components as well?

I had selected an Intel i5 quad core cpu, but my brother says I should go with an AMD octo.

With Nvidia you shouldn't really have any issues, good choice of card that.

The other main thing to worry about is wireless, I tend to go for powerline adapters do I don't have to deal with that.

Quoting: calfretMy purpose is to build a gaming rig for my son

Is this the only reason? Then why Linux?

If this is just about gaming, it won't work out. I think everybody in here has other reasons for going to Linux while not wanting to give up gaming. And as such, we're willing to accept some less than optimal results in the gaming department.

For the original poster I've built my gaming PC with intel i5 and gtx970 and their driver support does seem to be great and comparable to windows (of course some games are not fully optimized but good graphics cards won't have much impact), the only thing I don't like about nvidia drivers for linux is the lack of optimus support for my laptop so I have to manually switch graphics cards, but I understand that this is the architecture issue, which will hopefully be solved at one time. Otherwise Intel/Nvidia configuration + some minor kernel and cpu tweaking will probably give you the best results that you can get in linux :)

Quoting: Ehvis

Quoting: calfretMy purpose is to build a gaming rig for my son

Is this the only reason? Then why Linux?

If this is just about gaming, it won't work out. I think everybody in here has other reasons for going to Linux while not wanting to give up gaming. And as such, we're willing to accept some less than optimal results in the gaming department.

I agree with you, but I've seen more and more people being dissapointed because of what Microsoft has been doing since the Windows 8, 8.1 and finally 10 release. I think that Linux gaming community is also a nice community to be a part of, a lot of enthusiasts but some distros like Elementary, Mint and Stock Ubuntu are really making it easy for newcomers as they were great when I did the switch and the forum community is more than awesome, never had a machine I couldn't get something to work in last 2 years (I know that this wasn't the case before).

In my case I totally gave up on Microsoft after the release of windows 10 and immediately started to look for alternatives. I don't think that it is in any way bad operating system except the price, annoying updates which cannot be turned off, Cortana that cannot be turned off, constant need for rebooting... but I honestly think that there is something magical about Linux and freedom that it provides. It seems more advanced in terms of stability and architecture, just needs the development and Valve has been really hard-working on that since we have over a quarter of their full game library availible :)

Personally I prefer Mint over Ubuntu as my distro of choice, especially as a Linux newcomer, however if I had to choose Ubuntu I'd go with the MATE desktop edition.

Also I found Wifi cards to have advanced a lot in compatibility with Linux, at work I service a lot of laptops and I use a Linux Live USB on almost every one of them, which in most cases it finds the Wifi card instantly. I can confirm that Ubuntu 16.04 has improved a lot on Wifi drivers too, I finally have Wifi (Qualcomm Card) on my Acer E5-573 laptop. Recently I also bought a TP-Link TL-WN823N USB Wifi Dongle and it works very nice on Mint 17 / Ubuntu 14.04 too.

Linux may be a tough nut to crack in the beginning, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes very fun to use and (in my own words) this is how computing should be. I often think of it when I started with MS-DOS 6.22 learning the command line and then slowly moving forward from Win3.1 and up, moving to Linux wasn't so different. That said I cannot even imagine going back to Windows now, an OS that does things behind my back, has veeeeeeery poor customization and it's blatantly dull overall.

Quoting: Avehicle7887Linux may be a tough nut to crack in the beginning, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes very fun to use and (in my own words) this is how computing should be. I often think of it when I started with MS-DOS 6.22 learning the command line and then slowly moving forward from Win3.1 and up, moving to Linux wasn't so different. That said I cannot even imagine going back to Windows now, an OS that does things behind my back, has veeeeeeery poor customization and it's blatantly dull overall.

Very well said! Windows is very poor platform by design and in linux the only problem with drivers you might have is proprietary wifi cards, microcode drivers and proprietary graphics drivers. Everything else pretty much works out of the box. I agree with you about being tough to start, I really like what Mint and Elementary are doing - trying to put everything to work out of the box and honestly it pretty much does... but on the other hand when system that is architecturally completely different than windows fails to provide something via GUI that is where users confront HUGE problems (example installing application outside the main repository or proprietary drivers)... not knowing the system at all and these kind of things might repel users from using the OS because they are familiar with Windows and they run away back to using Windows. I had some problems like that before but when I finally got to know the OS after few times breaking my system I would never switch back :D I even tried once to go back to Windows 7 for the sake of gaming but I ended up having it installed for 7 days and then just purged everything on the PC and reinstalled fresh install of Linux :D

Just to clarify, that is only one graphics card. I copy and pasted using Internet Exploder directly from my email and that was the result. The system will be a two monitor setup with only one graphics card at this time.

Why Linux? I just *don't* like Windows. Others have stated rather elegant reasons above. I don't like the fact that it is going to do what it is going to do regardless of what I want. No, you don't get to take my money and then tell me what to do. I don't like bullies. 5 years ago I made the leap and bought a MacBook Pro, something I said I would never do. I have been bumbling along trying to learn how to just do basic things. I like that most store bought apps come as disk images that don't require the overnight installs of old (which Microsoft seems hell bent on bringing back evidenced by the Xbox One games). Now that I know about the package managers I have been able to get and build exactly what I need without needing to pay $200 for some suite package software just to append PDF's together. It's nice. Plus it is just more secure. OS/X is not Linux, but it was the transitional stepping stone for me away from Microsoft.

Your poor son. :-( He won't be able to play any of the new cool games.

I get around Linux's gaming deficiencies by having almost all of the consoles. Otherwise, I'd just poke my eyes out out of frustration.

I understand you completely OP :)

Quoting: damarrinYour poor son. :-( He won't be able to play any of the new cool games.

I get around Linux's gaming deficiencies by having almost all of the consoles. Otherwise, I'd just poke my eyes out out of frustration.

It is a valid argument to say that eventhough gaming is definately improving in Linux very quickly, it is not on the position of Windows in terms of gaming. But having OS that you don' like and that doesn't respects their users even a tiny bit and even paying to be a part of that nonsense is just ridiculous... Some people need to make sacrifice and suffer the chicken and egg stuff until the numbers increase to the point to be considered by game devs, I see valve improving gaming on Linux in next few years to the point where it is enough for casual gamers to make a switch if they don't like ehat MS is doing.

The biggest mistake from people that switch to Linux is the comfort zone that they have with Windows game/software library that's why I say to everyone not to expect Windows, in fact, not to expect anything and jump into the Linux with the mindset of: okay I use this OS now, what does it offer to me without much comparing the software side of things. In fact it is stupid to expect from nintendo to run ps4 games... And people seem to understand that in terms of consoles but not operating systems but the concept is the same... There is no greater Joy than setting game that I preffer up on completely FREE (as in freedom and price) OS :)

Welcome to Linux!!

First of all I would like to pint out that switching from Windows to Linux can be easy or difficult based on your approach..
If you're approaching Linux using it the same way as Windows, you probably end up having some troubles.

They are different Operation Systems, thus they work in a different way.
You may find some similarities with Windows when using a famous Linux Distro, such as Ubuntu or Linux Mint, but at the end you will end up using the OS in a totally different way as you were used to.
For example: you won't browse the internet looking for a .exe to be installed, instead you will either open the terminal, check for a software with a command and install it with a different command (or use the software center at the beginning).

So for a better experience, try to approach Linux with an open mind and don't compare everything with Windows.

Second important point: you're coming from a Corporation owned OS to a Open Source OS.
Every single change in the Windows universe is controlled by a corporation, meaning that the end users have only 2 choices:
- accept the change and stay
- refuse the change and leave (most of the people refuse the change but stay, ehehe)
The first Microsoft goal is to create a Monopoly in the Desktop market, and for many years they succeeded doing that, you can clearly see that when someone say that need to use Windows because of "that closed-platform software" that doesn't run elsewhere.

GNU/Linux is totally the opposite way, it' Open Source, meaning that if you have the abilities you can go ahead and modify almost every single part to fit your needs! The distro manteiners and software creators actually encourage everyone to do so! (these modifications are called "FORK" )
So you're entering a world full of alternatives, possibilities and decisions that needs to be taken.
The Windows' "Shut up and take my money" mentality doesn't really work here, and the first approach can be quite disorienting, because some choices will affect the way you interact with your PC.

The biggest decision that you have to take regard this software (or collection of software)
a Desktop Environment

On Windows and Mac the Corporation behind the OS decide what is the right DE to use (and Desktop Manager and Window Manager), without giving alternatives.
In some cases you may end up having an experimental environment that can be either loved or hated by the en user (Windows 8 for example), but there is nothing to do about unless you hack the environment to modify it.

On Linux you will easily encounter a distribution that ships with different Desktop Environments (or without), so that's why you have many different names such as: Ubuntu (Unity), Xubuntu (Xfce), Lubuntu (LXDE), Kubuntu (KDE), Ubuntu Mate (MATE), Ubuntu Server (without DM,WM and DE), etc..

What's under the hood is still Ubuntu, but the interface will be different depending on which of them you choose (you can also install more than one and manage them with the Desktop Manager).

So a good start point would be either Ubuntu or Linux Mint (which is based on Ubuntu) as the base distribution, because they're the most famous and supported distributions since years, and then choose whatever Desktop Environment.
I classify them as follow:

Innovative and Experimental = Love it or Hate it:
Unity (Ubuntu)
Gnome 3 (Ubuntu Gnome)
KDE (Kubuntu, Linux Mint KDE)

More traditional and lightweight:
Cinnamon (Linux Mint Cinnamon)
Mate (Ubuntu Mate, Linux Mint Mate)
Xfce (Xubuntu, Linux Mint Xfce)

Lightweight as a priority:
LXDE (Lubuntu)

There are many others but this is a good starting point in my opinion, you can compare on youtube, there are plenty of videos about the subject.
here an example:
View video on youtube.com

I personally will go with either Linux Mint Cinnamon or Linux Mint Mate
IMHO these 2 are the best for a newcomer