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Title: A Gaming Alternative to Ubuntu?
little 8 Sep 2013
Hey there. In the recent past I have been a Ubuntu user and was quiet happy with it. But since they started pushing Unity I am getting more and more fed up with Canonical and their stance towards development.

I recently tried Debian, which I have used before, and I quiet like it. But there is one big problem: due to Debians stance towards stability I wasn't able to get some of the newer games running due to the usage of older versions of certain libraries. Especially the libc which will just horribly break stuff when you update it. And using experimental in a productive system environment isn't a good idea either.

So I am currently looking for another solution and wondered if you guys could help me out? The OS should be rather bleeding edge (it should be no problem getting the latest nvidia drivers, stuff like the libc should be as uptodate as possible) and either come with Gnome (I really like Gnome 3.x) or be rather agnostic to the window manager of choice.
I heard Arch would be a good alternative but I am not quiet certain if I am "there yet" to get Arch up and running. So are there any other suggestions?
pizzadude 8 Sep 2013
Fedora? Never used it but it it's rather bleeding edge.
Slovenijakp 8 Sep 2013
I would recommend Arch, I use it too.
There are many good tutorials how to install it, and Arch Linux has got a great wiki.
I'm sure you will able to make it :D

Here, these are good guides.

YouTube tutorial: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQFzVG4wZEg](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQFzVG4wZEg)

Beginner's Guide on Arch Wiki: [https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners'_Guide](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners'_Guide)

Guide on Lifehacker: [http://lifehacker.com/5680453/build-a-killer-customized-arch-linux-installation-and-learn-all-about-linux-in-the-process](http://lifehacker.com/5680453/build-a-killer-customized-arch-linux-installation-and-learn-all-about-linux-in-the-process)

-Slovenijakp
Hamish 8 Sep 2013
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Arch should only be used by people who want their distribution to be a game in of itself. I am not quite sure if that is what you meant by a gaming OS. ;)

If you want something modern but does not take the same effort, I would definitely suggest Fedora, which I have used for many years with good results, or OpenSUSE which I have never used but have heard a lot of good things about.

You can still try Arch of course, it has its advantages, but there are easier places to jump to from Ubuntu.
Speedster 8 Sep 2013
I agree with Hamish, Fedora sounds like what you want, but assuming you have plenty of drive space (which is likely unless you opted for SSD over hard drive) I recommend still keeping an ubuntu partition around to see how a game works on the "supported" platform in case it is giving you troubles in fedora. Typically the problem is still there in ubuntu, but at least you can file a valid bug report with results from playing on ubuntu.
rick01457 8 Sep 2013
[Manjaro](http://manjaro.org/). It's arch on easy mode.
gemini 8 Sep 2013
Weird that no one has mentioned Linux Mint.
Speedster 8 Sep 2013
Mint is not considered bleeding edge-ish, which is original poster's reason for considering something other than debian
Liam Dawe 9 Sep 2013
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Quoting: rick01457[Manjaro](http://manjaro.org/). It's arch on easy mode.
I've heard good things about Manjaro.
n30p1r4t3 10 Sep 2013
Quoting: rick01457[Manjaro](http://manjaro.org/). It's arch on easy mode.
+ 100000000000000

And Fedora is a pain when it comes to Nvidia/Wifi drivers etc due to their "free software" stance.

If you wanted bleeding edge Debian, go with Linux Mint Debian. Stability, Updates (not unstable ones), and rolling release in one little Debian package. That's the only time I'll ever recommend Mint (just personal taste).
little 14 Sep 2013
Thanks for the replies so far! I will have a look at those mentioned. Maybe I start with Manjaro first to get some more experience with Arch based Linux. Linux Mint is... well it's Mint. I never understood their need to fork.
Arch sounds interesting but I think I will dive into that when I have more time and can spend a weekend to wrap my head around it.
Mike Frett 15 Sep 2013
You don't actually need to use Unity to have all the goodness of Ubuntu. Things like Xubuntu or Kubuntu all use the same Core as Ubuntu but with a different User Interface; they are part of the Ubuntu family. You have stable, long term support versions like 12.04, and you have the versions with the latest applications like 13.04 and 13.10. And you can always add a PPA if you want an updated application. You are definitely not stuck using stale Apps.

You don't lose anything by using them. You get access to everything that Ubuntu offers, including the Software Center, Kernels, Drivers and Updates. Actually if for some reason I HAD to use a different distro, it would be either Debian, whick can absolutely use newer Apps using a different Repo; or OpenSUSE.

[Xubuntu](http://xubuntu.org/)
[Edubuntu](http://www.edubuntu.org/)
[Kubuntu](http://www.kubuntu.org/)
[Lubuntu](http://lubuntu.net/)
[Ubuntu GNOME](http://ubuntugnome.org/)
[Ubuntu Kylin](http://www.ubuntukylin.com/)
[Ubuntu Studio](http://ubuntustudio.org/)
[OpenSUSE](http://www.opensuse.org/en/)

Hamish 15 Sep 2013
User Avatar
Problem is that it is not just going to be Unity that divides the Ubuntu camp. With Mir it is going to be even harder for the different DE spin-offs to stay consistent with the main - Xubuntu has already stated it is going to forge a different path, and Gnome and KDE look to be investing heavily in Wayland instead. So it might just be better to try something new and bite the change bullet now then see how the cards fall with the Ubuntu derivatives in the next few years.
realitydroid 15 Sep 2013
Quoting: n30p1r4t3
Quoting: Quote from rick01457[Manjaro](http://manjaro.org/). It's arch on easy mode.
+ 100000000000000

And Fedora is a pain when it comes to Nvidia/Wifi drivers etc due to their "free software" stance.

If you wanted bleeding edge Debian, go with Linux Mint Debian. Stability, Updates (not unstable ones), and rolling release in one little Debian package. That's the only time I'll ever recommend Mint (just personal taste).
I wouldn't recommend Mint Debian actually. The Mint team has really bad track record with releasing updates in a timely manner. The last update I believe was released back in March. If you want something like Mint Debian, I'd go with SolydXK as it takes the concepts from Mint Debian and executes it much better, with updates being released every month.

Also, SolydK, which is their KDE version (SolydX uses XFCE) comes with Steam prepackaged. Just launch it from the menu, let the installer install Steam, and then start downloading and playing your Steam games. Works great for me. I love to play Half-Life 2 on it.

EDIT: It appears that they just recently released and update pack for Mint Debian. Still, took them since around March to release it.
Rustybolts 16 Sep 2013
Quoting: SpeedsterMint is not considered bleeding edge-ish, which is original poster's reason for considering something other than debian
It's based off ubuntu so its as up to date as ubuntu is, you can also add ppa sources very much like you can with ubuntu. I also thoroughly recommend Mint, great distro much like ubuntu only when it used to be good.

Forum post only 4 .... huh! Thats weird.
s_d 17 Sep 2013
Honestly, I game on a totally different setup than what I do my work on.  Gentoo has been my home for programming and productivity, and for gaming, I boot stock Ubuntu 12.04 LTS.

I find the Unity DE quite fine for the purpose of launching a single game, playing it, and leaving it alone;  or I might even fire up a second game afterward!  Just not for trying to get any real work done :)

It makes it dead simple for me to keep my (currently dismantled) gaming rig running as "supported" a configuration as possible (though, now I'm finding some games wanting to run better on 13.04, so we'll see).

It's pretty clear to me that Canonical is trying to converge touch-based computing and desktop computing, which is a completely daft idea, but the result is a DE tailored for media consumption as opposed to content creation or productivity.  To that end, as long as it doesn't get in my way for the duration of time needed to choose which game to play, it's suitable to me.  This, of course,could change in a heartbeat, and the next move is Canonical's.
s_d 17 Sep 2013
Quoting: RustyboltsForum post only 4 .... huh! Thats weird.
I thought so too, until I realized that it is only counting forum posts on the forums proper... not article submissions, nor article comments.  Actually, come to think of it, I still think it's weird, even understanding that. :)
Speedster 18 Sep 2013
Quoting: s_dIt makes it dead simple for me to keep my (currently dismantled) gaming rig running as "supported" a configuration as possible (though, now I'm finding some games wanting to run better on 13.04, so we'll see).
Hm I think I picked ubuntu 12.04 for the pre-installed partition on my recently-ordered gaming rig, due to Unity3D official support. Maybe I'll need 2 ubuntu partitions again plus gentoo. Which games are starting to want 13.04?

Regarding Unity the-desktop-environment, I tend to skip it for xfce on ubuntu.
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