Anyone here using this on a PC? Thinking about sticking it on my MS-A1 but I'm still researching - I believe frame gen on Nvidia GPUs is still an issue and I don't know about oculink support yet. I'd like to use it for basic browsing and general day to day admin stuff too, and I know Bazzite has a desktop interface available, but I'd like to know a bit more about it from folk who use it; without resorting to the cauldron of ass-hattery known as Reddit. For instance I'm led to believe it's immutable nature and containerised apps make it much more secure than Windows, so I'd like to confirm this, as I'm attracted to the idea of moving away from Windows without paying the gamer penalty. Also, is there support for VPNs like NORD, Surfshark or Express? Cheers
I'm on the fence about installing this on a little mini ITX box I built up with various spare bits. It looks like a nice idea, but at the same time I could just be lazy and unadventurous and install Windows and run steam in big picture mode... Have you tried it yet?
I'm intrigued, this is new to me thanks. I have an ITX box that is about to be repurposed and this might be an interesting experiment to try.
Have i used Bazzite specifically? no. Immutable can be a pain in the rectum. As [based on my experiences] any and all updates to base system packages requires a restart [to load the new immutable image with the updated packages]. I can see its utility for VMs or 'appliances' but would I want to run one as my main desktop? not sure. That just sounds like flatpak, which is pretty standard now for app distribution [unless you're ooboo/canonical and just have to be special]. The sandboxing nature is mostly fine, but iirc can still causes problems [though specific examples elude me]. I mean there's general linux support for the first 2, though surfshark seems to require their stupid app thing which might or might not work, sponsordebyNORDVPN can be done with the stupid app or using more native **** like openvpn and/or networkmanager https://nordvpn.com/blog/setup-linux-vpn/?msockid=30038d84695f60402bb49974688a6119 https://support.nordvpn.com/hc/en-u...7-Connecting-to-NordVPN-Linux-Network-Manager https://surfshark.com/download/linux
Yes, mate. Quite literally as a Steam box, but you can swap to a desktop environment if you want to. It was fine on the MS-A1 - the 8700G is a capable low power gaming APU. I had some issues with Oculink so I was limited to 1080 low/med gaming. I binned it off after a few weeks, because I wanted seamless Oculink support, but I am planning to go back to it. I have a lot of plates spinning right now so it's on a back burning for now.
Cheers bud Just downloaded it to test it out myself. Purely a boot up to a desktop setup at the moment, just to play around with before I get a new GPU for my main pc. Only just got it on and not played with it yet - had to tinker to even get it online, the usb WiFi I have on this needs the KDE wallet turned off otherwise it deactivates constantly. Hopefully get some games trying this week and see if it does anything with my Odyssey+ headset. All part of my process to ditch windows from all the pcs.
Yeah, honestly, I’m at that point myself. Microsoft seem absolutely intent on pushing people away from Windows these days. Changing settings each time an update is installed, cramming Edge down my throat, cramming Copilot down my throat… Kinda torn between “just flippin’ do it” and “pop a spare SSD in and test stuff for a while before taking the plunge”. Though I wouldn’t be using Bazzite. I’d use a more desktop-friendly distro, and almost certainly one that’s derived from Ubuntu (or even Debian) because it’s what I have the most experience with. Pop!_OS is pretty good these days, but I do also have a soft spot for Mint. Steam OS itself is based on Arch and… yeah… nah… I’m not running Arch as my daily driver!
I'm fine with any level of distro. Got into linux in the debian sphere and professionally in the rhel sphere. Immutable or not, I understand what's going on in the background on an OS / kernel level to be dangerous (to myself). I have a healthy disdain for flatpaks, snaps, appimages, etc though. I just use what works. Base Fedora for work, base Ubuntu at home, a fairly clean and stripped Windows 11 for games. Looking to replace Ooboo and Windows because **** snap and **** ads and telemetry though no real hurry.
I generally know what I’m doing in Linux, I’ve been using it off and on ever since the late 90s.… I first started playing around with it when you had to hand-crank your xorg config file, and getting the timings wrong meant physically destroying your CRT monitor . But these days I have little patience for faffing about with my stuff just to get it to do what I want, and Microsoft seems to want to make that hard to do in Windows without polluting my PC with all this unwanted crap. For everything except gaming, I have no issues at all under Linux. But if I can’t run the games, launchers, stores, etc, I want relatively easily under Linux then I’ll go back to Windows. This is why I keep putting off taking the plunge full-time
Valve's Proton has been a godsend for this. I bought Awaria the other day, and the native Linux port didn't work - but the Windows version did, under Proton! The only downside: unless things have changed in the last few months, Proton does *not* expose raytracing capabilities. I have a GeForce RTX 2080, with RT Cores. I have Control, a game which includes raytracing support. If I were running Windows, I could enable said support. Under Proton, though? Nope, no raytracing for you. It works *natively* - I can run Quake II RTX 'til the cows come home - just not via Proton. If that's important to you, you'll have to keep Windows around in some form.
Yeah, Bazzite may be the gaming pc if it works ok. Fedora based but set up with steam and the like out of the box. Nobara is a similar one that I may try but this GPU is too old for an easy try. Mint will be going on my OHs laptop because, well, it just works and will be an ok transition for her. Not decide what will go on my laptop and other pc yet tbh.
Yeah, Proton is fantastic, I have very few concerns about that. It’s mostly other game services/stores besides Steam that concern me. I haven’t really done much digging tbh, I haven’t had the time. Well… poop. I wouldn’t say RTX is critical, but it is the reason I swallowed my pride (and increasing levels of disdain), and bought one of their cards. Some digging is required, it seems!
Proton isn't Steam-exclusive - you can literally use it to run the Windows clients for other storefronts, if'n you want. It's just WINE with a bunch of extras.
If you are going to game then these distros can't really replace Windows, you are always going to be behind the curve and semi functional. I tried one for my handheld because Windows (which for the record I have zero problems with on gaming Desktop) is a bit rubbish for handheld, to make it basically a powerful steam deck but all it could really do was Steam stuff, it is a bit limiting, performance was not the same as windows either, the hand held doesn't have frames it can loose. Not tried proton directly though it may be wrapped up in these distro? the handheld chips are Zen4 and Gen 14 with lots of cores so have some pretty good grunt for emulation/virtualization, more powerful in their low TDP state than my OC'd 5950 for game stuff
Debatable. It's from a while ago now, but... "Three gaming-focused Linux operating systems beat Windows 11 in gaming benchmarks": You can argue about the nuts and bolts until the cows come home, but the progress of gaming on Linux has been incredible in the last few years. Titles like Starfield and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (which, don't forget, requires RTX) run under a translation layer on a non-native operating system - that's an incredible achievement. Valve have done an awful lot for Linux gaming in the last few years, it's about damn time MS had some competition. Even Apple, of all companies, is getting in on the action (albeit somewhat half-heartedly, because unlike Valve they don't need gaming in order to shift hardware).
I can only go by what I feel on games I've played on both rather then benchmarks and for me it was just not there, I am using iGPUs requiring FSR etc, so perhaps there is a difference there.
I started looking into Bazzite, certainly does look decent, I didn't know about configuring command line stuff looking at the Proton dB so perhaps my experience could be better with a bit tweak, the Steam deck UI definitely beats the janky AOKZOE/One player stuff, being in my language would help Course because I have been looking YouTube feed has filled with videos including a dual boot guide so as I am putting a new drive in I'm going to do that On the performance front this came up with 4090 and 7900 seems biggest losses are with Nvidia
Well that went ok. Admittedly it was only X4 Foundations but as soon as Steam had installed Proton and the processed Vulkan for the game it worked without any issues. I was going to install Proton GE which, apparently, works when all else fails and on pretty much everything but no need. Still, first attempt to load a game and I had no issues even with an old Nvidia card. I'll try a few others when I get a chance. When I do get a new GPU it's certainly in my very possible options for my other rig. E: As for other things, easy to select a firewall 'zone' and runs like any other regular desktop. A bit janky with the WiFi but thats down to the realtek based usb this pc uses. BT keyboard and mouse worked without a hitch or any setup.
