I've said this many times, and will continue saying this again and again:
When in doubt: Linux Mint will provide everything you'll need. You can distrohop once you understand the basics, customizations and optimizations can come later.
That hardware is very powerful, so Linux Mint (maybe Debian Edition) will do the trick.
Kubuntu, the best of the two worlds: all Ubuntu repos + KDE (sweet DE for kids)
24.10 for better Wayland support.
Appimages for software, then winegui could be enough for gaming
Timekpr-next for screen-time management
Bazzite:
I've been using Fedora KDE on my own PC for a few years, but I've had some pretty severe breakages when updating. Though I suppose most of them happened because I had Cuda SDK installed, or monitor ICC profiles, but early on I also had Plasma crash on login while testing different themes. I'll look more into Bazzite though!
The first point of bazzite and other atomic/immutable distros is to prevent such breakages. updates aren't applied over your existing installed packages, the base read only part is updated and your layered packages come after if you even have any. A kid's computer won't need it though. Most of my installed software is flatpak, appimage, or brew. I have maybe 3 packages installed via rpm-ostree. If I ever need anything not possible this way it's not a job for my gaming pc.
I use Bazzite on a laptop that's shared by family, and it's great. I never have to worry about downtime, and I know they'll always have a computer should something happen to me.
I once had a bad update, and I just used rpm-ostree rollback, and I was up and running again. Really great for anyone that wants to set it and forget it.
Legacy Nvidia drivers a couple months ago? That was a fun time, lol.
I’d recommend Bazzite. It’s a gaming-focused immutable distro. The base system is an image and updates are automatic; a 13-year old might already be familiar with this kind of system because it’s similar to how Chromebooks work. It comes with Steam and Lutris preinstalled. You can install additional software via flatpak.
Mint.
I use that on my gaming rig. Most everything runs fine through Proton or Lutris (Stellaris, Mass Effect, Fallout New Vegas, the Witcher, Age of Mythology, lots of classics). Minecraft Java Edition runs fine natively, including mods. Old games run great through Dosbox.
Mint itself is super stable Linux for your grandma. My dad's been running it for five years and he doesn't know the difference between an OS and a word processor (he keeps calling LibreOffice "Linux"). It was also my son's first OS when he was about 8.
Mint was my first thought as well. Haven't used it myself but in the past I've heard that it's supposed to be very user friendly and stable, though I'm not really up to date on Linux distros so I wanted to check if this was still was true (which is seems to be) and if there were any new options.
Pop!_OS might also be an option.
I’d hold off on Pop! OS for the moment, until they have Cosmic into an updated release.
I say this as a relatively happy user of Pop
@fhein Mint (personal opinion - not a big fan), Fedora KDE, Ubuntu (not a fan).
Heck, even an immutable distro like Bazzite or NixOS.
NixOS has quite a learning curve, so even if your son wants to, he'll have to learn his way out.
Does gaming work fine in Mint? Is Wayland up and running yet?
I have a friend looking into switching to Linux. Mint feels right but I worry about the wayland migration.
Wayland is experimental in Cinnamon currently.
@pathief Mint doesn't support Wayland well. Haven't tried it in a while, so I might be totally wrong.
Go with Fedora GNOME/KDE.
I think Nobara is the other most(?) popular choice by gamers.
I don't have much experience with gaming distros. I just think whatever it is, a computer shouldn't bee too locked down for a kid so they can also install other things, try other tools like an office suite, video editing or content creator stuff and maybe even have the experience of messing up. Within limits of course.
Nobara is a great option if you don't want to deal with the weirdness of installing stuff on an immutable distro. Nobara also has a bunch of tweaks for video editing software like OBS and Blender.
Sounds like SteamOS might work? https://store.steampowered.com/steamos/
This is the old SteamOS from over a decade ago and isn't usable anymore. The modern SteamOS from the Steam Deck isn't available yet for desktops.
fyi you can use the deck restore image on an amd build, although probably there will be complications
https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/1b71-edf2-eb6d-2bb3#reimage
afaik chimeraos is the recommended alternative, which is a fork of the current steamos, with more supported hw (but not nvidia)
This is depreciated now right?
Do you know how mature it is as a desktop OS? I saw the official FAQ does recommend against using it as such. I tried it on a HTPC a few years ago but at that point it didn't seem very usable outside of Steam's full screen UI.
Don’t try to use it, it’s an old discontinued version of SteamOS based on Debian that was around long before the Steam Deck.
Bazzite will get you a similar experience to the current Steam OS with better desktop experience.
Windows lmao
I have a kid about that age interested in games. There was definitely interest in social pressure to switch to Windows for gaming for the bigger selection and what friends were playing.
Debian?
Windows 95b
Majority of AAA games run invasive software like kernel-level anticheat, I'd personally recommend js buying him a PS5 or running them in VMs (Linux or windows).
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Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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