Stay away from the "bandwagon" distros for your first time. Bazzite, Pop_OS, Cachy, etc. There's nothing wrong with them, but a lot more people use and have been using the more established distros such as Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora, etc. So if you run into any weird edge case issues it's much more likely that someone else has already been there and discovered solutions. Once you're comfortable with Linux you can start exploring the more niche distros that are better tailored to you. Have fun!

I had very few issues with a GTX 970 and i7-4790k. The only issues I hear about with either any more is the linux kernel not supporting some of the features of newer GPUs (e.g. I know ray-tracing was a pain-point at one point).

I don't like recommending distros based on such a general use case, mainly because every distro can be tweaked and configured to exactly what you want. Instead, you should research the different mainline distros that have been around for decades—Arch, Debian, Fedora, Gentoo, Guix, NixOS, OpenSuse, Slackware—and see what they're about, what sets them apart from others, what the maintainers' philosophies are, and what kind of package management system they work with. Once one sounds better than the others, look into it and try it out.

#Dos and Don'ts:

Don't try a niche distro. They are harder to troubleshoot and less likely to be actively maintained.

Don't use Ubuntu. It's just a suckier version of Debian. It used to be user-friendly Debian, but now Debian is more user-friendly than it.

Don't dual-boot with windows. This just solidifies your reliance on windows, especially if you're the type to give up on problem-solving issues that you didn't have in Windows. It also can cause issues with making Linux unbootable.

Do try a live usb with persistence before you commit entirely. It's not exactly the same as a complete install, but it's close enough to let you know how the OS feels and what hardware will or won't work with it. Some people say try a VM first, but that won't have direct hardware access.

Do problem solve the little things. Anything that irks you or bothers you or just slows down your workflow. It doesn't have to be an actual bug or glitch, just anything that could be better. This not only solidifies the feeling of ownership over your OS—you no longer have to settle for anyone else's lousy design choices—it teaches you the resources for troubleshooting larger issues.

Do plan around things not being plug and play at first. Want to test if a game runs on Linux? Great, set aside a couple of hours beforehand: first to install steam and set it up, then to figure out Proton, then to troubleshoot the game not even booting up, then to fix any glitches or whatnot, then to get your controller working. This won't always be the case, but it will irk you a lot less when it is if you expect it. The more you make time for solving these issues now, the less time they'll take up in the future (either they'll be gone, or you'll immediately know how to fix them, or your troubleshooting will be more streamlined).

Do set aside time to learn about Linux "under the hood." You don't have to become a computer scientist, but it will save you a lot of headaches, show you cool things you can do, and make your computer a smoother experience. It especially helps if you take the time to learn as they come up: e.g. installer asks you what "bootloader" you want, but you're not sure what that is, what it does, or why it's necessary? Now's the best time to take a little learning detour.

Do ask questions on forums.

Don't listen to the people who shame you for asking.

Do listen to the people who try to show you a better way of doing things, even if it's not your way.

Linux Mint is generally the best "it just works" case, focused on stability (to the detriment of speed of updates), ease of use and visually reminding of Windows.

Also Mint comes with a few official visual* changes, but if I might suggest, go with Xfce, not the Cinnamon one. The Cinnamon version of Mint has too many animations that only add micro workflow delays, while Xfce doesn't have all the fancy effects making it faster to use.

*avoiding technical jargons to not confuse the OP

I'd suggest getting Linux Mint or another distro with a large user base like Ubuntu, Fedora, Suse or Debian. That way if you do run into problems, there'll be a lot of people online that can help you.

The main advantage of gaming-focused distros like Bazzite is that Nvidia's proprietary drivers and Steam come pre-installed. However, if you're a gamer and a streamer, you're probably used to a little tinkering, so you should be able to install both of those by hand. (Both can be done through a GUI.) You might also get marginally better performance from these, but IMO this won't be noticeable enough to be worth the trouble.

If you do choose to go with Mint, I recommend installing the Nvidia drivers through the "Driver Manager" and a newer kernel through the "Update Manager".

Nvidia is the problematic one. But in most cases that just means that you have to install extra drivers after installation. In most distributions that just means installing an extra package and rebooting. Don't go to the nvidia website for that.

If you are already familiar with a Linux distribution use that. If you have a friend who uses Linux use the same thing they do. Or just use Mint.

You can change the way your system looks and works by choosing a different desktop environment. Many distributions just have one default but you can always change that later on. The big ones are Gnome which is a bit more like Mac OSX and KDE which is more Windows like. KDE also offers much more customisability.

I've been using Mint for almost a year now and what few problems I've had have been fixed with a few easy searches and a bit of forum help. Love it! :)

Mint or Fedora(KDE) are great choices. Kubuntu, PopOS or OpenSuSE might also be suitable for beginners. Stay away from Arch-based distributions until you are at least a bit more experienced.

Intel (anything) works without problems on Linux (in fact, Intel is among the most Linux-supportive companies out there and most or all of their drivers are open source and part of the kernel, as it should be in the Linux world).

Nvidia GPUs used to be problematic in the past, it's better now, still not as great as AMD GPUs are on Linux (they're literally plug and play these days) but I think when going with the distro mentioned above it's going to be just as easy Just make sure to enable support for NVidia drivers or "enable 3rd party drivers/repositories" (you'll be asked during setup) so that those distributions will also install those slightly non-standard Nvidia packages which they might not do otherwise for "purity" reasons.

1: You're not yet ready for Arch and Arch derivatives (CachyOS, EndeavorOS, etc.)

2: Fedora KDE

3: Fedora KDE

4: Fedora KDE

Linux Mint is good, but it, like Ubuntu and Debian, are "vintage" linuxes that are very behind on software versions. Things are moving very fast right now with a lot of back end linux stuff changing rapidly to support more people and programs coming off Windows. Fedora is the best "middle ground" in that it's not Arch bleeding edge, but it is also not Debian stable "vintage".

You do need to install RPM Fusion for Fedora to go from nvidia open source driver to nvidia proprietary driver, though.

KDE is a fully featured desktop that will give you familiarity with Windows-like layouts. Some other desktops, like GNOME, tend to reinvent the wheel and have very different desktop workflows. You'll have to boot the live discs / sticks and poke around to understand what I mean.

To make a boot disc, use an 8GB+ usb stick and rufus - https://rufus.ie/

My oldish Nvidia 4xxx GPU worked immediately and automatically on Linux Mint.

Your mileage may vary.

Edit: To be clear, I didn't do any command line, or even change a setting. Mint just automatically detected my Nvidia GPU and got it working during the install while I looked at pretty pictures and new user tips.

(Disclaimer: Folks here have warned me this was some combination of luck and my Nvidia GPU being a few years old.)

When my Mint install finished, I searched for "Steam" in the Mint software center and clicked "Install".

A few minutes later I was playing a game from my Steam library without any issues, without any config changes, and without any command line use.

Edit 2: On Linux, there's a little Penguin icon in the Steam library filters. Click that, and it'll only show your games that Valve is pretty confident will run without any issue.

It took me a few clicks to realize it did anything, at all. Very few of my games were filtered out. None of my games that were filtered out happened to fit in the first page of search results.

So at first it looked like penguin filter button did nothing.

Ubuntu, linux mint, Bazzite... they'll all work great. My advice? Download all ISOs into a USB with Ventoy installed in it, so you can drag and drop .iso files into the usb, and boot each live image so you can play around for a bit and see which one you like more.

Check https://bazzite.gg/

Fedora Kinoite or Bazzite (which is based on Fedora Kinoite).

Both are "immutable" which all you need to know means they are essentially impossible to meaningfully break.

Both use the KDE interface which is very similar to Windows and very tweak-able.

They're very similar, but Bazzite is the one to go with if you do a lot of gaming. It's basically the Steam Deck OS plus a little more. I've tested Bazzite with an Nvidia card and had no issues whatsoever and performance was nearly identical to what I was getting with Windows.

First pick a desktop environment, currently KDE, Gnome and Cinnamon are the best.

• Gnome: Opinionated design like apple
• KDE: tons of options.
• Cinnamon: A bit fewer options than KDE but still a lot.

All of them are very robust and have a massive user base.

Then pick a base to operate on. Fedora, Ubuntu and Mint are all good options.

• Fedora and Ubuntu are good for newer hardware and 99% of the time just works.
• Mint just works all the except for newer hardware.

Nvidia GPUs are not a big issue but you have to install the proprietary driver yourself for best performance and fewest bugs.

My pick for you is something your friend uses if you have a friend on Linux otherwise Fedora KDE or Kubuntu.

any modern distro should work so if you want þe go to beginner distro try mint!

I have similar specs and use pop!_os with no problems. I've found it to be great for gaming.

You've already gotten several good replies, and I'll add a couple more details that might be related to your use case:

Bazzite is a "gaming distro" with built-in Steam integrations. It's great if all you do on the machine is game and do gaming-related things, like streaming. It's what I use on my dedicated gaming PC, under my TV. Things mostly Just Work, and I've only had to mess with configuration files when setting up things like wake-on-USB and my custom Network shares.

Gaming and streaming will work on basically any distro. And if you pick a distro based on Debian or Fedora, it should be stable and fairly easy to get used to.

Don't wipe out Windows yet. Install Linux on a separate partition, or even better a separate drive. That way, you can switch off between them until you're fully used to Linux. Let yourself transition over a few months. That way, if you struggle to do something in Linux, you can switch back over to Windows and get it done.

Some folks try to change all at once, then get frustrated if they hit a stumbling block. It's safer to keep Windows as a backup, so you don't feel trapped if something goes wrong.

Haven’t had a problem on Bazzite. Intel i9 and nvidia 3060.

The 4070 was released almost 3 years ago, so the driver should be decently stable and not cause that much issues, no matter the distro.

Just know that whatever distro you are choosing, it is a different workflow than Windows and it will take time to get used to it, and there will be some friction. And that's fine. The first month is the hardest and it gets a lot easier fast.

Take a popular distro because it has a bigger user base and the chances that someone else has already fixed your issue and detailed the steps is a lot bigger than a niche distro.

If you want to easily test a few distro, take a usb key and install Ventoy on it. It will allow you to plug the usb key and drop ISO directly on it and boot from it. It will allow you to easily test distros without having to reformat the usb key each time.

Any and all advice anyone gives you is going to be heavily weighted by their personal experiences, which is not bad, but also may not be your experience. Truly the best thing to do, if you are willing, is to try a bunch.

Download several different distributions. Get as many USB sticks as you reasonably can. Flash a different distro to each drive. Boot to them one at a time, and try them out. See what you like about one versus another. Hopefully you find one that just "clicks" for you, and then you actually install it to the computer. From there, if everything works, great - enjoy your computer. However, if you immediately run into problems, just go install your number 2 favorite and see if those problems exist there. There's a reasonable chance they won't.

Good places to start:

• Mint
• Debian
• PopOS
• Fedora (check out their "spins", there are a lot of flavors of Fedora)
• Bazzite
• OpenSUSE Tumbleweed
• Cachy
• Endeavor
• Garuda

(There is a thing called Ventoy which kinda lets you use several distros from one usb stick, but I've also seen several distro's instructions warn against using it so maybe it isn't the best choice for a new convert). Also, obligatory stay away from Manjaro. It isn't worth it as a new convert...

As a Guix user, I recommend Ubuntu. If you stick with it, there are specific distros for gaming, but, Ubuntu has such a large user base it makes it very easy to get answers to questions that are specific to your distro. Ubuntu makes it easy to install nvidia and other '3rd party drivers', it'll just work. I do recommend installing software in the terminal, the Ubuntu app store I feel has some rough edges.

I boarded my friend on arch and he took it like a champ. Beware, it has a very steep learning curve and needs patience. But otherwise, a more pre-configured distro is better. Cachy os, endeavour, or as much as hate to say, fedora.

The more important thing is the DE. I strongly suggest Plasma (kde).

I started with a Steam Deck. Now I'm running PopOS on my Framework 13 and Bazzite on a home theatre PC. I've had far fewer issues with them than any flavor of Windows.

I can't go back. I won't.

I started on Nobara and it’s pretty stable now, been on it for a year. I think it’s the perfect place as it’s based on Fedora so easy to look stuff up and know how to handle problems, but it auto-installs the Nvidia drivers and gets you going immediately.

They have a pretty good discord for support too! 

I recommend EndeavourOS to newbies because I'm biased towards Arch. I think it's a relatively low BS distro that gets you up and running. You also have access to the AUR which is awesome.

If that seems like too much I've heard Linux Mint is dead simple and stable.

There's a lot of info in these comments and a ton of it is good.

I will say that the best advice is to boot from a USB and try out a system for a bit. You can easily swap around that way without a commitment.

I will also say that my opinion is to start with Mint. It's similar enough to windows in layout/workflow to feel familiar and is "boring" in a stable, easy to use way.

Use it and learn Linux. I say learn, because it doesn't matter what the OS looks like as much as how it works, and Linux (any flavor) works differently than windows. Learn those idiosyncrasies and then of you decide you want to try something else then you're up to speed to move on and judge a different system with a baseline.

Debian, it's 30+ years old for a reason.

ZorinOS or PopOS with nvidia drivers