In case no one else mentioned it: prboom for Doom 2
Why prboom? Chocolate for a vanilla experience, gzdoom for an enhanced experience.
Prboom was last updated 15 years ago. Prboom+ is... fine, but I'm not sure why you would recommend it over chocolatedoom or gzdoom.
Because I just realized the last time I looked into this was 15 years ago 😭
Hah! Fair enough. Anyway, check out the two I recommended if you want to try something different!
Linux mint hands down
I use my PC for gaming. Ubuntu works well for me with my new hardware: Intel 13gen, Nvidia 3080, Steam.
I've been using arch for years, but finally removed my windows install a week ago and ended up on opensuse tumbleweed. It's rolling release like arch (so there's never a need to reinstall or have a big update once a year) and it has some extra fail-safes for when updates go wrong (there's an automated QA that tries to find package breaks before they're pushed for updates, and they have a tool called snapper that let's you revert back to a working state if you run into problems)
nixOS , because it's a completely atomic distribution, like a docker container OS style. You define the state of the system in a configuration file, which can even control the kernel, and you can switch to an older configuration file in any reboot. It's more of a pain than the others, but it works ok out of the box and when you fix something it stays fixed so you'll never end up in a situation where something breaks and you can't fix it.
Also, all the packages bring their own versions of their own libraries and directly link to them so they'll never break during upgrades, but conversely a lot of Linux installers that try to link to system libraries won't work.
I love NixOS but it can be quite difficult to learn, so learning both linux and nixos at once would be pretty difficult. It'd probably be easier for them to use some normal distro while they figure out how linux works and then switch to NixOS later.
That's fair. nixOS can be savage. But I think it's also helpful for a beginner since you can't break it. A beginner is much more likely to break their system than an expert.
Additional to the Mint suggestions: Mint tones down the "Ubuntu-ness" of their default distribution, but it's still Ubuntu under the hood. LMDE is the version of Mint based on straight Debian skipping the Ubuntu "middle-man" if that sounds more appealing.
Can't speak to compatibility one way or another, though.
My computer is old and made of parts from well-known manufacturers. Everything in it is pretty well-known to the open-source community at this point, so that might well be giving me a huge advantage with regard to drivers and such. (Case in point, I have an NVIDIA graphics card and Intel i7 from the tail end of the era where people wouldn't advise you against getting either, and in fact might have outright recommended them over AMD. Yes, that old. Legacy proprietary drivers work fine for me.)
Debian with GNOME
I'd agree with the choice of Debian (or a derivation as LMDE, *buntu, Linux Mint, ...), but would suggest KDE. Anyway, I think a beginner should try the distro of their choice on a live medium first to get in touch with the look and feel of the desktop environment.
If you're a power user, I'd actually recommend installing Arch Linux. It will take a while, and definitely much longer then just pressing "install" on a fancy UI, but the advantages it brings are priceless.
Generally, you'll have to build the OS yourself, but you get a manual doing most of the job if you simply follow it, kinda like Lego. Given that you ultimately build it all yourself, you know how things work if anything might break. You also know how to adjust things if you wish to change something. And for everything you want to do, there's an up-to-date manual in the arch wiki.
On top of that, the distro is running the newest software, which means that almost everything is compatible and runs in the best possible way. It will be tested 2-3 weeks in advance in order to ensure it won't break your system immediately. But even if it does, guess what, there's a manual on how to fix your system.
In case you're overwhelmed at any point, there's a great community. Not sure if they managed to move to lemmy, but they're definitely over on reddit.
Good luck :)
Suggestions: Linux Mint: this is the most popular recommendation for new users. Its nice and stable, uses a familiar Windows-like layout, and should just work out of the box. Pop_OS!: this one is another popular option, which uses a layout similar to MacOS and has lots of features such as window tiling. It does use older package and isn't often updated, however. Zorin OS: this one is pretty similar to Linux Mint. It also offers some additional desktop layouts, but some of these are paid, so if you want an entirely free experience, this is not the best option.
Suggestions for if you enjoy suffering: Arch Linux: Requires manual installation. You have to download and configure all the things yourself. Good option for advanced users who want complete control over their system and all packages installed on it. Otherwise, stay away. Arch-based distros (Endeavour, Garuda, etc): Far simpler to install, but will likely require regular maintainance, due to frequent updates.
IF you want Steam, THEN you want one of the Ubuntu family: Steam doesn't support any other kind of Linux distro.
openSUSE gave me compatibility-issues after I had it running properly, both Tumbleweed AND OpenLEAP versions, when they broke my wifi-driver, early in 2023, so I'm kinda leery of recommending them.
If you want the most Unix-like system, Slackware used to be that, haven't used it in years, though...
Funtoo should probably be the go-to distro for compute-oriented machines, like Blender renderers, or such... optimize to use ALL the hardware-advantage you can...
Many enjoy Void Linux.
just some opinions & experiences...
( :
SteamOS is based on arch, and there are alternatives based off of steamOS, and more targeting gaming and Steam generally.
I would love to pick your brain as well if you don’t mind! I have a 2016 MacBook Pro, Intel processor one of the last ones, that is actually in pretty great shape but I just don’t use a lot these days. I’ve been thinking about turning it into a Linux machine. I would like steam to run on it, but mostly it’s to teach myself Linux/experiment. Steam is definitely not a requirement so if that’s really bogging down my options I’m down for some versions that don’t have steam. I’ve got a steam deck and a Mac Studio that pretty much covers my PC gaming bases.
Linux
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
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.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0