Let me start by saying I think Linux Mint is one of the top 5 greatest distros of all time. It is an absolutely essential starting point for many people and their work is responsible for much of the user-friendliness you see in the world of Linux today. It is stable, has a nice aesthetic, “just works”, and doesn’t make you update constantly.
These things are great but they are the very things that make Linux Mint unsuited for online gaming. Is this a bad thing? No!! It’s just not a distro made for gaming purposes. It’s like showing up to a monster truck drag race in a Ferrari. I cannot count on my two hands how many times I have provided support to a user, to find their issue was outdated libraries due to using Linux Mint. It happens all the time. Go look at any game on ProtonDB that is currently working, and you’ll find 1-2 “not working” reports and they are always on either Debian on Mint.
I understand why we see it so often, because Linux Mint is awesome and users want to play their games on it. But if I suggested Hell Let Loose to a friend using Linux Mint right now, the first distro suggested for gaming in our FAQ, he wouldn’t be able to play because of his choice of distro. Making rolling distros look like a fortress in 2023 and suggesting Mint for gaming will only set new Linux users up for disappointment.
I disagree. One does not need a gaming centered distro. in order to have a great gaming experience. There are some gaming distros such as Nobara but as far as I know the user isn’t going to see a 10x difference in performance. It won’t be 4x or 5x either. There will be small differences most of which are negligible or overkill. Think in terms of going from 250 FPS to 285 FPS. 90+% of users won’t be able to tell the difference. Even those who know what and where to look for differences will still have a difficult time. A minimalist distro. isn’t really going to matter much if one is at the 16GB or 32GB RAM mark. In lower end hardware setup one could argue over the performance gains of a minimalist distro. A clean install of Mint/Cinnamon is going to take up 2.5GB RAM. Its not a hog like Windows 10. Load up Cinnamon 21.2 and Mint XFCE 21.2 in VMs and see for yourself.
Slackware is exceedingly complex compared to Mint and Pop. Most Linux gamers are not Linux Pros. One does not steer newbies in the direction of Slackware when they are just looking to enjoy their Steam games and don’t have a Linux background. Debian is generally frown upon for gaming because it has very old its in its repos. and it maybe more work or more difficult to get the latest kernel, Mesa, LLVM installed on it. Mint and Pop are a cut above Ubuntu while still providing simplicity. Arch is not newbie friendly nor is their forum/community. There is just way too much complexity for newbies who don’t have a Linux background.
Fedora would be simpler than Slackware or Arch.
A distribution that doesn’t teach you how to use GNU/Linux isn’t even worth using. Slackware at least teaches you GNU/Linux at the basics. I’ve used other distributions before and a point-click-and-go distribution is a waste of time. You’re basically wanting Windows without it being Windows.
Gaming on Linux requires knowledge of how the system works, especially to troubleshoot. If you want a point-click-and-go OS, then just stick with Windows and make your life easier.
Mint and Pop are nice for beginners, but that’s all they’re for. Beginners who just need to get a system working. As an IT Technician, Mint is great. I can throw Mint onto a system and have a user ready PC ready in under an hour.
You want to game? Mint and Pop are terrible. Too many “I used this in Windows! Why isn’t it like Windows?” because there’s too much handholding.
Pros? If you aren’t willing to learn GNU/Linux then why use an operating system that is traditionally a command line OS where everything once stripped down is ran on command line via Bash that requires knowledge of the system to get problems solved? Stick with Windows for the love of God if you’re not a pro and willing to learn!
The above works for you but you cannot push your ideals and your level of skill, knowledge, and time commitment on everyone else. This simply is unrealistic. Its like assuming that since one can carve a cooked turkey that automatically makes one a certified open heart surgeon. Or worse… telling someone that they need to have the skills of an open heart surgeon in order to carve up a holiday turkey.
Your ego is showing. Please don’t do the above. Never ever push that attitude toward newbies. It is straight up elitist talk. You are not helping the Linux community by espousing those ideas. This is very very harmful.
Why are you here in r/linux_gaming? You’re a pro. You don’t need any help and you aren’t offering any help. Trial by fire works for you but not for everyone and 90+% of newbies are not ready for your trials. Shouldn’t you be solving bigger problems instead of complaining about newbies not having the skill to be on your level?
Please stop bro. Please. You are doing more harm for everyone else who commits the time to help newbies and the newbies.
Why am I here? To offer REAL help, not excuses. Because you have to teach newbies to GNU/Linux the proper way. You throw a newbie into GNU/Linux without any level of knowledge of what they’re getting into and guess what is going to happen? They’re going to give up and go back to Windows within a month. This is how you lose users to a system. You give them a point-click-and-go distribution, teach them nothing, and when something breaks and they’re told by the game developers “Sorry, our game is only made to work on Windows.” Guess what they do? They reinstall Windows… Again, and guess what else they do? They don’t come back to GNU/Linux in any capacity. This isn’t ego talking, this is experience talking and giving a warning, even if sternly. Why? Because guess who did the same thing? Me!
Why do I recommend Slackware? Because out of all of rhe advanced level GNU/Linux distributions, it’s actually the easiest and has plain language to set it up. Read the Slackware-HOWTO included on the install media. It’s a step-by-step manual to set it all up, in one shot, and get a working system. Patrick Volkerding actually wrote everything so a human being could understand it, not just tech heads. It’s a beginner’s distribution disguised as an advanced distribution.
Am I recommending Arch, Gentoo, LFS, etc. advanced level distributions to newbies? No. Hell no, and you’d be insane to think anyone would.
Do you know what I tell newbies to GNU/Linux? First off, dual boot the OS with Windows, or use a Virtual Machine. Get a feel for GNU/Linux. Virtual Machines let you intentionally screw up the system, and then reload it, and try again without harming real hardware. Dual booting let’s you migrate at your own pace, and see what does and doesn’t work, find workarounds, and learn the system. Once you’ve found your ground to stand on, then, and only then, you commit. Not before.
Watch this… This explains everything, and why I say what I say.
https://youtu.be/Gt0WBoYAG1s?si=0owUbDMsrtFBXzA5
Dude I know about Distro Tube. I’m not a newb. I don’t care about what Distro Tube says. I don’t need an explanation to understand what elitist rhetoric is like and about. No one has to conform to your standards. People learn at their pace and in their time. There is no shame for wanting simplicity. Just like there is no way that I would support forcing you to use a more simplified distro. when you obviously would prefer greater control and greater choice.
If you say you don’t need an explanation then you’re the problem and the elitist. Not me and people like me. And my standards? Excuse me, but these aren’t my standards, they’re common practice knowledge of GNU/Linux and common sense practices for anything in life.
Do you drive a Formula 1 Race Car without any knowledge or practice behind the wheel of one? No, and if you did you’d be foolish and probably wreck and kill yourself before you realized you had done something insanely stupid. The same goes for GNU/Linux. You have to learn the system. GNU/Linux is NOT Windows. You don’t treat it like Windows.
As the OP said, there are too many problems with software on Mint especially the packages. As DistroTube himself said it, in the freaking video, people hear about certain stuff being the next-gen jack of all trades system, but find out it’s a buggy dunghill.
But please by all means have fun explaining sudo, systemctl, bash shell, /etc conf files, and use qemu to create Windows 11 containers to hopefully run a few games other than Valorant to do everything they can with.
I’m not going to speak for ArchLinux users and veterans, but now I see why they get pissed off and get rude telling people to read the freakin’ manual. You don’t throw a user into a wolf-den with a blood drenched steak around their neck and expect everything to be fine, but that’s what you’re doing with Mint and gamers.
It’s people like you who can’t see past their own hubris to say “I might be wrong” when someone is saying “I’ve been there, I’ve done that, and it not a good idea”, and you dismiss them. Me, having an ego? No, it’s you who has the inexperience.
Again, I don’t need an explanation to understand what elitist rhetoric is like and about. You are pushing your PoV about learning something properly instead of putting yourself in the shoes of the newbie and understanding their needs, goals, time availability, preferences, how they learn, and other situational details. Some of their preferences will be acquired over time through use and experimentation. Give them something that is familiar. Yes, let them get their feet wet. They will move on to other distros when they are ready. However, there is no point to bashing a more simplistic distro. compared to more complex distros. They both serve their purposes.
The OP says the following:
Windows is not made strictly for gaming purposes. It was a general purpose OS until they turned it into a spyware platform masquerading as an OS. It is the defacto choice for PC gaming because Microsoft has been developing it and keeping it alive much longer than Linux has been in existence. PC gaming started on Windows but that was because it was a general purpose OS versus the OS one would find on a Playstation, Nintendo 64, or other console device.
I have Linux Mint on a 5800x, with 32GB RAM, RX 6800XT, and M.2 drives. Here is a partial list of the games I’ve run on Linux Mint and Pop_OS:
WINE/Lutris:
Steam (Linux Native mode):
Steam (Proton):
I don’t suffer performance penalties. Some games perform better on Linux (practically any Linux distro) than on Windows. A gaming centric distro is unnecessary for gaming. Switching from a more simplistic distro to a more complex distro to gain an extra 5 to 12 FPS in games and bragging rights is hardly an achievement.
*"I cannot count on my two hands how many times I have provided support to a user, to find their issue was outdated libraries due to using Linux Mint. It happens all the time. Go look at any game on ProtonDB that is currently working, and you’ll find 1-2 “not working” reports and they are always on either Debian on Mint.
But if I suggested Hell Let Loose to a friend using Linux Mint right now, the first distro suggested for gaming in our FAQ, he wouldn’t be able to play because of his choice of distro. Making rolling distros look like a fortress in 2023 and suggesting Mint for gaming will only set new Linux users up for disappointment."*
Also words from the OP. Which you conveniently left out!
I could care less what you are flaunting like a egotistical elitist as what you got to run. Not everyone is going to have “The Ghoultek Linux Gaming Experience”. Far from it. Many people are going to confused as to why Game XYZ isn’t running only to find out their Battle Royale favorite has an anticheat that Wine/Proton doesn’t like to allow workability. Why? Because, these are going to be Windows users diving in, head first, without a safety net not knowing what they’re up against.
Is Linux Mint a good distribution to start with? Yes
Is Linux Mint a good distribution to game with? Hell no.
The expectation of GNU/Linux is, it will work OOTB.
The reality of GNU/Linux is, it may work but you’re going to have to jump through hoops.
Copy/pasting doesn’t change anything. Enjoy Slackware.