Which Linux to use for couch gaming setup including VR?
Please don't say Bazzite as I wasn't able to get SteamVR working on it. I'm looking for alternatives. The current plan is to try plain old Ubuntu instead.
I'd use Fedora over Ubuntu now. Ubuntu has lost the crown of cleanest and most usable with all the Snap BS.
They said not bazzite, which is fedora with minor tweaks
No. Fedora is Fedora. Bazzite is an immutable spin based on Fedora. World of difference.
https://fedoraproject.org/atomic-desktops/
No, it's just fedora atomic with some qol... which is in fact, fedora.
Bazzite didn't even add immutability, the only things they added are a few packages for gaming, steam, and patent-issue free ffmpeg. It is really just fedora with some preinstalled packages.
Ubuntu has lost the crown of cleanest and most usable with all the Snap BS.
For anyone else reading along, Fedora isn't the only good alternative. There are also distros without the corporate ties that Fedora has. For example, Mint and Mint Debian Edition, both of which are will be more familiar if you're coming from Ubuntu.
There are also distros without the corporate ties that Fedora has. For example, Mint and Mint Debian Edition
Both are literally corporate products by Linux Mint Ltd., registered in tax haven Ireland. They make money by setting their own affiliate IDs for web search etc. (money that would have gone to the upstream projects by default). At least Fedora has people working on the distribution that are actual contributors to the Linux stack.
Also, regular Mint is based on Ubuntu LTS. For gaming more recent versions of gaming-related components, mostly Mesa, are preferable to long term support. That's also the reason stated by Valve why they switched to Arch as upstream for SteamOS after using Ubuntu and Debian before.
I downvote this every single time I see this. This is just not true.
In the same way Mint relies on Canonical to keep Ubuntu chugging along, Red Hat contributes to the Fedora community. It's a symbiotic relationship, so think of that what you will, but there is functionally no difference between RedHat<>Fedora and Canonical<>Mint.
Both Mint and Fedora are community projects licensed and attributed as such, and neither corporate entity could take ownership or close either one.
Yep, that's absolutely true. They mentioned LMDE however, which is based on Debian, meaning it's independent from Canonical.
Sure, parts of the project have nothing to do with Canonical...exactly the same as Fedora 🤣
Ubuntu is based on Debian though, not the other way around.
Yeah, and Mint is based on Ubuntu. What's your point here? I'm confused.
Linux Mint Debian Edition, the current subject of discussion, is not.
Or you could just use Debian
That is my personal preference, yes. But LMDE is the perfect overlap of "just use Mint" and "don't use Ubuntu".
When did this suddenly change topics from the original post and thread?
You directly replied to someone talking about LMDE.
https://sh.itjust.works/comment/18357337
Both Mint and Fedora are community projects licensed and attributed as such, and neither corporate entity could take ownership or close either one.
I wasn't suggesting that they would. Rather, I was referring to the strong influence that Red Hat has over Fedora. It might be fine for people who love Red Hat's design choices, but not so much for people who don't. That's why I mentioned Mint as an alternative.
there is functionally no difference between RedHat<>Fedora and Canonical<>Mint.
There is, because Debian is upstream of Canonical/Ubuntu. This means Mint can easily sever ties with the latter. In practice, Mint has opted out of Ubuntu-isms more than once, and already maintains a distro based directly on Debian.
You can remove snap easily thankfully. Agree tho, Fedora is the best OOBE.
Having to remove stuff from a fresh installation doesn't really feel acceptable. That's the kind of BS Windows users put up with.
Agreed. And Canonical routinely tries to sneak snaps back in, to the point where the official Firefox instructions include instructions for pinning their deb repo above the Ubuntu one:
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/install-firefox-linux#w_install-firefox-deb-package-for-debian-based-distributions-recommended
(see step 5)
Damn.
I concur, but for a Big Picture couch setup, I do think the Snap nonsense is irrelevant.