Is there really much of a difference in game performance between “game focused” distros and other ones like mint?
Performance? No. But some of the new distros include Gamescope, which is kind of a big deal.
But is there any difference between installing a distro that includes Gamescope, vs. installing it yourself afterward?
Gamescope is great to use even on desktops, it runs the games in its own little shell which is particularly good for compatibility with old games where you can change stuff like resolution, fullscreen, keyboard layout… without impacting your distro.
Not really. Nobara comes prepackaged with a plethora of game related utilities and tons of kernel tweaks and packages to optimize it for gaming, but I highly doubt any gamer could tell the difference, between it and mint in the middle of a game. Use the distribution you like that works well for you.
That’s kinda what I was figuring. I’ve been using mint for several months now and I really like it and I’ve gotten it all adjusted to my preferences. I’ve checked out pop os, but I’m not a fan of the OS layout. It reminds me of android lol.
I’d argue it’s more about having all the things preinstalled rather than the tweaks. Having steam ready with all the proton versions available in the compatibility drop-down (including GE) plus heroic, gamescope, mangohud, etc. waiting to be discovered, that all reduces friction for newcomers.
