I’ve used Arch, Pop_OS for gaming in the past, was looking for a distro that just works and doesn’t have any extra fluff or do anything nonstandard. (For example I don’t like that some programs will only update through the pop shop on pop os and not through the terminal.)
Literally any of them.
All you do is install your drivers if using Nvidia, then just install your games, whether native packages, flatpak, Steam, Lutris, or whatever.
I just run Debian 12 and everything through Lutris or native. Used to run Steam through Flatpak which also worked perfectly, but don’t play any games on Steam anymore.
Any of them.
Usually, we tend to pick a rolling or semi-rolling releases like Fedora to have newest drivers.
Nobara
There’s not a “best” distro for gaming, it very much depends on what games you play.
If you want to play latest releases, a rolling release is most probably the best option for you, I hear Suse Tumbleweed is very good if you don’t like Arch.
If you want less “aggressive” updates but not exactly a stable, you can try Solus, it’s a sort of middle-ground between the 2.
If your games are not the latest ones, a Debian-based distro is a very good option, rock-solid, updated enough and without any “extra fluff”.
I personally use Linux MX XFCE and I’m very happy about it.
With Mesa compatible GPUs it’s objectively better to get Mesa updates ASAP and not wait for 6 or so months. The constant feature and performance improvements are especially crucial for gaming.
That’s if you use opensource drivers, good for AMD but not so much for NVIDIA.
I’ve been using arch with gnome for ages, it doesn’t have anything non standard… Lutris and steam ‘just work’…
