this post was submitted on 02 Nov 2024
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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).

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Hello,

I bought a razer blade 15 laptop a while ago, and world like to install Linux on it, mostly to play games. So, ideally I'd like a distro that can make the most use of the hardware and let me play the most games, while being the easiest to use and lowest maintenance possible. Any recommendation?

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I have a Razer Blade Stealth 13 QHD+ touchscreen (RZ09-02393E32) since 2017. Until recently it was mostly Windows and Ubuntu side by side. I realized few months ago I never ever boot on Windows so I removed it. I also got tired on Ubuntu pushing for its own package management system which I don't find useful. Consequently back to "just" Debian stable and works great for me. Didn't have to tinker with anything, just works.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Is it easy to get NVIDA drivers, Vulkan, Cuda etc in Debian? I somehow thought that was kind finicky, not sure why ...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

Generally hardware compatibility should be identical across all distros, as most drivers are baked into the kernel

The exception being Nvidia drivers, you have to install those yourself pretty much everywhere

Lowest maintenance possible is probably gonna be bazzite as people are saying

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

None.

I had a Razer laptop in the past when they were talking about being dev laptop forward & supporting Linux.

This never happened. Instead flashing Linux voids the warranty now, support drops you, & firmware upgrades only happen thru a green-accented genuine Microsoft Windows GUI installation (no *.bin flashing, no CLI FreeDOS support, no Windows PE).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

flashing Linux

I'm a bit confused here... aren't we talking about a laptop? Why is flashing anything required? Doesn't the BIOS let one boot on any peripheral, e.g. disk, USB stick, etc and thus allowing one to install Linux (or just boot on live USB stick to test) without flashing?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

To upgrade the UEFI or other hardware-level firmware you need a way to upgrade. Best OEMs use LFVS; good OEMs use have ISOs or bin files you can flash from UEFI; terrible OEMs lock that into a Windows-only executable.

In my case there was a fan & thermal update I was never able to get.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You may want to look into something like Bazzite or Nobara.

Generally though, most distros will be perfectly fine for gaming -- just note that some distros will need a little bit of extra work done for stuff like nvidia drivers, so if you're new to linux, something like those above, which have that done already, will likely be best. Bazzite in particular should be very low maintenance.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

I can confirm that Bazzite works flawlessly on a Razer Blade 14 without any additional configuration. Just installed from ISO and it was perfect.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I have a Razer blade 15 advanced from a few years ago. I've run Arch on it, and now NixOS

It does steam fine, I can use the GPU for gaming, all that fun stuff.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

+1, I used EndeavourOS

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (1 children)

make the most use of the hardware

All distros should do this equally well, and better than Windows

let me play the most games

All distros will be more or less the same. Games generally work or they dont. Check ProtonDB to see which games work and how well.

easiest to use

lowest maintenance possible

This is how distros actually differ.

Some common suggestions:

Ubuntu LTS:

  • Upgrade your OS every 2 years
  • Proprietary drivers are there if you need them (Nvidia is the only GPU that needs them)
  • GNOME shell environment is very beautiful and fast, but very different from Windows

Kubuntu LTS:

  • Upgrade your OS every 2 years
  • Proprietary drivers are there if you need them (Nvidia is the only GPU that needs them)
  • KDE Plasma Desktop is like all the best parts of windows 95/xp/7/10/11 + os9/OSX/macOS combined, improved, and made super customizeable

Ubuntu/Kubuntu current:

  • Upgrade your OS every 6 months
  • Newer software than LTS
  • Otherwise same as LTS

Linux Mint:

  • Upgrade your OS every 2 years
  • Proprietary drivers are there if you need them (Nvidia is the only GPU that needs them)
  • Cinnamon Desktop is a better looking and faster implementation of a Windows 7 style desktop

Fedora

  • Upgrade your OS every 9 months (or else)
  • Proprietary codecs need to be added after install to play some video and music streams in your browser. It's like 3 commands copy/pasted into the terminal
  • Proprietary drivers are there if you need them (Nvidia is the only GPU that needs them)
  • Choice of several desktop environments (Fedora spins)

Pop!_OS

  • Fun to spell
  • Upgrade your OS every 2 years
  • Proprietary drivers are there if you need them (Nvidia is the only GPU that needs them)
  • Pop_shell makes you feel like a hacker from the future, but is very unlike Windows

I do not reccomend ~~Bazzite~~, Kali, Arch, Manjaro, Garuda, Debian, or Slackware. They are all great distros for specific use-cases, but they are all significantly more work to configure and/or maintain than the suggestions i've outlined.

I haven't tried Nobara so i cant recommend it, but from the outside it looks fine for a gaming desktop.

Edit: I have mixed feelings on Bazzite, but it might also be a good option for someone feeling adventurous

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

As a counterpoint, I installed Bazzite on a Blade 14 for a heavy gaming friend who was leaving Windows, and they have had no issues whatsoever.

I personally use Bluefun, and again, no issues at all. Incredibly good experiences on both.

I can't imagine what you mean by needing more work to configure, they both worked out of the box with no configuration.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

I just don't see the draw of immutable distros for non power users.

With traditional ubuntu/mint/fedora you have 15+ years of forum posts, tutorials, and community wisdom to help you out if you get stuck. You probably wont need to, but it's nice to be able to just google something and get a dozen good answers. If you want to use containerized apps you also have that option.

Also depending on your taste in gaming, you might need access to stuff outside of steam/lutris/heroic/flathub. In those cases getting your game working could be a bit of a hassle compared to a traditional distro.

I totally see how immutability can be a draw for tinkerers and developers, but for regular users it's solving a problem that doesn't really exist, or is pretty rare if it does.

I also think there is something to say for picking a distro that's been around a long while. Hopefully Bazzite is still around in 10 years. I feel very confident Ubuntu/Mint/Fedora/Pop! still will be.

That said, I'm glad to hear you and your friend are happy with Bazzite. It seems like a really good option if you only play games from steam/heroic/lutris/flathub. A best of both worlds between a PC and a gaming console.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

The draw is that you cannot screw them up. Non-power users are the ones who will get the most out of them!

I know that I'll never get a call from my friend saying, "I ran this command I found on an Ubuntu forum, and now my system won't boot..."

[–] [email protected] 2 points 22 hours ago

Good counterpoint

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

for me immutable makes more sense on like a web browsing basic use laptop that u plan to have for a very long time. And like very basic gaming. Cuz with immutable u never have to do a full upgrade which is nice on a laptop thats gonna last like 10+ years.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago

I would try with Bazzite or Pop OS first.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

I had to set one of these up for my SO a couple of years ago. I dropped EndeavourOS on it, installed btrbk and configured automatic snapshots on a schedule and before package installation/update in case she managed to bork things by pip installing things into system python.

Fedora would probably work well too if you want a lower maintenance burden. I hesitate to suggest Ubuntu or Debian or their derivatives since you'll probably want to be somewhat current with your Nvidia drivers.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago

I've been running Fedora with KDE on my Razer Blade 15 (2020 Advanced). Without knowing your specific hardware model I think you can run any reasonably popular distro and game happily.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

My gaming rig has been running Nobara for years now, it's built off of Fedora by the developer who does the glorious eggroll version of Proton.

It's got multiple desktop environment versions and is optimized for Linux gaming. It has a bunch of gaming-specific kernel patches and optimizations. Extra drivers pre-installed for controllers and Nvidia GPUs, etc.

It has a very easy update wizard, I run it once every few weeks, works awesome.

Nobara Linux

[–] AsudoxDev 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Normal distros

  • Pop!_OS
  • Mint
  • Fedora
  • Ubuntu

Gaming distros

  • Garuda
  • Bazzite
  • Nobara

...or any other distro really. I've been gaming on vanilla arch linux. It's pretty stable and low maintenance once you're done setting it up and don't tinker much and have backups with something like Timeshift in place. archinstall script makes it really easy to install vanilla arch linux with everything essential configured.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I've used a Razer Blade 16 last year and could never get the speakers to work no matter what I tried. Tested quite a few distros (Mint, Manjaro, Debian) and ultimately settled on Fedora. Didn't mind the speakers not working much since I used Bluetooth speakers/headphones mostly anyway. Other then that Fedora worked prefectly.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I never owned this model but the ArchLinux wiki confirms that it's supported, while "it is known to have very limited bios feature and limited Linux stability".

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Can confirm that the Razer BIOS is absolutely bar bones. Never really minded that and as I said aside of the non-working speakers (apparently a known problem with Razer) it was all good.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

Maybe Garuda ?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

Thanks for your thread, I also have to upgrade my Blade 15. It automatically installed Windows 11 which broke the built in monitor (lol). Let me know if you have any success with these comments' suggestions!