I’d say start with Bazzite and see how it is, it generally just works well out of the box and needs minimal effort.

Tbh I dont think there is much difference Choose whatever you like, you can use window managers instead of DEs to keep the system light weight

Fedora or OpenSUSE. Either “just works” with very little setup or fuss. I still recommend Fedora to most new users who want a general purpose OS, but OpenSUSE is very similar with the added advantage of not being sponsored by a giant, openly evil corporation.

If you want your device to be primarily a gaming device and absolutely are not a Linux tinkerer, Bazzite is a great pick. If you do like to make the OS “yours” then skip Bazzite.

I recommend avoiding Arch-based distros like Endeavor or Cachy, though they are very popular. Nothing against them, exactly, I actually really love Cachy, but the AUR is dangerous and cannot be trusted, and I don’t want to have to obsessively vet packages constantly.

Definitely don’t touch anything Ubuntu. If you want Ubuntu compatibility, give Mint a try or Debian 13 with KDE.

If you want to test drive a bunch of distros, find a spare thumb drive and install Ventoy. Ventoy lets you easily put as many ISOs as your drive can hold into a folder and just as easily select which you want to boot with. It’s a great way to try things out quickly and easily before you settle.

All of them.

Here we go again, everyone recommending arch to a beginner. Just install mint and be done with it for now.

if you dont play multiplayer games probably bazzite, cause it downloads everything gaming oriented. if you struggle with the drivers and compatibility, just go with with a windows ltsc version.

I ended up writing for a while on this haha sorry 😅

A misconception that many people who are new to linux have is that certain distros are better for certain kinds of use cases. While this is definitely true to an extent, hardware support is pretty good all around for most popular distros, so all that really matters for a mixed use cases like this is differences in how the distro sets up the desktop experience. What one distro offers out of the box is probably available with some tweaking in another distro. What is most important in having a good gaming and general experience is the apps, so make sure that all the apps you want to use have support on Linux, or alternatives are available. For specific game compatibility you can look at https://www.protondb.com/

In terms of distros, I’ll list a bunch. You can look into them more. Any distro should work fine for your uses, so it’ll come down to personal preference.

Bazzite

• Bazzite is probably the most popular distro with a specific gaming focus. It comes pre-installed and configured with steam and launchers for other games, and has tweaks for gaming out of the box. It is immutable, which means that apps are stored in containers and can’t directly modify the base system, which makes it a lot more secure from accidental breakage, and any changes can be easily reverted.

CachyOS

• CachyOS is a distro based on Arch, pre- configured with a variety of themes and desktop environments for whatever look and feel you may want. The handheld version comes with gaming tools pre-installed. Arch generally requires a bit more tinkering than other distros, but CachyOS seems to be pre-configured pretty well so I don’t think it should require much of that.

General use distros

These won’t have steam or other launchers installed by default but you can download them with one command so it’s no problem at all. Any distro should work, I use Fedora as I find it to be stable and reliable with my gaming laptop. Mint, Pop!OS and Zorin OS are also popular options for new users. Ubuntu and its derivatives are ubiquitous, but are also at times controversial among linux users. Arch and NixOS are great if you want to customise everything about your OS, but you’ll spend a lot of your time setting them up and getting everything working for your hardware. CachyOS offers a similar amount of customisation without as much hassle.

Feel free to ask any questions you have about any of these.

I’d recommend starting with either Linux Mint for a solid general purpose starting point or Bazzite if you’re focused on gaming.

Edit:

You can always try other distros later if you want. Make sure your starting point and foundation are solid first.

If you want to focus on gaming go for bazzite.with kde. If not go for fedora kde.

Both are close enough of W10 and will offer a good starting point.

If you want to learn linux try arch but I would advocate it as a daily driver unless you know what you are doing.

Like, any of them

Your mileage may vary depending on your specs, but: very happy with CachyOS on my DELL Latitude 5590.

Based on Arch, meaning you get constant updates. Many tools and easy installation compared to stock Arch. KDE is similar in it’s ergonomics compared to Windows. Many pre configurable gaming packages, getting stuff up and running is easy.

More „conservative“ and not liking living on the bleeding edge? Debian would be my personal choice. Bazzite is really interesting, but the „insistence“ on BTRFS breaks some gaming things (e.g. was not able to get Battle.net running with BTRFS, with ext4 on CachyOS it works)

No matter what distribution you choose, ProtonDB is your first stop for infos on windows games you want to get running on Linux

I use Nobara, I’ve daily driven on my gaming setup for 8 months. Strong recommendation. It’s maintained by GE of GE-Proton. I have an RTX 4080 and it has been completely smooth with drivers, my mic, camera, XBox controller, all working out of the box.

Specs like cpu, ram etc would be handy?

If it’s not your daily driver, and you want to learn more about Linux, open the Arch Wiki, click on Installation guide, and have fun.