Custom Linux Distribution just for Gaming

Martin@discuss.tchncs.de to Linux@lemmy.ml – 251 points – Bazzite - The next generation of Linux gaming
bazzite.gg

Bazzite comes ready to rock with Steam and Lutris pre-installed, HDR support, BORE CPU scheduler for smooth and responsive gameplay, and numerous community-developed tools for your gaming needs.

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Linux veteran here. I use Bazzite on my gaming PC and ROG Ally. Once I figured out the quirks of an immutable distro and started using distroboxes it became an amazing experience. No complaints here.

As someone who never used an immutable distro: what are the quirks when using it?

Basically installing packages. You're fine if you default to using

  • flatpaks for gui apps
  • brew for cli programs
  • distrobox when building from source or when you need good control over the package environment (e.g. when installing a latex editor and only the latex packages you want)
  • layer packages on host with "rpm-ostree install" when the program needs tight integration with the host (e.g. VPN software)

Also, you shouldn't edit files in /usr, but I've never run into that limitation. You can still edit other top-level directorys like /etc .

That's about it.

I'm seriously considering Bazzite now. Can you explain whether something like LaTeX with custom packages would work? I also don't want to redownload the LaTeX packages to vanish after a system update.

Also, I'm a tiling window user (i3). Will it be possible to use it in desktop mode?

As per my other comment:

Do your latex work inside a distrobox and you're fine.

I'm not sure if you can layer another window manager on top. You may have to create a custom image for that

Bazzite is exclusively KDE, and I honestly don't think it's possible to run a different desktop manager on it.

Edit: Sorry, my mistake, there's the option for GNOME as well. But I don't think they recommend even switching between them on an install.