Maybe consider buying hardware with better Linux support in the future, e.g. getting an AMD GPU instead of a Nvidia if you want to get a new one anyway.

I personally have zero issues with my (relatively normal) setup. Even more, I have better hardware support on Linux than on Windows! For example, I noticed that I can dim my monitor, which doesn’t work on Windows!
Or, my GPU is more silent, because Bazzite and the Linux kernel ship some tweaks that make the energy draw and fan curve more efficient in my experience.

Again, I think it’s just your hardware, especially the multi monitor. Multi monitor is supposed to be fine on AMD (can’t confirm, I only have one ultra wide), or single/ dual monitor is also supposed to be almost great on Nvidia, with the proprietary drivers.

If you have a spare laptop with proper Linux support (most ones do, even with Nvidia, Surface, etc.) consider installing it and just try it out. uBlue (Aurora/ Bluefin, Bazzite, etc.) is great for that, so, maybe check that out.

If not, then we’ll welcome you again in a few years. The OS is just a tool, use the best suited one for your use case. In yours, it may be Windows currently.

Bazzite offers a variant with Nvidia drivers already baked in too.

You don’t have to reinstall anything btw, you can just rebase from Kinoite to Bazzite with rpm-ostree rebase *link to Bazzite*. (You find the instructions on the website).

It takes about 5 minutes and you can keep all your configs and data, including Flatpaks, pictures and WiFi password. And if you don’t like it, you can revert that or rebase to some other variant, e.g. Aurora, the Sway spin, or whatever. I find it pretty neat.

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+1 for Fedora Atomic.
Especially Bazzite comes with Nvidia drivers already built in and everything should just werk™.
It’s very modern and reliable. If it doesn’t work with that, nothing will.

To be fair, the use case is very demanding. Just 2 years ago, we were glad that we can play more than one game on Steam, and now, we’re complaining that our triple monitor setup with Nvidia and VRR/HDR doesn’t work perfectly. I’m happy we’re at this point, but some things, like that, may hinder the wide spread adoption…

AFAIK the uBlue stock image is even leaner than Silverblue. uBlue doesn’t contain any pre-installed Flatpaks by default.

Maybe take a look at universal-blue.org, especially the Aurora (KDE) or Bluefin (Gnome), too. It’s basically the same, but with some QoL stuff already added, like proprietary drivers and more already set up for you for a nicer experience.

For one thing, image based distros are very convenient. If you tell someone “Just install Bazzite”, they will probably have a nice gaming experience without any tinkering, because everything is already set up for you ootb.

You have to understand the concept first. Fedora Atomic/ image based distros are built from top to bottom, not on the same level. If something changes from “above”, your install will change too, to an 1:1 copy basically.
Problem is, if stock Fedora isn’t allowed to ship/ doesn’t have some things pre-installed, it’s harder to iron out on the user level, e.g. by negatively affecting update times.

uBlue is basically a “build script”, that takes the upstream image, modifies it, and redistributes that with the changes included.
In that way, the image from other users is the same as yours, with the same bugs.
This makes it more efficient and user friendly.

It also allows devs to make their “own” distro with only their changes included, while offering a very solid base they don’t have to maintain themselves.

Thanks for your answer.

This may sound harsh, but I’m glad I’m on Fedora Atomic. Suse sounds a bit shitty/ not much better than the regular edition.

As distro desktop hopper, the ability to rebase to other spins is one major aspect of using Atomic, and I use it all the time.

Please tell me more about OpenSuse Kalpa/ Aeon/ MicroOS.

I’m a huge fan of Fedora Atomic, but find Suse interesting as well.

What are the differences between the two?

• Layering packages (rpm-ostree alternative?)
• Are updates still reproducible and atomic?
• What is the difference between Tumbleweed and Kalpa? You named snapshots. Are they different from Snapper?
• Can you rebase between Aeon and Kalpa?
• Why Suse and not Fedora?

It can be, but for that, I would rather recommend Aurora or Bluefin. They are almost the same, but without gaming stuff.

I use Bazzite on my gaming PC, and Aurora on my media laptop. I’m extremely happy with both.

Just use Bazzite. It updated automatically to F40 just a few hours after upstream, still has all security settings intact and is a joy to use.

You could give the uBlue builder a shot, which can do exactly that.

But I think NixOS is a better choice for a tinkerer like you :)

It’s basically Nobara, but properly done. (If you choose the desktop version)

It gets updates automatically (max one day after upstream Fedora), has everything you want ootb in the first start wizard, is more secure, and much more.

I was very sceptical at first, but after trying it out, I really noticed some minor performance improvements in games and many QoL improvements, e.g. the preinstalled LACT, which allows me to set up fan curves and over-/ underclock my GPU.

Setting up my new PC took me about half an hour maximum.

9/10, I highly recommend it to anyone who wants a smooth gaming experience.

I can’t tell you if Void or any other minimal distro is significantly faster relatively to something more comfortable than Fedora.
But even if it is, then I would still use something “bloated” because it just works and requires less input from my side.
Booting takes just seconds anyway with NVMe disks, so why bother if it takes 4 or 5 seconds, if the PC runs smoother for the next days it is powered on?

Use whatever distro you like more, and install your packages with Distrobox. Here’s a post I made a while ago about it: https://feddit.de/post/8018330

I personally enjoy Fedora Atomic even more than the mutable version, but in your case, you would have to decide for yourself.

I don’t like apt too as much. But, interface-wise, you can make it way better with Nala, which is a frontend for it.

NixOS is too complicated and demanding for most users, who aren’t programmers or hobbyists, imo.
I prefer Fedora Atomic. It has the same pros (unbreakable, highly configurable with universal-blue.org, etc.) but feels way more user friendly.
I use it with Distrobox on top, so I can use my package manager/ distro of choice (turned out to be Arch btw) on a extremely reliable system.

For your case, you can replicate Mint by just installing the Cinnamon image from uBlue and applying some minimal tweaks.
Then you get the user friendliness from Mint with the flexibility and unbreakability from NixOS. Do you like the idea? Just in case you get annoyed by NixOS in the future 🙃

I would recommend you to use Fedora Atomic, namely universal-blue.org.
It’s the stock Fedora Atomic, but they offer a Cinnamon spin with baked in Nvidia drivers.
If you don’t know why you should choose an immutable distro, especially as content creator, who wants everything to be always working, check out my post here: https://feddit.de/post/8234416

With that, you can use Distrobox and create a CentOS/ whatever container, which DVR officially recommends and will work best.
You can also check out my post here: https://feddit.de/post/8018330

Depends. Are you happy with MacOS and want to stay in the Apple ecosystem?
If yes, then just keep it. It is perfectly tailored for your hardware.

If you are annoyed by it or want to try out something new, then try Linux.
The 2015 MBA has a Intel CPU afaik and general hardware support should be fine from what I’ve heard.

Instead of Ubuntu, I would recommend Fedora, either the Gnome or KDE variant. If you prefer minimalism and the coherence/ well-thought-outness of MacOS, then use the Gnome (“Workstation”) variant, and if you prefer customisability, then the KDE-spin.
You could also take a look at the Atomic variants, they are a newer concept with a few benefits (and also drawbacks) compared to the regular versions.

As a small tip: no matter if you decide for the mutable or the atomic versions, use Distrobox! While Python is pre-installed, it is a system dependency, and you wanna keep your dev environment isolated from your host OS. If you wanna change the Python version for example, this might otherwise brick your install.

That all sounds great, thanks!
Do you have any tips for an “easy” start, where everything is already pre-configured?

I really like that post!

It seems like OP put a lot of work and creativity into the meme, while intelligently criticizing a problem and not just using “Windows bad hurr hurr” as the base.

I wanna see more of those kind!

Dude… As soon as anyone mentions image based distros, you come up with the same copypasta everytime.
You also never come up with any good counter arguments if someone disagrees with your statements.

While IBDs aren’t the holy grail, they certainly can and will transform the Linux ecosystem for the better.