I got a laptop recently with an AMD GPU, and installed Ubuntu on it, and the first time round I got the AMD drivers working, but every boot the discrete GPU and the integrated GPU would change their device IDs (e.g. gpu1/ gpu2), so Steam would end up launching games on the integrated GPU half the time. I got frustrated and installed Windows, but found out that you can’t buy Win10 anymore, so got Win11 and hated it so much I went back to Ubuntu. Second time around, I found a thing for setting the GPU in the launch options by GPU name, and that has fixed it.
Linux is not ready for average consumers if they have to install it themselves, but neither is Windows; most people buy a computer with the OS preinstalled, and never have to deal with driver setup; the Win11 install had a bunch of driver issues too.
SteamDeck is such a huge revolution because it’s really the first time that a company has made preinstalled Linux machines available in a way that average consumers don’t have to go looking for or pay through the nose (cough System76 cough).
If someone like Dell or Lenovo (or hey, even System76 or Framework) could get their laptops in-store at BestBuy, with everything pre-configured and ready-to-use, that would be Linux being “ready” for the average consumer.
Couldn’t have put it better myself. Like, installing it it asked if I wanted extra helpful software and drivers, but I still had to spend a ton of time setting up basic programs. Default video player sucked, default file browser sucked. Having both the dock and the system toolbar is unnecessary, annoying, and confusing for new users. Most of the default apps feel like an Apple OS to me also, like you have NO configuration options, it’s just you get what you get. The Ubuntu software store is a fraction of a fraction of what it should be. Snaps SUCK.
If you are still interest (100% understand if not) Bazzite and Pop_OS both have nvidia specific distros with the drivers baked in. Makes things a lot easier. Pop is Ubuntu and Bazzite in Debian. Pop has been my daily driver for 2 months and have not missed windows.
Yes indeed! There are some custom tweaks specifically for nvidia on the specific distros. Supposedly it does with well switching from integrated graphics to discrete graphics, but I have not tried it. That is mostly for laptops.
Essentially. It is often held up as a good “gaming” distribution because it has AMD and Nvidia graphics card drivers built in, I suspect there is more to it than that but I’ve never used it personally.
Certainly possible, I really wasn’t sure what drivers to use, tried the default and the first option from Nvidia and had about the same results.
I got a laptop recently with an AMD GPU, and installed Ubuntu on it, and the first time round I got the AMD drivers working, but every boot the discrete GPU and the integrated GPU would change their device IDs (e.g. gpu1/ gpu2), so Steam would end up launching games on the integrated GPU half the time. I got frustrated and installed Windows, but found out that you can’t buy Win10 anymore, so got Win11 and hated it so much I went back to Ubuntu. Second time around, I found a thing for setting the GPU in the launch options by GPU name, and that has fixed it.
Linux is not ready for average consumers if they have to install it themselves, but neither is Windows; most people buy a computer with the OS preinstalled, and never have to deal with driver setup; the Win11 install had a bunch of driver issues too.
SteamDeck is such a huge revolution because it’s really the first time that a company has made preinstalled Linux machines available in a way that average consumers don’t have to go looking for or pay through the nose (cough System76 cough).
If someone like Dell or Lenovo (or hey, even System76 or Framework) could get their laptops in-store at BestBuy, with everything pre-configured and ready-to-use, that would be Linux being “ready” for the average consumer.
Couldn’t have put it better myself. Like, installing it it asked if I wanted extra helpful software and drivers, but I still had to spend a ton of time setting up basic programs. Default video player sucked, default file browser sucked. Having both the dock and the system toolbar is unnecessary, annoying, and confusing for new users. Most of the default apps feel like an Apple OS to me also, like you have NO configuration options, it’s just you get what you get. The Ubuntu software store is a fraction of a fraction of what it should be. Snaps SUCK.
If you are still interest (100% understand if not) Bazzite and Pop_OS both have nvidia specific distros with the drivers baked in. Makes things a lot easier. Pop is Ubuntu and Bazzite in Debian. Pop has been my daily driver for 2 months and have not missed windows.
So Pop is just like a customized Ubuntu with things preconfigured for gaming?
Yes indeed! There are some custom tweaks specifically for nvidia on the specific distros. Supposedly it does with well switching from integrated graphics to discrete graphics, but I have not tried it. That is mostly for laptops.
Essentially. It is often held up as a good “gaming” distribution because it has AMD and Nvidia graphics card drivers built in, I suspect there is more to it than that but I’ve never used it personally.