For many users, using video games on PC is synonymous with using Windows as the operating system. It is true that many manufacturers and developers still offer greater support and a broader catalog for the Microsoft operating system than for alternatives such as Linux or macOS …
… but, nevertheless, it is becoming more and more satisfying to play on GNU / Linux systems, and it is undeniable that the repertoire of video games available in this free operating system has multiplied exceptionally in recent years.
That is why, now that Steam, with the launch of its portable Steam Deck console, has once again reminded us how much Linux can still bring to the ‘gamer world’, we have decided to highlight some of the many options available to video game fans who want to bet on this other operating system …
… and do not want to mess with changes of repositories, editing configuration files, nor any other of those facets of (some) Linux that tend to scare the less experienced user.
ChimeraOS
ChimeraOS was presented in society a little over a month and a half ago, although it is a mere ‘rebranding’ (change of name and logo) of the old GamerOS, a distribution that was born when SteamOS stopped receiving updates; was born as an alternative to the official Steam distribution, but was based on Arch rather than Debian.
This distribution is presented on its website as an operating system capable of making you sit down to play as soon as it is installed. However, in a recent interview, its creator states that it would be more correct think of ChimeraOS not as an OS, but as “the firmware of a video game console”.
This reference to game consoles is not free: ChimeraOS is focused on games that we can play without the need for a keyboard. And that is what, according to its creator, makes ChimeraOS very different from any other distribution:
“After installation, boot directly into Steam Big Picture” —a new full-screen Steam mode, designed to be used on your TV and operated with a gamepad— “If you want Steam in your living room, you want ChimeraOS” .
Those responsible for ChimeraOS they maintain on their website an ‘official’ list with 246 Steam video games supported on ChimeraOS. It does not mean that those are the only ones that we can play, but that they are the ones that have verified that they comply with your ‘certification criteria’– Stable execution, no need for manual configuration changes, no dialog boxes that interrupt the gaming experience, etc.
ChimeraOS includes a collection of optimized settings for different video games, called Steam-Tweaks, which even patches files from the games themselves to allow them to function optimally once they are started.
But not everything in ChimeraOS is reduced to Steam: one of its main components, Steam Buddy, is a web app that allows us (from a second device) install and manage games that do not come from Steam, but from GOG, Epic Games Store, FlatHub … and even load ROMs for emulators:
The fact that ChimeraOS is based on Arch does not mean that the user needs to know this distribution or be familiar with its use. And it is that even its software installation and update system (called ‘frzr’) is its own and independent from Arch Linux’s native package manager, pacman.
Garuda KDE Dragonized Gaming Edition
Garuda Linux is another distribution that, like ChimeraOS, is based on Arch Linux. It is distinguished by having a multitude of different versions depending on the desktop environment installed by default: up to a total of 14, including notably minority desks.
However, the one that interests us is only one: KDE Dragonized Gaming Edition, with KDE as the desktop environment and explicitly aimed at the gamer public. So your selection of bundled software includes numerous native games, platform launchers (from the ubiquitous Steam to Wine, the famous Windows application emulator, going through various unofficial clients for stores like GOG or the Epic Games Store) …
…as well as the NVIDIA native drivers (saving us the configuration and performance problems that appear in other distributions) and useful tools for the most gamers: CoreCtrl (for setting hardware profiles), NoiseTorch (for microphone noise suppression, ReplaySorcery (for video recording of the last few seconds of gameplay), etc.
Total. about 4 Gb more than the basic KDE Dragonized weight. But the software selection is not the only customization for ‘gamers’ of this distribution: it also, for example, makes use of the Linux-Zen kernel, a system kernel optimized for gaming performance.
All of the above, together with its personalized aesthetics and ease of installation, make it the best option for Linux users who are most fond of videogames who prefer not to use their PC as a ‘game console’ (as ChimeraOS users do), but as a desktop computer, with its keyboard and so on.
Pop! _OS
For a Linux distribution to be a good choice for gamers it doesn’t have to be specifically aimed at the gamer audience: there are several ‘general-purpose’ distributions that can be useful both when spending hours playing Portal 2 and when working with office automation or software development programs.
And, along with the popular Ubuntu, perhaps the distribution that best represents this option is Pop! _OS, a distribution created by the computer manufacturer System76 on the basis of Ubuntu Linux.
It is a light distribution, with good performance (especially noticeable in notebooks) and a user interface based on a beautiful custom GNOME (the COSMIC desktop) that makes it very simple and pleasant to use. Its application store, Pop! _Shop, allows a quick and easy installation of tools like Steam and Lutris.
And, in addition to that, it has the particularity of offering for download two custom ISO images, one for AMD / Intel GPUs and one for Nvidi cardsa, which – like Garuda – offers us its proprietary controllers without the need for the user to have to spend time configuring them.