this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2026
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Linux Mint, for sure.
Mint, or possibly bazzite if you're a gamer, because that's the Linux distro Gamers Nexus picked to test performance on.
Or, valves steam os should have a fleshed out PC version very soon.
I'd recommend CachyOS over SteamOS on non-valve hardware. As much as I love SteamOS on my Deck, it's highly tailored to the hardware, and has some limitations. But that comes with caveats I'll cover later.
I also find Bazzite to be too locked in, and complicates how to do things that aren't managed, for a general gaming desktop. If it's a media center PC Bazzite can be great, but can easily feel locked in if you want to start adding TV apps or Kodi.
That said, for a beginner friendly Linux distro I'd point most users towards Mint or Pop!_OS depending on their use case. If the user has a high technical knowledge and capability, but lacks Linux experience, I'd point them towards CachyOS, their docs, and the Arch Wiki. Maybe Garuda if they want to additional bundling and update management tooling.
Your points are all true right now, but I imagine that when Valve actually releases the Steam OS distro for PC there will be a large shift to people using the distro and lots of user support and searches will follow; much like how it's easy to find help when doing anything on steam deck is, just from the size of the user base. A lot of people are going to move to it.
Steam os isn't that great as a daily driver IMO. It's really more focused on the gaming part, and tbh, mint + steam autostart in big picture mode is better at its job.
Might just be my preferences.
Like I said, valve hasn't released the PC version of steam OS, yet. So that makes it kind of hard to criticize. Using it on my steam deck seems like it would be just fine as a simple Linux desktop. It all navigates and works. There's just nothing flashy about it. Dunno what all you do with your desktop. I just need mine to navigate around and run programs.
Bazzite is great as well! Though I will admit I have had trouble installing it on old hardware. A few ddr3 systems with 2.5" ssds, mostly. It works wonderfully on anything from the past 5 to 10 years though.
And you wouldn't think there were that many ddr3 systems around anymore. But there are surprisingly quite a few. Intels 4790k is still pretty useful even today, and you can get 16 - 32gb of ram in these old systems. For those who just want to play decent games from 10 - 15 years ago, or lightweight indie titles like stardew valley or factorio, a cheap ddr3 build is perfectly fine. Especially given the prices of modern hardware. For those systems, CachyOS has always worked.
However. Mint installs on just about anything. I've even installed it on a Dell Optiplex 780 from 2011! It's so little fuss to install and use so I always recommend it to new users.