I don’t spend much time on my desktop computer but if I do I tend to game a bit. OW II, CS, Helldivers, Tabletop Simulator mostly. And of course need Discord.
I am considering a minor upgrade to the hardware and would need a fresh install (currently Win 10). I’ve been out of the distro game for a while and currently only have one old thinkpad running Debian and an X1 Carbon gen7 I want to use for experimentating/ distro hopping.
I want a daily driver OS that can play games. I also edit photos and might to the odd “flash a CFW to an old phone” or similar light tasks. Where do I start?
I hear PopOS because “it just works” but also CachyOS because “performance, muh”.
I have experience with Ubuntu (first was 6.06) and Fedora mostly but have played around with a lot that came with at least a barebones UI (crunchbang anyone?). My life has changed so I have less time to nerd out with this than I used to. But I feel the itch to experiment now and maybe use Linux on my main desktop again after some years with that mentioned upgrade soon.
You have Debian experience? Then stick to it. It may be boring, but boring is good. That means it doesn’t need much maintenance, and that it just works.
As a void Linux user, I approve this message.
Debian is a solid and a very popular distro. It’s also the base distro of many other; there is a great selection of packages, an excellent package manager and it’s well documented.
If you don’t Frankendebian your box, Debian is one of the most, if not the most, stable distro out there.
It’s a great place to learn, and since you already have experience with it, you’re not starting from nothing.
I would also suggest you to stick with “stable” at the beginning. You will be tempted to switch for “testing”, but believe me, stick to “stable” until you know what you are doing.
Have fun!