cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/16072674
I’ve been quite happy with my Steam Deck - both as a gaming console and as a secondary computer when it’s docked, but for newer titles I picked up a Rog Zephyrus M16 (2023) last year.
Now that Windows is going off the deep end with AI, I’m looking to dual boot/trial Linux on this laptop with the goal to give Microsoft the boot.
It’s a beefy laptop:
- 13th Gen i9-13900
- 32GB Memory
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070
- 1TB NVMe (Windows)
- 2TB NVMe (Linux)
I added the second drive to avoid any issues with dual-booting with Grub/Windows Bootloader - instead making the Linux device the primary boot device and spamming Esc if I want to change to the Windows drive.
For distributions, I’m most familiar with Debian/Ubuntu - it’s the daily driver for my work laptop, and the vast majority of my home lab VMs are Ubuntu. With the Steam Deck, I started to get more into Arch with the Steam Deck, and now it’s the OS of choice for my HTPCs for simple streaming/Plex media player. I’ve also messed around with ZorinOS (basically a fancy skinned Ubuntu).
I need some advice on what to throw on this laptop - and some suggestions on how to squeeze the best performance out of this (Optimus vs. Proprietary NVIDIA vs. Open source drivers).
Linux Mint if you want a “just works” distro that isn’t Ubuntu. It’s Ubuntu-based, but with a better desktop and no snap.
Nobara if you want a distro that focuses on gaming. It’s Fedora-based and maintained by Glorious Eggroll, known for his custom Wine and Proton forks.
If you want Arch, just use Arch. It’s much less of a bitch to install with the archinstall script compared to earlier releases. EndeavourOS is another option – basically Arch, but preconfigured with a desktop and a graphical installer.