Operating Systems

I'm using Gentoo.

If I wanted a smooth no-tinkering experience, I'd use Ubuntu. Or hell, steamos.

I use Arch with KDE. I don't recommend Manjaro because it has historically had some serious problems, so for people who want Arch without as much hassle, I'm recommending EndeavourOS. It's what Manjaro should be like.

Most of my gaming these days is done on my Steam Deck running stock SteamOS. I also play a few games on my main Linux Mint system.

I've been using Fedora for the past few years and have been pretty happy with it. It updates at just the right cadence for me where I get new stuff pretty quickly but I'm not on a rolling release.

gentoo!

i love the versatility it offers, but it's very much so DIY. it has great documentation. anyone who considers themselves a "linux enthusiast" should try an install in a VM at some point or another, if nothing else it's a great learning experience.

for gaming in particular: flatpak steam / lutris / bottles. it's great because it's completely distro agnostic. i can take the $USER/.var directory and put it on any distro with flatpak installed and it'll just work.

SourceMage! It's a source based distro like Gentoo. I've been using it as my main distro for a solid 10 months now, I'm very happy with it! We have flatpak so steam works great, as well as lutris and everything else. Definitely wouldn't recommend it to someone looking for simplicity though!