cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/39852741

I shared a version of this guide earlier this year, but felt a website was needed to unpack the different options fully. So after an unreasonable number of hours, I put together the necessary data and website.

I hope this is digestible enough for the average person to help those looking to take that first step, or for people who are equally passionate and want to get their friends or family involved.

Details:

Every time I post these guides, there is always feedback on things that can improve, or I got wrong. Please do share, as it is the best way for these to evolve!

  • tatann@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    21 hours ago

    I can’t take seriously a list that present Spotify as an option, even with a disclaimer

    • kalapala@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      10·
      2 days ago

      Pop_OS is so far from gaming OS that I find this kinda misleading. It’s not even a rolling release with latest kernel and performance updates.

      • DaddleDew@lemmy.worldEnglish
        21·
        1 day ago

        Because some Linux users are so tribal.

        I don’t even get the idea behind a “gaming” distro. Most major distros can run games just as well. The only difference that I can tell is just that they have Steam and maybe Nvidia’s proprietary drivers pre-installed. Something you can do yourself in under a minute after install.

        You will have to learn the very simple task of using your package manager to install programs sooner or later anyway and If you can install an OS on your own you can absolutely do the 5 second online search to find the command to install the NVidia proprietary drivers.

        To answer your question, yes. Or Mint, or Pop!, or Fedora, or OpenSUSE, or Zorin, or Ubuntu, or Cachy, or many more I’m probably forgetting. They all work. They have their pros and cons that might apply to your specific situation but more likely than not there are multiple good answers for you.

        • pivot_root@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4·
          1 day ago

          I can’t speak for the others, but for CachyOS at least, there is actually a valid justification for its existence. The kernel is built with a different CPU scheduler, and they have packages repos built using modern -march options instead of targeting the lowest common denominator for compatibility.

      • lightnsfw@reddthat.comEnglish
        1·
        1 day ago

        Bazzite has worked okay for me so far. I can’t really compare to other options though as my experience is pretty limited. I also use LMDE for a non-gaming setup and It’s done well.

    • drath@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      1 day ago

      And they should be all marked with US flag, technically, because Linux Foundation is very much US-based.

      Should be FreeBSD, ReactOS and Redox, I’d say, if you’re going to break the entire workflow anyway, why not go all in.

          • F04118F@feddit.nlEnglish
            2·
            1 day ago

            Norway is outside the European Union though, so that is probably the definition of Europe that they use

            • porcoesphino@mander.xyzEnglish
              2·
              1 day ago

              Doesn’t the diagram have the EU flag below Vivaldi? It seems odd to use the flag and then colour

              I assumed grey was just not as food an option to support. But thats mostly because the only similar colouring is the red of Spotify and it seemed safe to assume that meant you should avoid it if at all possible (since there are pretty frequent issues that result in calls for boycotts… but they are European)

              • F04118F@feddit.nlEnglish
                1·
                1 day ago

                That seems like the exception though: Ente, Pop!_OS, Signal are great open-source projects with a solid privacy record, that just happen to be based in the U.S. So I wouldn’t interpret the grey that way

                • porcoesphino@mander.xyzEnglish
                  2·
                  16 hours ago

                  I don’t think it’s reasonable to frame Signal as a US open source project based in the US. It requires deployed servers and they’re all run by a US company. I don’t see a way to set my app to point to a self hosted instance, but I’m sure there are related projects that let you. For digital sovereignty then, or just breaking in the US tech monopoly, it’s just another US company, isn’t it?

                  Since this isn’t a self hosting channel, I think similar logic holds for Ente, but it does seem like you could self host that exact product.

                  Pop!_OS is from a US computer manufacturer so it could be framed as supporting a US tech company, but loosely hence the grey and not red or putting it in the left column.

                  But, I’m still massively guessing, I just don’t think those examples invalidate the interpretation until the author says something

    • Moondye@beehaw.orgEnglish
      1·
      1 day ago

      This is just a guess but maybe they’re corporations and not non-profits?

      Edit: nevermind, it’s gotta be that they’re not European.

  • Sushi@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    4·
    2 days ago

    At first glance I wanted to do this but I’ve realised I’m already most of the way there. All i have left is google search and a hollowed out version of Instagram just for messages.

    Still, a lot of useful info on here, maybe I’ll look at moving off of Firefox and Spotify too soon.