Most Linux users, including gamers, don’t really benefit from improvements to Linux since most of it is drivers for hardware they don’t have. Most userland software can be installed via flatpak or PPA (or other form of additional repository for your distro) if you really need something newer. But my understanding is that people (esp gamers) get annoyed more by stuff changing than missing out on new stuff.
The whole point of recommending a stable distro is to give the best chance of the person finding the help they need, as well as things not breaking randomly, and you get that with stable release distros. If the user knows enough to disregard that, they know what distro would be a better fit anyway.
I see your point, but i don’t really agree that it doesn’t benefit gamers. In the 10 versions of kernels released since Bullseye released, we’ve seen improvements like the EEVDF allocator, sched_ext, the beginnings of ntsync, and an optimization to MDS mitigations for Intel processors. In a gaming-oriented distro, these would (ideally) be configured out of the box for the best gaming experience. Using a stable LTS distro, in contrast, would require manual tweaking and experimentation to achieve the same result.
But my understanding is that people (esp gamers) get annoyed more by stuff changing than missing out on new stuff.
They get annoyed when stuff visibly changes, like the desktop UI, userspace GUI programs, or noticable performance regressions.
Anecdotally, I have rarely seen the typical gamer complaining about or even noticing when something changes in technical stuff that they aren’t directly interacting with. Nintendo actually does a good job creating situations where you can observe that behavior, funnily enough. When they release a new console with a different UI, non-casual gamers vocally bitch about it being worse than the previous generation. But when it comes to updates, the complaints are pretty much all about how it only changes the bad word list, doesn’t have x in 2024, or how every update is just more “stability.” Meanwhile, they have successfully done major rewrites and changes behind the scenes without anyone but the CFW and modding scene actually noticing it.
The whole point of recommending a stable distro is to give the best chance of the person finding the help they need, as well as things not breaking randomly, and you get that with stable release distros.
I agree that a stable distro will be more stable, but I don’t agree that a stable distro is the best chance to get them help as a gaming newcomer. For newcomers in general, sure. But for gaming, it would be better to direct them towards a distro primarily focused on gaming, where they’ll have a likeminded community. A popular stable distro will have more community resources available overall, but most of that is just going to end up becoming noise that makes it harder for them to find a solution for game-related problems.
Schedulers really don’t matter much for gaming workloads.
Ntsync is a bit more exciting, I’ll give you that. Looks like it’s in testing, so you can update to trixie to get it. Running on the testing branch is usually fine, and it’ll be pretty up to date until release freeze time, at which point it’s best to sit tight until the new testing branch settles down (a point release or two is usually plenty).
manual tweaking
Tweaking is usually not worth it. The most I really do is up sending like the mmap limit if a game is struggling.
comparatively niche game-related problems.
I’m not really sure what types of issues you’re referring to. Either you’ll have OS questions, in which case the generic help is ideal, or you’ll have game specific issues, in which case most distros will be extremely similar (e.g. proton db for game specific workarounds).
For people coming to Linux, I’ll usually recommend sticking with Steam verified or playable games as well, since those should largely just work. Yeah, you might be able to eek out a few FPS or, more likely, framerate stability with some tweaks, but that’s honestly not worth it to most.
If you want to tweak, you’re probably also the type to want the “advanced” distros like Arch and will ignore my advice anyway. And that’s fine, I use something else as well, but I’m going to stick to a more predictable experience for new users.
Most Linux users, including gamers, don’t really benefit from improvements to Linux since most of it is drivers for hardware they don’t have. Most userland software can be installed via flatpak or PPA (or other form of additional repository for your distro) if you really need something newer. But my understanding is that people (esp gamers) get annoyed more by stuff changing than missing out on new stuff.
The whole point of recommending a stable distro is to give the best chance of the person finding the help they need, as well as things not breaking randomly, and you get that with stable release distros. If the user knows enough to disregard that, they know what distro would be a better fit anyway.
I see your point, but i don’t really agree that it doesn’t benefit gamers. In the 10 versions of kernels released since Bullseye released, we’ve seen improvements like the EEVDF allocator, sched_ext, the beginnings of ntsync, and an optimization to MDS mitigations for Intel processors. In a gaming-oriented distro, these would (ideally) be configured out of the box for the best gaming experience. Using a stable LTS distro, in contrast, would require manual tweaking and experimentation to achieve the same result.
They get annoyed when stuff visibly changes, like the desktop UI, userspace GUI programs, or noticable performance regressions.
Anecdotally, I have rarely seen the typical gamer complaining about or even noticing when something changes in technical stuff that they aren’t directly interacting with. Nintendo actually does a good job creating situations where you can observe that behavior, funnily enough. When they release a new console with a different UI, non-casual gamers vocally bitch about it being worse than the previous generation. But when it comes to updates, the complaints are pretty much all about how it only changes the bad word list, doesn’t have x in 2024, or how every update is just more “stability.” Meanwhile, they have successfully done major rewrites and changes behind the scenes without anyone but the CFW and modding scene actually noticing it.
I agree that a stable distro will be more stable, but I don’t agree that a stable distro is the best chance to get them help as a gaming newcomer. For newcomers in general, sure. But for gaming, it would be better to direct them towards a distro primarily focused on gaming, where they’ll have a likeminded community. A popular stable distro will have more community resources available overall, but most of that is just going to end up becoming noise that makes it harder for them to find a solution for game-related problems.
Bookworm?
Schedulers really don’t matter much for gaming workloads.
Ntsync is a bit more exciting, I’ll give you that. Looks like it’s in testing, so you can update to trixie to get it. Running on the testing branch is usually fine, and it’ll be pretty up to date until release freeze time, at which point it’s best to sit tight until the new testing branch settles down (a point release or two is usually plenty).
Tweaking is usually not worth it. The most I really do is up sending like the mmap limit if a game is struggling.
I’m not really sure what types of issues you’re referring to. Either you’ll have OS questions, in which case the generic help is ideal, or you’ll have game specific issues, in which case most distros will be extremely similar (e.g. proton db for game specific workarounds).
For people coming to Linux, I’ll usually recommend sticking with Steam verified or playable games as well, since those should largely just work. Yeah, you might be able to eek out a few FPS or, more likely, framerate stability with some tweaks, but that’s honestly not worth it to most.
If you want to tweak, you’re probably also the type to want the “advanced” distros like Arch and will ignore my advice anyway. And that’s fine, I use something else as well, but I’m going to stick to a more predictable experience for new users.