UPDATE: I picked up the ARC A750. Been driving it around for awhile. Older DirectX games perform on par or often even better on Linux with ARC than they do on Windows. DX12 games had negligible performance boosts being run on Windows vs. Linux with ARC save some big exceptions…

Certain DX12 titles, one of which I own (Halo Infinite) WILL NOT RUN under Linux WITH the ARC card due to a lack of features in Vulkan. There are still some DX12 calls that have no equivalents in Vulkan, and while some games flag this feature set without using it and MAY be able to be tricked into running without it, any games that actually USE those features will not run under Linux with the ARC card, period. So… Research your newer AAA DX12 titles first.

That’s a logo, not a mascot. A logo is a mark that denotes a brand, the apple with the bite taken out for Apple, the footprint for GNOME, the stylized and colorized G for Google…

A mascot is a character that acts as a face and a voice for a brand. The gecko for Geico, Tony the Tiger for Frosted Flakes, Flo for Progressive.

Many brands looking to keep a serious, “sophisticated” brand aesthetic eschew mascots in favor of simple logos. GNOME follows suit with that trend. Nothing wrong with it, in fact I think it works quite well for them. If they were to adopt a mascot now it would be… Strange.

Yeah, that’s fair. Linux has been my daily driver for like… 8 years now? And I dabbled with it for some time before that. I’ve gotten to a point where I’m MUCH more comfortable doing things the Linux way than I am doing things the Windows way. I also have to admit I don’t do much modding for my games, and the little bit that I do is often either a.) Supported/managed by the game itself, or b.) Because I still install the majority of my mods by hand rather than through a mod manager.

As someone who dailied Linux for years and years and whose primary use of my PC is to game… I have to disagree with you. The only title in my entire Steam library that doesn’t work is Halo: Infinite, and that only because I’m using an Intel ARC card which has a known issue running Infinite on Linux due to an incompatibility between a specific set of DirectX 12 calls and Vulkan. If I had chosen to upgrade to a new AMD card instead, I’d still be running Linux. But I wanted to support Intel, so here we are. When I’m done playing around on Infinite, I’ll switch back and never think about Windows again.

Hell, some of my library runs BETTER on Linux than on Windows with the ARC card. The only game that runs better on Windows is Halo: Infinite, and that’s only because it literally doesn’t run at all on Linux. 😂

My typical recommendation for anyone new to Linux looking to get their feet wet would be Linux Mint. As long as you keep the system updated, it should be a decent choice for gaming.

The following is not to discourage you, but to help keep expectations in check. Gaming on Linux is not perfect. It’s not comparable to gaming on Windows. A LOT of games (with the assistance of Steam’s Proton) “just work,” but things are not to a point where that’s ever a guarantee. I would recommend looking up your staple games on to review Linux compatibility, if the games run or need additional run options.

I say all this as someone who runs exclusively Linux, and is a gamer and occasionally streams. It’s perfectly doable, but expect to have to get your hands dirty at some point in the venture. And don’t be afraid to ask questions!

Glad I’m not the only one with this question. Feels like it’s difficult to find up-to-date information on the performance of these Arc cards on Linux; I’d like to support Intel’s move into this space but it’s hard without knowing how drastically it’s going to affect my gaming performance. 😅

I’m glad to hear the situation seems to be rapidly improving. I may pick up an A770 yet.

. You can’t go wrong whichever “edition” you download, but I’d recommend Cinnamon. It’s delightfully easy to setup, beginner friendly, has GUI utilities for most of the settings you’ll need to tweak, and leaves room to grow as you learn more about Linux. For YouTube and Google Docs, it’ll be more than performant enough.

You need another ~ at the beginning and end to get strikeout.

I just found out about VSCodium. Its a project that packages the MIT licensed VS Code source without all the M$ telemetry and crud. Be warned, there are apparently many plugins that don’t work with Codium, so if you rely heavily on any specific plugin I’d see if it works properly before committing.

It’s still relying on Microsoft code, but at least it’s specifically the open source bits. Lol!

If you haven’t yet, I would run the following commands:

sudo zypper install opi

opi codecs

This will enable the Packman repositories (repos will commonly used non-free software, like multimedia codecs) and install multimedia codecs for watching videos and playing music and the like.

Anyway, I’m glad you’re enjoying OpenSUSE! It’s a delightful distro and community.

It does not.

You won’t go wrong no matter which you end up choosing. I am personally a huge fan of the way OpenSUSE runs their ship, and some of the tools there are incredible.

YaST, for example, is a system management tool that provides the most extensive GUI for managing your system settings I’ve seen on a Linux distro period. Yes, all the settings can be managed from a terminal, but it’s nice to have a graphical option sometimes.

Just play around with it since you’ve already got it installed, and see how you like it. There’s a strong and friendly community surrounding the distro, so reach out if you’ve got any questions! You’re also welcome to ask me. I may not have all the answers, but I’m pretty certain I can find someone who can help lol.

If you’re married to Ubuntu, I’d suggest Xubuntu. It’s Ubuntu using the XFCE desktop environment. XFCE can be a little… hard on the eyes by default, but it’s super lightweight, very stable, and very customizable. It can be a very aesthetically pleasing DE with a little theming and an icon pack.

Outside of Ubuntu, Id suggest Linux Mint with XFCE. I know, I know, Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu so why bother? Well, it’s not Canonical. They’ve done some great things over the years, but recently… I just tend to stay away.

Personally, I use OpenSUSE Tumbleweed. Love it, I’ll never leave it. It’s amazing. But without knowing your personal preferences or use cases, and with the info in your post, I have to recommend Xubuntu or Linux Mint XFCE. Also I agree with the other commenter, you’d benefit a lot from an upgrade to an SSD.

Well, if you’re considering any VPN service, I would recommend doing a search for that VPN + whatever services you’d be using it with. Mullvad is not great for streaming content because they don’t aim to get around VPN IP blocks, and they aren’t specifically trying to provide access to content outside your zone. I don’t use it for streaming, so I don’t run into those issues.

It’s true that if you look elsewhere you can find better deals specifically if you buy in bulk. NordVPN’s “Standard” package can be had for just over the upper limit you suggested, at $86.13 for your first two years before tax. No guarantees you can resub at that same price after that period is up, but they have sales all the time and if you’re careful you can probably re-up at a good time. Worth looking if you’re considering a VPN and price is a sticking point.

Hmm. Less upset, more… Surprised. At your surprise. Lol! Surprised, and ready to discuss why it’s worth it. Just out of curiosity, what price range were you expecting for quality VPN service?

That will depend. My understanding is that the VPN services themselves don’t block those URLs (that would be really dumb on their part. Pay the VPN to limit what websites you can visit? Isn’t the point of a VPN for many folks to get around web censorship?) but rather the website keeps a block-list of IPs that are known to belong to VPNs. I’ve seen a lot of sites that block Mullvad IPs… And a lot of times it’s as simple as changing which location I’m routed through to find an IP that isn’t yet blocked.

Netflix starts at $6.99/month. That’s their most basic service with ads. Yes,you pay Netflix and they still serve you ads. Want to watch Marvel movies? There’s a Disney+ sub, too. $7.99 (again, with ads). Gotta rewatch Game of Thrones and catch up on The Last of Us, there’s an HBO Max sub. $9.99. Can’t forget Hulu, there’s some good stuff on Hulu. Another $7.99/m subscription. Again, with ads!

That’s a potential $32.96/month on subscription services that will still serve you ads. My point is this: the cost of a VPN subscription shouldn’t be compared to the cost of a subscription streaming service, because 1) they serve two very different purposes, and 2) when you break it down the VPN sub always wins. 😉

The other commenter suggested Mullvad, and I do as well. It’s what I use. It’s $5, always. No holiday sales, no spring cleaning sales, no bulk discounts, nothing. And I view that as a positive thing. It has been $5/m and will continue being $5/m for a long time. It’s predictable. It also means I’m not missing out by not buying in bulk. My sub is coming close but I can’t or don’t want to shell out the $$$ for a year? I can buy one month and not feel like I’m missing out on savings.

It’s fast, reliable, I use it on my phone and my desktop. And most of all, its privacy centric. What if I told you that you could pay for your Mullvad subscription in cash?

You can put money in an envelope with your account id # on a piece of paper and mail it to Mullvad (mail does not require a return address, making this option completely anonymous) and since Mullvad doesn’t keep any unnecessary personal data on your account… They just add the time to the associated account number and move on with their day. Though they recommend paying with Monero crypto if total absolute privacy is your goal.

There is a place for graphically gorgeous distro’s

As a current KDE user but extensive user of XFCE in the past, it may not come “pretty” out-of-the-box but XFCE can be a very aesthetically pleasing desktop environment. It can be configured just about every which way, and if I had to switch back to XFCE right now I could have things just about how I want them and be 100% as happy with my desktop as I am with KDE.

It’s got defaults that just make sense, doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel or the way we interact with our desktops, it’s light and fast and reliable. It’s associated default programs (Thunar, etc.) follow the same design paradigms and are a delight to use.

I Iove XFCE, and it will always have a special place in my heart.

Plus one for Linux Mint Cinnamon. Easily the best beginner distro, IMO. If you’re technical enough to advance past Mint w/Cinnamon, you’re probably technical enough to not need a service like the linked website.

It’s still nice to see tools like this coming out, though, as a show of support for newcomers to the ecosystem.

Endeavor is fantastic. For all the time I ran it, I never had any of the issues that people say Arch is riddled with: updates irreparably mucking up your system, packages making a mess of things, the AUR being unstable and dangerous. I’ve found that most of these claims come from people who are against the way Arch does things and have never actually tried it for any extensive amount of time.

You do need to be mindful of updates being pushed to your system (read the newsletters, they will tell you if anything in the update is broken and how to fix it) and have the technical know-how of how to fix those things when they do happen… And they will happen. That’s any rolling release, though.

Personally I use OpenSUSE Tumbleweed for gaming, it was a breeze to set up and continues to be a breeze to work with. I love every second of it. But EndeavorOS is a very close second for me.

I would add to this: any widely used among enthusiasts Android to ensure (as best as can be ensured) decent long term support.

Find a ROM you’d want to flash (GrapheneOS is a popular option for its privacy and lack of added bloat) and visit their website. View their list of supported devices, and pick one from among them that fits your bill and can be had unlocked (i.e. not bought from a carrier in some kind of subscription/payment plan) and get that.

Google Pixel phones and OnePlus phones are devices I regularly see getting the latest versions from the major OSes. Samsung devices also. I know you had bad experiences with them in the past, but the manufacturer’s (lack of) continued support plays no small part in the reason you’ve experienced that. If they stop supporting the device 3 years from now and it starts to slow down, they might just be able to convince you to buy the new one…