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@Judeet99

Dude.

"When pigs fly" as a metaphor for "something that is very improbable" is not deeply offensive to *anyone*.

Bazzite has the latest KDE, yeah, currently reading 6.4 on the latest version. Nobara broke on upgrades for me (I did nothing crazy, basic install and basic upgrade process), bazzite is rock solid and built on a good base (fedora atomic). In general, I fully recommend immutable atomic distros for noobies it all just works and it helps teach you important lessons on data security and containerization

The best thing about atomic linux images like Bazzite is if for whatever reason Bazzite stops releasing new versions you can rebase to a different "distro" and itll have all of your user data and configs intact with a single simple command. With things like Nobara or Garuda, if there is a problem you essentially have to do a clean install.

edit:

And as for Arch, Linux mint, etc., I personally find these distros and advice to be outdated. Upgrades can often break in many smaller linux distros and it is very important to have a strong and reproducible method of upgrading, especially for new users. VanillaOS and Fedora Atomic are currently the most user friendly ways to achieve flawless upgrades.

Kubuntu 24.10 is on plasma 6.1; not sure why you thought it was on plasma 5? Maybe you were thinking of the Long Term Support release which has a much longer release cycle and favours stability over cutting edge; that probably is still on 5? But personally I stay away from Ubuntu distros due to snap.

If you really want to learn Linux and game, maybe pick a distro that is not optimised by default for gaming and optimise it yourself?

I'm on OpenSuSE Tunbleweed and have optimised it myself to game how I want. It's rolling release so I'm on KDE Plasma 6.4. It's not difficult to do although I haven't gone quite as far as kernel patching that the gaming focused distros offer.

Another challenge is Arch - it's really not as difficult as people think and even just setting it up in a virtual machine helps you learn alot about Linux fundamentals without throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I've learnt alot using KVM to create virtual machines, and even have a Win 11 machine set up just because I can.

Another route to consider which I also do is get a SBC like a Raspberry 5 and look into setting up self hosting of services like Home Assistant etc. Again you learn Alot about how Linux works in the process and you can keep your main PC running for games without having to move. There is a whole self hosting community on Lemmy with loads of different routes to go, and lots of different manufacturers these days.

There are lots of options beyond changing distros. But also changing distros can be fun and a nice way to reset and make something new.

I think those three will be completely fine, but also I think base Arch would be completely fine for you. I have no idea why it's a meme that Arch is so "hard". I wouldn't recommend it for someone coming from Windows or Mac who has no idea what they're doing and had no poweruser tendencies on Windows/Mac either. But for someone who's used Linux for a few years, I think doing a base Arch install is no biggie at all. It's got a very annoying meme reputation but I think it's completely inaccurate.

That's an aside, and I'm not saying you should use base Arch, just that I don't think there's anything wrong with it if that's something you're interested in. Although if you're coming from a "beginner" distro and your intent is to learn, I do think doing a base Arch install (even if you don't stick with it) is a good idea. You'll be entirely capable of the install process and probably get a better understanding of how your system works. Then after you install it you can switch to some other distro you prefer.

Like OP said, you can get Plasma on Bazzite, as well as install it right on a SteamDeck if you have one. It's constantly being updated, and if gaming is your main driver, Bazzite goes out of its way to make things work. In theory you wouldn't have to do any tinkering to get games running, with the added bonus that you won't be messing up or introducing any entropy to your system files. If something does go wrong, you can reboot into the previous release and it'll be back to where you just came from.

There's still plenty to learn if you want to, it's just not the traditional Linux distro setup.

So, Bazzite does have a KDE 6 variant, and works very, very well, especially on a handheld PC.

It takes the approach of sandboxing off the core OS, but giving you a bunch of tools for running flatpaks and other things, set up DistroBox to semi-sort of have multiple linux os's simultaneously if you want to say, compile something from source that only has proper dependencies figured out in... not Arch, what SteamOS is based on...

I run it on my SteamDeck because it offers more ability to use it as an actual PC, while still being rock solid in gaming mode.

But uh... for more discussion... I'm going to kind of not answer your question and suggest something else:

Check out PikaOS.

wiki.pika-os.com/en/home

Basically, much like Nobara is a 'gaming-tuned', optimized, cutting/bleeding-edge version of Fedora...

PikaOS basically is that, but for Debian.

If you're used to using PopOS!, well, that's ultimately Debian based, so there may be less of a learning curve now that you're broadly familiar with the Debian environment.

PikaOS works with GNOME, KDE, Hyprland if you want an even lighter weight DE.

They are also working on a Handheld PC capable out of the box distro, but its not ready yet.

From what I've seen from various youtubers... PikaOS is trading blows with Cachy and Nobara for getting the highest frame rate out of a game, on a same hardware / same setting FPS comparison... sometimes it is actually beating them.

Uh also, yeah, look into CachyOS, it seems to be the latest hotness for an Arch based, gaming optimized, but widely functional for 'whatever' OS, if you're curious about trying out Arch, and of course thus being able to constantly let every one know you use Arch, actually.

But, now that I’m familiar with how to set up any game that needs a little help besides Proton, I’m starting to want to delve into my OS more to see what I can customize, and I think picking a new distro with slightly different architechture will be very nice.

Don’t get me wrong, I still want something that works by itself more often than not. But I would love to have something a little more cutting-edge that gives me a little more control.

Fam, did I understand you correctly that you want to tinker/tweak/customize the system to your heart's content? Yet, you also wish that the system "just works". At least, mostly. Is that right? Or..., like could you perhaps be more clear on what it is you'd like to tinker/tweak/customize in the first place? Please, if possible, be explicit.

After I got a better idea on what it actually is that you seek, I'll try to answer your other(/remaining) questions.