Ok 1 more time, Linux installation?

[Mark Kaine]

I'm really anxious about this... I don't want to necessarily dual boot although that would also have advantages... 

 

So without dual boot, I swap my SSD with windows for an empty SSD, and install Linux... But I also need to remove my second drive where games and media are stored?  I don't really understand why, then I'd lose access to a lot of stuff with not much space on the primary drive to replace it... Or do I just put the data drive back *after* I installed Linux?

 

Lots of hard drive swapping but that would be doable...

 

Or should I dual boot? (and how I'd do that...?)

 

 

Lastly as for Linux distro, I have a few candidates but would like opinions... 

I'll be installing on an Asus ROG Strix G17 (AMD cpu, Nvidia GPU, 32GB DDR5)

 

 

[flibberdipper]

My favorite distro full-stop is Kubuntu. It's not QUITE as easy to install Nvidia drivers as it is on plain Ubuntu, but it's as easy to get up and running and uses good ol' Debian packages which is a godsend.

[Lurking]

https://fullscale4me.com/Dual-Boot-MX-Linux-and-Windows-Installation-Guide.pdf

 

https://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm

 

I'm sure you thought about it, but if you need W11 for some apps, what does Linux then do for you? Do you have apps that only work in Linux, or are much better in Linux? If not, then Linux is just an exercise in trouble-shooting. And this can be fine as long as you don't have the wrong expectations. There also is WSL2 if you realy have some Linux apps in addition to Windows needs. 

 

For your question, are you planning to do any gaming on Linux, or will that be all in Windows? What other Linux applications? 

Some Linux apps only exist for certain main distros (.deb etc.). So this really depends on your apps what the best distro is. Your hardware plays a large role. 

 

My vote always is for stable distros and that is Debian or its more user-friendly version MX Linux KDE. Not a fan of any Ubuntu inc. Mint. And the Arch distros may be too much excitement unless you need the latest stuff. I wouldn't go further away than one degree from a main distro (Debian, Arch, Fedora). YMMV.

[Mark Kaine]

3 minutes ago, Lurking said:

https://fullscale4me.com/Dual-Boot-MX-Linux-and-Windows-Installation-Guide.pdf

 

https://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm

 

I'm sure you thought about it, but if you need W11 for some apps, what does Linux then do for you? Do you have apps that only work in Linux, or are much better in Linux? If not, then Linux is just an exercise in trouble-shooting. And this can be fine as long as you don't have the wrong expectations. There also is WSL2 if you realy have some Linux apps in addition to Windows needs. 

 

For your question, are you planning to do any gaming on Linux, or will that be all in Windows? What other Linux applications? 

Some Linux apps only exist for certain main distros (.deb etc.). So this really depends on your apps what the best distro is. Your hardware plays a large role. 

 

My vote always is for stable distros and that is Debian or its more user-friendly version MX Linux KDE. Not a fan of any Ubuntu inc. Mint. And the Arch distros may be too much excitement unless you need the latest stuff. I wouldn't go further away than one degree from a main distro (Debian, Arch, Fedora). YMMV.

Afaik there are no windows apps that don't have an equivalent on linux, they'll be different but serve the same purpose... (except some kernel level anti cheat games, which I don't play anyways )

 

I mean thanks for the answer and suggestion but that sounds like you misunderstood my intent, I specifically don't want to dual boot... Seems just to complicate things, but I would maybe consider it if there are good reasons to do so (I don't see it...)

 

This whole endeavor could be VERY easily avoided if I could just disable windows updates, because my current win 11 install does exactly what I want, but I already know I will hate the newer win 11 versions... they're even uglier, have more ai bs and more bugs and performance issues...  But doesn't look you can actually disable updates fully on win 11 "home"...?

 

There are plenty of tools that say they can but I tried most and it's a flat out lie, they cannot (shutup10, incontrol...)

 

So simply put, I want a Linux version that just works out of the box and lets me control certain aspects of my hardware ideally (power limits, overclocking, etc)

 

To me bazzite seems to make the most sense, but also maybe pikaOS....

 

 

Biggest problem is still what do I do with my storage drive, will Linux mess it up or nah?  

 

I don't really mind trying out different distros, but the ones I mentioned are what I downloaded, and it basically boils down to either pika or bazzite first? (I mean ideally I don't even need to try other distros but eh...)

 

 

14 minutes ago, Lurking said:

For your question, are you planning to do any gaming on Linux, or will that be all in Windows? What other Linux applications? 

Some Linux apps only exist for certain main distros (.deb etc.). So this really depends on your apps what the best distro is. Your hardware plays a large role

I don't want to do anything on windows (11) it sucks...

 

 

[Zando_]

Regular Fedora KDE Plasma (more flexible than Bazzite). Add the rpmfusion repos for all the usual proprietary drivers n such. It runs much more up to date kernels than anything Ubuntu LTS based, and lots of big name software is packaged as a .deb and .rpm (Fedora uses the latter). 

[Mark Kaine]

17 minutes ago, Lurking said:

I'm sure you thought about it

Priorities, man....

 

To me visual appearance is #1...

 

For example I do not want any icons on my desktop... none, I just need like a button to open and close menus and apps, but otherwise I just want a background picture and nothing else.... I also hate that a lot of linux distros basically have the same menus as windows... it's so mundane and uncreative... 

 

Which for example is an issue with Pika possibly... I see there's no real taskbar and I love that, but can you actually close all those apps and what about what looks like a settings bar (so there *is* a "taskbar" after all... ) can I just close that/make it disappear...?

 

 

 

Actually I don't mind the "taskbar" as much *if* I can put it in the bottom lol...

 

 Yes, I know that seems as it shouldn't be as important but if I don't like how it looks, I can't use it... 

 

Also note I really like how those apps /windows look, but as said I want them all gone/minimized typically, I just want my background (and taskbar if needed) 

 

 

Here's how my desktop typically looks:

 

 

 

My most use apps are:

 

Steam

Steam Recording 

Nvidia "Shadowplay"

Windows Media Player

7zip

GIMP

Paint 3D

Photos

Capcut 

Shutter Encoder

Hwinfo64 

icue (doesn't apply to my laptop)

armory crate (does apply to my laptop, specifically for the per key rgb lighting but also for other things like monitoring software)

Superposition 

Snipping tool

Lively Wallpaper 

Audacity 

Battlenet

RPCS3

PCSX2

duckstation

flycast

epsxe 

Diskinfo 

Diskmark

3DMark

Razer Controller Setup

Ryujinx

Revo Uninstaller

Autoruns64

ScreenToGif

CXBX Reloaded 

OBS

...  that's about it, mostly....

 

 

 

 

[Lurking]

22 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

Afaik there are no windows apps that don't have an equivalent on linux, they'll be different but serve the same purpose... (except some kernel level anti cheat games, which I don't play anyways )

 

I mean thanks for the answer and suggestion but that sounds like you misunderstood my intent, I specifically don't want to dual boot... Seems just to complicate things, but I would maybe consider it if there are good reasons to do so (I don't see it...)

 

This whole endeavor could be VERY easily avoided if I could just disable windows updates, because my current win 11 install does exactly what I want, but I already know I will hate the newer win 11 versions... they're even uglier, have more ai bs and more bugs and performance issues...  But doesn't look you can actually disable updates fully on win 11 "home"...?

 

There are plenty of tools that say they can but I tried most and it's a flat out lie, they cannot (shutup10, incontrol...)

 

So simply put, I want a Linux version that just works out of the box and lets me control certain aspects of my hardware ideally (power limits, overclocking, etc)

 

To me bazzite seems to make the most sense, but also maybe pikaOS....

 

Biggest problem is still what do I do with my storage drive, will Linux mess it up or nah?  

 

I don't really mind trying out different distros, but the ones I mentioned are what I downloaded, and it basically boils down to either pika or bazzite first? (I mean ideally I don't even need to try other distros but eh...)

 

I don't want to do anything on windows (11) it sucks...

I see. I got confused. For (most) private use Linux CAN work. Games and certain hardware (or software that sets the hardware, like mouse button programming) are possible showstoppers. But you probably already tested that or can easily find that out. 

 

Remove the storage drive during installation to be safe. Then put it back. You may have to mount it. Linux can read and write NFTS.

 

I know you want to be done with W11. But if you re-consider, don't use those magic tools. You can optimize manually and then know how to undo if needed (basically do it the Linux way:-). Those tools are very opaque. And unless you use an LTSC, you can't really avoid feature updates. 

 

Testing on YOUR hardware will be the only way to find out which distro works. Linux is too finicky to generalize. Follow the Nvidia instructions of that specific distro. A distro that can back port newer packages and Kernels has a better chance. Or rolling distro (Fedora being only semi-rolling)

[Zando_]

1 minute ago, Mark Kaine said:

For example I do not want any icons on my desktop... none, I just need like a button to open and close menus and apps, but otherwise I just want a background picture and nothing else.... I also hate that a lot of linux distros basically have the same menus as windows... it's so mundane and uncreative...

Oh, you want a tiling WM then. Hyprland is the hip cool ricer (customizing everything to your liking) one, i3 is a dead simple one and Fedora has an official spin with it. 

[Mark Kaine]

29 minutes ago, Lurking said:

I see. I got confused. For (most) private use Linux CAN work. Games and certain hardware (or software that sets the hardware, like mouse button programming) are possible showstoppers. But you probably already tested that or can easily find that out. 

 

Remove the storage drive during installation to be safe. Then put it back. You may have to mount it. Linux can read and write NFTS.

 

I know you want to be done with W11. But if you re-consider, don't use those magic tools. You can optimize manually and then know how to undo if needed (basically do it the Linux way:-). Those tools are very opaque. And unless you use an LTSC, you can't really avoid feature updates. 

 

Testing on YOUR hardware will be the only way to find out which distro works. Linux is too finicky to generalize. Follow the Nvidia instructions of that specific distro. A distro that can back port newer packages and Kernels has a better chance. Or rolling distro (Fedora being only semi-rolling)

Ok thanks... I see... And I'll do that with the hard drive then... Well I guess one reason I'm asking is that some distros seem to work better with Nvidia than others...?

 

But... I think I'll actually just try bazzite first, it "seems" the most simple to setup and as said it does have this rollback function so if anything gets messed up that hopefully helps...

 

 

I mean there's basically two opinions about it, either people love it and say they've been on it for months and no (big) issues or people that say it's ok'ish, but they prefer other distros (for "reasons" that don't align with me much at all lol)

 

 

[Mark Kaine]

25 minutes ago, Zando_ said:

Oh, you want a tiling WM then. Hyprland is the hip cool ricer (customizing everything to your liking) one, i3 is a dead simple one and Fedora has an official spin with it. 

I've also just downloaded hyprland Pika OS - even though that didn't tell me anything, I just liked the desktop slightly more than niri Pika OS ...

 

 

Like I get it, bazzite won't have much of customization at all, and that's a downside, but my hope is still that it just works and is an easy entry point (maybe)

 

Otherwise I think I'll try the hip cool ricer next then!  

[Zando_]

7 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

for "reasons" that don't align with me much at all lol

Customization is something you mentioned, and that's why I moved off of Bazzite. It's very, very good if you purely want a machine that turns on and runs games. But it's built around not modifying the main system image so you can't accidentally bork anything. That inflexibility means installing anything that isn't a flatpak, screwing with the kernel, anything of that sort is just more annoying. I moved back to regular Fedora, then dove off the deep end into Gentoo and I've been happy with that since. 

 

EDIT: FWIW, KDE Plasma is very customizable. So far I've just screwed with the layout not theming it myself, I have mine set up to work like macOS, because I prefer that desktop experience. You can tweak it a billion other ways if you like, it only defaults to Windows-Like, it is not stuck like that forever. Though again from the desktop experience you described, I think a tiling WM is more your speed. I haven't daily driven one, just poked at them, so far I've been fine with more traditional window management. 

[Mark Kaine]

1 minute ago, Zando_ said:

Customization is something you mentioned, and that's why I moved off of Bazzite. It's very, very good if you purely want a machine that turns on and runs games. But it's built around not modifying the main system image so you can't accidentally bork anything. That inflexibility means installing anything that isn't a flatpak, screwing with the kernel, anything of that sort is just more annoying. I moved back to regular Fedora, then dove off the deep end into Gentoo and I've been happy with that since. 

Yeah, see my post above, I get that about bazzite, but it maybe still be the best entry point?

 

Like I can focus on the gaming side (and apps for video photo editing...) and think about customization later, I guess? 

[Lurking]

18 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

Ok thanks... I see... And I'll do that with the hard drive then... Well I guess one reason I'm asking is that some distros seem to work better with Nvidia than others...?

 

But... I think I'll actually just try bazzite first, it "seems" the most simple to setup and as said it does have this rollback function so if anything gets messed up that hopefully helps...

 

 

I mean there's basically two opinions about it, either people love it and say they've been on it for months and no (big) issues or people that say it's ok'ish, but they prefer other distros (for "reasons" that don't align with me much at all lol)

I don't have Nvidia. But smart people seem to think it isn't harder than AMD. Especially since they open-sourced some of their stuff. Important is to do what the manual for that distro prescribes (or their forum). Don't just go to Nvidia website and download whatever you think. Anything in Linux is dependent on specific packages and Kernels for that distro. So a newer or older driver than the officially tested one for that distro may not work. I bet each distro forum and FAQ has specific Nvidia sections. 

 

That is why googling for help with Linux is dangerous. Whatever command you find may be outdated, or for the wrong distro. Yes it is all Linux. But it isn't Windows where a 10 year old tutorial still can be correct and always will be for the OS you use.

[Mark Kaine]

16 minutes ago, Zando_ said:

EDIT: FWIW, KDE Plasma is very customizable

Tbf my customization consists mostly of removing stuff, I don't like clutter, it distracts me... For example my android "desktop" looks very similar to my windows one...

 

There's just not much there!

 

 

But yeah I get it, eventually I would want to customize things...

 

 

And what's the difference to KDE and KDE plasma, because there's a "KDE" version of bazzite (I think) ... kinda confusing, it sounds like it would be customizable then...?

[Zando_]

16 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

And what's the difference to KDE and KDE plasma, because there's a "KDE" version of bazzite (I think) ... kinda confusing, it sounds like it would be customizable then...?

The short answer: they're all the same thing.

 

The long answer: KDE is the community: https://kde.org/. Plasma is the Desktop Environment they make, among other softwares. People very often call it just KDE (since that's the first word) or Plasma (since that's the DE specifically). So they're all the same thing unless you go searching for stuff like Trinity DE, which is built off KDE 3, because KDE used to (or still does maybe??) mean K Desktop Environment and didn't have the Plasma bit on the end. 

[gentlemanspot]

Other: 

Ultramarine based on fedora, I've been gaming on it for months 

 

 

just changes from Budgie to KDE, Not sure how I feel after the changes haha 

 

https://ultramarine-linux.org/

[Timme]

Why don't you get yourself a 250GB SATA SSD, like 870 EVO, and do all the experimentation with it?

[xAcid9]

IMHO, go with KDE unless you love editing config file for Hyprland, Niri Mango, i3, Sway, ScrotWM, etc with text editor.

 

You can remove some desktop/taskbar elements in KDE to make it more minimalist. 

 

Eg: 

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

 

[Mark Kaine]

3 hours ago, Timme said:

Why don't you get yourself a 250GB SATA SSD, like 870 EVO, and do all the experimentation with it?

I mean that's what I'm doing basically it's just a 1tb SSD... (and yes there's windows on it now ,but I made backups...) 

Still have to remove my storage drive apparently (also just in case I wanna go back and do the whole windows ltsc "upgrade" ) 

 

3 hours ago, Timme said:

250GB

That's tiny,my mods folder for stellar blade is bigger

[gentlemanspot]

On 12/17/2025 at 8:13 PM, Mark Kaine said:

That's tiny,my mods folder for stellar blade is bigger

yeah but, you should road test some distro and DE to see what you like 254 is plenty for that. 

 

-Install some apps 

 

-plays some games 

 

-use the terminal 

 

There is no one size fits all disto/DE/Config for linux. 

 

i mean i have 3 devices i use with linux and they are all different 

[Aeternalis]

Do NOT use Mint for a gaming computer, you WILL have issues.

 

Bazzite is the default go-to for gaming focused users.  If you want a more traditional, more "open" system that is gaming ready, Nobara is worth a look. Otherwise, plain Fedora with KDE takes a little more setup than the aforementioned options but otherwise works similarly.

 

KDE desktop environment will be similar to windows out of the box and can be customized fairly easily to more match what you want specifically. All 3 distros I mentioned come with it by default.

 

Also, nice wallpapers. DITF is one of my guilty pleasure anime.

[Mark Kaine]

3 hours ago, gentlemanspot said:

yeah but, you should road test some distro and DE to see what you like 254 is plenty for that. 

 

-Install some apps 

 

-plays some games 

 

-use the terminal 

 

There is no one size fits all disto/DE/Config for linux. 

 

i mean i have 3 devices i use with linux and they are all different 

Yeah agreed, that's my plan... I mean I specifically bought a new nvme for this so now I have a spare that I can use, and that spare is 1TB as said. 

 

I want to try out stuff sure, but only if necessary hence I'll try bazzite first, seems most people are perfectly happy with it. 

 

 

2 hours ago, Aeternalis said:

Do NOT use Mint for a gaming computer, you WILL have issues.

 

Bazzite is the default go-to for gaming focused users.  If you want a more traditional, more "open" system that is gaming ready, Nobara is worth a look. Otherwise, plain Fedora with KDE takes a little more setup than the aforementioned options but otherwise works similarly.

 

KDE desktop environment will be similar to windows out of the box and can be customized fairly easily to more match what you want specifically. All 3 distros I mentioned come with it by default.

 

Also, nice wallpapers. DITF is one of my guilty pleasure anime.

Yeah, I heard VERY contradicting things about mint so I'll avoid that for now

 

2 hours ago, Aeternalis said:

Bazzite is the default go-to for gaming focused users.  If you want a more traditional, more "open" system that is gaming ready, Nobara is worth a look. Otherwise, plain Fedora with KDE takes a little more setup than the aforementioned options but otherwise works similarly.

And what about pikaOS and CachyOS? They all seem similar to bazzite but maybe a bit more open? But I could be wrong why I'm asking... 

[Mark Kaine]

On 12/17/2025 at 4:47 AM, Lurking said:

software that sets the hardware, like mouse button programming) are possible showstoppers

Yeah... same for the Asus overclocking/lighting stuff, however it looks like there are bazzite/linux specific equivalents...

 

I mean I specifically downloaded a "Asus ROG laptop" KDE thingy, so I'll see... 

 

As for controllers etc, maybe, but both my mouse (g502 hero) and controller (Razer wolverine V2) have on board storage,so it's set and forget (you can uninstall the software it'll still work even on other machines) so that'll be interesting to see it that still works on linux, but it probably should!? 

[Lurking]

10 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

Yeah... same for the Asus overclocking/lighting stuff, however it looks like there are bazzite/linux specific equivalents...

 

I mean I specifically downloaded a "Asus ROG laptop" KDE thingy, so I'll see... 

 

As for controllers etc, maybe, but both my mouse (g502 hero) and controller (Razer wolverine V2) have on board storage,so it's set and forget (you can uninstall the software it'll still work even on other machines) so that'll be interesting to see it that still works on linux, but it probably should!? 

Asus makes really shitty Windows MB software. So please report back how their Linux version screws up Linux. Just so we all can learn from it and not do it 

 

In general it isn't recommended to install Linux software from outside the official repos. If you do, only if you really need it. i do too, but that is the risk i take. i wouldn't do it for software that isn't "needed". At minimum check who made that KDE ROG software and how it is maintained. it is possible a total random stranger not related to Asus made it. (considering how bad Asus software is, a random stranger might be an improvement, though). Linux is extremely stable, just don't break it. Installing random unnecessary software and entering random terminal commands recommended by strangers are like running one of the Windows "optimization" or "registry cleaner" scripts. 

 

This applies to all distros: https://wiki.debian.org/DontBreakDebian

This should be pinned to any OS thread: "Don't suffer from Shiny New Stuff Syndrome'

 

I don't know about RGB control. But for OC or fan control, it is better to just let BIOS do that. This will be more reliable and agnostic to the OS. BIOS is kind of its won separated thing for good reasons. and having the OS "reach" into the BIOS can bring all kind of issues with it. 

 

I know, you are playing around with this and things may break, and that is fine. And i do that myself. but if you want to use the PC for actual stuff, don't break it. 

[Mark Kaine]

19 minutes ago, Lurking said:

Asus makes really shitty Windows MB software. So please report back how their Linux version screws up Linux. Just so we all can learn from it and not do it 

 

In general it isn't recommended to install Linux software from outside the official repos. If you do, only if you really need it. i do too, but that is the risk i take. i wouldn't do it for software that isn't "needed". At minimum check who made that KDE ROG software and how it is maintained. it is possible a total random stranger not related to Asus made it. (considering how bad Asus software is, a random stranger might be an improvement, though). Linux is extremely stable, just don't break it. Installing random unnecessary software and entering random terminal commands recommended by strangers are like running one of the Windows "optimization" or "registry cleaner" scripts. 

 

This applies to all distros: https://wiki.debian.org/DontBreakDebian

This should be pinned to any OS thread: "Don't suffer from Shiny New Stuff Syndrome'

 

I don't know about RGB control. But for OC or fan control, it is better to just let BIOS do that. This will be more reliable and agnostic to the OS. BIOS is kind of its won separated thing for good reasons. and having the OS "reach" into the BIOS can bring all kind of issues with it. 

 

I know, you are playing around with this and things may break, and that is fine. And i do that myself. but if you want to use the PC for actual stuff, don't break it. 

I mean the biggest issue might be actually the lighting stuff but I already read people got per key lighting to work (in bazzite I think)

As for the "overclocking" I'm not sure it's actually needed lol... Right now the laptop is overclocked as hell , but I'm really not sure that even does much...  A few % in benchmarks sure, but otherwise I didn't see much difference with "emulated" stock settings...

 

What's really crazy tho I can set whatever I want (as long it's somewhat reasonable ig) and it doesn't crash,55w, 130w... It doesn't matter, all that changes really are the temps

 

Yeah well, I'll report back how it goes, not sure when I have time, maybe over the weekend.

 

 

PS: I do like they give you full control though and kinda bypass any windows settings... It's a bit clunky but it does work and doesn't use many system resources at all. 

 

 

So pretty!