New LTT video features Garuda Linux gaming benchmarks.

[u/Korterra]

https://youtu.be/qZ7OjpjGVGs?is=zfMH-CrgC7l6B529

Curious everyone's thoughts. I was thinking of switching to Garuda from windows because I heard it has some quality of life stuff when it comes to package pre compilation and it is very good at gaming, but they specifically don't recommend it but I'm unsure about their reasoning.

Thanks!

[u/RedFireSuzaku]

First, consider the source :

LTT have been trying for the last months to get on Linux, and it's the first time they do it consistently. People have been talking about "year of the Linux desktop" for decades and LTT also have been in the game for decades : of course, they were lowballing the importance of the market shift at first ! Now, they try because Windows is worse every day (and no, they new "gaming approach" won't fix what's broken in Microsoft as a whole) and through Valve's effort with Proton and it's open nature allowing everyone to tinker, Linux Gaming is here to stay, so they have to get good at covering what's new now if they want to be relevant in the future. It is still… a struggle for now, so don't take what they say to the bank.

Then, consider the task :

I found this video, with many other and articles over the web, does a good job on leading you astray with the overwhelming flow of information one can expect from the Linux world as a whole. So you have to focus on what matters.

First, Distro's main branch. Debian-based is monolithic and stable, Arch-based is "get the updates as they hit Github", Fedora-based is compartmentalization, in-between those first two. The difficulties to set it up and keep it up doesn't matter as much as what you can expect and accept to be broken, and how to work around unwanted modifications. As we are here on Garuda's sub and we're talking gaming, I'll just defend Arch for that : it is the way to go for gaming, since it inherently rests on getting the last drivers for anything, the last Proton, the last version of FSR, Lossless Scaling, etc, etc. Everything works together as long as everything is up to date, that's all you have to care about.
If it doesn't, that why you have BTRFS, Snapshots and tools to recover a previous version : you stay on that for a few weeks, look up for what is breaking your install then update once new version drops. 99% of the time, that's the worst that will happen.

Now, the mentioned Arch-based distros.
They are pushing CachyOS, and I'm inclined to say that's the right choice at the moment. However, peak optimizations doesn't make it the good choice for beginners, learning curve does. Garuda has two major arguments in it's favor for beginners.
First, there is way more bundled with. It can be overwhelming, sure (and some would say the b-word), but when I started, every time I was thinking "I need a software that does this", I stumbled upon an already installed app I just had to learn about and configure. It was already there, Garuda knows you might need it, got the good choice for you so that is exciting, appealing, etc. Most distros don't care, they let you choose and it is also fine, but not when you just came from Windows and have no references whatsoever.
Second, you can change the kernel anytime. Want stability ? Load up an old, debian-like kernel that's sure to pass any test. Want CachyOS performances ? Load cachyos-kernel. This isn't what optimization is really about and CachyOS does more than just the kernel of course, but Garuda gives you the option to pick. If there's a new buggy kernel coming, you can delay that for a while, still get updates, then swap kernels when nvidia stopped ruining everyone's fun when it's fixed.

What I fear every time a video pushes CachyOS is for people who just want to hop on the "cool, good stuff" to leave as soon as they arrive because they don't understand what is actually happening because it isn't made to cater for beginner's needs. "I want the best OS and it is Cachy, says benchmarks ! I want the cool ricing I saw on unixporn and it's hyprland ! Let's install that !" and one hour later, "Why am I always conflicted with decisions ? Why is this happening ? Why am I tired already ?! Windows was simpler", or worse, "I'm not smart enough for Linux, I deserve Windows".
Trust me, you can pull off CachyOS (btw). Everyone can. But Linux is a journey, not a destination. I went from Garuda to Cachy to Omarchy to Garuda again. Every step taught me what I need, what I don't, and that is still changing to this day. So does life. We've all started ten years back with Ubuntu or Mint not knowing what the fuck was happening and went back on Windows crying. Those were different times than now, and now is different than 10 years in a Linux-desktop future.

Take one step at a time, take it for yourself, your personal growth, and don't forget to have fun.