this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2024
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I use Bazzite (which is steam now but community maintained for more PCs) for my htpc and PopOS for my main PC, both play every game I can throw at it. Maybe it's time to try it out. I started with a windows dual boot and found myself using it less and less, until just a couple months ago I deleted windows completely
I would not recommend Bazzite to anyone who already complains about software tinkering in regular distros. Immutable distros are very much incompatible with a lot of shit - basically almost anything that is not in their regular repos or on Flathub, and it is an absolute pain in the ass to get those type of applications running on it.
I agree installing something that isn't super popular can be a bit harder on immutables. But I think especially on Bazzite the toolimg with distrobox is really good. And most non-technical users will probably find all they need as a flatpak anyway.
I recently tried Bazzite, and I have to agree. Switching from a traditional Linux distro to an immutable distro is harder than switching from Windows to Linux. I'm not kidding. When it comes to immutability, my experience can be split into two general cases:
I have yet to encounter a scenario where immutability offered a tangible benefit. The supposed advantages seem rather abstract. I can't break my system? Okay...but...well, I already had snapper for the rare occasions when something got royally borked. This is a problem that has already been solved without major compromises, so why are we now compromising so much to solve it again?
It comes with 4 different package management systems (or 6 if you count Distrobox and Waydroid), and they all come with big caveats. I've had to reboot more in the past week than I previously had in the past year on Debian, because every time I need to install something from the main Fedora repo with rpm-ostree (which has been many times already), it needs to reboot. They recommend against using rpm-ostree, but there is no reasonable alternative for a rather wide array of software. It's either rpm-ostree or build a whole mess of things from source and manage them manually. Both options suck very hard.
Still, overall, Bazzite delivers. Everything you see on their web site works out of the box. It's hard to recommend, but it's also hard to criticize. I've never had a smoother gaming experience, and this is the first time I've ever had to spend zero minutes configuring my GPU drivers (outside of macOS, anyway). You get CUDA and ROCm out of the box. You get the latest drivers. It's awesome.
If you're wondering if an immutable distro is right for you, the answer is probably "no". But if you're up for the, erm, "adventure" of learning this new paradigm, Bazzite fucking rocks.
Huh? ROCm is not working for me at all so far. I've tried to get it to work with Koboldcpp (which I have to build in a distrobox for it to even run, but then it only runs in software / cpu mode), tried LM Studio (which is easy to install, but again, no ROCm / gpu support detected), and I tried Krita's diffusion implementation (again, only cpu working). This and the fact that I can't get Mullvad to run are my biggest pet peeves so far.
Ironically, I decided to try it, despite my already existing skepticism beforehand, because TimeShift managed to break my post update broken system even further to the point where I couldn't figure out if it is even salvageable (definitely not for me though). I can't go back to Windows but I also still have not really found a good distro for me yet.
Hmm, I'll have to double-check it on my build. Pretty sure it was working, but it's possible I was only getting OpenCL or Vulkan acceleration. Out of curiosity, what's your GPU model? I think only the 7900XT[X] is officially supported for ROCm.
RX 6650 XT. And no, all RDNA 2 cards support ROCm. I literally had it running on my previous distro. Was a pain to install with all its dependencies and building the tools properly, since you often had to specify the model, but it was doable. On Bazzite it just seems impossible for me.
Seconded to Bazzite. I just installed it on my Steam Deck and I'm surprised at how well it works as a desktop too. Not actually planning on using it as a desktop though it's nice to know the option is there.