What is the best OS for gaming?

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Here’s the Deal

The 1 must play gameWhy?

Best OS for gaming	Price	Based On	Package Manager
92 Gentoo Linux	-	-	-
88 SteamOS	0	Debian	Debian Package Manager, Steam
-- Arch Linux	Free	Independent	Pacman
74 Manjaro Linux	-	Arch Linux	-
-- Recalbox	-	NA	Kodi

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23 Other Games Considered

SteamOS

Top Pro

Gamer-oriented development model

It is made to work and feel like a Console OS. See More

Top Con

Hard to use for Windows users

If you are using macOS, this SteamOS is familiar with certain systems and shell systems. However, Linux (macOS modified version) and Windows are completely different. You will also face difficult situations. If this happens, you need enough knowledge of Linux that you can fix it yourself. So I would not recommend this if you have never touched Linux. See More

CreativeVanapagan's Experience

I enjoy the steam USER INTERFACE more so than the EPIC GAME STORE. See More

Specs

See All Specs

Top Pro

Free

Like the most Linux Distributions it is available for free. See More

Top Con

Not universal

It is only made for Steam and it is a pain to add non-steam games to. See More

PerseveringPales's Experience

It is the best os for any gamer whether broke or pro as it supports an open-source Linux-based operating system for a pc build . Moreover, you have a chance to use the steam controller, which is definitely pro indeed lol... See More

Top Pro

For entertainment, it just works

What media center software do for videos, it does for games (and later videos). See More

Top Con

Old base

Some parts of the OS, like the kernel, are not up-to-date which can give your trouble if you have the latest hardware. See More

Top Pro

Linux Powered

SteamOS had Powered by Linux. Linux is a Lightweight or high performance Operating System. Which OS is Customizeful, and once you have linux technic, you can modify at kernel. See More

Top Con

Closed Source

Steam is closed software, the whole OS is also tied to Valves closed and commercial Steam platform. See More

Top Pro

Native graphics processor support

The OS has pre-installed drivers for nVidia, Intel and AMD graphics processors. See More

Top Con

Not built around the desktop experience

SteamOS is, first and foremost, meant to act as a gaming console - it doesn't ship with even some of the most basic applications, such as a file manager or image viewer. As a result, using SteamOS as your primary operating system would require a fair bit of work. See More

Top Pro

Can now run some Windows Games

Like Steam for Linux It has now a vulkan-based fork of WINE included that allows to run Windows games, with a tiny performance drop, on SteamOS. See More

Top Con

Still in beta

Top Pro

Vulkan oriented instead of DX12

Vulkan is a low-overhead, cross-platform 3D graphics and compute API. See More

Top Con

Extensive use of shared libraries

Shared libraries allow better performance if everything goes well, however if there are some issues or systemwide updates to some essential libraries, the whole system could either fail or some dirty hacks are required to make older applications/games work again. See More

Top Con

Still lacking many AAA games

The most game developers still focus PCs with the Windows OS. See More

See All

Arch Linux

Top Pro

A package for almost everything

If you need to install something, chances are someone in the Arch community has already made a package for it. This makes it incredibly easy for you to install and maintain all of the non-media content on your computer. See More

Top Con

Instability can be an issue

Sometimes you can have a surprise, but in most cases it can be fixed quickly. See More

Rempas's Experience

Arch is very customizable and at the same time the documentation (Arch Wiki) is second to none! It is very easy to customize it and make it fit your needs. The package manager is very powerful and easy to lean and use. The distro is overall much easier to lean and use compared to Gentoo but the binary-based packages may provide a worse performance that the source-based Gentoo packages where you create your own binaries which may matter for video games. My distro of choice for the last 3 years. See More

Specs

See All Specs

Top Pro

Rolling updates

Updating will keep the whole OS up to date (unlike Ubuntu/Debian/etc. where occasionally you will need to perform major version updates). See More

Top Con

Works only on x86_64

It is the only official supported instruction set of CPUs. See More

FriendlyVili's Experience

Most games get first-class support for Ubuntu, not Arch. See More

Top Pro

Low maintenance

To basically keep your Arch setup up and running, it takes very little to barely any maintenance. See More

Top Con

Manual install process

The installation requires a lot of manual intervention/decisions. See More

Top Pro

Incredibly easy to manage

Arch is very simple to maintain, backup and in rare cases repair and recover. For example, the manual to recover your boot manager is already in the install guide! See More

Top Con

Not for the faint of heart

You need to be very careful with updates. See More

Top Pro

Fast and simple package management

Pacman has performance advantages over apt-get and yum in both database operations (thanks to being written for speed) and download times (by virtue of using better mirrors than other distributions tend to select by default). There are also fewer default repositories to download from, and all package management is combined into one tool instead of being split into dpkg, apt-get, and apt-cache like on Debian distros. See More

Top Pro

Great for low performance hardware

Arch Linux works quite well with low performance hardware like netbooks. See More

Top Pro

Simple by design

Arch Linux is actually incredibly simple. It's really just a partition scheme, package manager, Linux kernel, file system, systemd and the bare minimum of utilities needed to easily set up your hardware. This makes it super simple to build your desired system using binary packages because there no bloat getting in your way when installing or configuring packages. See More

Top Pro

No need for external repos

The default and community repo of Arch Linux are so vast, that there is barely any need for additional software sources. And if there is, the additional software can be added to AUR, which results in the need actually growing the Arch repos. See More

Top Pro

Excellent documentation

Arch's goal of simplicity means there's usually one preferred way to get things done - through organized and well documented configuration files. This focus, combined with the community's recognition that configuration files can be intimidating, has resulted in excellent documentation that's accessible to newcomers, and very instructive about how Linux actually works. The documentation is often so thorough that, when searching for solutions to problems while using other distributions, such as with video card drivers, oftentimes you'll find the most effective solution in the Arch Linux wiki or on the forums. See More

Top Pro

Good overall system quality

QoL of Arch is generally good. You get something more consistent and doable in Arch then you would get with most other OSes. See More

Top Pro

As slim or copious as you want it

Arch keeps its core repositories slim and free of unnecessary dependencies. At first installation only a bare system is set up. You can easily get the other applications through the package manager. The repositories are nearly as full as those of Ubuntu, while they are often more up to date. That way you don't have to waste time with software you don't need or want. See More

Top Pro

Great hardware support

Out of the box Arch comes with great hardware support. See More

Top Pro

Excellent package management with the AUR

The AUR is a repository with a very extensive catalogue of build/install scripts that are contributed by users. While these scripts are inherently less secure than conventional packages maintained by a distro's authors, it's still way easier to verify the security of install scripts than it would be to write them yourself. It's very usefull. See More

Top Pro

Highly customizable

Tailor the system to your needs. See More

Top Pro

Flexible upgrades

Upgrade once a day, once a week, once a month,... three times a day... automate it, upgrade manually, add packages to the ignore list. Despite being rolling release Arch Linux lets you be flexible about your update policy. If distro repos moved forward, but you don't want to update, you can temporarily switch to Arch Linux Archive, which stores repo snapshots across time. Later, when you're ready to update, you switch back to bleeding edge. See More

Top Pro

Stripped down to the bone

Since its stripped down, it is fast and you don't have to deal with bloatware. This distro is barebones enough to make a new distro from. See More

Top Pro

Helpful for understanding how Linux is installed

Arch does not come with an automatic installation process. The user is expected to walk through the installation steps published on the Arch wiki. This is very useful if, later, something happens to the installation as the user will be more familiar with the foundational steps required to get a full blown Arch installation working. See More

Top Pro

Supports various desktop environments and window managers

Doesn't limit you in terms of desktop environments or graphical servers (X, Wayland). See More

Top Pro

Vast variety of use and purpose

With its vast repos, Arch offers tons of applications for all kinds of use. See More

Top Pro

Easier to review the distributions packages

Unlike other some distributions, it's super simple to review the packages you download on the official arch repos or arch user repository. See More

Top Pro

Great security out of the box

Even a default Arch setup offers great security with the minimum number of open ports and very little information on the system for outsiders. See More

Top Pro

Huge Repositories

Although Arch Linux only comes with around 10,000 packages, you can use the Arch User Repositories (AUR) which will add over 50,000 more packages. See More

Top Pro

An opportunity to improve

The process of learning to setup and use Arch will improve your skills with Linux and computers in general. See More

Top Pro

Support for a large variety of hardware

From latest wacom pads to obscure wireless cards in laptops Arch's hw support has been and continues to be good. It has worked on laptops where other leading distro's like debian/ mint/ ubuntu failed to detect and work with all hardware. See More

Top Pro

Helpful community

If searching through the wiki or the forums for any problems turns nothing, any question on the official forums, Arch subreddit or the IRC channel will be answered within minutes. There will probably be no hand-holding however, Arch users prefer to point anyone to a resource that may help them instead of trying to outright solve their problem in a forum thread. This is quite helpful for people who want to really learn how their system works but also for other people who may stumble in that thread considering how most problems don’t have a universal solution. See More

Top Pro

Ultimate mid-range OS for Tinkering

If you like to tinker with things and see how they work you don't get much better than arch linux unless you commit to building your own kernel and using flags manually when installing your packages. See More

Top Pro

Arch Linux Wiki

The Arch Linux Wiki is very useful not just for Arch Linux users, but for anyone who uses Linux. See More

Top Pro

No restrictive handholding, pure control over everything

Arch is mainly aimed at experienced Linux users, there is no hand-holding and not much in a way of UI elements when trying to install or tweak settings. See More

Top Pro

Experts working on the packages

Providers only provide the basic system and do a great job doing so. While with AUR people who actually use the packages, provide and maintain them. They CARE about making them work. See More

Top Pro

Highly reliable upgrades

Always works. No matter if you upgrade 7 or 700 packages. See More

Top Pro

Good for ricing for r/unixporn

Top Pro

Multilib support is just around the corner

Just uncomment the according entries in the pacman.conf. See More

Top Pro

Completely signed repos by default

Arch-based distros, or even Arch installers, often use unsigned repositories. See More

Top Pro

On average only 1 manual intervention needed a year now

The comments about issues with upgrades are over-exaggerated. Those comments assume that : A) They happen often, B) you are using a specific package with an issue, C) that package maintainers can't release a patch to the package that will work around the issue for you, and that D) Manual intervention or system recovery from such issues is hard to fix. On average once or twice a year a user may have to cut and paste some commands in the terminal to fix an issue, but that's about it. Additionally any system recovery required from such missed interventions is easy, just follow the wiki and make a live USB if your using a desktop or laptop. See More

Top Pro

Helpful 3rd-party installers

There are extremely helpful 3rd-party installers such as Anarchy Linux (Formerly Arch Anywhere). See More

See All

Manjaro Linux

Top Pro

Stable and consistently up to date

Manjaro receives regular updates, but more importantly these updates are stable. The updates are rolled out, which means you can easily update the software without needing to re-install. See More

Top Con

Bad way of handling dependencies

Manjaro is based on Arch Linux. Arch Linux and its derivatives have a bad way of handling dependencies. To handle dependencies, it installs a whole another program which contains the required dependencies. See More

FriendlyEtugenEke's Experience

Best Distro for Gaming, Has a graphical installer and some tweaks that Arch doesn't have. See More

Specs

See All Specs

Top Pro

Steam installed by default

Steam application added, making easy to find games. See More

Top Con

You can't change the default theme in certain applications

Although it is possible to change the default dark theme, this has no effect on Firefox, which appears to have the dark theme "hard coded". Hardened Linux pros may find a way to change this, but for the rest, it renders an otherwise nice distro a no-go. See More

RobustBorlung's Experience

It's as user-friendly as Ubuntu, high praise from me, and the AUR has let me install apps I had been using a long time on Ubuntu, which disappeared from the repos. I especially need Aqualung, the gapless music player, and several other apps (exfalso, pypar2, avidemux) on which I depend. I only wish I had moved over to Manjaro a few years ago. I have had problems running a couple of Steam games, CIV:BE and Torchlight II, but there were solutions for both. I do dual-boot with Ubuntu MATE 20.04 alpha, for those Steam games, and I might even try Arch on it! Ubuntu used to use the slogan, "Linux for human beings." Manjaro is "Arch for the rest of us." See More

Top Pro

Excellent graphical package manager (Pamac)

Features include: providing notifications of available updates; mirror management; AUR support (with the option to suppress unnecessary confirmations during the install process); update settings (frequency, whether to check for updates from the AUR, packages to ignore updates for); and a history of packages installed, updated, or removed (from the official repositories - AUR packages are not currently tracked). See More

Top Con

Bad Dependencies

This is similar to the mac0S experience in that you're not allowed to remove plank. See More

Top Pro

Based on Arch and user friendly

Manjaro is an Arch-based distribution with all the benefits of the Arch ecosystem and community but with the added benefit of being much more user-friendly than Arch. See More

Top Con

Slightly bloated

Top Pro

Installation is a breeze

Calamares installer and MHWD is the reason why this distribution is good for desktop user- friendliness! Audio codecs, latest packages,latest kernel and easy upgrade to the latest build makes it the best choice for new users. See More

Top Con

New packages and security updates are held for testing longer

Packages are usually about two weeks behind Arch's stable repository. While some urgent security updates are released as soon as they become available, other security updates are held for testing longer. See More

Top Pro

Arch User Repository access

Manjaro allows the user to access of the Arch User Repository, a very large user-maintained repository of packages for Arch Linux and derivatives. See More

Top Con

Weekly manual updates

Since it is rolling release, it needs updates nearly every week, which (though are checked for automatically) must be manually downloaded, confirmed and installed. That may annoy or scare off many new users. See More

Top Pro

Good documentation and forum

The Manjaro community is very helpful, and there are lots of tutorials. See More

Top Con

Calls itself "stable," but actually just holds Arch Linux repositories back for a week

Top Pro

Friendly community

If you ask questions of users in their forums or on other platforms, they are willing to help you. Also according to the developers, they are open to new ideas in order to make the distro better. See More

Top Con

Installation is extremely buggy

There's no easy way to switch from local keyboard layout if non-Latin installer language is selected. See More

Top Pro

Very good looking desktops

All desktops look good by default. See More

Top Con

Redundant

It's just Arch Linux with an easier installer so there is no reason to use it. See More

Top Pro

Deepin desktop environment is a worthy attraction

Top Con

It's Archbuntu

Top Pro

Manjaro provides its own distribution-specific tools such as the Manjaro Hardware Detection (mhwd) utility, and the Manjaro Settings Manager (msm)

Run automatically during the installation process, it allows for Manjaro to work fully on your system 'straight out of the box', without the need to manually identify and install the necessary drivers or to manually edit the appropriate configuration files. Also usable via the terminal after installation, the features of the mhwd command include: The choice of free (i.e. open-source) or non-free (i.e. proprietary) drivers Identification and listing (general or detailed) of your system's hardware Identification and listing (general or detailed) of installed drivers Listing of available drivers for installation (free and proprietary) Support of hybrid graphics cards (e.g. Nvidia Optimus) Easy removal and installation of drivers (selected automatically, or you can identify and choose your own) See More

Top Con

Imcompatible with Arch User Repository and archlinuxcn

Because Manjaro packages are not synced with Arch, using AUR or archlinuxcn could break dependencies. See More

Top Pro

Different editions to select from + Manjaro community

You can choose between different Manjaro editions which have their own change in features, and there is also Manjaro community editions where the community can make their own changes. See More

Top Con

Calls itself "stable," but actually just holds Arch Linux repositories back for a week

Top Pro

Uses low memory

By using Xfce or Plasma (or LXDE, Fluxbox, supported by community) as default desktop environments, Manjaro is able to have a low memory footprint. See More

Top Con

Bad dependencies

This is similar to the mac0S experience in that you're not allowed to remove plank. See More

Top Pro

All major desktops and even less common ones like Budgie, Lumina, LXQT, Deepin, Enlightenment, etc. can be directly installed from official repositories

Also available as independent variants. See More

Top Con

Nothing new

There is nothing new in Manjaro compared to any other Arch based distribution. See More

Top Pro

A rolling-release distribution

Manjaro uses a rolling release method for all updates, so once a system is installed, as long as the user regularly updates there is no need to re-install. See More

Top Con

Can still be unstable

Here are the details of it. See More

Top Pro

Improved stability due to a longer testing period for new packages

Packages from Arch's repositories are tested (about two weeks) longer for stability and compatibility issues. Patches are applied, when necessary, before being made available in the stable repositories. See More

Top Con

The Manjaro unstable repository is slow to sync with the Arch stable repository

The Manjaro unstable repository syncs with the Arch stable repository and if any package has moved, it gets moved to stable. Manjaro gets package updates a bit than Arch. See More

See All

Recalbox

Top Con

Needs the whole disk

There is no option to install the system in dual-boot with another OS on one hard disk drive. See More

Top Pro

Easy user interface

It has a simple and easy to use UI. See More

Specs

See All Specs

Top Con

Toxic community

If you're not French, they will make zero effort to help you. Switch to Batocera, their community is miles ahead from Recalbox. See More

Top Pro

Easy to configure

Almost all configuration are done via user interface. See More

Top Con

Performance

Average performance. See More

Top Pro

Custom Emulationstation built for recalbox

EmulationStation is customized to fit recalbox features, making the configuration a lot easier. See More

Top Con

Slow development

Development is slow and stability focused. See More

Top Pro

Stable

Focuses stability over performance/latest software versions. See More

See All

Pop!_OS

Top Pro

A separate NVIDIA version

Most linux distros seem to hate Nvidia's graphics cards e.g. Fedora and OpenSUSE. System76 have decided to be kind. They have decided to form a good relationship with Nvidia fans and Nvidia itself. By creating a separate installation media that is dedicated for providing support to Nvidia's graphics cards. Even going as far as putting Nvidia's driver updates on Pop!_Shop for users to easily access and install. See More

Top Con

64-bit only

Some older PCs still have 32 Bit processors. This limitation will be a major con for those who use an older PC since they will not be able to install, run it in a VM or live media See More

ReliableBritomartis's Experience

Gaming on the Pop!_OS hasn't been difficult. It's user-friendly and has a pop store where you can get the NVIDIA driver plus other apps similar to any app store. Lutris is a must, but I don't think that has to do with OS. Works fine just like windows, even a little better for me personally. See More

Specs

See All Specs

Top Pro

Pop! makes GNOME look really good

A theme reminiscent of Material design on Android comes as a default in Pop! OS. The desktop and title bars all use a bright turquoise theme that makes the interface feel happy and borderline retro-chic. It looks similar to something one would find printed on a ringer t-shirt. See More

Top Pro

Made by a hardware seller

System76 is a hardware company. It configures machines to ship with Linux pre-installed. This means its entire business model centers around delivering a quality desktop Linux experience. As a result, the company pours more attention onto the desktop. It can fix visual issues and may be able to provide a smoother overall experience than you would have installing a different version of Linux on your machine yourself. Providing Pop!_OS also empowers System76 to make certain fixes for users directly rather than having to coordinate with Canonical or the broader Ubuntu community. See More

Top Pro

Optimized for modern hardware

Whereas normally, to use a brand new computer with a Linux OS, there would be a need to try to use unstable and sometimes buggy drivers - or struggle without hardware support until a stable release comes along. See More

Top Pro

User-friendly installer

The visually appealing and easy to use installer makes dual booting as easy as it can be. See More

Top Pro

Ready to play games, out of the box

It is as easy to click-install and play games on Pop! as it is on a Windows machine. See More

See All

Windows 10

Top Con

Comes with bloatware preinstalled

It has many MS Store apps installed by default. Moreover, it updates them automatically even after they are uninstalled, then they come back whenever a bigger update or service pack gets installed, eg: the creator's update. See More

Top Pro

Supports all major Game APIs

DirectX, OpenGL, Vulkan, PhysX and OpenCL everything is available if your Hardware supports it. See More

Rempas's Experience

While it has the biggest support for the "industry standard" games, the Windows OS still remains Windows OS and should not be used for anything. On top of that, the OS itself been slow and bloated may result in some games running slower than they would on Linux (which is continuously getting better and better). Overall, I recommend against using any Microsoft product. See More

Specs

See All Specs

Top Con

Closed source

Developers don't have access to the source and Microsoft can't fix all the problems. See More

Top Pro

Widest range of games available

Every game that uses Windows is well supported, as there is no variation between one OS and another. Supporting one OS that uses the same framework and libraries across all devices is easier than developing for a fragmented OS, where the variation between one and another changes rapidly. Games developed for Linux usually follow a strict requirement for an old LTS and proprietary driver. If you don't, you're basically on your own. See More

AssertiveSeshat's Experience

more fps than linux and windows 8.1 , i install windows ghost spectre superlite se See More

Top Con

It advertises MS Store Apps in the start menu

However it is possible to turn it off. See More

Top Pro

Good compatibility with Windows 7 software

Both applications and drivers created for Windows 7 work well on Windows 10. See More

Hanike's Experience

Undeniably the platform with the widest range of games available today and also the best integration and adaptability. See More

Top Con

Collects a lot of user data and sends it Microsoft by default

By default Windows 10 gathers information related to contacts, location, calendar and input (text and touch). The process for opting out of all data collection efforts is both time consuming and requires a reasonable amount of technical know-how. See More

Top Pro

Xbox App for Windows 10 allows one to play with Xbox users

Windows 10 allows one to seamlessly play with Xbox gamers - not all games, but enough. See More

CuriousSarruma's Experience

Its lite version is best for gaming but security is very low which is a huge problem See More

Top Con

Forced updates on Home and Pro versions

Since Microsoft has a checkered past in regard to Windows updates, many people worry that a bad patch might break applications, drivers, peripherals or even brick their computers. See More

Top Pro

Steam's best buddy

The best place & integration for the Steam library of games & software and SteamOS is still under development. See More

CommunicativeFuxi's Experience

best See More

Top Con

Start menu lacks expected customization options

It's not possible to cascade menus, pin files, locations or apps to the list (it's possible to pin apps to the live tile section) or add custom menus. See More

Top Pro

Game mode

(Introduced in Creators Update) Dedicates games more GPU cycles and CPU threads. Works for all games. See More

RespectfulAnnaPerenna's Experience

Too many bugs from downloads and I do not trust any program that removes antivirus that better than windows defender which in my experience rates about 5th from the worse . See More

Top Con

No guest accounts

Windows 10 lacks the ability to set up guest accounts. See More

Top Pro

Rolling

It will always update to the latest versions. See More

DaringSpandaramet's Experience

very slow at handling games and apps, keep getting a not responding mesage See More

Top Con

Tablet mode is a pain to use

The tablet mode of Windows 10 has many issues compared to other major tablet operating systems like Android, for example: 1.) In the tablet mode the desktop is replaced by the Windows 10 start menu 1.1.) As there is no Desktop there is no proper launcher to start your apps so you always have to open that windows 10 start menu... 2.) Virtual keyboard often don't come up automatically(you need to click on the keybord icon near the systray to bring it up) 2.1.) If the keyboard is docked and comes up it will lay over the window and if(like here on slant) the entry box is on the bottom of the page it will lay over that box so you have to manually undock the keyboard and move it to any other border which of course breaks other options like scrolling a page etc. 2.2.) Virtual keyboard and virtual touchpad have no customization options so you can't make them bigger or smaller etc. See More

Top Pro

Returns to a more familiar style start bar unlike Windows 8

BrightKisshoten's Experience

Windows 10 Home/Pro is the best for gaming! Especially when paired with a GeForce GTX and a Intel Core i3 or better. See More

Top Con

Expensive

License costs a lot and a lifetime product will not be granted - only a limited time license is received that allows one to activate and use it. See More

Top Pro

Better than all the other Windows versions

It's better than all the previous versions (yes even Windows 7). See More

TolerantCinteotl's Experience

You have the widest range of software, it is better closed source as it can reward more people than just let people use it. See More

Top Con

Reset on major update

On every major update it would remove/overwrite some customization settings. See More

Top Pro

Built-in support for VPNs

A VPN connection can be established from the "Change Virtual Private Network" panel. Quickest way to access the panel is by searching for "VPN" in the start menu. See More

AffableTatenen's Experience

Provides better driver support and run all of the games you love. It also features Game Mode which optimizes CPU and GPU for better Perfomarnce when gaming. Supports a huge amm See More

Top Con

Owned by Microsoft

Owned by one of the most evil companies know to mankind See More

Top Pro

Great backwards compatibility

It is possible to run applications that were created 25 years ago. See More

Maciej Wakula's Experience

You need to pay a lot of money to be allowed to use it - and you are not buying this forever (I have a dozen of Windows XP disks which are no longer usable as the OS can be no longer activated). It supports many applications and is continuously being improved - new features from other OSes are being added. I avoid this OS whenever I can. Unfortunately it has a locked ecosystem and under some circumstances you would need to use it or, at least, use multiple operating systems. See More

Top Con

Windows Defender is not that good nor that garbage

Windows Defender is decent but it lacks some of other components that other antivirus software have. See More

Top Pro

User friendly

Nash Lab's Experience

Windows 10 is the most widespread software, so, allot of apps and other things are mainly made for Windows. If you were to get a Mac, already there, many games are no longer available. If you have linux, close to no games are for it, HOWEVER, Steam is placing in a software to run ANY steam game on Linux. So, Windows is diffinately better since it is the most used for gaming, and there is allot for it. See More

Top Con

Gamer black screen of death and game blocking

Older games do not work due to the black screen, some older games are blocked by an update. Remove update and restart PC, the game will then load and work fine (securerom issue). if this issue gets googled, there will be information on what update to remove, afterwards just block it from updates. See More

Top Pro

Free (kind of)

There is no time limit if it is not activated, the watermark will also never be visible if the explorer shell is replaced with the cairo shell or steam big picture. See More

DynamicTantalus's Experience

Every update breaks something Windows 10 October Update version 1809 File deleting bugs, unable to set win32 apps as defult, Intel HD Graphics drivers are losing their sound. And windows media player broken in last cumulative update! Don't Roll the Dice. See More

Top Con

AMD64 only

The 32-bit version is not available anymore since 2020, however, it is not really a big deal since all CPUs of the last decade were based on AMD's 64-bit architecture (AMD64/x86_64). See More

Top Pro

Closed Source

The Security issues stay hidden since nobody is able to inspect the code, MS rewards people or companies who find a security issues. See More

Top Con

Certain games don't run well

Some games have differences here. Most notable is Minecraft, Minecraft here is "Bedrock" edition, instead of "Java". Which means more paying involved, and other stuff that isn`t as good as playing on a different OS. See More

Top Pro

Free upgrade for users on older Windows versions

Top Con

It is good just for Xbox ( MS Store) games

Steam users have to reinstall drivers and even Steam App and their entire games after almost every Windows update. If not, there will be stability problems or the games will not start. See More

Top Pro

It comes with the computer

Microsoft has anticompetitive deals with the manufacturers, so most people pay for the license without even knowing. It is the best OS for someone who doesn't know and doesn't want to learn how to install literally any other system on their machines. See More

Top Pro

DirectX 12

The newest version of Microsoft’s DirectX application programming interface, which handles visual and other multimedia tasks on Windows-based systems. See More

See All

Debian GNU/Linux

Top Pro

A lot of ways to install software

You can either use aptitude, apt or apt-build to install software from the Debian package archives. See More

Top Con

Ridiculous package splitting

Even though it makes sense to split devel and the actual binary of an application, the splitting has become as mess in debian and its derivates: for example the nvidia driver is splitted into over 40 different packages: https://packages.debian.org/en/source/sid/nvidia-graphics-drivers See More

Specs

See All Specs

Top Pro

Install and forget

Once installed you can almost forget about it and start to use your desktop for your daily tasks. See More

Top Con

Buggy and non-user friendly

You need to know almost as much as Arch and deal with documentation not as good as the Arch wiki in order for Debian to work. See More

Top Pro

Rolling or Release based

Every Debian release can either use a Rolling or Release based model. See More

Top Con

Not designed for general desktop usage

By default, Debian Stable is not that great of a distro for general desktop usage, since the packages are very outdated. You'll have to spend a while configuring the system in order to make it work. See More

Top Pro

Great for gaming

As Debian is the base for SteamOS and because Ubuntu is based on it, it's almost certain that all Linux games will run properly and require no hacks like creating symbolic links because of some hardcoded paths. See More

Top Con

No choices

Debian basically doesn't give you any choices, even dpkg supports this feature with virtual packages: for example, it is very hard to use a different sound system than ALSA, like OSS4 or to use ALSA with pulse audio emulation, and the same goes for different init systems. See More

Top Pro

Big open-source project

The Debian project is the biggest open source project with over 5000 active contributors. See More

Top Con

Internal quarrels harm the project

Instead of working all together to provide the best Operating System, some maintainers are just ignorant and aggressive to new ideas or new maintainers. That led to many crises and controversy in Debian's history. See More

Top Pro

Easy to find help with any problem

Debian is one of the oldest and most popular distros out there. Debian's popularity means that you will always be able to find a solution for your problem just by searching on Google, or if by chance nobody has had the problem you are having it's very easy to ask the community and quickly get a solution. See More

Top Con

No default support for non-free hardware

Non-free hardware will not work upon install of Debian and the user will need to search out the correct non-free software to install in order to make them work. This can be difficult if one of the things not working is the WiFi connection. See More

Top Pro

Standard vanilla Linux desktop

Debian runs standard Gnome, XFCE, KDE - it doesn't use its own special desktop environment, which means that users benefit from the work of the whole Linux community, Debian developers can focus on the distribution itself, and any support for your desktop environment on other distributions should work on Debian as well. See More

Top Pro

Wide choice of hardware platforms

Debian has the widest choice of hardware platforms, including: amd64, armel, armhf, i386, ia64, kfreebsd-i386, kfreebsd-amd64, mips, mipsel, powerpc, sparc, s390, s390x, source, multi-arch. See More

Top Pro

Unique release cycle

The most Linux distros have one or two stages before a release, but Debian has five before a new stable version is released (experimental > unstable > testing > code-freeze/bug hunting > stable). See More

Top Pro

Wide choice in desktop environments

Debian offers stable and testing CD images specifically built for GNOME (the default), KDE Plasma Workspaces, Xfce and LXDE. Less common window managers such as Enlightenment, Openbox, Fluxbox, GNUstep, IceWM, Window Maker and others can also be installed. See More

Top Pro

Supports SecureBoot

You don't have to disable SecureBoot if you use it, which is useful for LiveUSB or dualboot setups. See More

Top Pro

Debconf

Depending how it is configured debconf does the most of the hard work for you and only asks you with configuration /file conflicts. See More

Top Pro

Widely supported

Almost any software that is available for Linux provides a Debian package. See More

Top Pro

The Debian Social Contract

Guaranteed commitment to adherence to values, principles, priorities, requirements and guidelines by the Debian project. See More

Top Pro

Comes with over 37,500 packages

Because of its popularity, Debian has a lot of applications available which range from productivity programs to business software, games and development tools. It comes with over 37,500 packages (software that is precompiled and ready to be installed on a local machine) -- all of them for free. See More

Top Pro

Very stable

Debian has a Stable branch, where packages are thoroughly tested before release. Furthermore Debian is know to be the definition of stable when it comes to production systems. See More

Top Pro

Live install images for CDs, DVDs and USB thumb drives

Debian releases live install images for CDs, DVDs and USB thumb drives, for the i386 and amd64 architectures, and with a choice of desktop environments. These Debian Live images allow the user to boot from a removable media and run Debian without affecting the contents of their computer. See More

Top Pro

Well-working team

The developer works very well so the code is one of the best written out there. See More

Top Pro

Highly secure system

Known for being consistent in maintaining a highly secure system. Several other popular distros use Debian as a base or core for their own Linux OS, the security being one of the main factors why it's so commonly used. See More

Top Pro

Strict separation of non-free software

Debian is one of the few distros that let the user choose if he wants a free system or not. See More

Top Pro

TUI installer

The Debian installer can still be launched as text/curses-like installer which is more compatible and keyboard-friendly than the graphical version. See More

Top Pro

Standard archives

Debs are normal ar and tar archives with shell scripting and additional gz, bz, lzma or xz compression. See More

Top Pro

A real installer

Unlike other distributions that just extract their Live image, Debian offers a real traditional and modular installer to customize the installation. See More

Top Pro

Apt-build

It is possible to rebuild the entire system and optimize it for your hardware (of course it is not as detailed as Gentoo's USE flags). See More

Top Pro

Comes with over 55.500 packages

Because of its popularity, Debian has a lot of applications available which range from productivity programs to business software, games and development tools. It comes with over 55.500 packages (software that is precompiled and ready to be installed on a local machine) -- all of them for free. See More

Top Pro

Many ports

Debian supports almost any Kernel maintained CPU instructions set. It has also a few non Linux Ports. See More

See All

Solus

Top Pro

Fast Dev Response

The Solus team has great customer service and will create rapid solutions. See More

HumbleSors's Experience

stupid os See More

Specs

See All Specs

Top Pro

Responsive

System boots quickly and stays responsive. Does what operating system should do, and does it really well. See More

Top Pro

Modern desktop environment

The default desktop environment used by Solus is called Budgie and is quite nice and minimalistic. See More

Top Pro

Easy installation

The installation procedure for this distribution is quite simple. It's GUI based and all you have to do is to follow the instructions given by the installation window itself. See More

Top Pro

Rock-solid Distro

Very stable and well curated. See More

Top Pro

Well curated software

The software is well curated in the repos, you have access to flatpaks and snaps, so virtually, all the software you'll ever need is there for you. See More

Top Pro

Seamless Packages

It may not have the most obscure packages, but the packages it does have is a good number of everything a Linux user needs. Gamers, developers, desktop users, etc. all have the necessary packages and then some. The packages themselves are integrated perfectly and are very well updated. See More

Top Pro

Lightening fast boot time

Top Pro

Default experience is clean and easy

The default desktop experience on the Budgie version is very clean and streamlined. Although the Budgie DE isn't the most customisable, but it's customisable enough for me to recreate the desktop style of ElementaryOS with the dock and bar at the top. See More

Top Pro

Friendly towards proprietary codecs, firmware and drivers.

So you won't have to enable PPAs or extra repos for that. See More

Top Pro

Most stable Rolling Release Distro

Top Pro

Rolling Release Model

Wich means you don't have to suffer from version to version updates that can break it. See More

Top Pro

Great package management

The software center makes it really easy to install the latest software through Snappy and Flatpak. Including third party software. See More

Top Pro

Exclusively for desktop systems

Top Pro

Stable

The system itself is very stable. All packages in the repository seem to be carefully picked, well prepared and run stable. See More

Top Pro

Rolling release

See All

Android

Top Con

Android does not have the best reliability

Android products might appeal to the more technically capable, people prepared to invest in considering their product, who like a particular device form factor and / or who already use a lot of Google’s online product suite. See More

Top Pro

Open source

The AOSP (Android Open Source Project) is the software stack for the Android OS. It is led by Google. The fact that Android is open source software has led to many custom Android variants. It also is a big assurance of Android's safety in terms of privacy and transparency. See More

Specs

See All Specs

Top Con

Fragmentation and security flaws due to negligence

Most Android phones seem to be released on a "Let's release a few software updates until we release the next phone, and never push out an update again." For example, In May 2014, 8.5% of phones were Kitkat, 60.8% were spread out between three versions of jellybean (with bias towards older versions), and the another 20% spread out over ICS, Honeycomb, Gingerbread, and Froyo. Google no longer maintains Android 4.3 or prior and serious security exploits remain in those versions. Device manufacturers are also taking no action, which leaves almost a billion Android users exposed. You may also encounter lingering and unfixed bugs, glitches, etc. as a result of the manufacturer's and Google's lack of interest in older versions. Some flagship phones are well supported into the future, but the fact that your phone won't be supported by its manufacturer and/or Google is a consideration you must make when purchasing an Android phone. See More

Top Pro

Allows the user to easily turn off system-wide notifications

This is great, especially for all those free to play games which constantly send notifications that appear in the notification bar nagging users to play the game; as all notifications can be turned off on a per app basis. See More

Top Con

You can't play most of the Windows games

Top Pro

Customize what apps perform what actions

Android gives users the ability to define which apps perform which action. For example, if an Android device has several browsers installed, the user can choose a default one which will start every time a link is for example opened from another app. See More

Top Con

Difficult to find quality games

Due to the surge of in-app purchased filled games that are low quality efforts it can be troublesome to find worthwhile hardcore games. See More

Top Pro

Console gaming with available set top boxes

Google, Nvidia and a few other manufacturers have created TV set top boxes powered by Android Lollipop that allow one to game on their telivisions. Basically an Android console with a wide selection of games. See More

Top Con

App permission issues

Any users from Android M onward are not affected by this issue. Permissions are only granted via a pop-up when the app requests. The application permission system used requires requesting access to more user data than should be needed to run an app. For example, in order to enable matchmaking in games the app needs access to contacts list. Additionally, since Google doesn't enforce requesting only the permissions necessary for an app to function, a culture of requesting permissions that aren't in any way needed for the app to function has emerged. See More

Top Pro

Great user experience right out of the box

Top Con

Most preinstalled distributions are not open source

Although the AOSP exists, your phone is most likely running a proprietary apps like the GApps or manufacturer specific applications. See More

Top Pro

Customizable multiple "desktops"

Can customize the home screens with widgets (not just a grid of apps like iOS). See More

Top Con

Custom variations of Android are usually not open

Manufacturers tend to tinker with stock Android to make it work on their phones/hardware and most of these "custom" variations are not open source. See More

Top Pro

Cheap phones are available

Android phones can cost as little as $100. See More

Top Con

Most devices are on outdated versions

Even though the latest version is Android R, most devices are still on older versions such as Q and Pie. See More

Top Pro

Security updates

Android does frequent updates to keep users secure. See More

Top Con

Difficult to use for pro audio

Android M paired with newer devices are getting audio latency down to 20 milliseconds or less, which is great compared to previous Android versions, however is still slower than Apple's 7ms on the iPhone 4S - a 4 year old phone. There are almost no professional audio tools available for Android because the latency was way too slow for professional audio creation, but perhaps now that Android isn't so far back we will start to see a few options come to Android. See More

Top Pro

Built-in screen recording

Android 11 (R) introduced a native app for screen recording. Android 5.0.+ supports screen recording via a new API. Android 4.4 KitKat supports screen recording accessible via an ADB command on unrooted devices. See More

Top Con

Wide variety of phones forces variance in quality

While there are many great Android phones, there are also many Android phones that lack in both hardware and software. When purchasing Android phones, a consumer might want to do some research first - especially when buying on a budget. Not only do you have to worry about shotty hardware or poor quality testing, manufacturers tend to tinker with the software on phones. More often than not this leads to poor performance, unintuitive 'features', slower (or complete lack of) updates, and custom software that detracts from the user's experience. See More

Top Pro

Consistent back button makes navigation easy

Top Pro

The most widely used mobile OS

For Android, the current market share is approximately above 70%. See More

Top Pro

Personal assistant with Google Now

Google Now is an intelligent personal assistant available within the Google Search mobile application for the Android and iOS operating systems. It's software that makes your life more convenient by giving you all the information you need at any moment. See More

Top Pro

Accessibility

Built in text to speech is provided by TalkBack for people with low or no vision. Enhancements for people with hearing disabilities are available as are other aids. See More

Top Pro

More integrated sharing options

Top Pro

Desktop and lockscreen widgets

Desktop widgets provide quick access to the information you need quickly and access the most. These are available out of the box, and can be developed by anyone. Widgets on the lockscreen have been removed since the Lollipop update, but is available on 3rd party lockscreens such as AC Display and KK Locker. See More

Top Pro

Highly customizable

One of the massive benefits of Android being open-sourced are all the modifications you can make to the phone to customise pretty much anything. Some of the cooler things you can do are: Replace the entire operating system with a custom ROM. Replace the keyboard. Change the home screen launcher. Change the lock screen. See More

Top Pro

Integration with Google Services

For those that already use Google's services, like Google Maps and GMail, Android offers tighter integration with those services than any of the alternatives, and saves users the need to create extra accounts. See More

Top Pro

Lots of hardware choices

There are about 18000 released devices that run on Android. This means that a user familiar with Android can have a large variety of devices from which they can choose. See More

See All

Deepin

Top Pro

Excellent apps

Having Deepin installed also means you have thousands of quality apps to choose from. The apps which come with installation will suit your needs to browse the Internet, listen to music, watch videos, talk with friends, editing documents or simply any task you want to do at home or in your office. See More

Top Con

Made for the desktop

It is made to showcase the deepin desktop and not for gaming or customization. See More

PrudentHarmonia's Experience

im a very big fan of linux distros like debian(normally based on the gnome interface) or ubuntu(based on the kde interface i think), but the best that i know about is deepin, the ui design, excellent gpu support+drivers, the apps avalible and a lot more (ive been using deepin for 4 years) See More

Specs

See All Specs

Top Pro

Best for daily use

Top Con

Slow default repos

Download speed for packages from the default repos is abnormally slow. See More

Top Pro

Great support for graphics cards

Deepin OS includes a program called "Deepin Graphics Driver Manager" which can easily install a good driver for the graphics card. See More

Top Pro

Easy to use

It's very easy to use. You can easily uninstall a program by going to the menu then right-clicking on the preferred app and selecting "Uninstall" option. See More

Top Pro

Has its own toolkit

It has its own toolkit called "Deepin Tool Kit". And the maintainers themselves use it. See More

Top Pro

Enjoy the simplicity of Deepin's desktop

The desktop interface and apps feature an intuitive and elegant design. Moving around, sharing and searching, etc. has become simply a joyful experience. See More

Top Pro

Great design to the app store

The app store is gorgeous. See More

Top Pro

Exciting applications

It has some exciting applications, such as Deepin Graphics Driver Manager which can easily change between free and proprietary drivers without any issue. See More

Top Pro

Based on Debian

It is based on Debian which is the best Linux distribution for desktops. See More

Top Pro

Easy to install

Installing Deepin OS is very easy. Even easier than installing Ubuntu! See More

Top Pro

Company behind it

The Wuhan Deepin Technology is behind this Linux distribution. See More

Top Pro

Blur and transparent design

Deepin has a blur and transparent design throughout the OS, which makes it one of the most beautiful Linux distros. See More

Top Pro

Launches programs faster

Programs load and launch faster in Deepin than other Linux distributions. It takes only about 3 seconds to launch Chrome. See More

Top Pro

Well-designed in every detail, developers have a professional aproach to the system

Deepin has a sane default set of apps including custom apps of their own design that gives the distro a very consistent look and feel. By working with the community on these tools as well as custom translations there is a great sense of polish when using it that is not often seen when using such a new desktop environment. See More

Top Pro

Lighter than Windows 10 and Ubuntu

Deepin 15.7 is lighter than Windows 10 and Ubuntu. See More

Top Pro

VLC media player works without any issue

In some cases, VLC media player has some problems with Ubuntu or Ubuntu-based Linux distros. That isn't the case with Deepin. See More

Top Pro

Automatically cleans package cache

Deepin automatically cleans package cache. Cleaning package cache is a good thing as it will make the OS much faster and lighter. See More

Top Pro

Can be made to look like Windows easily

By default, Deepin looks kinda like macOS but it can be made to look like Windows by right-clicking on the dock and changing the mode from "Fashion Mode" to "Efficient Mode". See More

Top Pro

Very stable

Even though it is based on Debian unstable, it is still pretty stable and you will hardly ever get a dependency issue. See More

Top Pro

Rolling release

It is a rolling release Linux distribution which is quite popular these days. See More

Top Pro

Includes both Windows and macOS style interface

Top Pro

Ability to use Windows programs using PlayOnLinux

If you have windows apps/games, then you can install this app from the store. It has great features and excellent optimization. See More

Top Pro

Quite lightweight

Deepin 15.7 is lighter than Windows 10 and Ubuntu. See More

Top Pro

Seemless transition form Windows to Linux

Easy to install, comes with default packages to typical needs e.g. Chrome, WPS office, System Monitor and a bunch of multimedia utilities. Its easy to install and uninstall applications, it has a great app store and is fast. On same laptop run much faster than Windows 10 did. See More

Top Pro

Not based on Ubuntu

Some people don't like Ubuntu nor its derivatives. See More

Top Pro

Comes with CrossOver pre-installed

Deepin is a huge supporter of Codeweavers CrossOver. So, it includes CrossOver pre-installed. Nevertheless, it's NOT a trial version. And with CrossOver, you can easily install and use Windows programs See More

Top Pro

Supports Flatpak

Deepin OS supports Flatpak. It also has some Flatpak programs installed by default. See More

Top Pro

Steam pre-installed

Top Pro

Gives warning messages when upgrading packages using apt

Deepin uses their own modified version of apt. When there is a distribution upgrade available and if we try to upgrade by running "sudo apt upgrade", then this modified version of apt gives this warning message, "DDE programs will work abnormally if run this command. Run sudo apt dist-upgrade or sudo apt full-upgrade instead." See More

Top Pro

Includes a lot of packages in the official repository

The official repository of deepin OS includes over 73,000 packages. See More

See All

Arch Linux Testing

Top Pro

Bleeding Edge support

Despite the negative connotations that come with bleeding edge software, Arch is quite stable, and new updates allow for some of the best support for game compatibility, notable when using Wine, and Steam Play/Proton. See More

VaporOS

Lakka

Top Pro

Different interfaces for different scenarios

Some interfaces like rgui makes the OS possible to run fine even in the Raspberry Pi 1st gen. See More

Top Con

Needs the whole Disk

There is no option to install the system in dual-boot with another OS on one hard disk drive. See More

Jordan Fischer's Experience

Its the best for gaming, but gaming only. It turns the system into a console basically. So it is the best, but only if you don't want to use it for anything else. See More

Specs

See All Specs

Top Pro

Built on top of RetroArch

It's based on RetroArch OS See More

Top Con

Terrible user interface

The interface includes various submenus which makes it very hard to use. See More

Top Pro

Cores (emulator support) can be downloaded via interface

It's easy to add new emulators, even if you compile them yourself. See More

Top Pro

Good support for controllers

Most controllers are configured automatically. See More

See All

macOS

Top Con

Closed source

Mac OS is closed source itself, which means that it is developed more slowly and has more problems. See More

Top Pro

Polished UI

The UI of Mac OS is rather unrivaled. The smooth, responsive, and cohesive UI makes the system quite joyous to use. See More

Specs

See All Specs

Top Con

Too little customization options

Top Pro

Based on Unix

macOS being a UNIX certified system means that one can install a lot more stuff with a lot fewer headaches than if they were on Windows. See More

Top Con

Expensive

OSX is tied Apple hardware and Apple hardware tends to be expensive for what it gives. See More

Top Pro

Has software that only runs on Mac

For example, Sketch. See More

Top Con

Poor application support

Fewer apps run on Mac OS than on Windows or Linux. See More

Top Pro

Using VMware one can also run Windows 10 on the Mac

This is useful for testing and some development tools that are Windows-only (XML Spy, MapForce). See More

Top Con

Limited hardware

Usually, the hardware that can run this can't be upgraded. See More

Top Con

Vendor-Lock-in

One is forced to use the Apple services. See More

Top Con

Most software is closed source

For people who like to use open source tools for their development work, this may be a problem. There's plenty of advantages to open source software, one of which is the ability to tinker with and customize the tools themselves that you are using. Although there's plenty of FOSS tools available for Mac, especially through Homebrew, the number of packages available is much lower than the number of packages available for any Linux distribution. See More

Top Con

Silly modifier keys layout

The Command key is strange, Alt is where Super should be. See More

Top Con

Touchbar on Macbook Pro's

Top Con

Very few options for running are hosted on the cloud

Top Con

No native package management

A comparison of package managers available for OSX can be found here. See More

Top Con

Bash version is obsolete

MacOS comes with an obsolete version of Bash, due to licensing issues. See More

Top Con

Not very user-friendly

Top Con

Poor X11 integration

The most open source software does work but is very poorly integrated due Apple's ancient version of the X-server. See More

See All

Batocera

Top Con

Buggy

There are still many bugs. See More

Top Pro

virtualization and emulation combined in this OS

I'd recommend this to intermediate Linux users. See More

TactfulRaetTawy's Experience

Retro gaming with emulation perfect for old pc or old laptops Love to be able to play the Super Mario I used to play on tv with a console. See More

Specs

See All Specs

Top Con

Not for customizers

You can mess with the underlying software and code, but it's not so easily accessed. Since it's designed for user friendliness and ease of use, the software is not easy to change based on configuration options. See More

Top Pro

Wide array of features

Batocera supports more features (like nVidia streaming) that competitors do not. See More

Top Con

Needs the whole disk

There is no option to install the system in dual-boot with another OS on one hard disk drive. See More

Top Pro

User-friendly

All options are right there in the EmulationStation menu and ready to be changed at the click of a button. No distorted configuration files all over the place, no permissions to mess with. See More

See All

Nobara

Add Video or Image

Ubuntu LTS

Top Pro

Most users are already familiar with it

Ubuntu is the go-to Linux distro for most people, so there is a sense of familiarity and comfort in using something they have used before. See More

Top Con

Outdated

LTS has very, very old core packages. See More

MotivatedShulmanu's Experience

I love to love it See More

Top Pro

Lots of support

As the most popular Linux distribution, there's a wide range of sources for support online if you ever need help, including the Ubuntu Wiki, Ubuntu Forums and the Ask Ubuntu Stack Exchange site. See More

Top Con

Relatively high system requirements

The default Unity desktop environment is a resource hog which requires hardware accelerated graphics rendering in order to run smoothly, making out of the box Ubuntu unsuitable for low-end and older systems. Even mildly aged hardware, you'll get far better performance out of a lighter desktop environment like LXDE or XFCE. See More

Top Pro

Good PPA repositories available

PPA repositories allow you to install the latest version of your preferred software while keeping the rest of the operating system "stable". See More

See All

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Gentoo Linux

Top Pro

Can by optimized to any given CPU by using proper compile flags

Since everything is being built on your PC you can fine-tune the code to make use of your CPU. And all it requires is two lines of string variables in a global config. See More

Top Con

Since everything must be compiled it takes a lot longer to update

And if you have to update the kernel or some heavy software like Chromium it can takes hours if not more on weaker hardware. See More

Rempas's Experience

While I love Arch Linux, Gentoo probably wins when it comes to play games. Unless you play older games or you have the best hardware available (and update every year), probably every cycle matters and that's why Gentoo's package manager matters. Been able to build software yourself and get the most out of them is the best experience when you want to play games. The only negative thing with Gentoo is that opposed to Arch which is super easy to install, Gentoo is much harder and it actually requires you to learn a lot of thing to properly use its package manager. Also, when building software from source, you must also wait for the software to compile and this may take some minutes for some packages. See More

Top Pro

Full control of the software

You build the package from a source you can see and read. You decide which features you want to build in and which aren't needed. You can choose build options, optimisation and whatever else fancy stuff you want modified. With a binary distribution this simply isn't possible. See More

Top Con

Not beginner-friendly

You have to read a lot of instructions to start, even if you are familiar with Linux. Furthermore, as you have to configure the kernel and init system, expect some boot failures at beginning. See More

PowerfulNehebkau's Experience

Gentoo is fun to play with. Don't expect to use it for your main OS, though. See More

Top Pro

Fully customizable

The usage of advanced features like USE flags makes it more customizable than any binary distribution. See More

Top Con

Will not work with every game

Top Pro

A very large collection of software is available

There are more than 19.000 packages available in the official repository. And even more with overlays. See More

Top Con

Too hard

Top Pro

Doesn't need a USB ISO for installation

Since Gentoo is a source-based Linux distribution, you don't necessarily need to have Gentoo's ISO for installation. You can use your previous distro's ISO and still follow the handbook for installation. See More

Top Con

No default installer

Installation must be done manually by following instructions in the handbook. See More

Top Pro

Great for anyone who is serious about learning the intricacies of Linux

It's useful for both beginners and professionals. For the installation, Gentoo offers various types, which are referred to as stages. Basically meaning how in depth you would want to go into the process of installation. For beginners it's useful to choose for a starting distro due to its various stages that can be very time consuming but beneficial as you learn the composition in general of Linux. See More

Top Con

Somewhat outdated solutions

While being outdated per se is virtually impossible for a rolling-release distro with a large community, a large portion of said community sticks to outdated solutions. For example, Gentoo's primary init system is OpenRC, which is cumbersome and awkward to use and provides little control over the system. While you can just choose systemd, it will require some tinkering. Other examples include stubbornly declaring an initramfs a last resort and an "oh my god 1337 H4XX0RZ surely have nothing better to do than trying for a month to exploit some vulnerability to steal my pony art, I have to fortify so hard my performance and ease of use will suffer" 90s security mentality. Because of just how much freedom Gentoo provides you with, this usually isn't a big deal though. See More

Top Pro

Portage's emerge is powerful

Portage is a package management system with a huge amount of options and features. See More

Top Con

Customized package installation can take a long time and cause installation failures

The Gentoo package management system allows you to configure what compilation flags packages should support - i.e. specific processor flag support (SSE, SSE2, etc.), -O1, -O2, -O3 optimization, etc. If you accept one of the default flags, Gentoo downloads binaries from the server. However, if you decide to optimise, it can and will download all source packages and start compiling allthe programs and libraries on your system. If your chosen flags don't work with a particular library, installation will fail. See More

Top Pro

Can be officially systemd-free

Gentoo's default init system is OpenRC. Gentoo also officially supports systemd-free Gnome and udev. Users are free to choose any init system they want. See More

Top Pro

Freedom

You are free to do whatever you want with it. As a result, its configuration reflects your unique taste and personality. See More

Top Pro

Gentoo does not impose a standard look-and-feel

Top Pro

Portability

There are many architectures available for Gentoo : i386, x86-64, PowerPC, PowerPC 64, sparc, DEC Alpha, ARM, MIPS, PA-RISC, S390, IA-64, sh, m68k. See More

Top Pro

Documentation and community are second to none

Provides a whole handbook to refer to during setup and usage. See More

See All

The 1 must play gameWhy?

My Recommendation for Gentoo Linux

My Recommendation for Gentoo Linux

Can by optimized to any given CPU by using proper compile flags

Since everything must be compiled it takes a lot longer to update

Full control of the software

Not beginner-friendly

Fully customizable

Will not work with every game

A very large collection of software is available

Too hard

Doesn't need a USB ISO for installation

No default installer

Great for anyone who is serious about learning the intricacies of Linux

Somewhat outdated solutions

Portage's emerge is powerful

Customized package installation can take a long time and cause installation failures

Can be officially systemd-free

Freedom

Gentoo does not impose a standard look-and-feel

Portability

Documentation and community are second to none

23 Other Games Considered

My Recommendation for SteamOS

My Recommendation for SteamOS

Gamer-oriented development model

Hard to use for Windows users

Free

Not universal

For entertainment, it just works

Old base

Linux Powered

Closed Source

Native graphics processor support

Not built around the desktop experience

Can now run some Windows Games

Still in beta

Vulkan oriented instead of DX12

Extensive use of shared libraries

Still lacking many AAA games

My Recommendation for Arch Linux

My Recommendation for Arch Linux

A package for almost everything

Instability can be an issue

Rolling updates

Works only on x86_64

Low maintenance

Manual install process

Incredibly easy to manage

Not for the faint of heart

Fast and simple package management

Great for low performance hardware

Simple by design

No need for external repos

Excellent documentation

Good overall system quality

As slim or copious as you want it

Great hardware support

Excellent package management with the AUR

Highly customizable

Flexible upgrades

Stripped down to the bone

Helpful for understanding how Linux is installed

Supports various desktop environments and window managers

Vast variety of use and purpose

Easier to review the distributions packages

Great security out of the box

Huge Repositories

An opportunity to improve

Support for a large variety of hardware

Helpful community

Ultimate mid-range OS for Tinkering

Arch Linux Wiki

No restrictive handholding, pure control over everything

Experts working on the packages

Highly reliable upgrades

Good for ricing for r/unixporn

Multilib support is just around the corner

Completely signed repos by default

On average only 1 manual intervention needed a year now