When comparing Batocera vs Solus, the Slant community recommends Solus for most people. In the question“What is the best OS for gaming?” Solus is ranked 8th while Batocera is ranked 15th. The most important reason people chose Solus is:
Which means you don't have to suffer from version to version updates that can break it.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
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.
Pro FREE and plug and play
Pro Controller variety and working Bluetooth pairing
Pairing controllers for wireless operation are so much easier with Batocera. Also easily within reach in the ES menu.
Pro Great selection of systems available
Incorporates not only Retroarch-based systems, but other emulator packages as well (AdvMAME, Reicast, PPSSPP, etc.) integrated with the EmulationStation frontend.
Pro Easy to use
Batocera is much easier to use and configure than Lakka, especially for MAME and data transferring.
Pro With some effort you can share disc with other system
Good community, github is hot, the OS is permanently developed. You may witness a real spirit of open-source. You can make it coexisting with other system (debian in my case) but to do it you need to know linux and its bootloader.
Pro Wide array of features
Batocera supports more features (like nVidia streaming) that competitors do not.
Pro Optimized performance from having a smaller footprint
Like Lakka and Recalbox, the software is the OS, so it takes up much less space and has far less demands on hardware than other emulator-based packages which have an OS attached i.e. Retropie.
Pro Rolling release
Which means you don't have to suffer from version to version updates that can break it.
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.
Pro Modern desktop environment
The default desktop environment used by Solus is called Budgie and is quite nice and minimalistic.
Pro Stable
The system itself is very stable. All packages in the repository seem to be carefully picked, well prepared and run stable.
Pro Responsive
System boots quickly and stays responsive. Does what operating system should do, and does it really well.
Pro Most stable Rolling Release Distro
Pro Exclusively for desktop systems
Pro Great package management
The software center makes it really easy to install the latest software through Snappy and Flatpak. Including third party software.
Pro Rock-solid Distro
Very stable and well curated.
Pro Lightning fast boot time
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.
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.
Pro Friendly towards proprietary codecs, firmware and drivers
So you won't have to enable PPAs or extra repos for that.
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.
Pro Friendly community
The only community who values the newcomers. Very helpful community.
Pro Built from scratch
Cons
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.
Con Buggy
There are still many bugs.
Con Fomrat a disk doesn't always work
Can be buggy, sometimes you are unable to format your disk at any format under Batocera.
Con Hostile fork
It is an hostile Recalbox fork.
Con Needs the whole disk
There is no option to install the system in dual-boot with another OS on one hard disk drive.
Con Not much software
There is not much software available.
Con Lack of software in repositories
There is a lack of software in the repositories. This is the only OS where I have had to build some applications from source or install from the app's site within the first month os usage. Though this is most likely because the distro is still relatively new.
Con There is often a black screen after update
Con An upgrade breaks the system quite often
Con Forums are not very friendly
Con Systemd
Con No USB Image writer
Con The default desktop environment is not very customizable
Maybe because it's a relatively new project still in its infancy and this may be fixed in the future, but Budgie is not very customizable. You can only change the theme and wallpaper.