this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2025
31 points (89.7% liked)

Linux

56375 readers
563 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

Rules

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
 

So, I was originally just going with Mint 22.1, but I’m getting a 9070xt and see mint is only on kernel 6.8 which doesn’t particularly support it?

Is using it still okay? Should I go with Bazzite instead? Or something else. I’m fine with a little amount of work to get shit working nice and all, I am fine with figuring out how to use the terminal if needed and all, just want something stable to play games and other shit on. Mint sounded good, but not if it won’t support my GPU.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] TowardsTheFuture@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I guess the “doing all that” mostly means taking something supposedly very stable like mint and then changing it seems to kinda defeat the purpose of mint lol. Idk, there so much “mint and Debian are stable” but like… what’s the even mean? Is fedora 42 or bazzite going to be crashing regularly? Cuz… I doubt it? lol like idk, there’s just a lot of options. Seems easier to just go with fedora 42 or bazzite or whatever, but now idk what bazzite being immutable even means for what I can’t change and why that’s a big deal so idk.

[–] pyssla@quokk.au 2 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

I get the impression you've been enticed/subjected to some confusing technical jargon without noticing. Please allow me to shed some light.

Idk, there so much “mint and Debian are stable” but like… what’s the even mean?

Stable can mean a bunch of different stuff that may or may not be closely related. In the case of Debian, it's the name of its default release; the one in which packages are frozen for two years except for security patches. (Note that this naming scheme is not unique to Debian.) As such, a Debian installation will be unchanging for these two years, earning its stable designation (which, to be clear, just meaning unchanging in this context). Finally, this unchanging environment should provide a ton of stability (i.e. stuff just works), which is also referred to as stable. These three distinct meanings of stable are probably the ones you'll come across the most.

Is fedora 42 or bazzite going to be crashing regularly? Cuz… I doubt it?

The bold part is a clear demonstration that you understood stable to mean strictly robust; i.e. the third meaning discussed above. And to be clear, Fedora does a decent job at providing a reliable experience. (Bazzite even more so.) But not all three meanings of stable apply to it:

  • For Fedora (and thus Bazzite by extension), the only stable repository is the one used to create its ISOs (i.e. the images used for installation). Beyond this, some packages are frozen within a release/version; e.g. you'll never get a major release update for GNOME unless you do a major release update for Fedora. But..., that's basically it; (almost) all other packages receive regular updates. As such, Fedora is often referred to as a semi-rolling release distro instead (as opposed to Debian being referred to as a stable release distro). So, to be clear, Fedora and Bazzite are NOT stable in this context.
  • As (most of) its packages receive regular updates, it isn't unchanging either. And thus, NOT stable in this context as well.
  • However, in terms of offering a robust/reliable experience, Fedora is pretty good. Bazzite is even better due to its atomicity^[That is, updates either happen successfully or not at all. So a random power outage (or otherwise) is not able to break the system's integrity.] and the superior distro-management allowed by the bootc model.

So, to answer your question, Fedora and Bazzite will not crash regularly. And, while Fedora might fall a little short of providing as robust of an experience as you might find on Debian and Linux Mint (assuming you won't FrankenDebian your installs), Bazzite may actually rival (and perhaps even eclipse/surpass) Debian and Linux Mint in this respect.

Seems easier to just go with fedora 42 or bazzite or whatever

For your purposes, I agree that going for the Bazzite-route seems to be the easiest.

but now idk what bazzite being immutable even means for what I can’t change and why that’s a big deal so idk.

This is a nuanced discussion that probably deserves more attention, but I'll keep it short for the sake of brevity. In Bazzite's case, strictly-speaking, immutability refers to how most of /usr's content isn't supposed to be changed deliberately by you. This is enforced by the system (in part) by making those files read-only.

In practice, though, there's very little you actually can't do with the system:

[–] TowardsTheFuture@lemmy.zip 2 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Thanks, that’s very helpful. Sounds like Bazzite will be sufficient then so I’ll just go with that.

[–] pyssla@quokk.au 2 points 13 hours ago

It has been my pleasure fam! Enjoy your ride on Bazzite and please consider reporting back on how it went 😉.