this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2025
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Linux Gaming
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When I see someone on social media claiming Debian is unsuitable for gaming, I know immediately that they don't know what they're talking about. I've been gaming on different distros since before Steam ran on Linux at all, and on Debian Stable for nearly a decade. This includes my current system, which was built a few months after the GPU was released.
In general, Debian can run just fine on new (Linux-compatible) hardware. If you're talking about Debian Stable and hardware that was released less than a year ago, then you might have to pull in a newer kernel and/or firmware, but it's not hard. In most cases, it's as simple as enabling Debian's Backports repository and installing the couple of new packages that you need. (You might not even have to do that, since Flatpak and Steam provide updates to much of what games need, but it would be wise to remember Backports anyway just in case you need them some day.)
The main thing to consider is that it's not completely effortless. It will probably require a little more setup than a game-focused distro would, so if you're considering Debian for a gaming system, you should know why. For example, maybe you want a very low-maintenance system once it's up and running. Or maybe Debian's focus on Free software appeals to you. In such cases, a few extra steps when getting started might be worthwhile. But if you don't have a specific need that Debian fills, then another distro might be more convenient.
I don't know if that's true or not. Nvidia has a well-deserved reputation for making their hardware painful on Linux, and although the situation is less bad today than it once was, it's still not great. If you're determined to stick with them, then sure, a distro that does the extra work of packaging all of Nvidia's driver releases might be a better choice for you.
(For what it's worth, I finally ditched Nvidia in favor of AMD GPUs, and have been very happy with the results.)