this post was submitted on 06 Jan 2026
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Linux

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Hey everyone! I'm finally fed up with Win11 and the bullshit that comes with it for the PC it's on.

It's being used as a Jellyfin+arr stack, qbit, Immich, and gaming PC for the living room.

I'm currently in the process of backing up all my important info and am doing research on which distro to use.

I don't mind tinkering, but for this PC, stability is key. I don't want to have to go in and update it every week... I want this one to work with minimal maintenance on my part.

I'd likely update it a few times a year, knowing me.

A few hardware specs:

MSI mobo (I've learned that UEFI can be a pain), 10600k, 2070 gpu, and will have a pool of 3x8tb drives that I would like to have in raid5 (or something similar) for storage (movies, TV shows, and Immich libraries), the OS will have its own drive, and I have a separate SSD that I have been using to store programs, games, yml's for docker, and other such things that get accessed more frequently, but aren't crucial if lost.

I've kinda narrowed it down to either Bazzite or CachyOS.

I've heard that Bazzite can be a little more locked down, which I'm not a fan of, but CachyOS has features I will likely never touch (schedulers, kernels, etc...).

I don't want an upkeep heavy OS. I'm moving away from windows for that reason. Win11 has been a nightmare for me with constant reboots and things not loading up until after I log in. Not to mention driver conflicts and all the other BS that's come with it.

So... What say the hive mind? Is Bazzite going to be too tinker-proof, or is CachyOS just way too much work? Or do I have it all wrong with my perception of both?

Thanks!

Ps: this will be my first full commit to Linux. I've dabbled in the past and am no stranger to CLI... So this will likely be a stepping stone into getting my primary PC onto Linux. Go easy on me lol

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[–] chaogomu@lemmy.world 11 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (3 children)

Okay, aside from all the distro advice, I have some practical install advice.

There's a program called Ventoy. At ventoy.net

Ventoy is an open source tool to create bootable USB drive for ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI files. With Ventoy, you don't need to format the disk over and over, you just need to copy the ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI files to the USB drive and boot them directly. You can copy many files at a time and Ventoy will give you a boot menu to select them

Most distros these days have a live CD option, meaning you can run the distro and test how it feels without actually committing to an install.

So, take all the distro options here and throw them all on a thumb drive with ventoy installed, then you can simply boot into each one.

Now, my personal fav distro is called Garuda. It excells at gaming, and can do everything you want, but will put a red blinking icon in the task bar if you don't update every week or so.

Garuda is Arch based.

[–] lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Ventoy is great. I have a dedicated 128GB flash drive with a variety of ISOs, including various live and full-install Linux distros, Windows (LTSC only + MAS scripts), and diagnostics (Hirens, memtest86, etc).

Incredibly handy to have on-hand.

[–] DacoTaco@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Good advise, but 0/10; you forgot your 'btw' after mentioning arch :p

[–] chaogomu@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Eh, Garuda has its own repositories and packages, so it's Arch, but not Arch Arch if that makes sense.

[–] DacoTaco@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

I know what ya meant, just pulling your leg.
Its like how i use linux mint. Its ubuntu, technically, but has its own repos

[–] kumi@feddit.online 0 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)
[–] luluberlue@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 4 days ago

Isn't it a hacky one person foss project? of course the thing is gonna be dodgy, I'm neither shocked nor worried about it.