For me it would be nobara or endevour os. Garuda is too messy imo. I run endeavour, but I don't know how much gaming is possible on a nuc.
Potajito
joined 2 years ago
The 545 drivers are very buggy, at least for me. I downgraded to 535,hopefully we get an usable 545 soon. Also, if you feel like it you can report the issue in the nvidia forums, it might get some visibility there.
It's about to ask you if you have any games in your phone.
All my windows vst work great and with pretty much no configuration with yabridge. I think some heavy drm'ed vsts are a bit more problematic but most (all in my case) work.
What's your DE? You can select your prefered file picker with an env flag. I'm in kde and somehow it defaults to gnome picker by default. Maybe it's the same for you and you don't have the gnome packages and it hangs? You can also run heroic from the console and see if it outputs any useful info when hanging.
Can't really help you but it might be worth it to bug it in pipewire gitlab.
Give nobara a try. It's fedora with focus on gaming. Mint is always a good option. Personally I use endeavour os, pretty straight forward to install but maybe a bit too barebones if you don't know what you need yet.
Not a fan at all of apple, but isn't the shift to arm not a "safe" movement at all? Like, they are breaking basically all the ecosystem of apps, legacy, etc... Also, from the outside, it looks like it went well? Sincerely asking, as I don't know.
I use endeavour os. Is arch made easy, while still being arch. It fills your needs, you can install any DE you like (kde myself) and a zen kernel with basically one command line. Also for nvidia if you go that way you just do "nvidia-inst" and are good to go. Another nice one that checks those boxes is nobara, a fedora spin focused on gaming.
Id say nobara if you game, fedora if you don't. Or just nobara as its fedora with a couple of things on top.
Another one for the endevour os team. Not looking to distro hop anytime soon.