Is Ubuntu The Best Linux Distribution For Gaming?
137In this video I cover Ubuntu and it's suitability as a Linux distribution for gaming.
GPU DRIVER INSTALLATION
Ubuntu flavours now install and enable nVidia proprietary and AMD Mesa GPU drivers as part of the overall install process of the distribution, however since standard Ubuntu releases are usually 9 months apart then it is likely that you will be stuck with the same driver throughout that period.
Luckily there exists two PPAs that allows you to download, install and update to the latest nVidia and Mesa drivers respectively as they are released.
Nvidia Proprietary Driver PPA
https://launchpad.net/~graphics-drivers/+archive/ubuntu/ppa
AMD Mesa Driver PPA
https://launchpad.net/~kisak/+archive/ubuntu/kisak-mesa
This is in contrast to Pop OS, OpenSUSE, Arch, and Manjaro which allow you to install the latest drivers from their repositories.
Fedora is similar to Ubuntu as you need to add a repository to receive the latest drivers, in this case the RPM fusion repository.
GAMING SOFTWARE AVAILABILITY
Ubuntu allows you to install Steam, WINE, Winetricks and Feral Gamemode from repositories using the Terminal or a GUI application shop such as Ubuntu Software store or equivalent.
However Lutris is not found in the Ubuntu repositories older than 20.10, and thus requires a PPA to be added to install it which is in contrast to Arch, Manjaro, Pop OS, Fedora and OpenSUSE that all have Lutris in their repositories.
F-SYNC LINUX KERNEL
A F-Sync patched Linux kernel can be used to reduce WINE overhead when using games that are CPU intensive and Ubuntu users can install pre-compiled Liquorix and Xanmod Linux kernels that include these patches.
https://liquorix.net/
https://xanmod.org/
In comparison to other distributions, Manjaro as of their 5.7 kernel release now has the F-Sync patches applied as standard and Arch users can install the Zen kernel which does practically the same thing as Liquorix.
It is also possible to install Zen or Xanmod kernels in Fedora, but it is a rather involved process which is detailed below:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Fedora/comments/hp9bns/zen_and_xanmod_kernels_on_fedora_32_howto/
CONCLUSION
Although Ubuntu does now pre-install and enable AMD and nVidia drivers as part of the installation and allows the ease of installing some gaming related software from repositories, you will still need to add PPAs to update kernels, drivers and Lutris.
This is in comparison to Manjaro which allows the user to install all the necessary software, drivers and kernels all from a GUI interface and from a single repository.
In summary, if Ubuntu did include custom kernels, Lutris and up to date drivers in it’s repositories, then it would be clear winner, but for the time being, my recommendation for best Linux distributions for gaming is still Manjaro.
#ubuntu #linuxgaming #manjaro