I have used Ubuntu (both regular and LTS releases), Mint, LMDE, Arch, Garuda, and others on my desktop. SteamOS used to be based on Ubuntu which mint is based on (or Debian, obviously in LMDE lol). SteamOS and Garuda are both based on Arch now. So, pretty much any of those and you're good to go for sure.
Garuda is beautiful and has a Gaming Edition. If this is your primary use case and you decide you want the latest software and desktop environment(s) then this is a good choice.
If you're looking for a rock solid foundation and don't mind older software other than what's available via Flatpak, Snap, and AppImages, then Linux Mint Debian Edition is fantastic. It depends what you're after and what else you'll be doing with this computer.
However, I have installed Bazzite (which is based on Fedora, like Red Hat Enterprise Linux is) on my Steam Deck and that's my only machine now. It's been great so far. Much like regular SteamOS much with a little more flexibility and features like fully encrypting the SSD.
One thing that I do like about distros that update more frequently is the updates to the desktop environment. Over the last few years there have been some great improvements with Qt6 coming out, HDR support, fractional scaling, Wayland progress, etc.
If you're not using KDE Plasma or GNOME, it might not matter so much. Cinnamon, MATE, LXQt, Enlightenment/Moksha, Budgie, and others are all beautiful and great in their own right but, tend not to be released as often or quite as robust as the biggest two. Personally, I've really enjoyed those other ones and still enjoy switching things up from tike to time.
If you do upgrade your GPU(s), I do recommend going with AMD. Their CPUs are great, too. If you want to keep that in mind whenever you do a full rebuild, I'm sure they'll still be. As others have mentioned, they're pretty good with open source. Not perfect but, overall the industry is improving.
Part of what's fun is distro hopping. Keep a speedy, 8-64GB flash drive around with Ventoy installed. Drop any ISOs that interest you on it and boot into them and try them out for a while. You can even install all of these OS's and multiboot.
It's possible to share a ~/ but, this could lead into some problems. YMMV.
That's probably true. However, I'm sure there are people out there who have very limited space and do not need that extra power for the games ey play.
Given the world these last few years, there have been many people who have been forced to downsize and get or become room mates or live in an RV. This doesn't necessarily mean a person can't enjoy a little downtime. The primary point is that every inch counts. Or so, she says.
Great to see you joining the GNU/Linux flock!
I have used Ubuntu (both regular and LTS releases), Mint, LMDE, Arch, Garuda, and others on my desktop. SteamOS used to be based on Ubuntu which mint is based on (or Debian, obviously in LMDE lol). SteamOS and Garuda are both based on Arch now. So, pretty much any of those and you're good to go for sure.
Garuda is beautiful and has a Gaming Edition. If this is your primary use case and you decide you want the latest software and desktop environment(s) then this is a good choice.
If you're looking for a rock solid foundation and don't mind older software other than what's available via Flatpak, Snap, and AppImages, then Linux Mint Debian Edition is fantastic. It depends what you're after and what else you'll be doing with this computer.
However, I have installed Bazzite (which is based on Fedora, like Red Hat Enterprise Linux is) on my Steam Deck and that's my only machine now. It's been great so far. Much like regular SteamOS much with a little more flexibility and features like fully encrypting the SSD.
One thing that I do like about distros that update more frequently is the updates to the desktop environment. Over the last few years there have been some great improvements with Qt6 coming out, HDR support, fractional scaling, Wayland progress, etc.
If you're not using KDE Plasma or GNOME, it might not matter so much. Cinnamon, MATE, LXQt, Enlightenment/Moksha, Budgie, and others are all beautiful and great in their own right but, tend not to be released as often or quite as robust as the biggest two. Personally, I've really enjoyed those other ones and still enjoy switching things up from tike to time.
If you do upgrade your GPU(s), I do recommend going with AMD. Their CPUs are great, too. If you want to keep that in mind whenever you do a full rebuild, I'm sure they'll still be. As others have mentioned, they're pretty good with open source. Not perfect but, overall the industry is improving.
Part of what's fun is distro hopping. Keep a speedy, 8-64GB flash drive around with Ventoy installed. Drop any ISOs that interest you on it and boot into them and try them out for a while. You can even install all of these OS's and multiboot. It's possible to share a ~/ but, this could lead into some problems. YMMV.