Hi! I’m getting a new laptop any day now and I plan on going back to Linux after maybe a decade on Windows. What works best for gaming nowadays? Is manjaro good for that? I prefer a distro with a nice name but of course that’s not the central thing. I’ll also do some book keeping, writing et cetera but I don’t think it’s much to worry about. I also hope to use my Valve Index on it.
Doesn’t Mint hold back kernel updates to major version upgrades like Ubuntu though? That could be problematic if they have newer hardware that’s better supported (or only supported at all) in newer kernel releases.
5.15. isn’t that bad of a kernel version in my experience. Admittedly, I’m don’t have any latest gen hardware at the moment, but using one generation back RX 6700XT without problems on it with Mint. Alternatively, one can install the newer 6.x kernels with a few clicks if needed, they are not actively blocked or unlisted.
It’s more complicated than that, distros typically have specific patches for packages and they assume you’re running a particular kernel version. By running another kernel version you’re going into unsupported territory. Yeah you can do that, and it’ll probably be fine, but using another distro that actually supports the edge kernel is less risky and takes a few less clicks.