TL;DR
Switched from Windows → Debian → Bazzite. This is part appreciation post, part personal journey. Bazzite just works, and I love it.
Long story
Over the past few years, I had heard great things about Proton and Bazzite, so I decided to give them a shot. Over the course of about 6 months I migrated my gaming rig from Windows to Debian, and eventually to Bazzite.
I was stuck with Windows for years because, let’s face it, games are built for it. But I knew most titles ran just fine on Linux, and I was curious to see how it actually holds up. I started with Debian since I’ve used it on other machines and didn’t want to deal with extra admin work when I just wanted to game.
Of course, I hit a few snags, mostly thanks to Nvidia still deserving the middle finger, and my fancy gaming mouse pulling some weird non-standard click shenanigans. After switching to AMD and a simpler gaming mouse, Debian actually worked pretty well. Initially, I thought I was stuck with Steam games, but Heroic Games fixed that as well. Things have really gotten a lot better in Linux gaming!
Well, almost everything worked. Space Engineers 2 was the one holdout. I tried every trick in the book to get it running, but eventually realized I was spending more time troubleshooting than actually playing. That’s when I backed up my saves and took the plunge with Bazzite.
I’ve always kept secure boot disabled, but Bazzite’s modern installation made me reconsider. The official guide didn’t fully solve my issues, but I winged it and got it working anyway. Turns out, ignoring secure boot for years meant I had some learning to do. Better late than never.
First boot into Bazzite, and of course, I had to tweak KDE to feel like home. Still love how customizable it is after all these years, and Wayland support is surprisingly solid now.
And guess what? Space Engineers 2 just worked. No hackery or trickery required. Kudos to the Bazzite devs. Keep it up!
Lesson learned
Sure, you can game on Debian, and it’s perfectly fine for most games. If you want it to just work, Bazzite’s the way to go.
Bazzite is incredible if you want a Linux distro for gaming that “just works”. Sure other distros can work just as well but they seem to require a bit more tweaking
And that’s exactly what I want when I get back home after work. If you have been tinkering with technical stuff for years as a hobby, and eventually started doing something similar for a living, you may have already satiated your hunger for troubleshooting.
Are you saying that secure boot is what fixed Space Engineers 2, or was that just an unrelated aside?
Secure boot was just a side quest. Long ago, I learned to disable it, because Linux distributions at the time didn’t utilize it at all. Turns out, Fedora/Bazzite finally do. Haven’t been following the news on that.
Anyway, I don’t think that has anything to do with the way games run. My guess is, it’s either the newer versions of everything or it’s the custom tweaks Bazzite does to make the experience smoother. Usually, having older drivers and libraries is fine, but there are edge cases where that actually makes a difference.
You know … maybe I should give Bazzite a shot on my gaming/media PC.
Currently I have my Ubuntu Linux PC for everything important, and my Windows PC that only has two jobs: play games and watch videos.
I’ve been hesitant to try it because I pirate all of my games. Getting pirated copies to work correctly can sometimes be tricky even on Windows. And my experiences trying to get them to run on Ubuntu have had more failures than successes. Seriously, like a 80% failure rate. I gather that it’s better if you’re running legit copies through Steam … but I’m poor, lol.
But hearing from you how well things ‘just work’ on Bazzite … maybe I should give it a try. Possibly I’ll have better success with pirated games there.
They’ve two main versions, Gaming Mode, that is very similar to Steam Deck and focused on just running games, and Desktop which is a more classic desktop experience
Can’t judge, since I have exactly zero moral high ground in this matter. All I can say is that I hope your financial situation improves.
Go for it. I also get some of my games from a certain girl who is fit and they just work. I’m using Lutris to install them but I have tried using Steam (via add non-steam games) as well. It’s just that I prefer Lutris over it. My game ranges from Prototype (2009) to Ghost of Tsushima (2020) to Expedition 33 (2025). Granted, that last game, I got on GOG but still they just work. Also, my OS doesn’t spy on me.
By the way, which games are you having problems with? Maybe I can check on my end or give assistance.
do it! its fun! remember when learning computers was fun and exciting? this is like that except for free!
I would really love to see a new launcher that isn’t beholden to Steam. Having to exit game mode and go into the desktop to open Lutris/Heroic and configure all the necessary compatibility layers is not a great experience.
Sounds like you have a slightly different ISO image than I did. I went with the “Desktop + AMD + KDE + traditional desktop experience”. This image gives you a normal desktop KDE. It looks and feels just like a real computer, so I guess that’s what you’re looking for.
If you’re sitting on a sofa with a controller in your hand, the HTPC image, or the “desktop + steam gaming mode” image might be worth considering, but apparently that option comes with its UX issues.
Yes, I use the “Game Mode” version on my gaming PC. It’s awesome but you have to dig out the mouse and keyboard every time you want to install a non-Steam game.
Luckily I started out with bazzite thanks to the recommendation by https://youtube.com/@someordinarygamers
I’ve never felt like trying anything else, it just works.
He also talks quite a bit about distrohopping, and for good reason. Once you’re a bit more familiar with Linux, and you stumble upon the next cool thing, don’t be afraid to try it out. Dsitrohopping is part of the fun.
However, you might not want to do that with your main computer. If you have a spare computer, or a spare SSD, it’s quite easy to try different things out. When you’ve tried some of the most popular distributions, you’ll know exactly what you like and what you need. Equipped with that information, it’s easy to pick the ideal distro for a specific purpose.
For example, Bazzite for the gaming computer or Debian for the HTPC.
https://distrosea.com/ - also an option, emulators for most major linux distros, in browser
Welcome to the fold!
Thanks!
