Couldn’t find a dedicated community for distro recommendations, I hope it’s ok to ask here.

A couple of years ago my wife and I built a computer and gave it to a friend’s kid. We put ElementaryOS on it since that seemed pretty fool-proof, but it appears to require a re-install to upgrade major versions so it has been stuck with an old glibc and because of that he can’t play Factorio.

For his 13:th birthday we bought him a SSD so it would be a good time to reinstall Linux, but is there perhaps some better choice than ElementaryOS? They live quite far away so I can’t easily pop over to fix his computer if something breaks, we don’t spend enough time there for me to teach him to fix things himself, and he doesn’t seem very interested in learning how computers/operatings systems work either.

  • Hardware: Some old Intel CPU with 8GB DDR3 and a GTX1080
  • Usage: Gaming through Steam+Proton, Lutris and browsing.
  • Requirements: Games work, OS never breaks on updates. Doesn’t need to be “kid proof”, I don’t think he touches any stuff he doesn’t know what it does.
  • pastermil@sh.itjust.works
    7·
    16 hours ago

    I’ve said this many times, and will continue saying this again and again:

    When in doubt: Linux Mint will provide everything you’ll need. You can distrohop once you understand the basics, customizations and optimizations can come later.

  • The Bard in Green@lemmy.starlightkel.xyz
    21·
    1 day ago

    Mint.

    I use that on my gaming rig. Most everything runs fine through Proton or Lutris (Stellaris, Mass Effect, Fallout New Vegas, the Witcher, Age of Mythology, lots of classics). Minecraft Java Edition runs fine natively, including mods. Old games run great through Dosbox.

    Mint itself is super stable Linux for your grandma. My dad’s been running it for five years and he doesn’t know the difference between an OS and a word processor (he keeps calling LibreOffice “Linux”). It was also my son’s first OS when he was about 8.

  • arjache@fedia.io
    63·
    2 days ago

    I’d recommend Bazzite. It’s a gaming-focused immutable distro. The base system is an image and updates are automatic; a 13-year old might already be familiar with this kind of system because it’s similar to how Chromebooks work. It comes with Steam and Lutris preinstalled. You can install additional software via flatpak.

  • Vittelius@feddit.org
    78·
    2 days ago

    Bazzite:

    • Fedora based, so newer libraries
    • Atomic updates, therefore doesn’t break on updates
    • Steam and Lutris are preinstalled
    • ffhein@lemmy.worldOP
      8·
      2 days ago

      I’ve been using Fedora KDE on my own PC for a few years, but I’ve had some pretty severe breakages when updating. Though I suppose most of them happened because I had Cuda SDK installed, or monitor ICC profiles, but early on I also had Plasma crash on login while testing different themes. I’ll look more into Bazzite though!

      • Grass@sh.itjust.works
        17·
        2 days ago

        The first point of bazzite and other atomic/immutable distros is to prevent such breakages. updates aren’t applied over your existing installed packages, the base read only part is updated and your layered packages come after if you even have any. A kid’s computer won’t need it though. Most of my installed software is flatpak, appimage, or brew. I have maybe 3 packages installed via rpm-ostree. If I ever need anything not possible this way it’s not a job for my gaming pc.

      • Telorand@reddthat.com
        6·
        1 day ago

        I use Bazzite on a laptop that’s shared by family, and it’s great. I never have to worry about downtime, and I know they’ll always have a computer should something happen to me.

        I once had a bad update, and I just used rpm-ostree rollback, and I was up and running again. Really great for anyone that wants to set it and forget it.

  • Charlxmagne@lemmy.world
    2·
    23 hours ago

    Majority of AAA games run invasive software like kernel-level anticheat, I’d personally recommend js buying him a PS5 or running them in VMs (Linux or windows).

  • markstos@lemmy.world
    2·
    1 day ago

    I have a kid about that age interested in games. There was definitely interest in social pressure to switch to Windows for gaming for the bigger selection and what friends were playing.

    • Hawke@lemmy.world
      5·
      1 day ago

      I’d hold off on Pop! OS for the moment, until they have Cosmic into an updated release.

      I say this as a relatively happy user of Pop

  • hendrik@palaver.p3x.deEnglish
    7·
    2 days ago

    I think Nobara is the other most(?) popular choice by gamers.

    I don’t have much experience with gaming distros. I just think whatever it is, a computer shouldn’t bee too locked down for a kid so they can also install other things, try other tools like an office suite, video editing or content creator stuff and maybe even have the experience of messing up. Within limits of course.

    • ikidd@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      1 day ago

      Nobara is a great option if you don’t want to deal with the weirdness of installing stuff on an immutable distro. Nobara also has a bunch of tweaks for video editing software like OBS and Blender.

    • Nilz@sopuli.xyz
      27·
      2 days ago

      This is the old SteamOS from over a decade ago and isn’t usable anymore. The modern SteamOS from the Steam Deck isn’t available yet for desktops.

    • ffhein@lemmy.worldOP
      6·
      2 days ago

      Do you know how mature it is as a desktop OS? I saw the official FAQ does recommend against using it as such. I tried it on a HTPC a few years ago but at that point it didn’t seem very usable outside of Steam’s full screen UI.

      • BlueSquid0741@lemmy.sdf.org
        16·
        2 days ago

        Don’t try to use it, it’s an old discontinued version of SteamOS based on Debian that was around long before the Steam Deck.

        Bazzite will get you a similar experience to the current Steam OS with better desktop experience.