Need help verifying that Bazzite would work for my needs

Bazzite
1

Hi,

I’m currently evaluating which distro to use for my next PC which is to be used until I retire. I need some help to verify that Bazzite (desktop) would work for my needs, please.

For work (wfh software developer/system architect) I mostly use Windows but I have used Ubuntu in the past and most recently Fedora (KDE spin) which I liked a lot, but due to issues with Nvidia and a broken system update I started looking into Bazzite. The immutability and recoverability sound very tempting. Thus a new PC (AMD only) is in the works and I want to try and leave Windows as far behind me as possible.

Needs:

I need to be able to run multiple VMs windowed at the same time (f.e. one running Windows hosting a client’s specific VPN client which is used to RDP to the client’s servers, and another say Kubuntu with another VPN-client and Remmina). I want to run these in VMs as to not clutter my main system with VPN clients.

Am I right in thinking this could be solved using virt-manager with virtio? is there a better way?

How would performance for things like RDP inside the windowed VM be? (single GPU if you dont count the APU inside the 9950x)

Dual monitor support with different resolutions, refresh rates and scaling. (I use a 4k 120hz TV as my main and a Cintiq pen display which is strictly 1080p@60 as secondary.) This is where Nvidia struggled on my Fedora install reverting to Nouveau, flickering, not handling different display scaling, stuck in “extend this display”-loops, etc - thus the planned move to AMD.

In my spare time I play and develop games (mostly on custom engines), so being able to install gcc/clang, vscode with extensions, Blender etc. is necessary - maybe even non-custom engines like Godot, UE5 or Unity if possible. The game specific tweaks is what’s made me look more closely at Bazzite over say Aurora.

Am I right in thinking the gcc/clang bits is best done via a distrobox (exportable?) and the rest via Flatpaks?Or would Brew be better for the compiler stuff?

Random questions:

Do newer versions of Plasma support the Cintiq out of the box or do the built in support in 6.3 mess with the Cintiq stuff?

Since this is a brand new PC, how are the hardware support for newer stuff? (like say the recently announced 9070xt GPU?)

Anything else that you can think of that could help with a smooth installation would be very much appreciated also. (UEFI/Secure Boot-stuff f.e.)

Thanks in advance!

2

In my spare time I play and develop games (mostly on custom engines), so being able to install gcc/clang, vscode with extensions, Blender etc. is necessary - maybe even non-custom engines like Godot, UE5 or Unity if possible. The game specific tweaks is what’s made me look more closely at Bazzite over say Aurora.

Am I right in thinking the gcc/clang bits is best done via a distrobox (exportable?) and the rest via Flatpaks?Or would Brew be better for the compiler stuff?

I’ve done this before. What I do is make a distrobox (there’s an option to make sure it includes Nvidia GPU support in the contiainer). Then, install gcc/clang and other development libraries in the container.

For Blender, the Flatpak has worked fine for me.

For VSCode, you could either (1) use the Flatpak, (2) install it in the distrobox, or (3) rpm-ostree layer it. I haven’t tried the Flatpak but I heard it can be a hassle to get working. If you install it in the distrobox, you can export it as an app to launch it as if it was normally installed and it’ll access all the libraries/gcc/etc. installed in there. If you rpm-ostree layer it, you can use the Remote Development extension to attach to a running container and do development normally too (after changing a VSCode setting to use podman instead of docker).
Installing it in the distrobox would probably be the first thing you should try. A normal workflow should go fine. The only issue would be if you want multiple containers for different projects, where you don’t want to reinstall VSCode in each one, though that can probably be solved too with some fiddling in the distrobox approach. Or you could just rpm-ostree it.

1 Like
3

Regarding new hardware.
I have just installed AMD RX 9070 XT. It works but it is not yet recognized in the system, it just says " AMD Device 7550 (VGA compatible) [Discrete]"
Since the GPU was released yesterday I guess it will take a couple of days before the drivers are updated.

1 Like
4

thanks, both of you!
Mine won’t arrive until end of April so by then I’m hoping everything will be updated (Mesa, firmware, etc). (oh - and maybe even Bazzite 42)