One thing I’ve noticed on Reddit is how often people immediately recommend Bazzite as a desktop OS whenever someone mentions gaming, even if the person is primarily a desktop user.
I’m running into this dilemma myself, as I’m considering replacing a relative’s Windows 10 installation with either Bluefin/Aurora or Bazzite. The user enjoys gaming but isn’t a heavy gamer; they’re more of a desktop user who likes to play occasionally.
It seems like Bluefin/Aurora would be the better fit, but then, like many others on Reddit, I find myself wondering why Bazzite in desktop mode wouldn’t work just as well for them.
I love Bazzite, I have it set up in my kids’ playroom as a console, but I wonder if we’re losing potential Aurora or Bluefin users because people automatically assume that Bazzite is the best choice for any kind of user if they plan to game at all. My experience of using Steam on Aurora has been fine. I don’t think I’ve experienced any deficiency vs playing on Bazzite.
I guess it doesn’t matter too much; I’m not criticizing the choice, just curious what others here think.
Just to add my own personal experience: I originally went with Bluefin, everything worked fine gaming-wise, but I eventually rebased to Bazzite in order to take advantage of Sunshine to stream games. Rebasing was seamless (and pretty impressive!)
So it would be a viable option later down the road if your friend requires the extra gaming tools that Bazzite provides. You just have to keep in mind that it is best to rebase to the same desktop environment (KDE from Aurora, GNOME from Bluefin) and that Steam’s data location changes between the two.
If you come from Windows and want to have a standard Linux based solution for yourself and parents etc, Gnome is probably the best choice since its simple and minimalistic BUT you do need to configure it a bit to make it intuitive especially for Windows users.
I created a script that does so unattendedly. You run it, reboot. Done. Enjoy:
I am not considered to be a gamer.. In fact, I used to play games, many years ago but nowadays it feels impossible to find time and it is a pity as the gaming tech has improved enormously for the last 20 something years :)))
Anyway, as i am planning to switch to Bluefin on all my machines, soon, i wonder, what are these extra gaming tools that Bazzite provides and Bluefin does not? I was considering trying to play games on this, even i plan to boot a very old MBP (2014) and the hardware is surely not enough for most games.
Yes I actually planned to make a little screenrecording and add a GIF + YouTube link.. still want to do that, next week.
Instead of the MacOS-like dock at the bottom and the panel (bar) at the top, 2 elements that make the usable part of your screen more narrow, it gives you 1 single vertical panel that contains a “Startmenu” (ArcMenu) at the top, your favourite apps in the middle and a system tray at the bottom. Opened apps will be shown there as well. With window previews etc.
This is done with ArcMenu and Dash to Panelextensions (that in my opinion should be part of the Bluefin image by default).
This way, your usable screen space is maximised, especially in height. So less scrolling. And all you need to navigate the GUI is in 1 single UI element. No searching/figuring stuff out. It’s all there.
The panel has transparency that becomes less transparent when a window is against it, to not distract you.
Other things it does is add Bing Wallpaper extension for beautiful nature wallpaper every X days.
And it applies some Gnome settings to make your life easier.
Furthermore it installs a few essential (flatpak) apps but those are easy to see/remove in the script.
It also adds all the necessary free/proprietary Office365 fonts to be able to view documents normally.
what are these extra gaming tools that Bazzite provides and Bluefin does not
It will mostly be tools that aren’t available (or are unreliable) as Flatpaks:
Sunshine, an alternative to Steam Link with greater support and more settings. In some cases, it can have better performance and reliability.
Waydroid, for playing Android games on your PC.
Coolercontrol, for controlling fans.
Input remapper.
And probably a couple that I forgot.
In addition, Bazzite comes with drivers for steering wheels and handhelds PCs such as the ROG Ally, and comes with a session that starts directly in Steam Big Picture in addition to GNOME (you can choose it in the session manager, clicking on the cog icon in GDM. Note that Nvidia GPUs have terrible perf in Big Picture atm)
I can only offer my own experience: I moved my husband’s gaming rig to Bazzite, and he couldn’t be happier; he even noticed an FPS improvement. He also uses the same PC for all his other desktop needs and never complained once. Happy hubby, happy life.