Thanks for the suggestion!
I do enjoy the use of CLI and I intend to get better at using it, it’s one of the many reasons why I switched back over to Linux tbh. Thanks though!
Ah I’ve seen this mentioned a few times, I’ll likely throw this on my laptop as well and see how it preforms. Thanks a lot. I’ll just throw a couple on and seen which one I gel with the most.
I will second Pop!_OS. I just put it on my Dell laptop (Intel + Nvidia 1050 Ti hybrid graphics), and it is the only Linux distro I have had actually work with the Nvidia card. Pop also has a handy GNOME extension for easily switching between performance modes when using hybrid graphics (performance-focused, balanced, and battery-life focused)
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Does it use the “apt” package tool (I think this is the correct term…) and can you install .deb files with Pop!_OS?
Like I said I’ll try a few, however I am looking at this now and it does seem really nice.
Well, if you use Manjaro you don’t really need to bother using the command line. You can do everything through the ‘app store’ which I think is superior to e.g. Debian’s.
this is one i recommend to everyone who tries to sort out the various distributions … 
unfortunately no filter for free/non-free or gaming-oriented/non-gaming-oriented
Yes, Pop!_OS is based on Ubuntu/Debian, so it uses apt and .deb files
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Ah, I’d misunderstood what’d you’d said earlier about manjaro then. Solus may not be for you, if that’s the case. They have their own package manager.
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I can recommend Elementary OS. It is based on Ubuntu but has a different desktop and a bunch of key system differences. It is Linux though and can do anything any other distro can. It’s focus on simplicity and just working. It looks similar, in a lot of ways, to Mac OS.
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Darn, reading all the thread so far dashed my hopes for using an old hand-me-down Dell with PureOS as a game server. (Nothing fancy, just some first person shooter or a strategy game.)
With that rig I wouldn’t worry about bloat from a performance point of view (although you didn’t mention RAM).
May depend on the graphics card, if any. If there is a graphics card then PureOS will very likely be a problem. If it’s Intel integrated graphics then you should give it a try.
I’ll have to turn it on again to see. One of these days.
16GB DDR-4
It’s not really a performance issue, it just didn’t gel well with me. Like I said it’s been some amount of time however POP!_OS / Mint seems like my best bet. I’m definitely going to try POP!_OS out this weekend.
I’ve tried most of the top distros. Most have one or two nagging things that cause me to give them a pass. Pop-OS! being the only exception. I’ve been using it for a while now and am very happy. It’s well designed, beautiful, and polished. Everything works. No complaints!
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Last year, Forbes covered gaming on Linux by testing a couple of Steam games across a few distributions including Pop!_OS. The author, Jason Evangelho, had varying success, however, had great success with Pop!_OS due to its simplicity to get things working.
Links to the different distro tests are in here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2019/03/15/linux-gaming-usability-and-performance-across-9-distros-introduction
Pop!_OS article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2019/03/20/pop_os-18-10-linux-gaming-nvidia-radeon-user-experience
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Just a little update in case anyone is interested.
Thanks a lot to everyone who suggested distros, especially POP!_OS it seemed to be almost exactly what I was looking for.
I booted into POP!_OS last night and had a play about on the Live USB, making some tweaks etc and I really really like it. My friend who haas been using Windows for years now (also a gamer) liked the look so much he’s getting it soon as well.
I went to install it, I deleted my Manjaro partition and created a new root and boot partition but the distro wouldn’t install. Not sure the cause of the issue and I had to go to bed however other than this minor issue I’m really really happy with the look and feel of the distro and can’t wait to get using it properly.
I haven’t tried Pop!_OS but it must have the least favorite name of any Linux distro, in my opinion of course. There is a forum for Pop!_OS over on the System76 web site. Maybe they can explain what’s going wrong. As it wants to do Full Disk Encryption by default, perhaps it needs a whole spare disk (an external disk) rather than just one partition.
You can dual boot it no problem. I can’t remember what the error was all I know it was something to do with restarting the PC. When I leave work I’m going away for the weekend however if I can’t fix it when I get back, I’ll post on there and try find out what the issue is.
From what I’ve used and seen of it (not loads mind you) I’d really recommend it, it just seems to be an all round really nice distro once you’ve added a few tweaks from the GNOME Extension Store that is. Namely, Dash to Dock xD.
Another update if anyone is interested.
Finally got round to install POP!_OS last night and I can’t recommend it enough so far. Seems to work really well, everything was nice and simple, the issue installing was me not reading the Windows Dual boot guide on their site properly.
The POPStore is very useful, Debian Command Line, Clean interface (I did have to install Dash to Dock but with the GNOME Firefox extension this was easy) .
All in all thanks to everyone who recommended the operating system and I’d recommend it for anyone looking for a new distro.
I’ve matured in my opinions now with regard to my preferred Linux distro. I’m recommending Ubuntu over Elementary. That’s right plain Ubuntu.
You can use it as FOSS hardcore as you want, or you can live in reality and use it with the best of both worlds.
Plus as it uses GNOME you have great compatibility and less bugs from using a different DE.
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