Debian is probably a poor fit for a gaming-oriented distro, since gaming is constantly evolving in terms of hardware and software features.
Even if you put as much as possible into a container or a Flatpak, your drivers will be old, which is critical even for older hardware, particularly in new games.
If you want stability AND modern gaming, maybe go for something like Bazzite? The system is very stable thanks to immutability and atomic updates, and at the same time you have all the modern gaming stack.
I’m not a fan of immutable distros, and always having the latest drivers has never been an issue for me. Having a system that’s less likely to break after an update is a bit more critical when it comes to actually being able to spend time playing games.
But what I meant is that Debian has tools I can use to recompile my packages. I’m not aware of any reasons why I wouldn’t be able to rebuild my system to replicate the unique features of CachyOS myself if I wanted to put in the work. And at that point I could always start with Sid as a base as well, which would be just as bleeding edge as any rolling release distro.
Looked into Siduction - seems to be a small project operating over Debian Sid, which I call a recipe for disaster when actually deployed as a home system. Sid is not meant to be stable, and you’re unlikely to get much support. And a small community project is unlikely to patch everything faster than Debian itself.
Debian Sid should not be seen the same way as Arch or other rolling release distros - the former is supposed to be broken, a bug here and there is a non-issue at this point of Debian development lifecycle. Arch and others are expected to actually be used as end products, so critical bugs are rare.
I had some counters in mind to the things you’re saying here. But I don’t feel like bothering. So I will just say the big problem with everything you’re saying, is that you’re arguing against using Debian.
Meanwhile just last night Elden Ring on my Trixie desktop went brrrr.
In no way I do! I used Debian on my machines, and it’s a brilliant distro for its purpose. Which, to my mind, modern gaming is just not.
Debian will absolutely run games, though. The problem is, will it work well with newer titles, released after the respective Debian release? Elden Ring is 4 years old, after all. It was released in the Debian 11 era, and we’re on 13 now.
In any case, if you mostly play slightly dated games and don’t mind small performance drops due to older drivers, why not just stay on Debian Stable, like you do now? It will serve you just fine, and your system will be rock solid, unlike Sid. The performance gains from CachyOS kernel optimizations are normally not that big, and comparable to what you lose by not having the newest drivers. Just play on Trixie if it fits you :)
Debian is probably a poor fit for a gaming-oriented distro, since gaming is constantly evolving in terms of hardware and software features.
Even if you put as much as possible into a container or a Flatpak, your drivers will be old, which is critical even for older hardware, particularly in new games.
If you want stability AND modern gaming, maybe go for something like Bazzite? The system is very stable thanks to immutability and atomic updates, and at the same time you have all the modern gaming stack.
I’m not a fan of immutable distros, and always having the latest drivers has never been an issue for me. Having a system that’s less likely to break after an update is a bit more critical when it comes to actually being able to spend time playing games.
But what I meant is that Debian has tools I can use to recompile my packages. I’m not aware of any reasons why I wouldn’t be able to rebuild my system to replicate the unique features of CachyOS myself if I wanted to put in the work. And at that point I could always start with Sid as a base as well, which would be just as bleeding edge as any rolling release distro.
Or, there is always Siduction as well.
Looked into Siduction - seems to be a small project operating over Debian Sid, which I call a recipe for disaster when actually deployed as a home system. Sid is not meant to be stable, and you’re unlikely to get much support. And a small community project is unlikely to patch everything faster than Debian itself.
Debian Sid should not be seen the same way as Arch or other rolling release distros - the former is supposed to be broken, a bug here and there is a non-issue at this point of Debian development lifecycle. Arch and others are expected to actually be used as end products, so critical bugs are rare.
I had some counters in mind to the things you’re saying here. But I don’t feel like bothering. So I will just say the big problem with everything you’re saying, is that you’re arguing against using Debian.
Meanwhile just last night Elden Ring on my Trixie desktop went brrrr.
In no way I do! I used Debian on my machines, and it’s a brilliant distro for its purpose. Which, to my mind, modern gaming is just not.
Debian will absolutely run games, though. The problem is, will it work well with newer titles, released after the respective Debian release? Elden Ring is 4 years old, after all. It was released in the Debian 11 era, and we’re on 13 now.
In any case, if you mostly play slightly dated games and don’t mind small performance drops due to older drivers, why not just stay on Debian Stable, like you do now? It will serve you just fine, and your system will be rock solid, unlike Sid. The performance gains from CachyOS kernel optimizations are normally not that big, and comparable to what you lose by not having the newest drivers. Just play on Trixie if it fits you :)