Gaming Gentoo Linux, Linux Mint, or Arch Linux?

[FencingFoxFTW]

If you are migrating from Windows, try Mint

it's based on Ubuntu, it comes with important audio/video codecs already installed, it's easy to use and it looks pretty cool

 

[Nimbus]

Edit: I feel that I should revise my statement.

It's up to you to decide you distro, of course. However if this helps


Ubuntu: Easiest to use at first, not as bleeding edge, but still works pretty damn good (At least if you ask me). Ubuntu 10.10, provided you have some sort of internet connection during setup, will even allow you to install all of the "Restricted extras" which include MP3, and other media Codecs, as well as Flash, etc when you install Ubuntu.

Arch: Urza reminded me (And I thank you for that), Arch is not a bad distro, in fact it's pretty kickass, and I might end up using it as my secondary distro. Their package manager Pacman, is actually pretty awesome, and lightweight. They also have tons of ports, and probably the most advanced and customisable version of Grub2 I have ever seen. It's not as new-user friendly to set-up, at least if you use the core iso (Which uses a command line interface).

On a side question, does Arch have like an XFCE or Gnome ISO?, someone remind me

Mint: Forgive me if this insults anyone, but I personally view Mint as the "prettyboy that wants to have everything, but seems to break everything in the process" Ubuntu derivative. I absolutely hate it, and have had numerous problems compared to Ubuntu (For example, in 10.10, my wireless card works out of the box, in Mint it doesnt and I have to go plug it into our router, download and install the drivers, and even then I have to install a newer kernel just to get them to work. I've also run into several repository issues, as well as dependency issues (Even with a fresh install).

Gentoo: I haven't dabbled too much in Gentoo. Portage from what I've heard is pretty awesome, and I guess if you want a bleeding-edge distro, this is probably the one for you.

Fedora: Fedora is pretty damn good as well, it's pretty bleeding edge, but retains user friendliness in terms of new-users. One downside is that often releases have very short life spans between the next release.

If you would also like a lightweight but still relatively usable and customisable Desktop Environment, XFCE is probably the way to go. I enjoy XFCE personally, and if Gnome2 is ever depreciated in favour of that atrocity (I'm lookin at you Gnome3), XFCE will definitely be the one I use. XFCE supports almost everything Gnome does, such as Compiz, GTK Icon themes (btw, Faenza is teh sex!), GTK2 Themes, and more.

 

[Am0s]

Which of those three should I be using? Of course, you can recommend any other main Linux distributions. Maybe you should note I never used any OS UNIX-like or, you know, based on Linux.

if you have never used linux before try ubuntu or linux mint, but try the live cd's first only if your a linux virgin hehe, ubuntu runs out of the box and so does mint, and mint well is really ubuntu with a few differences, arch I would stay away for now because it can be very hard to get your head round it, gentoo never used it but I think thats a more advanced distro.

there is nothing stopping you from having multiple distro's on your machine until you find the one you like, for me it was mint because it just ran out of the box and did everything I needed, arch I love but alas my knowledge of linux is not that advanced yet so am sticking with what I know and then move onto something more advanced when I am ready.

hope this helps

 

[Mazor]

On a side question, does Arch have like an XFCE or Gnome ISO?, someone remind me
No, that would kill most of the whole point of Arch, which is to be lightweight and flexible.

It would also be quite ridiculous, as you are only one "pacman -S" away from installing it when you've installed Arch (and if you are implying an iso that would also come with programs pre-installed, that takes you extremely far away from the concept of Arch).

Mint: Forgive me if this insults anyone, but I personally view Mint as the "prettyboy that wants to have everything, but seems to break everything in the process" Ubuntu derivative. I absolutely hate it, and have had numerous problems compared to Ubuntu (For example, in 10.10, my wireless card works out of the box, in Mint it doesnt and I have to go plug it into our router, download and install the drivers, and even then I have to install a newer kernel just to get them to work. I've also run into several repository issues, as well as dependency issues (Even with a fresh install).
As I never ran into any such problems myself when I was running Mint and also never heard of anyone who did, it would be interesting to hear the specifics of the problems you ran into.

Also, did you try Linux Mint Debian?

Gentoo: I haven't dabbled too much in Gentoo. Portage from what I've heard is pretty awesome, and I guess if you want a bleeding-edge distro, this is probably the one for you.

Arch would probably be the distro for you if you want bleeding edge, unless you want to go through an extremely steep learning curve and even after that spend more time maintaining than for any other distro.

QUOTE(PoweredByTux @ Dec 15 2010, 01:00 AM)

If you would also like a lightweight but still relatively usable and customisable Desktop Environment, XFCE is probably the way to go. I enjoy XFCE personally, and if Gnome2 is ever depreciated in favour of that atrocity (I'm lookin at you Gnome3), XFCE will definitely be the one I use. XFCE supports almost everything Gnome does, such as Compiz, GTK Icon themes (btw, Faenza is teh sex!), GTK2 Themes, and more.

While this is a good recommendation for a lightweight desktop environment, desktop environments aren't really lightweight. If what you want is something lightweight and customizable, window managers such as Openbox, Fluxbox and Awesome are a better choice while allowing you to maintain the same (or higher) level of productivity.

 

[Nimbus]

As I never ran into any such problems myself when I was running Mint and also never heard of anyone who did, it would be interesting to hear the specifics of the problems you ran into.

Also, did you try Linux Mint Debian?

Yes I have, Mint-Debian refuses to work entirely with my Wireless card, and to be honest I've never been a fan of pure-debian. I need some level of non-free applications and components, and neither Mint Debain or Pure-Debian

The main problem that I had with Mint, is package conflicts, and I also stated the issue with my Wireless card. In Ubuntu, for example I can install the driver easily without ever having to upgrade to a newer kernel, and I can even install it from the Live CD. Mint somehow buggers this up, and requires me to install a newer kernel (Something that has occured with every release), and does not allow me to install it from the Live CD, I have to plug into my router, and install it from there.