Hello there!
After some lurking on r/Unixporn and its Discord, I’m more and more tempted to try Linux as a daily driver. While I’m by no means a pro, I’ve been using WSL at work the past year and generally I can fiddle around finding solutions when something doesn’t work.
These being said, the main requirements I would have from a distro is to be able to run League of Legends (saw that it’s pretty straight forward using Lutris) and not be insanely complex from the get-go (wouldn’t want to jump straight into something like Arch), I intend to use something like Hyprland.
So far I am split between OpenSuse Tumbleweed, NixOS, Fedora and EndeavourOS, but would gladly hear alternatives.
I’ve recently switched to NixOS and I’m loving it. I’d say that it’s as much of a learning curve as Arch, but without the breakage when you screw something up.
You install all your packages and do all your configuration from the main config file. Should something somehow break you can simply switch to an older generation (a state of your computer, basically) and go on with your day. Also, if you configure something incorrectly it will warn you and refuse to apply it. You can even check the config file into git and keep track of your changes!
The new terminology can be pretty daunting, especially when people start talking about flakes. My suggestion is to simply avoid those until they’ve matured.
I can’t comment on it’s ability to game, but I’d definitely give it a try :D
My NixOS install games as well as my Arch one does. Actually better than it since the latest Steam UI update.
I’d definitely recommend against starting with NixOS. Learning resources are way more sparse than something like Arch. Things like the division with flakes and the fact that everyone sets up their configuration differently means that finding examples that work in your config when you’re starting out is even harder. Combined with learning how to setup a Linux system is too much for a beginner imo.
If OP is really interested in Nix they should install the Nix package manager on another working Linux installation so they can learn at their own pace.