Honestly, we've been eating pretty good fam. See https://www.protondb.com/ for game compatibility on Linux.

The only remaining pain points are (see the provided links for databases on what does and doesn't work):

• Anti-cheat; https://areweanticheatyet.com/
• VR; https://db.vronlinux.org/

If you're the type of new user that likes to go balls deep straight away, then Arch is arguably one of the better options thanks to its excellent Wiki. However, please don't blatantly overestimate yourself for the heck of it. Consider checking out ArchWiki's own entries on this matter:

• Why would I not want to use Arch?
• I am a complete GNU/Linux beginner. Should I use Arch?
• System maintenance

i found a tutorial on it with 3 - 4 pages full of text and was a bit overwhelmed

I don't think this attitude is helpful for conquering Arch, but YMMV.

recently i just finished building a new pc. mostly for gaming since my only exposure to linux is steam os and i heard its uses arch with kde plasma so i try to emulate it as close as i can.

FWIW, if you just want to emulate SteamOS, perhaps consider Bazzite instead. It's not based on Arch, but it arguably is the closest to SteamOS (but better). More so than any Arch-based distro*.

What distro did this happen on?

How long ago did you install it?

1. UNetbootin

I find it hard to recommend a project that hasn't received any development in over two years.

1. Balena Etcher

Unfortunately, balenaEtcher has allegedly become spyware. (Or there are at least concerns surrounding it.)

1. Ventoy

This used to be my favorite tool for this. However, even after 16 months have gone by and two different issues have been opened to address the same problem, it hasn't resulted in replacing the (binary) BLOBs by reproducible ones. Hence, security-conscious projects like secureblue have started to recommend against the use of Ventoy for installing their images.

1. Universal USB Installer

2. Yumi

Still going strong over all these years. Though it's AFAIK the only piece of software that doesn't host the code on GitHub (or similar platforms), but instead seems to rely on its Contact page for bug and issue reports. FWIW, they do employ Ventoy's bootloader. Unsure how this relates to the aforementioned concern related to (binary) BLOBs.

1. PowerISO

This ain't even open source. You can order your copy from here.

1. MultiBootUSB

Hasn't received any development in over 5 years.

1. ImageUSB Writer

Is this even open source?

This leaves us with:

1. Rufus

Great to leave M$ for Linux. Unfortunately, it's only distributed as .exe's. Nor is its maintainer interested to support Linux.

1. GNOME Multiwriter

2. Fedora Media Writer

Ah..., finally, we get to the "by and for Linux". Though, there are about a dozen or so that the article doesn't mention.

few people recommend bazzite too. ill try to give it a look

If you want the system to be out of your way while you get to enjoy your games, then that's exactly what Bazzite is for.

If, instead, you're interested in getting to know how the traditional model of Linux desktop works, then I'd look elsewhere.

Some looking around suggests that the distro is just over 6 months old or so.

Even if it does literally everything right, longevity is only tested with the passing of time. To exemplify this, let's go back in time... Relatively short after I made the switch to Linux, there was a lot of buzz around risiOS. Unfortunately, it didn't take long until this exciting new project stopped receiving any further development. And, as far as I can tell, its creator has literally moved on to their next project.

The above example ain't unique, though. Heck, I'd argue that the coming and passing of projects is the expected pattern. The projects that remain relevant and continue to receive development are the actual anomalies.

All of which is just to say that it's (almost) ill-advised to prefer a new project over a well-established one. Only after a (relatively) new project receives mass adoption, like what we currently see with Bazzite and CachyOS, does it become somewhat of a safe bet. Even if only for the foreseeable future*. Until then, you're at the mercy of the whims and continued interest of a single developer (or a very small team).

Going back to Lingmo OS itself, I suppose its main appeal lies within its unique aesthetics. I'm especially fond of their macOS-like global menu found within its top bar. The now-defunct CutefishOS also had something similar going on... Which brings us back to our earlier point on longevity. Aight, verdict: honestly, I don't think it's necessarily more aesthetically pleasing than say GNOME or KDE Plasma. At least to me*. As such, I understand that I'm not the target audience. Nor do I think that you or anyone else should be swayed by this (or similar projects) on aesthetics alone.

They are extremely limiting

Assuming you're referring to Fedora Atomic, your statement is extremely exaggerated. Out of the top of my head, the current limitations are iffy akmods and UKI/systemd-boot. The latter of which is being worked on currently and might arrive rather sooner than later. Neither of which I'd assume 95% of Linux users ever engage with anyways...

add multiple complications to otherwise simple tasks

I feel like you don't know what you're talking about. Please be explicit; which tasks are made more complicated on Fedora Atomic?

the padded cell of immutability means you can’t really fuck around and learn how traditional Linux systems work

It's true that you aren't supposed to "fuck" around (most of) /usr during runtime. Furthermore, I agree that the existing ways to circumvent/bypass this leave much to be desired. But, again, most peeps use perfectly fine systems without ever feeling the need to tinker with /usr... And if you absolutely must..., well..., Fedora Atomic doesn't actually stop you. It just wants you to adhere to its ways of achieving it. Making it more of a paradigm shift, rather than outright limiting the user.

If your criticism basically boils down to "I can't make use of my preconceived notion on how Linux works.", then "Yes."; that's exactly the point. Granted, it wouldn't hurt if Fedora Atomic allowed conventional methods to continue working. But as it's currently in the middle of a architectural shift (going from rpm-ostree to bootc), I'd argue they've got more important things to work on.

Because, and I quote:

"Warning: AUR packages are user-produced content. These PKGBUILDs are completely unofficial and have not been thoroughly vetted. Any use of the provided files is at your own risk."

Thankfully, there's a mailing list that covers issues like these. Heck, OP's PSA was probably originally propagated from there.

I use secureblue, because it offers the (AFAIK unique) intersection between:

• a security-first^[To be precise, it's actually Linux-first and security-second. For an actual security-first approach, consider taking a look at Sculpt OS employed with the seL4 kernel run on ARM or 64-bit RISC-V.] approach while being fit for general computing
• a first-class citizen of the 'immutable' reprovisionable, anti-hysteresis paradigm
• a well-maintained project with many active contributors that exhibit a proactive stance when it comes to implementing (security) improvements

The arch maintainers package more software than most other distributions.

Sorry, but I fail to see this.

I suppose if you're accounting literally all independent distros, then you're probably right. However, if we'd be more realistic and compare it to other well-established independent distros^[I'm basically counting Alpine, Debian, Fedora, Gentoo, openSUSE, Slackware, Solus and Void. I didn't count Guix System and NixOS for how their 'repositories' are built different and therefore not easily comparable to the others.], then we notice that the vastness of the packages found in Arch's repository is rather lackluster at the very least. Heck, by virtually all metrics, Arch together with its derivatives undoubtedly belong in the upper echelons of usage stats; only being second to the Debian-family of distros. IMO, however, the size of its repository absolutely doesn't reflect this; as it's only bigger than Slackware, Solus and Void. The inclusion of these smaller projects is arguably charitable on my side*. But to drive the point home very clearly: Arch's repository is smaller than Alpine's, Debian's, Fedora's, openSUSE's and Gentoo's with a ratio of (about) two to one (except for openSUSE).

Thank you for the quick answer and for providing clarifications!

I would say the greatest limitation would be repos

What do you mean? What's wrong with Fedora's repos? Apologies if I sound obtuse*.

and your ability to build whatever software you want from source.

There's nothing preventing you from doing this within a container created by Toolbx/Distrobox. I can attest to this. You can even build it natively. While I haven't personally engaged in building it natively, I can't imagine it would cause any problems. But please correct me if your experience (or otherwise) is different.

Can you run Hyprland and all of its companions like hyprlock, hyprpaper, etc on bazzite? That’s the setup I prefer, and I’m fairly certain it’s not possible in a Fedora based immutable system.

Fam, break your leg. Nothing is stopping you; someone else has already done just that. And you can just piggy-back of their effort. In case you'd like to see other (successful) attempts at making Hyprland work on Fedora Atomic: consider taking a look at wayblue and hyprland-atomic.

is because CachyOS is only a year old, while Bazzite is two years old, unless someone can prove me otherwise.

CachyOS has been installable (at least) as early as November of 2021. Its GitHub page is even older, going as far back as October of 2021.

Bazzite, on the other hand, is at least a year younger as it dates back to December of 2022.

Bazzite is RHEL-based

Bazzite is based on Fedora Atomic. FYI, Fedora is not based on RHEL. Quite the opposite, actually, as Fedora is "upstream" of RHEL.

it won't have the AUR or pacman, which are the two things that set Arch-based Operating Systems apart from the rest of the pack.

Come out of your cave, fam. Distrobox has been out for years now. And, with it, everyone has access to every other repo (including the AUR). We've finally evolved.

I wanted to write a long-ass comment until I remembered the existence of the following excellent guide: https://lemmy.ml/post/18268622 . Please give it a read 😉.

Honestly, Bazzite seems to fit like a glove:

• RTX 3070Ti

Nvidia can be an ass to work with on a lot of distros, but Bazzite delivers the right drivers OOTB.

Needs:

• Gaming

Bazzite is setup for gaming OOTB; it's bundled with Steam and Lutris, makes use of custom kernels/schedulers to optimize performance for gaming and contains many other goodies like excellent controller/peripheral support.

• Coding (Mostly python)

Provides a specialized DX (i.e. Developer Experience) image that comes with all the goodies you might expect.

• Video editing

Has a built-in just script that downloads, installs and sets up Davinci Resolve for ya: ujust install-resolve

• Music composing

This is the only I'm not 100% sure yet because you haven't provided explicitly yet what you'd like to use. But, I can't image it would be harder to get this running on Bazzite compared to other distros.

And last, but not least:

I'd like my main recreational machine & distro to be low maintenance

Through utilizing the bootc model, Bazzite is as low maintenance as they come.

This was originally intended as a longer comment, but the previous draft unfortunately blinked out of existence... Though, I'm more than willing to shed some light on the distros discussed below if you're interested.

Or any other Good KDE Distros out there.

I'm surprised that no one else has mentioned them yet. Thus, for the sake of completeness, consider Aurora and Bazzite. It's what I would personally install/recommend for/to relatives/friends that would like to make the switch to Linux.

Suse

Tumbleweed? Slowroll? Leap? Aeon? Kalpa? Which one?

Why Kinoite over say uBlue's Aurora, Bazzite or even uBlue's base^[That just includes a bunch of basic stuff you'd most likely want anyways.] Kinoite image?

Hmm..., would you so kind to explain what the end goal is? I feel like we're dealing with the classic XY problem. But hopefully I'm wrong.

recommend me a distro that runs well on an Asus laptop with an Integrated and Discreet GPU.

FWIW, Bazzite offers dedicated images for a bunch of different hardware including ASUS laptops.

Note, however, that Bazzite works a bit differently than your average distro. Though you should be more than fine as long as the means to address your needs are contained within its pretty good documentation. For all else, first try if the conventional method used on traditional distros works. If for whatever reason that doesn't yield, then consider reaching out to one of their community channels.

What is it you use your laptop for?

It TDE secure (for personal use)?

Depends on your threat modeling. Though, unfortunately, none of the DEs/WMs on Linux offer perfect security; this even applies to a hardened distro like secureblue.

So, practically-speaking, it probably ain't great. But we aren't used to great anyways 😅.