linuxmemes

it is kinda wild that people abandon Windows 7 because of Steam and not because Microsoft stopped patching it several years ago

Ubuntu was chosen because Proton is officially supported in Ubuntu.

I don't think Steam actually recommends any distro since some time anymore

All these people saying "use this or use that distro instead" is why Windows users don't go into Linux. Ubuntu is a solid choice for beginners because that's a distro with a lot of tutorials online if not the most.

Windows 12 may end up being my transition to Linux, especially if they go for a subscription model. If you told me just a decade ago that Linux was a viable OS for gaming, I would have laughed at you.

Valve have outdone themselves with Proton. So have those who worked on DXVK and VKD3D.

There's a bit of controversy regarding Ubuntu that I don't need to get into but Fedora and Pop!_OS are also really good for Proton support. Ubuntu will work fine but I just prefer not to use it. Maybe you could let him try out the live environment for a couple distros to see what he might like in terms of UI.

I'm pretty sure that this is because steam uses chromium as its backend and chromium new version doesn't run on windows 7. It's still not good because there are some games that won't run on newer systems and therefore 7 is required for preservation.

As many of you pointed out, yes I agree proton is the answer if possible. YMMV

my boyfriend. He's running Windows 7

You saint.

Lol 0.06% usage in November 2023

https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey

There are more linux users than windows7 users.

Like others already mentioned, I would suggest Linux Mint as well. It's better Ubuntu than Ubuntu and similarity to Windows UI would make his transition much better.

If he wants something similar to windows, get Linux mint, it's the best parts of Debian/Ubuntu but made modern. If you can do it on Ubuntu, you can do it in mint (like online guides cuz mint is based on ubuntu if you couldn't tell).

To be fair, steam reports less than 1% of users using windows 7. It's not as big as we think.

Why not Linux mint? It is way more use friendly.

Also why on earth is anyone using windows 7 in 2023. I stopped using it to move to Linux back in 2016

Nah. It's more, year of the piracy comeback

I suggest an Ubuntu fork workout snaps, they are a headache to remove now

The year of Linux was supposed to be somewhere in mid 1990-s...

Lots of choices but I'd probably use Kubuntu if your boyfriend is new to Linux and you want this "official" Proton support (not sure that actually means much; Proton works very well on most distros). The plasma interface can be set fairly similar to windows for a newbie to feel comfortable.

It's all just personal preference of course; I just find the Ubuntu interface annoying as someone who uses Linux and windows a lot. Personally I use Mint; very nice distro, good and stable, nice for newbies, and the default cinnamon interface is very windows like too.

Proton works on any Linux distro, it comes with steam. As long as you can install steam, you should be golden.

Aha, just popping in here to suggest taking a look at PopOS!

Proton works extremely well on it, its compatible out of the box with everything Debian based (this includes Ubuntu) so it has a huge selection of free software, has great documentation for the PopOS! specific stuff and for all the debian/ubuntu stuff you can nearly always use older wikis on the internet if you run into a snag, and its got a custom DE that I personally find better than KDE and Ubuntu's latest rendition if GNOME.

Also, while Ubuntu is going hard into Snaps, which I hate, PopOS! is going into flatpaks, which are less bad than snaps, but still stupid imo.

If you care, its fairly easy to disable and/or remove flatpaks from PopOS. It doesnt come with any preloaded afaik, so all you have to do is go into the PopShop (the app store) settings and just remove the flatpak source.

Ive run Proton on Steam via debian sources on PopOS! for years, works fine.

Oh right! I am fairly sure that PopOS! nowadays just comes by default with graphics drivers pre-installed and preset to automatically update with the rest of your software when you run sudo apt update. All you have to do is pick the Nvidia ISO if youve got Nvidia, or the standard one if youve got AMD.