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this post was submitted on 31 Jan 2026
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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I suggest LMDE not regular mint. Normal mint updates often and ocassionally with bugs while rare and mostly I see for gaming they do happen. Stability and reliability are king. So LMDE aka Linux mint debian edition. Its entirely the same as normal mint made by the same people but it's rock solid unlike Ubuntu version.
Sincerely I've used both to game and daily pc usage even work. LMDE no questions.
lmde does not have all the pref panels like normal mint does. I always suggest against it, especially for nvidia users.
Regular Mint is much closer to what the OP is asking for. It removes the crappy Ubuntu stuff but gets to benefit from the good stuff like better hardware support, GUIs for drivers/updates and PPA support which is especially important if you have an AMD GPU as it's how you'll get up-to-date Mesa.
Up to date mesa is in regular mint but only sort of. You have to manually go bleeding edge if you want by installing mesa drivers manually. Base Mint is a few versions behind on purpose, stability and I would say your kernel version makes a bigger difference in the end given how good mint is I recommend 6.14 kernel especially on fresh hardware, you can change your kernel version anytime in the update manager preferences, 6.8 is old but stable. 6.14 is newer, faster in gaming. Unless your on brand new, brand new released hardware this a non issue truly.
Most people will be fine with stock mint and you can't go wrong much with either. I game on stock mint full time! Windows only for BF6/dual boot. It's all I knew for several years was mint before going to NIXos and fedora and more.. My hardware is 7900xt 7600x. Full AMD on my rigs though I've built intel Nvidia.. I've built dozens of PCs/laptops/servers as I build and sell them. You honestly can't go wrong with either version but all I am saying is that if you hate bugs, updates ocassionally doing odd things especially to steam and proton. LMDE. I've been on mint for years this is just my 2 cents. I also value not fucking with my OS anymore I dislike command line memorization. I'm done tinkering and fixing shit all the time and prefer GUI or shit to just work ideally I'll trouble shoot for a few minutes then I stop, no more days tied up over dumb shit. With windows or Linux. LMDE is my choice. Best of luck.
Yeah, there's a big difference to a beginner between adding a PPA in Mint (GUI) and all the fuckery of trying to get the latest Mesa in Debian (terminal with risk) even though both could technically be described as "manual".