A couple of weeks ago, I ditched Windows and switched to Bazzite. First, a quick correction: the issue with my Lenovo warranty wasn’t Lenovo’s fault after all — I had entered the wrong serial number 😅, so the “6 months left” confusion was on me.

Now, onto Bazzite itself.

Overall, I really like Bazzite. The minimalistic design is one of my favorite things about it. The settings are clean, it doesn’t feel bloated, and it comes with a lot of features that I genuinely enjoy. I love the freedom, the apps, and how flexible the system feels compared to Windows.

That said, I do have some concerns.

One of my biggest issues is trust and transparency. I sometimes feel unsure about what’s happening in the background — especially when it comes to personal data. For example, I keep asking myself: If I enter my bank details, where does that data go? How is it handled? This uncertainty makes me a bit uncomfortable.

Gaming is another mixed experience. While many games run well, some titles don’t work without Proton, and even then, not everything runs perfectly. This is a downside for me, because if Linux could run all Windows games flawlessly, I’d probably stick with it without hesitation.

I’ve also had issues with the virtual keyboard, which can be frustrating at times and breaks the smooth experience the OS is aiming for.

In conclusion, I really appreciate Bazzite for its minimalism, freedom, and overall design. However, between game compatibility issues, concerns about data security, and small usability problems like the virtual keyboard, it still doesn’t feel fully sufficient for my needs — at least not yet. I’m not sure if I’m missing something or if these are just current limitations, but Bazzite is very close to being something I’d stay with long-term.

Ps: I'm chilling with emos until I got I bought som games 🎮 😅 Underground 2 is running flawlessly

The distro I ended up picking was the bazzite distro, which is based on Fedora. I choose the Gnome + NVIDIA package.

https://bazzite.gg/

What has worked great:

• Games! To my surprise, all games I've tried works! There were a few games that had some minor issues, but there were always a simple fix.

• Drivers just worked! (Until one of them didn't) But mostly that has been real smooth.

• Once I switched to X11, (Wayland was the default), it worked quite well! Resizing windows was a disappointing lag-fest of an experience though, but that is certainly not unique to Linux. Gnome seem to handle X11 and resizing well thought, so it's mostly when stuff us running on stuff like SDL2.

• The Discord community: The help here has been amazing!

• Terminal: It's so much faster than on Windows! You wouldn't believe how slow writing to a console is on Windows is.

• I like the small simple built-in programs like the text editor, clock, stopwatch. A lot of the Desktop environment seems really polished, simple and nice.

• I achieved the main goal. Which was making a Linux platform layer for our UI library project. and that process was mostly pretty smooth too! You absolute can get work done on Linux!

What has not worked great:

• Software from the software center

• Software not from the software center (the most stable software I've tried on Linux is the ones that does not require an install).

• Lots of OS-related issues, many came from updates. (WiFi driver stopped working, login screen stopped working at some point, and I had to bypass the login screen entirely, computer eventually didn't want to wake up from sleep, etc...)

What I really miss from Windows:

• PowerToys

  • The color picker is amazing.

  • FanzyZones is simply better and simpler than any alternatives I could find.

  • Screen Ruler. Also better than any screen ruler I've been able to find on Linux.

• ZoomIt

  • Even though it's not very good and very old. It's still far better than anything Linux has to offer that I could find.

• Debuggers not available on linux: Superluminal, NSight, etc...

• Search Everything

  • FSearch has been an OK replacement. But the indexing is manual and not real-time, and it can't open folders and files half the time, saying "this thing I found doesn't exist". (Which is recurring issue in many programs...). With search everything on Windows, I can sort by "last-modified, and see in real time what files systems are currently working on". It's amazing.

• Much much simpler drive structure on Windows.

  • And on top of that, half of the time the programs on Bazzite isn't aware of some folder existing, as if they are running in some container. (Which I absolutely hate). And what's up with half of the time my paths are "/home/bjarke/Games" and other times "/var/home/bjarke/Games". On top of that, installing super small programs, takes minutes! And often even require me to restart my PC. It's crazy.

• File Explorer

  • Not that the one on Windows is particularly good, (it's getting worse too). But the one shipped with Bazzite (Nautilus) has such a small feature-set, and is surprisingly slow! I installed Nemo which is a little faster and has more features. I'm really looking forward to trying this https://diskvoyager.com/ though if I go back to Windows though.

• Driver management.

  • Shortly after a update, my wifi driver stopped working correctly.. I've had my fill of trying to make things work at this point, so I've been using my mobile as hotspot for the past week. But I kind of miss at least having an overview of hardware and the drivers associated with them, have have buttons like "uninstall driver, re-install driver, search for updates" etc... I appreciate the terminal, but I don't prefer it.

• Executables. God damn it I miss them. I wish I could just "Run programs" on Linux, (some can of course), but most of the time, nothing "just works"... The way programs work, or don't work on Linux is the number one reason I'm leaving - I don't think I've had a single essential program run without some weird bugs with the way it was installed. I'm dying a little inside overtime I see flatpack or "This system is image (rpm-ostree)". And this distro in particular has a tendency to give me "this is not implemented" messages when ever i tried stuff like uninstalling software.. etcc.. xD Any how, as you can tell. Yeah, this has been a very very very frustrating experience. I do not want to touch any flatpack or rpm-ostree based distro ever again. There is just always issues.

• Paint (the old one)

  • There's really not anything good out there^{^} if you're looking for something that starts instantly.

  • Also miss Photoshop, (dispite it not being that good either)

• Taking screenshots on Windows is a much better experience UI-wise IMO. Less clicks and effort to achive precisely the same result.

What now? Back to Windows? Or new Distro?

I'm leaning Windows a this point, but I'll for sure try Linux again in the future! I really do not like Windows and what they are doing to the operating system. It keeps getting worse, and at an accelerating factor it seems. But it's also OS where software seem to just work.

I've heard that Arch Linux should be a lot less bloated and perhaps software is more stable there?

Or is there a distro where I can download linux programs. Double click the downloaded file to install it. Find it in the system, and uninstall it again? Without being limited to what some "software store" front has available for me? (I'd rather avoid any store where packages needs to be updated by people. I'd rather just download the latest myself, and update things on my own)

I switched from Windows 11 Pro to full Bazzite. No dual boot, no safety net. That’s just how I roll. If you look online, you’ll find two camps: one swears Bazzite is perfect for everyone, the other says it’s a hobby project that should’ve died in a basement years ago. Reality is, as usual, messier. Here’s what Bazzite will and won’t do for you.

And no, there’s no TL;DR. If you want pros and cons, you get nuance or you get nothing.

Cons:

• It’s not Windows and never will be: It’s not Windows. It will never be Windows. If you need Microsoft Office desktop, the full-fat Adobe suite, or that one obscure corporate app your boss thinks is ‘industry standard,’ you’re dead in the water. I don’t care what some wine-truther claims about "I got Office 2016 working after reconfiguring my chakras and sacrificing a goat to the DLL gods". If you need those apps, you need Windows. Period. Sure, Dual booting exists and so do virtual machines, but that's just Windows with extra steps.

• Software installs: On Windows, it's double click, next-next-next, you’re done. On Bazzite, it’s sometimes like that (Steam, Flatpaks). Other times, it’s a Wikipedia rabbit hole into Flatpak permissions, dependency errors, or a random forum post from 2019. If you like troubleshooting, you’ll be ecstatic. If you want stuff to "just work™" every single time, you're not gonna be happy post install.

• Codecs and media quirks: Windows is the Disney Lightning Lane for media codecs; you don’t even realize you’re getting in ahead of the crowd. On Bazzite (and most Linux distributions), sometimes it just works. Sometimes it’s "works after you install three extra packages and say a Hail Mary." Chrome and VLC are usually fine. Firefox, GNOME Videos, or anything niche? Expect "codec not supported" like a bad, 1980's jumpscare.

• Hardware support: I prefer Linux and have preferred it for over a decade, but the simple truth is that even after all this time, some hardware works out of the box (Steam Deck, ROG Ally X, etc. Xbox Controller...), some require CLI necromancy, and some just don't work period. And that's all before the fact that for peripherals, you're out of luck if you need a firmware update. Take my Razer vertical mouse (No carpal tunnel, ya'll) I can use it on Bazzite, and it works great. If I ever need to flash firmware for the mouse or receiver, I'm out of luck and have to break out my old, falling apart Windows 10 laptop. Do your homework before nuking your Windows partition.

• Kernel level anti-cheat? You're just out of luck: No Valorant, no Fortnite, no Destiny 2, nothing. Battlefield 6 is cool? Can't wait to hop online and play? Not on a Linux machine you're not. If you need Kernel level anti-cheat for your game to work, there is no work around. WINE / Proton will not help you. You're just not playing it on Bazzite (or Linux) at all.

• Support? You have none: I'd really recommend just subscribing to ChatGPT, Grok, Claude, whatever if you ever need help with your Bazzite system. Most "help" is either painfully out of date, requires esoteric command line work, or just smug replies form Linux evangelists. I've been a Linux fan since 2010 and even I've caught ungodly flak from other Linux users for insinuating that ever, at any time, Linux might not be the perfect Operating Systems of champions. If me, the guy that helped on linux.com over a decade ago as a hobby isn't a "good Linux user", you're in for a rough time the second something goes sideways.

• If you have AMD, you're usually golden. If you have Intel or Nvidia...: it's a real crapshoot. It might work well enough. It also might give you headache after headache; and that's not counting the fact that that's all for the older "supported" stuff. Brand spanking new? Get ready to cry. A lot. Intel/Nvidia make it crystal clear that any and all support is ill-fated charity work, not reliable provisioning.

Now if I have the Bazzite evangelists crying salty tears, that's good. Now on to why I daily drive Bazzite, and why it may be a very good choice for you.

Pros:

• The performance improvements can be insane: Not a guarantee, mind you. You won’t get a 30 FPS bump on every title, but you can see huge gains. My ROG Ally X? 15 FPS more in Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, stutter-free. Returnal, infamous for hitching on Windows, runs smooth. Cyberpunk 2077? Night and day difference, from FPS to micro-hitching. If you care about squeezing every drop of performance from your handheld, Bazzite delivers.

• Updates don't break things here: Ever had a Windows update randomly brick your setup? Yeah, that’s not how it goes on Bazzite. Thanks to Fedora Atomic’s “snapshot and rollback” system, you configure your device once and it pretty much stays that way until you decide otherwise. Uptime is measured in months, not “since the last patch Tuesday disaster.” Technically, you could run the same image forever, really not recommended unless you like living dangerously, but the option is there. Most of the “update broke my install!” horror stories come down to user error: stacking random RPM packages, ignoring the “just use Flatpaks” guidance, or playing Russian roulette with Nvidia drivers. Stick to what’s documented and the odds of a fatal update are about as low as you’ll get anywhere in desktop Linux. Rollbacks? Always there, one command away. No more “hope you made a restore point” roulette.

• No one is trying to sell you anything: No "please try Copilot" or "Satya Nadella's kids won't eat if you don't use Edge" or preinstalled candy crush in your start menu. Just. Not. Sold. To. And it's weird, on Windows you get used to it, but after spending some time on Bazzite I finally had that odd feeling of "huh, so this is what a computer meant for me to use instead of a machine meant to upsell me every 5 seconds feels like".

• Practically, viruses aren't a thing: spending money on anti-malware because Windows Security got weird? You can cancel that. Sure, you can still get phished and what not, but for a variety of reasons malware on a desktop Linux box isn't really a thing. Though I heavily recommend using an online malware scanner (I use VirusTotal) if you're going to share files or download stuff from non trusted sources.

• If your build works, it's rock solid: Y'know how Windows might crash, lag, or otherwise just get janky after a while? Unless you're doing some weird stuff with it or you were struggling to get something working to begin with, it practically takes an act of god to even see an error message. It's peace of mind: you turn the thing on, it works, borderline no exceptions. How many times did you struggle with PS5? How many times did you have to reinstall the OS on PS5? That's your life, but on desktop.

So if you’re a normal person who’s heard the hype and can’t get a straight answer about Bazzite, here’s your review. It’s not perfect, but it’s honest. If you want convenience above all, stay on Windows. If you want performance, control, and an OS that doesn’t try to sell you crypto or anime match 3 games, give Bazzite a shot.

I have been using Bazzite for 3 months and 6 days, and overall the experience has been great.

As someone completely new to Linux, Bazzite was the perfect starting point. It let me get comfortable with the Linux ecosystem without feeling overwhelmed. After these three months, I actually feel confident enough to start experimenting with other distributions.

Stability and Daily Use

From day one, Bazzite just worked. I used it for studying, video editing, and gaming.

Gaming especially exceeded my expectations. Every game I tested ran without major issues, and in many cases performance felt smoother than on Windows. The only time I had to tweak things was with non Steam games, which needed small manual adjustments.

I did run into a minor issue with ARC Raiders where frame generation was not available for me, but I do not think that was related to Bazzite specifically.

Updates were smooth and predictable. The documentation is clear and easy to follow, which made learning and troubleshooting much less intimidating as a beginner.

GNOME Experience

Choosing GNOME turned out to be a good decision for me. I think it helped me focus on learning how Linux works instead of getting lost in heavy customization.

Compared to KDE Plasma, GNOME felt simpler and less cluttered, which made the transition from Windows easier.

Sunshine and Streaming

The pre installed Sunshine setup was honestly one of the coolest parts. I was able to stream in 2K resolution to my tablet over 5 GHz Wi Fi with low latency and no noticeable quality loss.

For a few days, I even used my tablet as my main monitor. I could not figure out how to make it work as a secondary monitor, but even so, the experience was impressive.

Immutability and Distrobox

The atomic design gave me a lot of confidence. Knowing that the base system is protected made me much less afraid of breaking something while learning.

Distrobox was also very useful. I installed extra software inside containers without issues. The only thing I could not get working properly was DaVinci Resolve. The ujust script ran, but DaVinci could not edit or render videos and the player stayed stuck. I spent a few days trying to fix it but eventually gave up.

Why I Am Moving On

Even though my experience has been very positive, I am planning to move to CachyOS. Mostly out of curiosity. Bazzite made me realize that Linux can truly be my main operating system, and now I want to explore a more customizable setup and learn more about the system itself.

Bazzite was an excellent first distribution for me. It gave me stability, great gaming performance, and the confidence to go deeper into Linux.

I've been occasionally trying linux since i saw a friend run it on the PS3 way WAY back when. I've had better experiences each time i've tried it, and occasionally i've switched for a time, but only ever a month or so.

Bazzite seems to have come along (in my perception) just as windows 11 was getting beyond what i could be bothered to deal with, and at the same time some of my hard software needs had changed, which has made the full-time switch to linux with Bazzite a pretty good experience.

I guess it's been a planetary-alignment sorta thing.

It's not perfect, but DAMN if it's not GOOD.

Gaming aside; It feels better than stock Fedora Silverblue, it's miles ahead of Mint, too.

I'm currently dual booting Windows 11 and I have Fedora Gnome and CachyOS KDE Plasma. I'm thinking about potentially switching to Bazzite instead since I also enjoyed using Nobara but because it's one man project, it was often broken and it took long time to receive an update.

I'm tired of Windows constantly breaking my AMD drivers.

I enjoy do to emulation and I use multiple custom keyboards and chinese controllers.

I don't like bloat that I don't need but I prefer to have all gaming stuff already installed out of the box without having to worry about missing things out and installing everything on each fresh install.

I use full amd build with 7800x3d and 6950 XT. I mostly use it for gaming but not exclusively for gaming.

What was your experience with Bazzite in 2025? Did you have stuff break or was it stable? What were things that you were impressed with and what were you frustrated with?

I enjoy having control over my system but also intuitive and simple maintenance.

How are stability and updates?

I really enjoy Gnome with taskbar extension.

I'm mostly between Bazzite and CachyOS as of now.

I'd really appreciate your takes.:)