Hey guys, I am a novice Linux user (I am comfortable with using the terminal), and believe I would adopt Linux much further in my home use if it could serve as a replacement to my primary home computing use, PC gaming. As of yet I have found it difficult to switch to any distro of Linux, as I may be able to get most any game working (through Wine, etc) but I lose all my peripheral support (G27 Racing Wheel, G700 Mouse, G13 Game Pad, and all the macros that come with them). Even with that I decided I wanted to see how far Linux gaming has come.

Last night I finally put a Linux distro on my computer to dual boot from. I settled on installing SteamOS, as I figured it would have the best gaming compatibility out of the box. But I am kinda feeling like I should have installed either Debian 8, or LMDE to add a little more functionality. So finally to my questions.

SteamOS vs Debian 8 VS LMDE

1. Will I have a better/easier experience running SteamOS vs running Steam on Debian 8 or LMDE? (I am already assuming I will at least have to manually install nVidia drivers on Debian 8 or LMDE).

2. Will Debian 8 or LMDE have any issues with controllers like a DualShock 3 or 4? SteamOS apparently had added some support for these in there OS.

3. Between Debian 8 and LMDE, which one do you think I would have the best luck in running Steam on, if any difference.

All I can tell you is that on my jessie (Debian 8) systems, Steam runs just fine with no work-arounds needed.

Just follow this guide:
https://wiki.debian.org/Steam

I have no experience of either SteamOS or LMDE Betsy, sorry.

EDIT: For NVIDIA in Debian, see here:
https://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsDrivers

And read this:
https://wiki.debian.org/DontBreakDeb...nstall_scripts

1 members found this post helpful.

SteamOS is still beta. I would suggest running another distribution and installing steam on it. Just be sure to install the 32 bit libraries if your system installation is 64 bit.

Thank you for the useful information.

If your controllers work you may well be better off with Steam OS. That said if it can be made to work in Steam it can be made to work in Debian (I like LMDE and have used it but see not need if you can get Debian to work).
I think Steam OS is still 32 bit (for some peculiar likely-Windows-related reason) so Steam is too and relies upon the 32-bit libraries, which will mean more disk space on a 64 bit OS (and I would suggest installing a 64 bit OS on modern hardware).
I'm running Debian Sid with Steam installed and things like Goat Simulator and Team Fortress run just great with my old NVIDIA GT 640 but, sorry, I don't ahve any additional controllers to try.

Well I install Debian 8.1, got the updated nvidia drivers installed, got my audio working, installed Steam and can launch games.

But for the life of me I cannot get any controllers working in game...

Maybe if you list what controllers you are using, someone might be able to share a link or some insight to lead you in the right direction.

You can find the relevant information by searching the output of dmesg right after you connect the controller, or lsusb (if usb devices) once connected and recognized.

It may be a steam issue, or it may be a Debian issue, but no one can help you until you post more information as suggested.

Try this:
If that gets the controller working, add "xpad" (on it's own new line, without the quotation marks) to the end of the file at /etc/modules or run this command:
More suggestions here (this is for Arch but can be adapted for Debian):
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Gamepad

I had a Razer Onza TE, and a some other old Logitech game pad I had. I could get neither working in Debian, but I will give your recommendation a shot Head.

What a great question!

I am really interested to know what distro would have the best performance with graphics/drivers and steam games.

When ever you google best distro for gaming, the answer is usually the Linux that ships with the most game packages installed. This is irrelevant as you can just install all that from the package manager. I want to know best performance. With windows I know I will get the best performance from 8.1 then XP then 7. Stability can be better with 7 or 8.1 depending on the game, Xp last. Interestingly really old games seen to work better on 8.1 than 7. but xp probably the best there?

My opinion is a bit out dated but 2 years ago I used Solydx and LMDE. I found Soldyx to be better out of the box by far, they also had their driver manager which made it a simple effort to install drivers. (mint now uses this program)
Not sure if this is still relevant as then Mint shut down their Debian version. which led to Solydx. Mint has resumed their support of the Debian based version, so I havnt tested it at all since it first restarted. I have found Debian based and Manjaro(arch) to be faster than Ubuntu based.

As far as Video playback like flash and avi's etc. I have found Manjaro to be the best. Unfortunately their update program breaks all the time. So unless you know arch its hard to keep it running more than 2 releases without re-install.

Manjaro was the fist I used that shipped with steam installed

I have heard a rumour that Korora is good graphic playback performance out of the box. It is based on Fedora. I have just started trying it out.

Anyhow I want to get some decent games going on linux for my son and his friends, and steam seems the best chance. Would love to hear if anyone has tested different distros with same hardware, same game and got best FPS results?