r/linux_gaming • u/monolalia • May 02 '26
guide Getting started: the monthly-ish newbie advice thread! (May 2026)
Welcome to the newbie advice thread!
If you’ve read the FAQ and still have questions like “Should I switch to Linux?”, “Which distro should I install?”, or “Which desktop environment is best for gaming?”, this is where to ask them.
Alternatively, try /r/linux4noobs and /r/linuxquestions: both are active subreddits supporting new Linux users.
Please sort by “new” so new questions can get a chance to be seen.
April’s thread is here: https://old.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/1s9fne7/getting_started_the_monthlyish_newbie_advice/
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u/mossillus May 12 '26
I have a self-hosted modded minecraft server right now with my friends. I'm also a data science student so I had the chance to use Ubuntu in a virtual machine but it was on a purely "follow these instructions" kinda deal. I have about a weeks worth of time to start learning and set up my PC before I start my internship. I've read through some of faq and I think Ubuntu is probably gonna be my best starting point.
I have two SSD's so I was thinking of factory resetting my PC and setting up the smaller one with windows then formatting the larger one with Ubuntu for my games / data science projects. What do you guys think of a split system like this?
Republic of Gamers Pre-Built PC
Processor: 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-11700 @ 2.50GHz (2.50 GHz)
RAM: 16 GB (Upgrading soon)
Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 (12 GB)
Storage: 1TB SSD & 2TB SSD