Linux Workstation (Bazzite)

A personal PC has been running on Bazzite since early February 2026, following a migration from Windows with targeted system and tooling customizations.

What's Actually Set Up

• RTX 5080 supported out-of-the-box by Bazzite. No rituals required.
• PipeWire filter chains configured for 7.1 surround sound using the OpenAL default preset.
• Built a custom FFmpeg with the latest upstream version and full codec/feature support.
• Compiled PyTorch from source to enable CUDA 13 support.
• Integrated the SageAttention module using Triton backend for improving performance on transformer models.

Why Migrate?

• Hardware utilization and performance
  Ongoing use of Ubuntu on a secondary work laptop since 2023 showed measurable gains in battery life, performance consistency, and system-level customization. That evidence made the primary workstation an obvious next candidate.
• Vendor lock-in from Windows-only software
  Core functionality is routinely gated behind proprietary, subscription-based tooling. A notable example is Beyerdynamic Immerse charging annually for 7.1 virtual surround. Windows-side workarounds lean on OSS layers like HeSuVi, while Bazzite treats this as a first-class feature via PipeWire, including ujust setup-virtual-surround.
  Peripheral ecosystems often require heavyweight vendor software just to expose basics like DPI or profiles. Linux alternatives such as OpenRazer and Input Remapper deliver the same functionality without the ongoing hostage situation.
• Excessive telemetry and bundled features
  Persistent background telemetry and preinstalled AI slop apps that are unrelated to user workflows are enabled by default. Meaningful mitigation typically depends on third-party utilities (e.g., O&O ShutUp10) rather than supported, system-level controls.
• Update instability
  Mandatory updates have a habit of introducing regressions or invalidating existing configurations. Bazzite uses atomic updates with rollback support, making experimentation far less exciting in the wrong ways.
• Limited system control
  Native mechanisms for disabling or removing unwanted components are incomplete, often requiring additional third-party tools just to achieve baseline control.
• Misconceptions around NVIDIA on Linux
  Claims of poor NVIDIA support are outdated. NVIDIA provides official Linux drivers and tooling with feature parity. Bazzite ships with the driver preinstalled and preconfigured, removing the manual setup obstacle course.

Any Quirks?

No distribution delivers flawless, out-of-the-box compatibility across all workloads. Occasional hiccups still appears:

• Gold-rated games
  Titles marked Gold on ProtonDB may still require minor tweaks or additional dependencies for optimal behavior. For example, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 hides most graphics settings unless sd0 (disable Steam Deck mode) is added to launch parameters.
• Ray tracing
  RTX features may intermittently fail in certain games following NVIDIA driver updates. The practical workaround is to roll back to a known-good driver version until the regression is resolved.
• Anti-cheat
  Some games listed as Denied or Broken on AWACY are generally unplayable (looking at you, EA). In Denied cases, developers have explicitly chosen not to enable or support Linux-compatible anti-cheat solutions.