Have you tried running in a Wayland session if you have the same issue ? I am not so sure, but I think GPU acceleration is only really working with Firefox in Wayland. Also, check which version of the Nvidia driver you have, maybe there is something newer you can use from the backports repository.
This isn’t exactly what I recommend. Only in the case the hardware is bleeding edge, as in, it was released less than 6 month ago, then check in which Kernel version it starts to be supported, as well as check the Kernel version shipping with the distribution you are interested in installing. Distro Kernel version >= Kernel version where the driver starts to be included, no problems. Otherwise, check a distro that has more frequent upgrades.
Things to check: GPU, CPU, WiFi chip, Ethernet chip. In windows you can find the information in the device manager. On Linux (e.g: test with a live USB) the command lspci with display the information.
A common case would be: I am interested in Debian because I heard it’s the most stable, will my AMD 5070XT work with that ? Probably not very well, better Check Ubuntu non-LTS or Fedora.
I am not recommending op to modify the Kernel from the Linux distro, just consider this point in choosing the distro.
| Software | Linux support |
|---|---|
| AMD driver | ✅ open-source drivers for CPU and GPU are included in the Linux Kernel and work very well. If you have bleeding edge news hardware, check online in which Kernel version they are supposed and choose Linux distro accordingly |
| Web Browser | ✅ Chrome/chromium, ✅ Firefox. All are commonly available in your distro software repository by default, or otherwise with Flatpak |
| Web-based email | ✅ not dependent on OS. Local Email client software are available, one exemple is Thunderbird. |
| Office suite | ✅ LibreOffice, or anything web-based such as Google Docs will work independently of the OS |
| Itunes | Many music players/library managers are available on Linux, I don’t have any specific recommendations here, I am self-hosting Jellyfin for my music needs |
| JBL | not sure what you mean here ? Your headset/speakers ? Don’t see why it wouldn’t work |
| Music score reader/editor | ✅ MuseScore, I also use Guitar Pro (7, 8) inside Bottle (wine) and it works with some tweaks needed for fixing font bug |
| Antivirus | ✅ ClamAV, arguable if you need an antivirus at all |
| Python | ✅ many IDEs are available, a scary amount of Linux distribution rely on Python under the hood 😅 |
| Remote desktop | ✅ RDP protocol (many clients available), ✅ Rustdesk, ✅ anydesk, ✅ TeamViewer) |
| Game platforms | ✅ Steam, ✅ Heroic Games Launcher (for Epic and GOG), ✅ Lutris |
| VPN | ✅ OpenVPN and ✅ Wireguard protocols are supported (maybe others), you can find many providers using these protocols. Most ask you to use their app, but digging a little you often have options to configure the VPN connection without installing anything extra. I know Nord on client works on Linux, I haven’t tried other. Mulldav is a very frequent recommendation in Linux communities |
| Windows games compatibility | ✅ Wine/Proton via Steam, Lutris, Heroic and Bottles. The only thing that will block you is competitive multiplayer games with Anti-Cheat |
They often don’t have those in stock around here, you must order in advance to get some.