tech

The "Year of Linux Desktop" Test Drive: 2026 Edition

Nathan Binding

04 Jan 2026 — 3 min read

My desktop PC + Tux

I did it again. I let the ball-ache of Windows 11 push me to the edge, and I went crawling back to the world of Linux distros, asking that age-old question: Is it finally good enough to be my daily driver?

The catalyst this time was Windows deciding that my audio settings are now a suggestion rather than a feature. Regardless of what device I plug in, the settings simply crashes, meaning I cannot turn on Dolby Atmos / DTS settings etc. Since I use macOS for anything remotely productive, my PC is essentially a glorified gaming console—and right now, it’s a broken one.

The irony is that I know how good Linux can be. I have a Steam Deck and it’s genuinely awesome. It’s polished, it’s reliable, and I love it. But it has one massive, annoying limitation: Battlefield 6. Because of EA's "Javelin" anti-cheat, it’s the one game I can’t play on the Deck, which is the only reason I’m still tethered to a Windows desktop at all.

So, I embarked on a mission to see if I could bring that Steam Deck magic to my main rig and finally ditch Windows (dual booting only for Battlefield 6). Here is how that "test drive" went.

Stop 1: Elementary OS 8

I started with Elementary OS 8. I wanted to love it—the aesthetic is great—but man, it feels like a locked room. You just can't do anything. It’s polished, sure, but the moment you want to step outside their very specific vision of how a desktop should work, you hit a wall. For a "productivity" focused OS, I felt remarkably unproductive.

Stop 2: The ISO Nightmare

The real trouble started when I tried to "burn" another ISO while inside Elementary. Trying to handle .deb files or AppImages out of the box was a legitimate nightmare, and the 'App Center' kept crashing every time I tried to install a basic app. That was the final push I needed to jump ship and try Bazzite.

Stop 3: Bazzite (The Non-Starter)

I had high hopes here. Bazzite is supposed to be the "SteamOS for PC" dream, right? Total non-starter. The live image wouldn’t even boot. I hopped back into Windows, re-flashed the drive thinking I had a corrupt USB stick—nope. Same issue. I tried a few forum suggestions, but life is too short to debug a bootloader before you've even managed to install the OS.

Stop 4: Vanilla OS (The Final Straw)

Finally, I went back to an old flame: Vanilla OS. I’ve always rated this one, and I’m a sucker for that clean, Vanilla Gnome 48+ experience.

The Install: Actually went fine. I was hopeful.
The First Boot: I chose image A (it has A and B so you can roll-back), entered my encryption password, and waited.
The Result: A string of "unable to mount volume" errors followed by the dreaded black screen and a lonely, blinking prompt in the top left corner.

Sigh.

The Verdict: Is Linux Ready?

I give up. I spent my afternoon trying to find a stable home for my hardware, only to end up staring at a terminal cursor that refused to move.

I just want the Steam Deck experience on my desktop so I can finally delete my Windows partition and play Battlefield in peace. But between the mounting errors and the crashing App Centers, it’s just not happening today.

Well done, Microsoft. Your Windows UX is falling apart and your settings menus are a gamble, but at least you actually boot.