Linux + Asus Laptop + Steam, a little Help please!

[LaCuNa]

I've never used Linux, but, i'm pretty good at learning how to use software pretty fast. The reason why I made a separate thread for my question, was because I have a newly released laptop, and I didn't want to go on the Asus forums as i'm locked out or something.

Anyways. I have a G733ZX(Asus Strix Scar 2022), with a i9-12900h and 3080ti. The games I want to run are steam based and supported on Linux. I just want to know a couple of things:

1) I think ubuntu is the best linux distro simply because it's the most popular, therefore it'll have the biggest support out of all the distro's right?

2) I have Windows 11 installed on my laptop NVMe at the moment. It is backdoored and pretty much taken over by a rootkit. I want to install a linux distro, but I don't want any of the garbage from the windows installation to fuck with it. Obviously do a complete format right? But what is the best way to completely wipe everything off the SSD, and is there such a thing as a complete wipe? Or, should I just buy a new NVMe and replace?

3) What about the latest drivers for the hardware in my laptop, is there a centralized place I can find them?

4) Is there some type of third party applications that can control the Fan speed on my laptop in linux(I will never install official Asus(or other OEM) software ever again)?

5) Is multiple Displays and extended displays supported with Ubuntu?

6) Is there anything else I should know before diving into Linux(Ubuntu)? I mean, i'm ready to puke i'm exhausted from all the windows shit. I want to get into Linux ASAP and never look back.

Thanks for your time.

Edit: Ops, forgot. Would I be able to install drivers for the built in intel GPU and the nvidia card? Would I be able to run both concurrently? Like, stream on the intel and game on the nvidia?

 

[FSCDiablo]

Pop! OS or Manjaro might be a little more suited for your hardware out of the box including preinstalled closed-source NVIDIA drivers. I think Pop comes with Gnome DE as default, where Manjaro comes with more options to choose from. I've never used Pop, but it's popular. I have used Manjaro for years and never had an issue with stability. Both support gaming and Steam if not already preinstalled.

Any installer I've ever used in Linux will give you an option to reformat your drives to remove your Windows install completely if you choose.

Some drivers for the newest hardware may be an issue as not all vendors support linux out of the box and you'll have to possibly wait for someone in the community to write support for it or find a workaround.

Fan support should be available, but I haven't used a laptop in years so I'm not up to date on that support.

Multi display is pretty well supported as AMD/NVIDIA/Intel drivers are supported. I've never had a problem here. NVISIA settings control should have option to swap between Intel/NVIDIA.

Download some bootable USB drive images and test drive some popular linux distros. See which DE you prefer to use. Check out the default support for your laptop and Google any problems you see for potential fixes or limitations.

 

[SmokeRngs]

I'll second the Manjaro recommendation. I've been using it for at least a couple of years and have had no real problems or issues with it. One of the biggest issues people tend to run into is installation and updates of closed source nVidia drivers. Sometimes it can go just fine but other times it's a flat out nightmare. Manjaro has options built in to install nVidia closed source drivers automatically. It will also have options to install the necessary drivers to swap between the onboard video and the nVidia card although I do not know how stable or trouble free that is as I have never used anything like that.

Manjaro is installed on both my main system as a daily driver and on my server. Running it on my main system has been great and I have yet to find another distro I like better. I was hesitant to move away from openSUSE on my server as I had been running that distro on my server for more than a decade with few or no problems. However, there were updated libs and packages I wanted that weren't available through the package manager so the server was swapped over to Manjaro and I haven't regretted the change even once.

Manjaro is a semi-rolling release distro but using stable packages. The only instability I've run into has been issues with hardware, not the distro.

I also use and prefer to game through Steam and so far issues with games I've played have been rare and performance has been good. In some cases I've had games perform quite a bit better under Linux with Steam and Proton. That isn't always the case as I've run into some performance issues and oddities with Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order but the issues weren't caused by the distro.

 

[Mazzspeed]

I run KDE Neon which is loosely based on Ubuntu LTS, and by adding the Launchpad Nvidia driver PPA, I've never once experienced an issue installing Nvidia drivers and running Nvidia hardware. It has to be said however that I don't run a laptop, so no switchable graphics.

https://launchpad.net/~graphics-drivers/+archive/ubuntu/ppa

To install Steam, I go to the Steam site, click 'download Steam', download the .deb and install it via the GUI. I've used this method for years and never had a problem.

 

[KarsusTG]

For a gaming laptop operated by a non power user, I would suggest pop os. Honestly most / all of the configuration and hybrid graphics stuff has already been done for you out of the box. All you have to do is run updates and install your games.