From my limited research and understanding, Nvidia makes Linux drivers, but they’re closed source. These work fine. They open sourced some stuff but not enough to really change much yet.
There are also FOSS drivers, but the performance for those vary.
Is this correct? Should I stick to proprietary drivers if I want consistent performance?
Nouveau driver is better for stability, nvidia driver is (usually) better for performance.
I would use nvidia if you want to game and nouveau if you don’t.
Definitely stick with the proprietary drivers. I think the other thing to check is making sure your good to go if your using some kind of WiFi adapter. Getting wifi setup can be a pain depending on what you have. It’s something I discounted on the switch until I got fed up dealing with mine and got a Intel PCI-E adapter from some random Chinese company. (Which is hilariously enough is rock solid and completely plug and play with Linux).
I installed the Nvidia version of pop on my gaming machine and it works great. Good gaming performance
Pop! is a great choice. Most programs will default to flatpak in the software manager and there are a few potential pitfalls there because some of the default permissions are not very well thought out.
I would either avoid flatpak from the start (Pop! shop > hamburger > Software sources > flatpak > delete flathub source), or read up about it and flatseal before using.
What are flatpaks anyway? They seem to be portable versions of software but they’ve always been slow for me
