Synaptic Am I missing out? Am I not? It’s something I want to know to make sure that I don’t go around spewing nonsense and believing Solus is out of date just because of that too.
Six of one, half dozen of the other. The 5.15 kernel (currently, I think, at 5.15.74) is getting long in the tooth, the most recent hardware is/may not be supported by kernel, and newer versions of the kernel have made some changes that enhance Ryzen performance. I can see why “the most up to date kernel the better gaming performance you get” is a commonly held rule of thumb, and I don't argue with it. The meme is probably right.
I think that Solus and advanced gaming might be at odds somewhat, in the sense that Solus is designed for ordinary desktop users rather than high-end gamers. Solus has never offered zen kernels, for example, which are optimized for gaming. I'm content with that, because I am the incarnation of "ordinary desktop user", running all-Intel and doing nothing fancy. I can see why gamers and users with the newest hardware are frustrated right now. I value the fact that Solus is so carefully curated, but others differ.
Solus is facing a number of issues right now. Gnome 43 and attendant changes have created problems for the Budgie and Gnome DE's, and that all needs to be addressed. The LTS kernel is running later this year (December) than last (October), so that complicates things. A lot of balls in the air. I don't know how the team will handle it all, but I trust them because I've used Solus since 2017 and Solus is the cleanest, most stable, least problematic distro I've encountered.
