I recently set up Bazzite on my friend’s system after switching from Linux Mint due to some Nvidia driver issues. Although the hardware problems are not there anymore, the distro is now facing problems installing certain programs for software development that they had no problem installing in the previous distro. I think there are issues related to the immutability of the distro, though I am not sure since I am new to Linux too. Additionally, my friend is worried about higher storage consumption and slower performance in certain applications.
I realise the distro is primarily meant for gamers and my friend is not much of a gamer themselves, however they told me they appreciate its friendlier KDE interface so I wish to avoid switching from this distro again if possible. However I fear that they may encounter more errors in the future and that I may not be available to help them out whenever needed, so I am in a bit of a conundrum.
Thus I intend to ask here if it is possible to arrange something for easing development related tasks e.g. VM, distrobox etc. or whether it is easier to simply switch to some other compatible distro.
You probably are having issues due to it being immutable. Its not impossible to get around but in your circumstance you might not want an immutable distro. Firstly the is Bazzite DX which is the development centric version of Bazzite. Id use that if you do development firstly and gaming secondly. Also look into the docs about installing non flatpak software, if you MUST install non flatpak software: https://docs.bazzite.gg/Installing_and_Managing_Software/