Operating Systems

This is why I just dual-boot. Keep Windows on a short leash and basically just have it for the rare instances where there's something I really want to play and somehow can't on Linux.

You can always dual boot and use Linux for whatever you like it for. Sadly Windows is still the go to thing for gaming, since it's the target platform for 99.99% of software and especially games.

I just did, not for the gaming capabilities as I'm not a big gamer myself but because WSL malfunctions pissed me off. Moving to Pop!_OS after considering Nobara.

As someone who's been throwing the idea around putting Mint or another distro on my main desktop, is it a good idea for a main gaming computer? I use my laptop for DJing and stuff, but my desktop is primarily for games and videos.

Would that work out with Steam's linux compatibility or is there a better distro that could work?

For people who use Linux full time, how is VR support on it? Is ALVR a viable alternative to Virtual Desktop/Link? And do VR games run well or at all through Proton?

What kind of setup do you have? There's a few issues you may come across with an Nvidia GPU, but it's largely smooth sailing for everyone else with their Mesa drivers.

I'm in the same boat. I'm ready to move over to Linux Mint, but I don't want to have to download my entire game and program library again because NTFS won't play nice with Linux.

I'm currently on mac because I have always and will always despise windows, but now that mac's gone to ARM (which don't get me wrong they run amazingly) its pretty bad for games. Ideally I'd have a work computer on mac and a linux desktop. I'd say just go for linux as majority of games should work fine on it but I'd check each game case by case.

Are Ubuntu-based distros still the king of gaming on Linux?

I tried Pop!OS and I liked it a lot, but I wasn't big on the built-in store for downloading apps as it felt a bit clunky to me. Still, it's a solid option. Kubuntu was a pretty decent one too that I tried.

For me I found myself going back to Windows because of hardware incompatibility. I know that of course you either need to be really good at building compatibility yourself or scouring the Internet for a solution someone else already found, but unfortunately it was one of those cases where searching ended up with those results where it was from several years ago and they just said "I figured it out" without added context.

Just remember what distro you pick for gaming doesn't matter as much as the effort you're willing to put into learning its ins and outs. Use of distro wikis and protondb are key. Also dual-booting is honestly the way to go when starting up, just in case.

I just use moonlight and sunshine. My network is good enough and I just stream from my Windows PC. I use either Linux or Mac for my day to day and stream from PC when I'm gaming, depending on the game. Some games I just need to play in front of the PC.

Recently been streaming Diablo 4 to my Xbox and or laptop. Works great. I play most of my games at 1440p.

There are definitely a few games you sacrifice going Linux-only still, mostly to anticheat support. That said, my productivity has absolutely tanked in the last couple years so you can certainly find games to play. Being a patient gamer has great synergy because by the time you get around to playing something whatever kinks there may have been are usually worked out.

So one thing that might be worth looking into is virtual machines.

Currently on my desktop I run a variant of Arch (Endeavor I think) where I primarily do my gaming , but for any highly incompatible games, or Game Pass games, I have a virtual machine running Windows that uses pass-through to pass my graphics card through to the virtual machine for games I can't play on Linux. I also use CPU pinning to 'pin' 10 of my 12 CPU cores to the virtual machine to reduce potential overhead.

Works really well, might be an option for you, although it's not super easy to setup. I've tried passthrough on PopOS as well before, but it wasn't as performant, and Arch Wiki provides a ridiculous amount of super useful guides for doing just about anything, including setting this up.

Edit: Otherwise in terms of daily driver, I love Fedora, and likely won't move away anytime soon on my laptop.

I exclusively use Linux on my PC, including for gaming, and have so for ten years.

It's... A mixed bag. Getting to use Linux instead of Windows is the great part about it. The totally different philosophy, a convenient way to install apps, no mess with device drivers, easy distro-hopping and reinstallation, a way to free yourself from the vendor lock-in. If you haven't tried it, but think you'd enjoy it, I'd strongly encourage you to try it.

Gaming works but isn't pain-free. I can enjoy a lot of games, and SteamPlay is fantastic. But there's moments like when I have to redownload all 20GB of Transport Fever 2 on GOG after an update was released, because there is no GOG Galaxy on Linux. Last week I was trying to get Trackmania 2020 running with a friend. The gameplay worked fine, but the Ubisoft Connect overlay was totally bugged. Whenever I opened the overlay, the game would then refuse all keyboard and controller inputs until I restarted it. Since the party system uses this overlay, I couldn't play with my friend because of this bug. And our entire evening was wasted reading through forums and ProtonDB to try to fix the problem to no avail.

I encourage you to take a look and see for yourself and try it, I will never go back to Windows, and it's free so you're not losing anything by trying. A passion for fixing things yourself helps. And it's not all sunshine and roses. But good luck, and we'll do our best to help you if you need it.

I have an Adobe creative suite login through my work , plus gaming - but if I ever left the company I may switch too especially if windows adds ads to the start menu - or charges for upgrades

I have the first ever aluminium MacBook from 2008 running linux (new SSD , new battery , added ram )

I have looked into this myself recently. Still a few blockers for me, one of the big ones being VR. The Steam Deck and its OS have really pushed gaming forward on Linux though.

The only reasons I still have Windows on a drive is for my work but I only boot it up like once a month to update it these days. I use VMware for most of my windows related tasks now so maybe it's time I format that drive and use it for something else.

Gaming on Linux has grown leaps and bounds and it's only getting better. Game Pass Ultimate though, I'm guessing you're gonna have a rough time. That's built for Window's ecosystem. So more than likely that's going to be a very sore point. The streaming Game Pass can and does work on Linux, but if you're against that then Linux might not be for you.

Steam has gotten to the point on Linux where it's basically just install and run, as long as you have compatibility for all games turned on. Very very very few games haven't worked for me or even require little tinkering anymore. That being say I pretty much really only play Indie games.

I've been Linux fulltime for years, settled on Pop!_OS for it's excellent NVIDIA graphics integration. As far as game compatibility goes, check your games on ProtonDB. Even if they don't have a Linux native version, the Proton Compatibility Layer may let you play your "windows only" games on Linux without streaming.

Only thing keeping me from Linux full time is music production. Just not their yet unfortunately. Until I can run ableton and plug-ins natively it's a no go. That being said gaming is great thanks to Valve at this point.