I did it. For a few years now I've wanted to make the jump but lazyness and a bit of worry that my main game wouldn't work very well kept me from it.
Then some effing windows update caused ridiculous stuttering on games (or maybe it was a auto-update of some other hidden thing, I couldn't figure it out) so I decided that if I needed a system wipe, might as well as try gaming on linux.
Honestly? Much easier than I expected. Install Steam, turn two options on and 90% of your library is ready to go. I had to tinker with getting freesync to work (ended up just switching to wayland, which just worked) but other than the plugins I use for my main game requiring a bit of more work, smooth as butter really.
So yeah, if you are a lazy gamer like I am, next time you do a system wipe or get a new computer, try installing linux first. Don't even bother Dual booting it, if you don't like it just reinstall (setup your usb drive with ventoy and the images you want to try out.)
I’m a pretty tech savvy guy but not a “coder” by any stretch. Pretty comfortable using terminal commands so long as the instructions are clear.
I’m considering building a gaming PC within the next 6 to 12 months, and I pretty much want it to be strictly a Linux machine for gaming. I want my hardware to work out of the box as much as possible and maximum compatibility with my games with minimal tinkering. Again I can handle getting some things to work, installing drivers, tinkering with game settings. But a lot of what has kept me from going whole hog into PC gaming is I am a dad with a full-time job and sometimes I just want to fire up and start playing. Steam deck has been nice but obviously very underpowered compared to a dedicated tower I’d build.
Which Linux OS would folks recommend? OP asking you as well haha.
I was in the same boat a month ago. I decided to get a System76 desktop. While a bit more expensive than building my own, the time and grief saved has been wonderful. They are great machines if you can spend a little more to save headaches.
Ngl these are pretty slick. I think I’d rather try my hand at a build but if it had more disposable income I’d probably go for it.