My gaming PC is a very unloved Windows machine, if not for that I'd be long gone (everything else is Linux). Come to think of it, gaming is why I used windows in the first place, starting with 95. With the Steam Deck and its push for Linux compat I don't see the next generation being so windows focused either.
I have been gaming on Linux for like nearly two years now. Proton just works. I recommend either Arch or a Ubuntu based distro I can't vouch for other distros, though I'm sure they can run Steam just fine (but SteamOS was once Debian based and now its Arch based so it makes sense to me).
I am using EndeavourOS with KDE (Arch based, with a GUI installer) daily for nearly a year now, before that I was on POP_OS! but I wanted more up to date packages.
Agree I switched to Linux gaming about 4-5 years ago and cannot be happier. Just finished Expedition 33 and it ran flawless. Even setting up a simple OBS desktop to capture HDMI and stream ... so much easier with Linux than Windows. No forced updates, no random reboots, no annoying widgets, no AI integration... just does what I want it to. Why Microsoft just won't release an stripped down edition and make it afforable and easily accessible is beyond my understanding. I am now an old timer and 15-20 years ago I would do almost everything on a PC simply and efficiently now I find Linux gets this job down hands down better than anything Microsoft has to offer.
Proton had a bug that deleted all Steam Cloud saves made on Windows for any game I launched it with. Not sure if it is fixed yet because I'm scared to try again. Beware & make backups
fyi you can directly view and download the saves and config files that get uploaded to the steam cloud. you could always download them as a backup before launching the game. it would not surprise me if there were oss tools to help manage that as well
I built a newish gaming PC on AMD components and flashed SteamOS onto it. It just works out of the box, although it does sort of think that it's an oversized steamdeck.
My previous gaming PC was a 2016-vintage windows machine with a very hacked and lobotomized win10, so nvidia graphics drivers were starting to become a problem what with the lack of windows update and all that...
Steam and emulation works fairly well. Nearly all newer games just run, and most older games do as well. There's a few I won't run because they use kernel-level anti-cheat. I play single-player and no game needs kernel access, not even to check for cheating.
