Windows needs to stop showing tabloid news

Games were the main reason I came back to Windows after trying Ubuntu with Wine over 15 years ago, then quickly switched to Mac, and when I was unhappy with Apples direction, Windows the unfortunate but obvious place to come back to. Should have gone to Linux instead.

I still need to check whether all my favourite games are supported on Linux. Also, a lot of my games are from GOG rather than Steam. And I need to choose a good distribution. My laziness and indecisiveness is holding me back.

But I really think the time is right for something better. An OS on a Linux-like foundation, with an Apple-style UI (but better, because plenty of stuff there still doesn't make sense), capable of running all games. Probably developed and polished by a big hardware manufacturer trying to eat Apple's lunch. There's System76 of course, but they're small. I want something that's for everybody. A new standard to draw everybody away from the increasing piles of crap from Apple and Microsoft.

In case you don't know the site: ProtonDB offers crowd sourced reports on how well games run with Proton/Wine. With some playing around, you can run GoG games using Proton.

Nowadays you don't need to mess with Wine manually, there are a lot of tools to install Windows binaries just like they were Linux binary. You'll even forget you're using Windows versions.

You can check ProtonDB for compatibility. The information is valid even if you have the GOG version of the game. For games that are not on Steam there is WineDB but I find that the UI isn't as nice as ProtonDB.

Steam has a Linux launcher and let you install Windows binaries directly. For GOG or Epic games there is Heroic launcher which is very easy to use.

Don't overthink your distribution choice, just go for one of the major general purpose distribution (Ubuntu, Fedora, Mint, etc) and you'll be fine no matter what you pick.

> capable of running all games

My solution for this is to have 2 computers.

I have a macbook as main computer, with all my documents, study, etc.

And I have a desktop computer with Windows for gaming only. I treat this pc as a console, it’s only for gaming. Any OS annoyance is similar as a xbox/ps5 annoyance, but it’s still more flexible than a console.

I just use virtualized Windows from macOS to play games that don’t run on mac. Worst case scenario I have to dual boot into Windows.

There’s a weirdly long thread of dorky gaming infighting happening in the top comment where people don’t seem to know that you can just use Windows for a few games and otherwise use a main OS for the rest of your time.

This would be my setup if I cared for Windows gaming at all. As it is, I use a Switch for that outlet. Why do you need the PC to be "more flexible than a console" — are you talking about hardware upgrades? Are Xboxes not very upgradable?

If you don't want to tinker with your UI, would suggest PopOS (System76 distro). If you like to tinker, I really like Ubuntu Budgie, which lets me have some bits of config based on Windows, Mac and just different from either. I took a few days to get it how I liked, and over a year since without much issue. Alternatively, there's always Mint or other Ubuntu or Fedora options out there.

All said, I really liked PopOS, it has some very sane defaults, good out of the box support for hardware as well. Most of the support is upstream via Ubuntu, but a lot of UI tweaks and custom additions are coming from System76, and they have been doing very well. Will likely switch back for the next LTS release.

Will the GOG version of the game work as well as the Steam version even if GOG doesn't list it as a Linux game while Steam does?

Also, I think the choice of window manager might matter more to my experience than the choice of distribution. I find some Linux wms too clunky, too Win95.

PopOS doesn't let me tinker with the UI? That's a shame. It was a big contender for me. But if it's Ubuntu-based, shouldn't it be just as configurable?

I used to have that back when I had a Macbook, but now my son as confiscated the gaming PC because it's more powerful than his laptop.

I've tried to set my laptop to dual boot Windows/PopOS, but it refuses to boot to PopOS.

Consoles tend to have very limited controllers. Nothing beats mouse+keyboard.

Ah, true — if you're talking those kinds of games! It's a real shame consoles don't have better keyboard + mouse support. Then again, I guess game developers would be wary to rely on them since they wouldn't be guaranteed.

It's just Linux. PopOS uses Gnome which is less tinker friendly but you can still tweak some things or just install KDE or any other DE.

You can absolutely tinker, or replace the DE if you like... it's just less configurable out of the box than Ubuntu Budgie, generally speaking.