I am both. And I have to say while many games with steam are download and play depending on your system os and gpu you will have various degrees of tinkering in order to get stuff running.
You either have to accept that you can't play every game or spend a lot of time getting them to work.
And multiplayer anti cheat games are very few that work.
I dualboot. Use windows only for gaming though. Luckily most of my favorite games run on Linux natively (Like ONI and CK3).
I play on linux smfrom 5 years more or less, as it is my daily driver. I have a laptop with nvidia gpu and woth OopOS I have no problem. Stema for steam games, heroic for epic and gog and lutris for all the other. I play exclusively single player, if a need some multiplayer games I have a dual bot, but I used it like 2 times in 5 years. For now the only game that gave me a lot of truble was Shadow of the Tomb Raider from Epic. I had to use "alternative way" for having it to start.
I'm no hardcore gamer but game a lot.
I'm running Nobara KDE, almost any games I throw at it work with no tinkering. Just this afternoon I installed Lies of P demo from Steam, it worked OTT with zero glitch. I have a SSD with Win11 I haven't run in months lol.
I'm playing on Linux for 4 and a half years already now. I am a programmer, too, but my home system is used mostly for games.
Lots of people in this thread are talking about steam and proton, but what about games on other launchers? How easy is it to setup proton without steam at all? One-click setup or 3 hours of crawling through google results and debugging?
I would try adding the game to Steam and using Proton that way
(In the Steam client) Games > Add a Non-Steam Game to My Library > (Add the executable) > Select the game in your library > Properties > Compatibility > Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool > Select your preferred Proton version
Granted, I've only tried this with one game, but it worked like magic. Your mileage may vary.
Depends on the game, honestly. DOS2? Install & run. The only game I really had trouble was Age of Wonders: Planetfall. AoW 4 works just fine, without any issues. You can also use proton for non-setup games, pick any runner you want in e.g. lutris. Or Heroic Launcher.
Lutris works pretty well for most other games I've tried. I have Epic working on it, Battle.net, MTG:A, and RSI/Star Citizen. Few issues here or there with any given game but honestly not too bad. Performance is on par with Windows. I dual boot for Fusion360 and CAD so I can do a/b testing.
Ubuntu 22.04/Mate, Threadripper 2950x w/ 64gb ram, 2x2tb NVMe, Radeon RX 6800 XT
Thanks to Valve and Proton gaming on Linux is already pretty viable and it's getting better all the time. I am very happy with how compatible Steam Deck is and what's funnier sometimes stuff that doesn't work on newer Windows versions works perfectly on a Deck. Battle.net Launcher installed as a non-Steam app and set to run with Proton allowing me to install and play Diablo IV just like I would on my PC just blew my mind.
Never thought of installing the launcher and setting it to run with Proton. Do you know if it's possible to play Fortnite on the deck using this method?
I use Linux as my daily OS, for study and work. I primarily game on it as well!
Every game that I've tried on Linux runs smoother (less 1% lows) than on Wind0ws. I assume it's because of the bloat on win11, but then again I researched as much as possible to clean up and optimize win11. Still runs much better on Linux. I mainly play Apex Legends, and though I don't consider myself good, I was D3 in S15.
The biggest issue is dealing with the games that use Anti-cheat systems that put kernel-hooks on wind0ws, which can't be emulated.
Linux as an OS is just so much better about getting good performance out of the hardware, and keeping itself out of the way. I've converted a lot of people to Linux over the year in an effort to get better performance on older systems. They couldn't afford to buy a new computer, and usually just wanted to be able to check email and go on the web. Slap Ubuntu on and they were always shocked how much better everything ran, but was still easy to use.
I wouldn't call myself a hardcore gamer. Only play on weekends and almost exclusively SP games. But so far experience is great (Pop OS, NVIDIA GPU, medium tier gaming laptop). Steam games are mostly playable without serious issues (adding some launch parameters or choosing certain Proton version might be advisable for certain games). Emulation also works nice (tried PPSSPP, RPCS3, Yuzu, Cemu). I would say that gaming on Linux is fine, unless you really need to play one of the not fully supported titles (especially ones with those pesky anti-cheats). Couldn't care less about RTX or HDR (would not work well even on Windows with my rig).
It's been harsh in the past, you just had to sometimes accept lower framerates/performance on the same hardware. These last few years, thanks to Vulkan and DXVK, it's been a blast though. Loving Lutris as my main launcher too.
I gather it's been doable for quite a while now, but the Steam Deck/SteamOS has given the Proton compatibility layer a huge boost in the last year and a half.
If it doesn't run on Linux (via Proton or direct), I don't play it. It has made some things less than fun (because I can run much lower powered hardware on Linux) but I've managed to keep up with the kids and their Windows-only machine including bigger games like Satisfactory and Hollow Knight.
You can check for yourself if the games you want to play work on Linux, just look up "(game name) ProtonDB" and look for a gold or higher for a good gaming experience. Subjectively, 90% of the games I've tried work well. CSGO, Overwatch 2 (through Lutris), Don't Starve, Deep Rock Galactic and Red Dead Redemption 2 are all games I know play well on Linux since I've tried them myself. It's incredible what Valve has done with Proton for game compatibility on Linux.