speck

I think that's where I'm at, too, where I don't mind have to re-do certain things down the road if I switch approaches or commit to a certain direction

I plan to look into this ofc, but if the games are on an external hd, would Linux use the same files as Windows? I.e. you don't need two copies of the game so long as it's on a format like NTFS that both can read? Was wondering whether to partition the external HD to have a Windows side and then a Linux side, with the latter formatted to ext4

All my games are off steam currently lol. I'm hearing the collective message of how feasible Linux is for gaming, tho

Keeping windows is also an "in case" measure because I'm ignorant with both OS, at this point: in case some use case comes up where having Windows is easiest to get something done. My goal is to keep to Linux as much as possible. Purely because I want to become familiar with it

I was going to put games on an external hard drive, at least for Windows side. Maybe I should also partition the external HD and have an ext4 formatted partition for when I decide to game on the Linux side?

Main game rn is BG3. And ofc want to get back into playing modded Skyrim. There are definitely other, pc only games that are on my list, coming from a Mac. But nothing like LoL or CS:2

Nice,. thank you. And ntfs for the data format is what I've understood to use

This is with a laptop. So one would have to be on an external drive. That wouldn't slow it down?

Just out of curiosity, if the games are on an external hard drive with a different format does that skirt the issue between Linux steam and ntfs?

Thank you for this comprehensive answer. It brought up some new considerations, but that's a good thing — like learning about Wayland, switching to/from use of gpu (which I didn't even know was a thing), and Pop_OS moving away from gnome. I appreciate that you took the time to write this full answer!

Between Mint and Pop_OS: recommendation for how to pick between them?

Coming from MacOS, haven't used Windows in a number of years.
If it would make a difference it's for a Lenovo Legion Slim 5 (Ryzen 7 7840HS; NVIDIA RTX 4060).
I want to dual boot, using the Windows side for gaming, for now, and Linux for other tasks.

I appreciate this input, thank you. You make a valid point. I don't game much, so there wouldn't be too much back and forth. This is also just about learning what it's like to use Linux. I have a backup apple device, which is the OS I'm used to, and it would remain my daily driver for all essential tasks. For now, at least. So I have the luxury of trying stuff out on the pc laptop but not being bound by it.

I'm only listen to holy Trinity:

Finn, Jake and BMO