There’s never a bad time to switch to Linux! The best time may have already passed, but the second best time is now!

I believe your last Linux experience in 2015 predates DXVK which has been transformative for Linux gaming. Wine used to have to implement its own DirectX replacement which necessarily lagged behind Microsoft’s implementation, and IIUC didn’t get the same level of hardware acceleration due to missing out on DirectX acceleration built into graphics cards.

Now DXVK acts as a compatibility bridge between DirectX and Vulkan. Vulkan is cross-platform, does generally the same stuff that DirectX does, and graphics cards have hardware acceleration for Vulkan calls the same way they do for DirectX calls. So game performance on Linux typically meets or exceeds performance on Windows, and you can play games using the latest DirectX version without waiting for some poor dev to reimplement it.

If you are using Steam with Proton, Lutris, or really any Wine gaming these days you are using DXVK. It’s easy to take for granted. But I remember the night-and-day difference it made.

If you’re tired of Windows spying on everything you do, this is a great time to switch to Linux. If you believe it’s ok that Windows spies on you because you have nothing to hide, then you need to do some more growing up lol.

I switched last year and kind of was in a similar spot to you - I had tried to switch in the past but something didn’t work so I went back to windows. But that last attempt has stuck. So I’d just do it. Proton is in an amazing state, old games and even most new singleplayer games will work - some modern multiplayer games with anticheat even work. I’d just check your library on protondb (you can sign in to see your library), see what doesn’t work, if you care about it, or if there are workarounds.

What I also did is make a list of stuff that doesn’t work and then find alternatives or workarounds. If some games don’t work, you can hold off on switching, check protondb occasionally and see if something changes. But if it’s all good, I’d just make the jump.

If you can handle there being a few games that you just can’t play, the time to switch to Linux began a couple of years ago.

Proton works very well for me. I don’t play any games that use anti cheat though.
A lot of games that use anti cheat middleware don’t work, but I’ve heard support is improving.
I use Debian Testing. I recommend using Testing as well if you want to use Debian, or at least a custom kernel like xanmod to get newer drivers.

It’s always the right time to switch to a free os.

@mouse
Im using manjaro for 2 years now.
Didn’t do any special to it.
Just steam, libre office and some smaller apps.
No problems so far.

A lot has changed since 2015 thanks to Proton. However, it’s not a magic pill. Some tinkering might be required, with how much and how often depends on what you play. So just give it a try and see it for yourself, dual boot is a viable option. Pick some user-friendly distro that handles Windows detection and offers easy video drivers installation. Are you sure that Debian is that distro given your struggles with Arch Linux? I’m not that familiar with it myself, I thought that Debian comes in a relatively raw state.

iv moved to linux for over a year now when proton started getting rlly good and iv enjoyed it so much i started a small youtube channel lmao. software has gotten rlly good aswell in the foss universe with package managers like flatpak and some amazing gtk4 apps

gaming on linux is a breeze and with valve making more deals to get companies to support proton for linux/steamdeck

its going to continue to get better and better until windows will not be required anymore

I decided to try exclusively gaming on Linux for a few months as a “new year’s resolution” back in 2019, see if I could stop dual booting just for games. Never went back, deleted my Windows partition completely that Summer.

There’s a couple of important things to note, which you didn’t have in your post:

• which graphics card you have. If you’re AMD / Intel, the drivers are integrated into most distros, and they just work. NVidia is a bit of a ballache - once you know how to install their proprietary ones and disable Nouveau, they’re reasonably trouble-free. Reasonably.

• what kind of games you’re into. And really, the question is ‘are you into MMOs / online shooters’ that are likely to have troublesome DRM, because mostly everything else works.

ProtonDB has an entry for nearly every game on Steam with some compatibility notes, but really, Proton, DXVK, and the advent of the Steam Deck have really pushed things forwards - gaming on Linux seems less troublesome to me now than gaming on Windows used to be

Someone above mentioned ‘trouble with Lutris’? Works pretty damn well with my non-Steam games, but then, those are mostly from GOG, so a bit older and DRM free.

IMHO it depends on what kind of gaming you do. For me, I play all the big tentpole AAA games on console. My PC gaming is mostly indy stuff and things that suck on console like 4x strategy games. For my uses, gaming on linux has been… surprisingly good.

I would definitely recommend trying it out with dual boot.

I would ask myself “What are the games I play and how important is it to be able to play the latest AAA games when they come out?”

Proton is doing a wonderful job with compatibility, but it will likely always be behind by a bit.

If gaming is your primary focus and you play a lot of new games when they first come out, dual booting might be the best option.

On the other hand, if you are more patient and don’t have to play things on release day or just like going through the catalogue of older good games, you can probably get away with a full switch.

Personally, I’m in a more privileged scenario. I have a laptop with Linux and a desktop with Windows for gaming. I do most of my gaming on the steam deck, PS5, or switch but any first person or games that benefit from good reaction time with a mouse get played on my desktop. Some of my games just won’t work on proton because they are too intensive to run through emulation or just in too early a state to consider trying.

With all of that, if I could only have one machine it would likely be running Windows in some capacity.

I recommend you evaluate that question for yourself and go look at ProtonDB to figure out what state you’ll be in.

Might as well. I’m a linux guy, running various distros on a few machines, depending on the machines function. My gaming laptop runs Linux Mint, and I find that to be a pretty good choice. Almost everything works out of the box (I just had to install a newer kernel to make the newest nvidia driver work, as my GPU is pretty new as well).

I have a Win10 install, but I haven’t used it in ages. Everything I play plays just fine in Linux.

For gaming either go Pop!OS, Ubuntu or Linux Mint. Debian is always far behind on drivers. Check protondb first though.