I am considering installing Linux on one of my drives to see how much possible it would be to use it as my main OS.
I have some questions about it.

First I will tell you the PC hardware I use.

i7 5960X Extreme Edition
64GB RAM
several SSDs (2 PCIE M.2 and the rest SATA)
GTX 1660 Super.

I already have Windows 10, but any Linux installation will be on a separate SATA SSD.

I have extremely limited knowledge of Linux.

Questions.

1) GOG supports only Ubuntu and Mint. Does this mean it does not support Kubuntu? Or say Peppermint etc?

2) Overall what percentage of games I own from GOG would work without issues or any major issue on a linux installation? So if I have say 1600 games here would half of them be ok? Less, more?

3) Do you need to use a terminal every time you need to install software, games or not?

4) What's the malware situation. Do you need something like Malware Bytes on it? If it is even available that is.

5) How are older (linus) versions dealt with? Do you lose all support? Do you lose compatibility if you go on a new version?

6) If there are no extra problems with compatibility, what's the best distro if I want to use as little (or none) terminal commands as possible?

7) How easy is it for games which are not native to linux, to run on linux? Both older games (DOS or early Windows) and more modern including Windows 10 games.

8) I use Vegas editing software and I don't want to change it. As far as I know there is no official release of it for Linux. Has anyone tried it and does it work fine or it's just a bad idea to try to use it under Linux?

9) Anything else important I should know?

Thank you in advance.

It's then probably best to write a live session USB stick and play with that while you get more familiar with Linux before installing it permanently. All Linux distributions provide live disks. There are plenty of people using Arch that run Linux native GOG games without issues. Kubuntu/Perppermint are derived and compatible with Ubuntu, they just use a different desktop environment (KDE vs Gnome). Think of desktop environments as "skins" for your OS, though that is a very superficial analogy. There are 2 situations you'll find yourself in:

a) The game provides a native Linux binary - that will simply work (you may need to install additional packages in some cases, but these are listed on the site)

b) The game only has a Windows version - you can still run it using compatibility layers such as Wine. Setting this up is a bit more complicated, however there are tools out there than simplify the process, like Lutris. I don't use any and go all hardcore, so I'll let others cover this bit and hopefully give you hints. No. You will need the terminal once in a while, for some things, but think of it much like the DOS prompt you had in Windows95. While Linux malware does exist, you generally don't need to worry about it. Security is very tight since essentially Linux is foremost designed for server use and a full desktop was added on top of all that. Upgrade paths are provided and usually compatibility is fine. Old versions are deprecated and get no further updates beyond a certain date. It's handled much like Windows, however you have less of an incentive to remain on an older version, since the new versions are almost always just functional upgrades, not redesigns. Some older Linux games may require tinkering to get running on newer Linux versions, but there's almost always a workaround. Much like on Windows. Peppermint is fine for newbies, so is Mint. When you start with Linux it's quite common to have a distro hopping phase where you try all the distros you may be interested in before you find your ideal one and settle down.

Or you could settle with a couple of favorites you switch between depending on your use case. But for the least hassle with gaming, especially when you're starting out, I'd stick with the Ubuntu family.

Here's more details on the genealogy of Linux: https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=family-tree

DistoWatch is also a nice place to get familiar with all the various flavors of Linux. Windows games (old and new) can be run via Wine. There's a bit of a learning curve before you get familiar with it, but it's not all that hard if you ask me. DOS games can be run with DOSBox exactly like you run them on Windows. No idea. It most likely runs under Wine, but until you try it you can't be 100% sure. There are tons upon tons of tutorials you can pick up on as a newbie, but you will have to invest some time to get up to speed with what Linux provides. IMHO that is time very well spent and can also help you professionally if you work in IT.

Edit: P.S.: A lot of other posts have been added, all relevant, yet some beyond what I think a beginner would know to make sense out of. Don't let that discourage you. Start small and come back here to re-read things when you've dabbled a bit into Linux, Wine and all the rest. Most of the useful stuff you'll learn by yourself, by doing, not by reading.

Which reminds me to add one more point on 9) Back things up before you install Linux, just in case you get the partitioning wrong or something else goes south.

you will just waste your time with linux
go try it out then jump back to win and never think about doing it ever again
win10 is just superior

and dont listen to linux fanatics they will lie to you

While regular users need to boot Windows, Chuck Norris is instantly taken to the login screen!

Your hardware setup is fine but I would suggest you also check if you have any onboard services like sound card, Ethernet etc is also supported(99.9% of the time they will be supported but its better to make sure of it), and as @WinterSnowfall said a live cd version will help in this. GNU/Linux is not as scary as it is made out to be, if you get struck there are tutorials on the internet for every possible situation and if all else fails you can always ask in this forum, and I am sure you will get help, so don't worry about your limited knowledge. As you are new, let me bore you with some fundamental things, When people say Linux they mean the OS, but in truth Linux refers only to the kernel(the brain) of the OS, to make a OS work you need user applications and other software(eg, word processor, IDE, compiler, etc), these software are mostly released under a licensing agreement called GNU(GNU not Unix), so the OS that you use is actually called GNU/Linux(no one uses these terms anymore sadly)

Now the way these software are packaged(kernel + applications) is called a distribution eg Debian, RedHat, SUSE, Ubuntu, Mint, etc. What this means is Ubuntu arranges the software in a manner that is different then RedHat, but the beauty here is no matter which distribution you use all the software will work in all the distribution as the underlying system(kernel) is the same.

A Point to note, say if Ubuntu foundation is developing a software, there is a chance that it might get updated in Ubuntu first than in say Damn Small Linux(DSL) but it will happen eventually. And as none of the games are developed by GNU/Linux distributions this situation will never happen.

Another thing to note is, the packages(term for software in GNU/Linux world) is distributed in mostly two forms .deb & .rpm(Games are distributed as .sh, .sh is a shell script and it is .bat equivalent), previously(say 15 years ago) there were difficulty in converting .rpm to .deb or the other way around, but today that problem is solved, so no matter which distribution you use you can make the package work. It is very difficult to say in percentage terms, I strongly recommend you search this page [url=https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&sTitle=Browse Applications&sOrderBy=appName&bAscending=true]Wine AppDB Page[/url] for the games you own or play to purchase. This is Wine application database, an underlying software that is used to run MS Windows software on GNU/Linux. You might be using the terminal sometime, and if you don't mind me saying, using terminal is actually not that difficult(you hear this being repeated often and there is truth in this) If you stick to downloading packages only from official repositories, and stick to safe browsing habits, the chances of getting infected is almost nil, and a word of advice, never run any software as root(the super user account like an admin account in MS Windows) and your system will be fine. It is kinda tricky here, because when people say older version, they refer to the distribution version not the Kernel + Applications, these applications and kernel you can update it yourself without the distribution version changing, but it involves a bit of work though.

Now I am going to confuse you a bit so sorry about that, Take Debian distribution for example, it is in version 10 with current kernel version 4.10.0-17 but the current kernel version that is available for download is version 5.13. Whereas Ubuntu has moved to 5.x version already, does that make Debian obsolete, on the paper it looks like it but if the functionality of 5.x is not needed by me, I can stay with this kernel for a log time, because most of the time almost all the distribution will have long term support for the distributions so security patches will keep coming and once you are sure that you want to upgrade you can upgrade the system.

Ubuntu Release Cycle
Debian Release Cycle

These days distribution update is as easy as clicking an update button in most of the distribution. This is just for compatibility sake as if you encounter a problem and ask for official GOG help they will tell you to they only support Ubuntu so I would suggest you start with Ubuntu just to be on the safe side. Once you get comfortable then you can switch to other distributions. If they are listed as gold, platinum in the Wine AppDB, then you can use any of the wrapper software like playonlinux, Lutris, to install them with just a few clicks.

If you want fine control over the packages and once you have understood the working of the OS in general you can use Wine directly and avoid wrappers. I did a search of the Wine AppDB and version 13 is listed as Gold, so it might work. 1.Always install MS Windows first and then install GNU/Linux, because MS Windows don't have the capability to boot GNU/Linux.
2.When you install OS the last OS that you install will have the control over boot record(what operating systems are there in the system and how to boot them) so if you delete that os then you will loose the ability to boot the system(it is possible to do it over command line but it is not for new people). So never delete the OS partition, always install an OS over it.
3.Secure boot(UEFI) is a pain to get it working, some distributions support it some don't, so don't be afraid to disable it when installing distributions that don't support it.
3.Don't be afraid to tinker with the OS, have a separate partition for your data and you can do all sorts of experiments on the OS partition.
4.Nvidia proprietary driver is miles ahead in graphics performance than nouveau driver, so always use the one from nvidia, and Vulkan architecture gives better performance, so get those driver.
Nvidia vulkan driver https://developer.nvidia.com/vulkan-driver
regular Nvidia driver https://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us
5. There is this thing called dependency hell, where once package depends on the other and that depends on the other and so on and so forth, Say one software that is 10 links down the like refuses to install on your system then the whole software chain will refuse to install, this doesn't happen unless you try to install software outside the repository, if that is ever to happen please ask for help immediately, because if you try to fix it without understand why it is happening in the first place you will end up breaking more and it will make the recovery difficult.

Take whatever I said as a supplement to what @WinterSnowfall has said before.

If you need any help, don't hesitate to ask.

Edit:1 Link added

Ubuntu and it's deriativtes are all treated the same when it comes to support. I use Ubuntu Mate 20.04 which is a version of Ubuntu that specializes in using the MATE Desktop Environment (how things look and feel) and putting some other spins on the software store and what not. Kubuntu is Ubuntu specializing in the Desktop Environment KDE.

As a new users I would urge you to stay in the Ubuntu lane until you feel confident to distro hop. You can use the GOG filter in our library and select Linux to see how many of your games have Linux native versions.

For the games that you have that are Windows only, you may want to use a tool like Lutris - https://lutris.net/ after checking if the game is good to go on Linux using https://www.winehq.org/.

I been on Linux for 20+ years but knowledge of WINE and Lutris is limited because I stopped buying Windows games and when I do they have ports to make them Linux native. With that said I've helped a lot of younger families members get their games up and running with Lutris which makes things a lot easier. Not really. At work all of my work is in terminal. At home, outside of when I just wanted to, I've never had to use terminal. I can do everything I need to do for installing, removing and patching games using the GUI.

It's all about what you want to do.

With the said, terminal is the most efficient way to do Linux based things. The power it yields is immense. Outside of your doing whacky stuff on your system like downloading random files, executing code you copied from a site without checking it and installing stuff at root and/or not updating your system in a timely manner - the malware issue is minimum.

Remember my terminal comment? You can run cmds or terminal based software to purify your machine from time to time if you are an adventurous lot but it will be very rare indeed if you go that route. There are lifecycles of support with LTS (LTS) being the longest. When trying out Linux, I advise everyone to stay in the LTS lane as you get longer support but you will get less access to cutting edge drivers. For me that is a plus. I don't want to experiment or mess with new stuff on my main gaming rigs. I want things to be stable and smooth. So I've been LTS for 17 years just for that.

For example Ubuntu 20.04.2.0 LTS gets support, until April 2025, of free security and maintenance updates, guaranteed.

The upgrade process is easy. A couple of clicks. Now if you have some older games from say 1980 to 2003ish. You may need to secure some files so pay attention during that process when it says to "KEEP THE OLDER" stuff. I will always recommend Ubuntu Mate 20.04 as I believe it holds the hand of the user better than other distros. POP OS 20.04 is also really good for those that are use to modern Windows or Mac. I passed you the link above. It can be range from easy to fuck you hard. Some games will refuse to run on Linux due to kernel lever anti-cheat and DRM. There is nothing anyone can do about that until the devs allow it. There are some companies that work with the community either via WINE or Steamplay Proton. You would have to pick through your collection see what's what with what you have. No clue. The little video work I do at my job is using SimpleScreenRecorder, Blender, OpenShot and OBS. If you need to do that stuff, dual boot is the way for you. Do things on your own time and have fun. If Linux is not for you, then it's not for you. Use a liveCD and just run off of that for a bit.

Back in the 90's I got a PC Format UK mag that came with Linux distros on disc and used them for a long time just messing around. It was not until my Windows 98 borked and I got fed up for the last time with me that I decided to install and give it a shot. I went through a lot of ugh and ohhh moments. Getting UT99 up and running was a fantastic experience for me and that whole ordeal relight my fire for computing as a whole.

If you ever need a hand, feel free to message me on here.

There are GNU/Linux fanatics that will say stupid stuffs, but I don't think they will intentionally misguide(or as you say lie) a new user who is asking for help.

This!
Also it may never end - you may find yourself constantly playing with live usbs. :D

For that matter, give ZORIN a go too. Rather intuitive for people coming from windows.

Since you'll be checking Linux out without renouncing to Windows there's no need to worry too much, just go ahead and try or install a beginner and user friendly distribution you like (I tend to recommend Pop_OS!) and then download Lutris for your games (no need to use the terminal if you don't want to). As for video editing software there's Olive, kdenlive, if I'm not mistaken Blender also has a NLE built in, and the best of all, Resolve (although the free version doesn't support many encoding options). Have fun!

nah , not linux
linux fanatics
linux is fine for limited gaming and browsing the net or run a server on it , but it is just not as good as win10

Regardless of Distro, you should try Lutris with it, Lutris is a client style program and can handle installation of games quite easily in Linux and is good for a beginner in Linux for this.

1. Even though devs officially only support Ubuntu and maybe Mint, it pretty much doesn't actually matter which distro you're running.

You can probably launch each game or even software as is in any distro, and if you can't and need to install it first according to the distro, then someone would have packaged it for that distro in the package repositories. That was needlessly gobbley-de-gook for someone just starting out with Linux, but basically you needn't worry - the community takes care that you can install and launch everything on Arch as you can in Ubuntu. You might not get official support on non-Ubuntu distros though.

2. Way more than half of your 1600 games will be playable on Linux, I'd venture something like 95%+. And if those are GOG games, then they won't include modern multiplayer games with anti-cheat, which do not currently work on Linux. Think PUBG, Fortnite, Apex, Valorant etc. The rest pretty much work amazingly well with exceptions, depending on the tinkering you do.

3. No, you don't *have to* use the terminal if you don't want to. But it's so amazingly useful and powerful you will most likely end up using it. Installing games/software can be done by clicking buttons easily.

4. Nope, in fact it's kinda difficult to even find anti-virus/malware software for Linux. Just update your kernel and packages regularly.

5. Usually it's fine, but occasionally newer versions of kernels/software introduce some regression. But it's easy to downgrade in that case. Support? On Ubuntu, you get some years of support per each release (LTS releases having longer term support). Other rolling-release distros (eg. Arch) update constantly, usually without breaking anything so this isn't a worry.

6. Pretty much any distro from the Ubuntu family, Mint, PopOS, or my recommendation, Manjaro. All are very pretty and intuitive and you can avoid the terminal should you wish to do so. Avoid Arch like the plague in this case.

7. I'm not gonna lie, it's not that easy. Steam and Proton make it plug and play, but outside of that you will need some tools like Lutris to make it more convenient. The trouble is, if you don't know how Wine or DXVK works and there are issues, you hit a wall. I think every Linux gamer should learn how to make and maintain a wine prefix for games, as it is immensely helpful. But for now, just use Lutris, the other stuff will come with time.

8. -

9. Consider whether you really want to jump into Linux, and why. I mention this because I don't want to see another user getting burned by getting overwhelmed with terminal commands, that they didn't want to use at all in the first place. Or not handling the learning curve with Wine/DXVK for gaming.

Some even turn into bitter, Linux-hating machines who evangelise Win10 instead everywhere they go. Oh hey Orkhepaj, how's it going?

- It's worth mentioning that if you use Steam, Steam does have a Linux client and Valve has put a lot of work into making gaming on Linux with Steam as seamless as possible. I don't personally use it, so my input on that is limited.

- Your mileage may vary, but I have better luck in the past installing Nvidia's proprietary driver from Nvidia's website as opposed to installing it through the package manager. Different distros will have better or worse results with this. You will need to shut down the Xorg server (GUI) and run the installer as root from the command line to do this. There are guides out there if that sounds intimidating. If you choose to go this route, you may also need to "blacklist" the nouveau graphics driver from being loaded at boot. There are also guides for that part according to your distro.

- AMD has extremely good driver support on Linux. If you ever do move to an AMD graphics card, or are considering it, you will be in good shape. The open source driver actually outperforms AMD's proprietary driver in many aspects, and using AMD cards, you may not have to install a graphics driver yourself at all. It may Just Work (TM) because of AMD's great open source driver.

- Many people recommend trying a distribution with a live DVD/USB. This is not bad advice, but you may find booting off of such media can run -extremely- slow and unresponsive. It will not give you a representative idea of actual performance of an installed Linux OS. To get a better idea, install Linux to a hard drive partition or SSD, since you mentioned you have a few of them. Linux live boot media always come with partitioning tools. It goes without saying, BE CAREFUL USING A PARTITIONER! You need to understand what you are actually doing before you commit any changes. You should be able to resize (shrink) an existing partition on a disk if it is consuming the whole disk, then add a partition to install Linux to, or add 2 partitions; one for the OS, another for data (which is also good advice).

- If you have virtual machine software in windows, this is an excellent way to try out a distro without ever leaving Windows. You should get good performance too since it will run from a HDD/SSD. Don't expect gaming performance to be as good as it can be in a VM, however.

- For running games, definitely install WINE, then install a program called "winetricks". Winetricks simplifies and makes configuring aspects of WINE very easy. There is a DirectX-to-Vulkan extension to WIne called DXVK which can be installed using winetricks that drastically increases performance and quality in pretty much everything. Highly recommended. Lutris and Proton as I understand it are front-ends to WINE that can make using WINE easier, but in the end, it is WINE doing all the heavy lifting, and they aren't required for games. But they may help.

I think dual-booting is often the key for a long-time Windows user to learn Linux. If you take it slowly, learn it gradually "piecemeal", you will be far less likely to give up on it during the first month vs trying to "hard switch" all in one go. It took me two attempts to get into it, the first one I gave up for being a little too overwhelmed wiping Windows and putting Linux on. The second attempt, first I got used to cross-platform applications whilst still using Windows (LibreOffice, Firefox, Thunderbird, Audacity, etc). Then I added Mint as dual-boot. Learning the OS was easier when it was done gradually, and being already familiar with those applications before switching increased familiarity and made things easier too.