Well.. I'm far from having any technical knowledge about operating systems, software intricacies or programming, so what OS or OSes would be your recommendation for an absolute beginner such as myself who only needs to game, web browse and maybe run some programs like video editing and possible experimentation with Blender? So far I've gotten some suggestions from Sachys for Mint and Zorin.
I will do that, thanks.
You don't use Proton on Steam either?

yeah its rather "hip" at this hour.
edit: I suggest Mint due to its popularity and (therefore) relative support along with its ease of use for a windows user. zorin wins hands down on making sense moving from windows though - however it does have a smaller user base but the community is very friendly and newb ready.
POP really isnt that way inclined - not sure about its community tho.
Edit2:
end of the day i truly suggest trying a few distros via a live usb (its really easy) and see what fits well for yourself. :)
you might find this handy. its no nonsense.

https://www.explainingcomputers.com/linux_videos.html

Being DRM-free does help.
It's one step less for getting the game to run, so the chance of "tripping" in the way also grows smaller.

Even Valve started promoting DRM-free gaming, although very shy-ly. From their "Steam Deck and Proton" documentation: About Galaxy, it is only needed for most of the DRM'd games on GOG, and I don't know how Galaxy behaves under a compatibility layer, as I don't use it.

I use Linux as my daily driver (Arch). There are a number of different methods to play Windows games, but all of them involve Wine and DXVK. I play GOG games one of two ways:
- through Galaxy, installed through Lutris. Installation usually goes fine, but Galaxy runs very slowly through Wine. It does run, but patience is required. Save-syncing takes a LONG time (if Galaxy doesn't crash in the process).
- installing the game using the standalone installer via Wine, and launching the game through Lutris. Lutris makes it very easy to add additional launch parameters and keeping apps organized.

DRM-free reducing in-game performance issues, no, not really. If a game runs on Steam and GOG, the performance is usually similar in my experience.

DRM-free is useful for getting a game to launch, though. For instance: Saints Row 3 (original version) and Xcom: The Bureau DeClassified both fail to launch through Steam for me (incl. SR3's Linux port), doesn't matter which Proton version I use. The GOG versions of both games (which are Windows versions) run without issue via Wine & DXVK.

If you want any online functionality - whether it's co-op, achievements, or playtime - you'll need Galaxy. If you want to go old-school and just install a single-player game without worrying about online connectivity, no, Galaxy isn't needed.

just dont , linux is not as good as the cultists try to paint it

Check this Beginners' Guide.

You know nothing, Orkhepaj :D
The status is out of date. It was true 10 years ago. Today the most common Linux distros are easy to install and use for everyone and work well on almost every hardware, while Windows - usually not.

hmm it is still true , maybe wont in 5 years
atm many games dont start especially multiplayer games, and many has issues, about 70% games run well
I dont care for decades old hardware, and win supports new hardware better imho

@OP - It is totally up to you, and remember you don't have to ditch one for the other, and as you don't appear to be that experienced with Linux, I suggest you dip your toe in the water first, and just try it for a while and see how you go.

In any case, I don't recommend you chuck out Windows entirely.

And it is important to note, that while GOG do provide a Linux version of many games, the majority of games here don't have a Linux version, even though in some cases they do elsewhere.

And just because they provide does not mean support for them. Any support you get here tends to be from other Linux users or the game developer themselves.

So in the end, GOG offer no guarantees when it comes to Linux and games, and that is important to bear in mind if considering ditching Windows altogether.

Other than that, GO FOR IT!

P.S. And yes, WINE is reputedly good enough for installing and playing many Windows games in Linux, but no doubt not all.

No. I used Steam from 2019 to 2020. A lot of my kids and a few friends use Steam, they are also on Linux. Steam is a good service but it is not for me. I like to keep the versions of games that I own. When games get updated on Steam you lose the older versions unless you back them up but for some games they will not run regardless.

I used Proton to play the following games on Steam:

Tekken 7
Zombie Army Trilogy

I had 12 other games but they were all DRM Free so those worked outside of Steam without issue.

I dislike launchers and do not use any.

I stay away from any Windows based game that require me to work to get them up and running.

When I left Windows in 1998, I owned 6 games that required WINE to get up and running. On GOG, I picked up a few SNK fighters and Lutris had the up and running easily but I ended up using the ROM versions on Fightcade since those were more arcade authentic and easier to play MP online with.

On my machine the speed seems okay; it just really likes to max out a CPU core or two. (I rarely use save-sync though so perhaps I've just been lucky with that.)

When I last checked the overlay needed to be disabled, but it's possible my information is out of date there...

@OP If you're going to try to run Galaxy, make sure you're using a more recent version of Wine than the by-now-rather-old one in e.g. the Mint repositories. In fact, that's a good idea anyway since you'll get better compatibility from a recent Wine version. Lutris supplies (slightly tweaked) Wine builds internally.

Alternatively, this thread has lots of ready-made Wine wrappers for GOG games: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/adamhms_linux_wine_wrappers_news_faq_discussion/page1

And for compatibility reports on GOG: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/the_judas_does_this_run_in_wine_thread_v1173/page1

Well, this is, IMO, one of the three fundamental reasons people are locked-in to Windows (the other two being "familiarity" and availability of professional CAD/CAM/CAE software), so… I would not call this "not much".

If you need to play Windows games no matter what (and there will always be "that one game you can not afford to miss out"), I'd recommend sticking to Windows through and through.

Because with Linux as a Windows gaming platform come this:
1) no matter what, some games won't be available at launch;
2) you are not allowed to post your bug reports to the devs as your platform is not supported and said bugs could have nothing to do with the game and be WINE-related instead;
3) game devs are not obliged to keep WINE compatibility, so one can expect updates making game un-launchable (switching on newer version of DirectX, implementing new bleeding-edge technology, re-coding video files in unsupported format, sudden addition of anti-cheat and so on);
4) sometimes WINE updates break previously working games (so-called "regressions") -- the prime reason Windows game developers would not and could not be bothered with WINE support;
5) oh, did I not say anti-cheat kernel-level rootkits embedded into games nowadays are not supported, rendering Windows games un-playable?

And all of this is for your own money!

Move to Linux only if you are:
1) not considering gaming your prime PC activity;
2) planning to purchase only Linux games from there on (and are totally content with some Windows games you already own temporally or permanently losing availability).

Failing above checks will add frustration (when you found out things are not as happy as advertised) and make your experience miserable.

Of course, you can always use "dual-boot" and/or virtual machines.

Most of the time I use WINE, unless there is a Linux native alternative engine for the game I want to play.

And of course I install all of my games through ./play.it, a tool I have been developing for this purpose.

Well for fun i cleared a thumbdrive and put slax on it. I have the LZO version (just recompressed modules six months back) and it's snappy and quick and nice; Although lacking a ton of tools apt would solve that over time. Installed XFCE4 and it looks more or less like it would work (once you restart once); although the touch-to-click seems disabled.

Perhaps the biggest issue is you're always running as root to start with; and i need to look at the internals to see how to change a few things. Otherwise Slax does work on the chromebook with quite good efficiency; and may be a good starter playground for linux as if you mess it up you can always just refresh to a clean start (assuming you don't touch your actual drive)


edit: Heh i can also boot from the SD card. So threw on a 2Gb Slax on it instead... installing apps and saving them as individual modules better compressed for the less likely use

At least at first, I suggest you don't "move" to Linux, but install Linux beside Windows, dual-boot. Then you can experiment with Linux in peace and if you have too much trouble to get some game to run on Linux, you can still play it on Windows.

I haven't yet played latest (e.g. DirectX12) games on Linux, but installing and playing many older GOG games on Linux has been pretty effortless, quite often simply running the installer with wine, and then the game with wine, and it works fine.

One GOG game that did not work out of the box was Diablo, it wouldn't work if I just installed it normally with wine and then tried to run it. But, as long as you have Lutris also installed (or similar, like that play.it or whatever it is called), there was already an entry for GOG Diablo, so I just installed the game using it, and the game worked great with it.

One thing I am not sure is those GOG games that use e.g. nGlide or possibly dgVoodoo2 to emulate 3Dfx Voodoo graphics cards (Glide graphics API)... do they generally work ok with wine? Does wine use the Windows nGlide or dgVoodoo that comes with those games, or does wine has its own tricks to run 3Dfx Voodoo games?

I also use Linux as my daily driver and gaming machine. I ditched win10 over a year ago and haven't looked back. Negligible performance impact if any, haven't found a game in my library that I cannot run well, yet. And of course with all the perks of Linux desktop outside of gaming. Couldn't be happier.

I recommend trying out a distro you are drawn to in a dual boot on a spare SSD you have maybe lying around, or just buying a small one dirt cheap. The distro you choose will ultimately matter little.

I don't recommend Linux anymore to people, I stopped doing that after I realised how complicated even simple tasks seem to be to so many people. You then get really burnt and salty people flooding the interweb with their sad stories about how goddamn awful Linux is. Could do with yet another Reddit post about the subject, I dare anyone. I'm not saying you'll be one of them OP :) just that I realised not everyone is willing/able to get every game running well on Linux. I didn't use to think so, but after repeated experiences with certain people I arrived at this general theory and in my mind, consensus. Linux is not for everybody.

If you do decide to try it out, don't be surprised at how GOG isn't actually at the forefront of Linux gaming friendliness or promotion. Galaxy runs like hot garbage on Wine, and the whole 'DRM-free makes it easier for Linux gamers' is a fantasy. Guess who actually makes it easier? Valve and Steam's Proton. As much as I dislike them. Hell, with Heroic/legendary, it's more convenient to play even through EGS than it is through GOG.

Still, I whine and complain yet do it daily easily. I'm just saying, no thanks to GOG, but to a number of contributors of utilities made for free.

If you do decide to try it out, welcome. Don't mind the terminal. ANd never ever say I use Arch, btw.