Believe me, I'd rather not have to downgrade to newer versions of Windows. If all of my games ever run on another OS then I will switch. Linux has had 30 years to catch up.

Though been forced to use wine to run GOG Galaxy for multiplayer games that have that function stripped out for the Linux port and Galaxy through wine is a buggy slow mess, but that's caused by GOG's lies about Galaxy for Linux and is what drove me back to Steam.

If Microsoft wanted those games to work on an Xbox One, it'd happen in a week.

Lutris is the only tool I used so far, so my experience is limited. You can find a brief description of it here. I'm sure other people can provide more information based on their experiences and knowledge.
I'm not saying gaming on Linux is perfect - there is a chance of failure, especially if the user is not accustomed to the system.
Personally, I see it as a challenge and a good opportunity to learn something new. As of late, I found myself using Windows less and less. On the other hand, I use Linux almost on a daily basis.

I don't think it's so functional.

One very recent case I experience (today) washow I had to use a program today that requires the .NET desktop, but even trying for hours, Windows wouldn't recognize .NET installed no matter what I did. Meanwhile, on Linux, it was just a matter of going to the folder .NET's installer was, running "wine windowsdesktop-runtime-5.0.0-win-x64.exe", going through the setup and running the program I wanted to use, the whole process taking less than 5 minutes.

And that's usually how things go for me, despite my Linux install being super tempered by stuff I install while Windows is very close to a fresh install with how little I tinker with it.
Most games I try through Wine work with minimal issues. Usually, the only things that misbehave for me to the point they could be unplayable are online games (might be an issue with my Wineprefix, so I'll try recreating it at some point, similar to formatting Windows) and RPG Maker XP games (getting them to work still elude me). Luckily, neither of those I use much.

Which would be what exactly? I remember actively disliking Windows for a while in the late '90s/early 2000s as it had a habit of getting in users way at times; at that time, Linux would have been a complete non-starter for me. I can't say the same for using it in the past decade or so with Windows 7 and up - I admit 8's tile menu and touch-focused menu interface was a bit dumb. I never got the hate that Windows 10 got from some, as I've yet to come upon any real issues in my five years of using it.

Do I love it? Not exactly - for general use I find MacOS still the best. These days though it's very rare for Windows to do anything that annoys me, so I tolerate its quirks and somewhat Frankenstein UI system due to its backward-compatibility spaghetti code. I usually don't have to worry about anything anymore, and minor issues tend to be a quick fix away. *shrug*

And since my primary PC use is for gaming, I stick with what works. I appreciate Linux getting better in that department - while MacOS seems to be doing somewhat of a backwards slide of late - but it's still got a ways to go, and these emulation/virtual translation layers will never be completely foolproof.

I'm not taking any issue with Windows 10 in particular, or 11, my thoughts are about MS in general and its overall strategy. Windows has long since ceased to be a revenue stream for them, so I believe they will do what any other IT giant does with a legacy application that does not earn them moolah - they will either use it as a data collection platform and sell off your data, or they will advertise on it.

As I said previously, at this point I'm happy I don't have to worry about which route they will take. GNU/Linux in general has no overlords and no agenda, which is both a blessing and a curse.

Linux never was and never will be a gaming-focused OS, even in 100 years. It is whatever anyone makes of it - and if Valve wants to invest in spinning off their own version of a specialized gaming platform based on Proton (and they are, thanks mostly in part to the Steam Deck), I see no impediments to that becoming a reality. The issue is with time, money, backing and drive more than anything else - as a history lesson, macOS was spun off from Unix with a particular goal in mind.

Has anyone made a gaming-focused Linux distro (i.e. prebuilt with all the required Wine libraries, emulators, Steam app, etc.)? Someone must have done by now.

I'm sure there are options - to be honest I haven't looked into it, since I like to customize these things myself and gaming is not the primary use of my PC. But what I meant is a corporate entity with the ability to seriously invest in it, not a side-project or even a one-man work of love (because that is rarely enough when this kind of scope is targeted).

Drauger OS could be an answer to that, a distro specifically built for gaming.
Manjaro has Steam already installed. Pop OS offers both Lutris and Steam through the so-called Pop Shop. Or you could install them through the terminal.

Valve did it several times already. The most current being Steam OS 3.0, the system powering their new console.

I know I would not want to use that. I like my computers to be more than video game consoles, even if this is a big part of what I do with them. (anything with Steam pre-installed is of course something I am never going to use)

So instead I go with a general purpose OS that happens to be very good at running video games too. A lot of Linux distributions can fill this role, my personal choice being Debian Sid.

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Yeah, sure, they only did not do it because they don’t want to.
They prefer to lose market shares due to Sony and Nintendo exclusives…

Bu​llsh​it.

manjaro has those

You seriously think Microsoft doesn't have the ability and money to make that happen if they wanted to?

Moo. }8O

Not directed at you, but is that really necessary? Does Windows 11/10 ship with Steam pre-installed or emulators like PCSX2 or RetroArch?How hard is it really to click a button to install Steam after an OS install? Or a simple command in the terminal. Some people even dislike Steam, so the choice should be there imho.

I sometimes think some distro maintainers try and make things too easy and underestimate PC gamers' technical abilities.

On the other hand, it's still far too tricky to get a system up and running with the latest and greatest on some distros. Installing latest graphics drivers and/or Wine with all dependencies or custom kernels without messing things up. Looking at you PPA-based distros. Oh and bugginess is always fun when a multimillion viewed streamer decides to try Linux and installing Steam cripples his OS. That's just embarrassing Pop!_OS.

But at least Linux is making progress and that progress is accelerating constantly. THat's what people don't get. Two years ago (hell, even last year) playing a newly released game through Wine at or near launch was a pipe dream. Whereas now, Death Stranding worked on Linux on day 3. And it keeps getting better.

Good times ahead.

You seriously think Microsoft stays in the outsider place on the console front because the don’t want to be the dominant player?

That they decided to let all the exclusives to Sony and Nintendo just because… because what by the way? Because they’re nice people and want to keep a healthy concurrence?

The only skills of Microsoft are in the legal department. On the technical side of things, they already lost the battle for servers. And the battle for phones. And the battle of Web browsers. They do not even manage to impose their app store on their own system!