I was in a similar position to you and honestly there’s very little to it. It’s probably technically best to start with something really easy like Mint, but you can pretty much choose one at random and as long as you use the KDE desktop environment it’ll mostly look and act like windows. You should be prepared to try out a few different distros depending on your needs and/or preferences, but everything is so streamlined that you only need a little bit of computer knowledge to switch.
Part of what I’d been struggling with is I’d gotten into game emulation as well as building up a library via Steam and GoG, and wasn’t 100% sure how using Linux might make using what I’m used to harder to use.
So what have I done so far to combat this? I’ve been putting my emulators on consoles.
I started with a 60$ Wii, and an SD card from a digital camera I hadn’t used since college (almost 10 years ago). After learning to set up a Wii/GameCube machine with some retro Nintendo emulators, I moved onto hShop for my wife and I’s 3DS’. Most recently, I learned how to put custom firmware on my old PS3 slim (thank god the manufacturer date was just right, else I’d be using Ps3hen)
So, I suppose since I’m not nearly as worried about emulation, Steam seems to be more compatible with Linux by the day, and I suppose I did teach myself about emulation on console, maybe I’m closer to jumping than I think
Oh, you’ll find it easy then, Linux is a walk in the park next to console firmware. Steam pretty much takes care of itself, and GOG is a little more complex but is largely handled by Heroic Games Launcher. Do check ProtonDB with regards to your favourites - generally it’s only online games with kernel level anticheat that won’t work at all with Linux, but there are a handful of others that aren’t working yet - but personally I haven’t had to do anything more than change the proton version in the steam settings to get a game working. Well, except Helldivers 2, but I’m pretty sure that’s a cursed tangle of code that crashes on all operating systems.
I was in a similar position to you and honestly there’s very little to it. It’s probably technically best to start with something really easy like Mint, but you can pretty much choose one at random and as long as you use the KDE desktop environment it’ll mostly look and act like windows. You should be prepared to try out a few different distros depending on your needs and/or preferences, but everything is so streamlined that you only need a little bit of computer knowledge to switch.
Part of what I’d been struggling with is I’d gotten into game emulation as well as building up a library via Steam and GoG, and wasn’t 100% sure how using Linux might make using what I’m used to harder to use.
So what have I done so far to combat this? I’ve been putting my emulators on consoles.
I started with a 60$ Wii, and an SD card from a digital camera I hadn’t used since college (almost 10 years ago). After learning to set up a Wii/GameCube machine with some retro Nintendo emulators, I moved onto hShop for my wife and I’s 3DS’. Most recently, I learned how to put custom firmware on my old PS3 slim (thank god the manufacturer date was just right, else I’d be using Ps3hen)
So, I suppose since I’m not nearly as worried about emulation, Steam seems to be more compatible with Linux by the day, and I suppose I did teach myself about emulation on console, maybe I’m closer to jumping than I think
Oh, you’ll find it easy then, Linux is a walk in the park next to console firmware. Steam pretty much takes care of itself, and GOG is a little more complex but is largely handled by Heroic Games Launcher. Do check ProtonDB with regards to your favourites - generally it’s only online games with kernel level anticheat that won’t work at all with Linux, but there are a handful of others that aren’t working yet - but personally I haven’t had to do anything more than change the proton version in the steam settings to get a game working. Well, except Helldivers 2, but I’m pretty sure that’s a cursed tangle of code that crashes on all operating systems.