I got a new PC recently so unfortunately I am now on Windows 11. I’ve been wanting to make the swap to Linux but I can’t really make a clean break because at least some of the games I play a lot won’t work on Linux. I do think I’m gonna try to set up another hard drive with Linux on it to try to slowly start learning it and ideally move over anything that I can over there eventually and just keep the windows drive for those few games.
Does anyone have any recommendations related to that? Distro for gaming/ease of use? What’s the best option for setting up the dual boot? Anything I wouldn’t have thought of that’s relevant?
Since your computer is running Windows 11 already, I would recommend you look for a Linux distro without considering if it’s gaming-friendly. Linux is great for certain productivity tasks.
For dualbooting, most official Linux installation guides offer detailed steps for that. Grub (the boot management program) is well tested and widely used.
Just in case you are thinking this like I used to, don’t go by “unplayable on steam deck” to determine what games you won’t be able to play on a Linux desktop. While those games include incompatible with Linux games, they also include ones that the deck hardware can’t handle at a decent framerate but otherwise play fine on Linux.
no. you can play a crap load of “windows only” games on linux. the trick is to enable steam play in steam settings and use community versions of proton. works like a charm
I got a new PC recently so unfortunately I am now on Windows 11. I’ve been wanting to make the swap to Linux but I can’t really make a clean break because at least some of the games I play a lot won’t work on Linux. I do think I’m gonna try to set up another hard drive with Linux on it to try to slowly start learning it and ideally move over anything that I can over there eventually and just keep the windows drive for those few games.
Does anyone have any recommendations related to that? Distro for gaming/ease of use? What’s the best option for setting up the dual boot? Anything I wouldn’t have thought of that’s relevant?
Since your computer is running Windows 11 already, I would recommend you look for a Linux distro without considering if it’s gaming-friendly. Linux is great for certain productivity tasks.
For dualbooting, most official Linux installation guides offer detailed steps for that. Grub (the boot management program) is well tested and widely used.
Just in case you are thinking this like I used to, don’t go by “unplayable on steam deck” to determine what games you won’t be able to play on a Linux desktop. While those games include incompatible with Linux games, they also include ones that the deck hardware can’t handle at a decent framerate but otherwise play fine on Linux.
Oh I was looking at system requirements on the store page. Is that accurate?
no. you can play a crap load of “windows only” games on linux. the trick is to enable steam play in steam settings and use community versions of proton. works like a charm