Numerous benchmarks show AAA games running at higher framerates in Linux under DX12 and especially DX9 than in windows.

These advancements have happened within the past year. I'm genuinely curious as to whether you've tried it yourself or are relying on experiences that predates Proton being a first class citizen in Steam.

The world changed.

I installed PoP!_OS on my laptop with a gtx 1050. It booted first try, I installed Steam and was able to run every single game that I like in my library without issues, including some with weird launchers (Warframe...).

I play a ton of video games and have wanted this for so long. It is an option. I am backing up everything off my Windows desktop via Syncthing as I'm typing this for a seamless switch to Linux.

What does "real gamer" even mean?

I think "real gamer" in this context means a gamer that is interested in buying new titles, not just playing old titles. That is, "real gamer" means that you're a viable target for the gaming industry to make money off of.

Somebody who plays the games GP thinks are good, obviously.

Someone who plays/develops games for a living. Most of the rest are casual gamers. Then there are game-addicts, who play most of their wake hours playing video-games.

No?

"Viable" is not the same thing as "optimal".

I would describe "viable" as "without unacceptable concessions or compromises".

If a game you consider essential does not work, that's not acceptable.

would you say the Xbox is not a viable gaming system because you can’t play God of War on it?

It’s 100% reasonable to say that it’s not the right choice for you (and I’m not dumping my Windows box any time soon either, unfortunately), but Linux went from having a very limited catalogue of mostly indies and open source low budget projects to its current state where you have a considerable selection of big ticket games available to you.

If you can only have one gaming device, and consider GoW to be essential, then yeah, Xbox wouldn't be viable for you.

And I agree that Linux has made fantastic, amazing strides, but it's still a subset of Windows gaming. I would not be surprised if the vast majority of people who consider themselves to be hardcore PC gamers would see Linux as non-viable as their sole OS, even after being fully informed.

Ok let me rephrase it, 99.9% of the AAA games from the last 3 years don't work. For the one that work

- it's buggy

- online doesn't work

- lower FPS

- need custom setup / with custom scripts