So for me the number one priority is performance and compatibility. Which as far as proton has come, using the LTSC version on Windows easily wins on compatibility (especially once you leave Steam) and in some cases wins on performance.
LTSC also drastically reduces the metrics sent back to Microsoft.
If you run Wireshark on any Mac you will observe the high volume of requests to Apple-owned IPs. Even when the machine is otherwise idle. It's creepy.
On the other hand, Linux machines don't default to sending telemetry. P.s. Ubuntu is an exception to this rule which is one reason I'll never use Ubuntu again (they've included telemetry and embedded ads in the past). Debian and Pop_os both work remarkably well for desktop use these days.
Eh, does it? I find it to be incredibly unintuitive, and so do many people I see try to use it with no prior PC experience.
Even while Proton is incredible - the experience with nvidia GPUs is still less than stellar. So if you want high resolution/framerate gaming - especially if you add HDR to that - you’re still stuck with windows.
I’d love to switch to Linux if I could, I use it or MacOS for everything else.
For the record it is great, they have done a very good job with proton and I am not diminishing that work.
But try to bring up this conversation on YouTube, reddit, or similar places and it becomes toxic very quickly. Even when presented with raw numbers. It has even gotten that way here a couple times.
And the Steam thing is a big sore point right now, for the average user once you leave Steam it is not as user friendly as just running Windows.
Valve's marketing also isn't helping the situation in the slightest.
The discord arrives not because they do not acknowledge the deficiencies but due to a difference in priorities, what one person values another may not.
It makes sense to me that their would be tension between people who want full control of their system & privacy in exchange for occasional performance cuts and unsupported anti cheats vs those that are comfortable completely giving up their privacy & control in exchange for occasional performance boosts and invasive anti cheats.
I agree there is nothing wrong and people advocating for their preferences, opinions, arguments, solutions, whatever.
However, when you get so attached that you need to start lying to say it's better or that the alternatives are worse, that's no longer rational and makes the people doing so no longer trustworthy.
This is true for all types of tribalism across all areas of society.
Anyone making clearly false claims, for example.
I had a recent discussion with a Linux devotee, for example, claiming gaming on Linux was basically as good as Windows and that Linux had full DirectX equivalents. Both things are false, the user knows they are false, but that user lied to themselves due to loyalty to their preferred platform.
Apple users do it so often, the term reality distortion field was invented to describe their behavior. Sony and Zboz fans do it as well. Not to mention people do it with everything, i.e. political parties.
If WSL wasn't a thing I would have formatted it by now. Linux is just such a better experience for development. I also simply cannot shake the fear that windows is leaking every keystroke back to some MS service I haven't disabled.