So valve next?
Not everything, but they do invest in it.
They've been working on Linux support since at least around the time that Microsoft introduced the Windows Store... so for the last twelve years or so.
And, man, a couple of months ago I figured out how to run Steam as a separate user on my Xorg system. Not-at-all-coincidentally, I haven't booted into Windows in a couple of months. Not every game runs [0], but nearly every game in my library does.
I'm really gladdened by the effort put in to making this work.
[0] Aside from the obvious ones with worryingly-intrusive kernel-level anticheat, sometimes there are weird failures like Highfleet just detonating on startup.
And now I'm reluctant to move back to Linux for gaming, even though they've clearly come so far. I guess I should just go ahead and give it another shot.
ProtonDB has a feature where you can give it access to your Steam account for reading and it'll give you a full report based on your personal library: https://www.protondb.com/profile
And I find if anything it tends to the conservative. I've encountered a few things where it was overoptimistic but its outweighed by the stuff that was supported even better than ProtonDB said.
In the late 2000s, I played a few things, but I went in with the assumption it either wouldn't work, or wouldn't work without tweaking. Now I go in with the assumption that it will work unless otherwise indicated. Except multiplayer shooters and VR.
You should absolutely revisit. Proton has changed the game. Literally the only game I've tried that was remotely difficult to play in SteamOS is Minecraft, likely because Microsoft owns it now. But I was able to get that working too (if anyone's wondering: you want Minecraft Bedrock Launcher, which is in the Discover store if you're on the Steam Deck and here[1] if you're somewhere else; basically it downloads and runs the Android version of Minecraft through a small translation layer, which is essentially identical to the Windows version).
Speed also is greatly improved from previous solutions. Games played through Proton are often very close in terms of performance to playing them natively.
And Gabe won't be around forever and the guy is already over sixty. Statistically he's got about two decades left to live and not all of that will be at a level where he can lead Valve.
Old age can make him give that up before death.
It's like the game industry got a fake memo saying no one wanted linear story-based games anymore. I ended up buying two more Teyon games because I was so happy with their formula and they are playable in a dozen or so hours. Tight, compact, linear, fun story and game play... No MTX or always online BS and they don't waste my time with busy work.
It's even worse in multiplayer games like COD and BF. As soon as I need to figure out combinations of 5x attachments to guns I lose all my interest in playing the game. That's why I'm still on CS I guess lol.
Especially the 'mech scale' stuff was just boring. I don't remember what they call it in-universe, but essentially the parts of the game where you're playing from a giant robot and just walking over tanks and fighting supersized demons.
I'll be honest, I don't like this part. I'm a rabid collector. If the game gives a metric to an item, I must have all of the items. I end up killing the flow by scouring the level looking for secrets. This is entirely my fault of course
I also dislike this trend. As a sibling comment noted, boomer shooters are generally closer to the old-school Doom gameplay, although some are adopting the newer design too.
Doom is actually such a good game, I always go back to it every few years. The 2016 reboot is also pretty fun, but the later two in the series didn’t do it for me.