Proton is the compatibility layer that allows Seam games developed for Windows to run under Linux. Some games, unfortunately, may have problems that cause you to be left out.
What are the best resources out there? Arch Wiki without a doubt
Doubt! The Gentoo Handbook is one of the best, if not the best documentation out there. It’s especially useful for beginners because it doesn’t just offer code snippets to copy/paste, but explains background knowledge and how things work.
Yes, you flash the installation system onto the USB stick, boot the laptop from this USB and then it should be a simple graphical installation wizard. There are plenty of tutorials online and even if all computers can be slightly different it is basically the same scheme.
Once Steam is installed Proton is automatically downloaded for games that by default use it. Games that are not officially using Proton can have it enabled in Steam’s game properties. Most would point you to protondb.com, site showing what games you can suspect to work.
I did a look into this. softmaker is best when it comes to compatibility of displaying files. Wps office is ok, but some text would be on top of others. I did find that there is a free version of softmaker, which should be ok.
I love how this expansive, barely-biased summary - which is WAY above-bar, to be clear - is followed up by everyone’s “this is my favourite distro and you should run it too” even if it’s completely badly-matched.
Flatpak apps will use the same dotfiles as apps installed via traditional methods, however the storage location will likely be different. Most dotfiles will be contained within their respective flatpak app directory under ~/.var, so you can cherry pick which settings you want to bring over.
I used to run Tumbleweed with KDE on my Nvidia system. I found the rolling release structure of Tumbleweed to cause extra work for me, because kernel updates came frequently and occasionally broke the Nvidia drivers. As a workaround, I ended up pinning my kernel to an old version.
Nvidia drivers have been at least a little troublesome on every distro I’ve used, particularly with the additional CUDA libraries.
One nice thing about Suse is that it uses BTRFS by default, and you can use snapper to revert your whole system if something goes wrong. So if Nvidia shits the the bed after an update, it’s easy to roll back. Most distros default to ext4 and do not have snapshot support by default, which feels like living in the stone age to me after using Suse and BTRFS.
Of course you CAN set up BTRFS and snapshots in any distro, but that’s a lot to ask for a beginner with Linux. I strongly recommend choosing a distro that does that for you, like Suse.
I can see why you want to dual boot, given your use case. For gaming and MS office, Linux is not better than Windows. That said, Linux is fun to learn and you can experiment and gradually move everything over from Windows.
If you want the absolute easiest transition from Windows, I think Linux Mint Cinnamon is the best. It looks like Windows out of the box and is organized similarly. Its like going to a familiar grocery store where you know where to find the things you need. It is stable, there are rarely any weird conflicts or updates that break the system, and it comes with all the codecs you’ll need for media. In terms of installing new software, the software “store” is so simple, it makes installing software much like installing apps on Android (without all the bullshit marketing, of course). Shit just works. Steam, spotify, etc. are right there and install flawlessly. Many Steam games are native Linux and you’ll be able to install the Linux version of any game you own. For Windows-only games, you can gradually experiment with Wine, etc. and see how that works for you.
MS Office is obviously the elephant in the room, but office apps are pretty standardized at this point. You can use MS 365 online apps. Or, it is an easy transition from Word, Excel and Powerpoint to LibreOffice. Much more intuitive than using Google apps, for example. Write a few papers in LibreOffice and just save in Word format for submission (although most profs will accept Open Document Format as well, which is also supported by MS Office). Double-check formatting in Windows or the online Office 365 apps if you are worried. It is pretty easy to get used to if you use Office like most people do.
But don’t take my word for it. Make a bootable live usb and see for yourself. …readthedocs.io/…/latest/
I don’t know whether I have gotten some settings wrong in Steam, but I have to open the Properties window of every freshly installed game, and set it to launch using Proton GE, otherwise it just defaults to nothing. So if a game doesn’t work for you, always check if it is configured to launch using at least some kind of Proton thingy.
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