I have an "old" computer that is beefy enough to play games but doesn't meet the arbitrary requirements for Windows 11. I'm not brave enough to try a non-windows gaming machine again.
The biggest fear you should have is windows 10 installers losing their capability to install win 10 when they call home.
I've been on Manjaro (xfce image, which feels like XP with updated taskbar search) for about a year, even though in the past I've hated attempts to use a linux desktop (Even came with Steam already installed and working).
This will take a few years, though. Then, they will switch the servers off (silently or loudly, depending on their strategy - e.g. Adobe prefers to kill them silently).
At that point your only hope are pirate copies. I was always wondering how that scenario would stand in court. After all, you bought something that was complete, and then, due to someone's arbitrary decision, stopped to work. It's basically a remote kill-switch. Should you be punished for removing the possibility of someone's deliberately damaging the product you bought?
I’ve gotten to a point where Windows is now my least favorite OS, but the fact of the matter is that modern Windows has the widest gaming compatibility of all operating systems.
Proton/Steam seem like the only ones who could possibly challenge that at this point.
I got steam going perfectly on MX linux, but the AMDGPU setup was a royal PITA to get working. Took me days to figure out. Definitely not turnkey. Maybe ubuntu is better in this regard, but too far open sores for my taste.
I'm wondering as Windows 10 EOL approaches if Microsoft is going to blink and backtrack on the hardware requirements for Windows 11.
I only have 2 personal PCs that are officially capable of running Windows 11 so pretty much every other machine I own will be moved to Linux once Windows 10 reaches EOL.
