ELI5: What causes a Steam game not to run on an operating system like a Linux distro?
I primarily use my pc for gaming, and want to avoid upgrading to Windows 11. Beginning the journey of looking into alternatives.
I am ignorant, trying to be less so. I have a hard time understanding what exactly makes a game not work just because of OS.
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This is a little offtopic and a Lemmy cliché, but:
Go and try Linux Mint! I was a Windows fanboy for more than a decade, now I'm all team Linux. It doesn't run all games (I'm not a huge gamer, so no expert) but most stuff i want to play is no problem at all. I edit videos with Davinci, produce music with Bitwig plus there so much great free open source software. Working in Windows nowadays makes me nervous. It's so predatory and dishonest. Try to get off while you can, it won't get any better. And it's so much fun to explore a new OS with an opened mind and some curiosity.
Mint is a great general entry point to Linux.
I'd say Pop!OS or Garuda Gaming edition for traditional style, and Bazzite for "Atomic"(harder to accidentally Bork), are better ootb(out of the box) gaming distros. I.e. less downloading and tweaking to get games running, more things installed from first boot.