> ...to get new PC gamers onto an alternative for there to be a considerable shift away from Windows.
Have you tried Steam on Linux? It works amazingly well, either with native Linux support in games or through Proton support (their Windows emulation layer). Quite a few people I know have gone that route and are shocked at just how well it works in practice.
I recently purchased a Steam Deck and I've been blown away by how games just work. I used to use Wine a lot for applications in the early 2010s and it was always hit and miss (and Codeweaver for Office support). Proton is amazing.
> I used to use Wine a lot for applications in the early 2010s and it was always hit and miss
IME Wine is still hit and miss for applications in general, even old ones. Games are just a particularly good fit here—they rarely care how well your COM marshalling or shell namespace or transactional NTFS or weird SQL-like inside Windows Installer is implemented. Not to imply that getting games to work is a simple task, just that the API surface is much less spread out, and any emulation improvements for a single game are more likely to improve support for a wider range of other games.
I think the discussion is tainted actually by technical people who used Wine in the bad old days, haha. I fought Wine a decade ago and it was pretty bad. If anyone had asked, I’d probably give the “dual boot, may as well keep Windows around as a glorified console” spiel.
A non-technical friend got a steam deck, when I asked what OS he’d used I got a response along the lines of “oh, I guess it must be Linux.” It the thought about what OS hadn’t even occurred.
I just wish Proton supported macOS. It being Linux-only always felt like their goal was never actually cross-platform gaming, but specifically SteamOS being able to run everything.
The Nvidia experience on the beta channel is shockingly good now, too. The big sore spot for gaming on Linux was trying to convince Nvidia users the experience was worth their time. Using 555-series drivers on GNOME Wayland right now is pretty much flawless.
Proton has been huge for Linux gaming, especially since the Steam Deck launched. Apple’s Game Port Toolkit is also quite promising on Mac side. Unix based OSs are seeing something of a vg renaissance.
YMMV there depending on the specific game, both of those anti-cheats can work on Linux but the developer of the game has to opt-in to allow it since their Linux implementations are much easier to bypass than their Windows ones. There's games like Rust which use EAC but have refused to enable its Linux support for that reason.
Offer to install it to people who experience difficulties with Windows, and never lie about it being much simpler or N times faster; don't forget to ask first if they use any special software/hardware that requires Windows or has only Windows drivers. Offer alternatives, but always be clear that they're not the same thing. 99.9% of non professional Office users wouldn't even notice the differences with LibreOffice, but that's not a good reason to tell them that the two products are identical: they're not, but one is open and free, both in price and in how it respect the user, which for many people could count a lot more than the extra features MS Office has over LibreOffice.
One thing that worked for me many times is that I always offered full support for any problems the user would encounter, and to install Windows back and for free if after a given period of time they didn't find Linux usable for them. One has to understand that the common non tech user trying Linux can't easily phone their friends, coworkers, kids, nephews, etc. not even the PC repair shop down the street and magically find a Linux expert, so they must be given something that works and is well supported.
Word of mouth will do the rest: most users don't care about pervasive advertising or spyware, Closed vs Open Source etc, but others do, and they're the ones telling about Linux and bringing other users in.
Have you tried Steam on Linux? It works amazingly well, either with native Linux support in games or through Proton support (their Windows emulation layer). Quite a few people I know have gone that route and are shocked at just how well it works in practice.