With the widespread support for Steam/Valve on this forum because of their contributions to making Linux gaming easier, I’m now confused as to why people here are using Linux in the first place.
I personally do so out of support for FOSS software, the customizability, and actual ownership of software, which I thought were most people’s primary reasons for using any Linux distro. Steam seems antithetical to all of these. The software in the first place became popular as a form of DRM, and it gets publishers to use it for the allowance of DRM on the platform. The Steam client has the absolute minimum customizability. Your account can be banned at any point and you can lose access to many of the games you have downloaded.
Whenever I game on Linux I just use folders to sort my game library and purchase any games I want to play on itch.io or GoG. On my Linux PC I stay away from clients like Steam because I want a PC that works offline, and will work if all of my accounts were banned. It’s more of a backup PC.
Since Steam has every characteristic of Windows, 0 customizability, DRM, plenty of games that are spyware, I see no reason to really not use Windows instead for the much easier time I can have playing games.
Yes, I prefer many of the features of Linux distros, but using a client like Steam defeats the purpose of them. Ridiculous storage requirements due to unoptimized dependencies, having to have a background client running for some games and wasting resources on doing so.
So, why use Linux and support Steam, or use Linux and use Steam?
Windows 11 is a bridge too far. I’m done with having my operating system being sold to me as a service, or monetizing my usage. Windows 10 was already unusable in any format other than LTSC.
The strides we’ve seen in gaming on Linux are possible largely with Valve’s support, and I might have made the jump earlier if we had those abilities sooner. Dual booting has never been a realistic use case for a computer given the way I use one.
I try to protect my privacy as best I can. I prefer the use of open source software where I can get it. Libre is even better. My reasons are both practical and ideological. But I don’t live in a world where I can reasonably cut out all proprietary software, and I honestly wouldn’t consider trying. There are far more important fights in my world.