The games I like to play actually saw performance gains when switching over.

Yes. That's part what got me to let go of my dual-booting habit.

When booted to Windows, I would get tempted to play something (that I had installed on both sides) lazily without rebooting back to Linux, and it would suck.

Same experience here. I've used Linux for decades. Always on my servers. Occasionally on a desktop here or there. Tried to daily-drive it on a single computer or laptop many times. Got close a couple times, but ultimately always fell back to Windows when the going got tough, when hardware support wasn't available or the errors and misconfigurations became too convoluted or I simply fell back into the habit of regularly using programs that simply didn't work or weren't available in any form on Linux.

When I came back to it a year or two ago? That experience totally changed. The tables have flipped completely. Linux is now the compatible, straightforward, quickly-fixed, and often even user-friendly option while Windows has turned into a frustrating shitshow of blocking and opting-out of misfeatures and reconfiguring shit that breaks all the time with Microsoft's ideological "updates".

Switching to Linux on my grandma's computer was a breath of fresh air for both of us. Then I switched one of my laptops. I remained impressed. It took some self-convincing, but eventually I got brave enough to switch my main gaming PC/desktop workstation... and with a little bit of work, it was soon perfectly lovely (I'm typing this on it right now). I've been running PikaOS, a gaming-focused Debian variant for over a year now and it's been an utterly fantastic experience. I have zero complaints. Are there still some rough edges? Yes, absolutely, but I don't mind. I use them to file the callouses off my bash-scripting fingers while I figure out a way to smooth them down.

I'm pretty savvy and experienced with Linux, and I realize it's probably not ready for everyone yet, but it's ready for more people than you'd think. For grandma, who only uses web browser and word processor and email, Linux is a straight upgrade in user experience, stability, functionality, everything. For Gamers, everything you need is almost all out there already, thanks to Steam and Wine and Proton and the gaming-focused distros and all the ecosystem that's built up around that. Ironically it's the technically competent Windows "Power Users" who might still struggle the most, they won't have the survival skills they need to operate at the level they expect in a Linux ecosystem yet.

It would also be good enough for a Power User to work at grandma's level with zero effort, or a Gamer level if they were willing to just blindly follow copy-and-pasted instructions, but that justifiably won't be enough for them. To work at a Power User level in Linux, you need to learn some different skills. Maybe you can get those on the server side and through stubborn trial and error, like I did, or maybe Linux will eventually get good enough that it's intuitive to do everything even Windows Power Users want to do eventually. But I don't think it's quite there yet for that group. It takes some effort, for sure.

For me, it's Final Fantasy XI - it's a million years old and it actually does run fine on Linux, but some of the third party QOL tools I use to make it less painful to play don't work (or at least I can't figure out how to get them to work) through Lutris.

It's funny. I also was very hesitant to make the jump from Windows, but finally did in 2025. I was dual booting for a while until I realized I hadn't been into the Windows one in months because it was a pain in the ass for various reasons. So I just got rid of it.

I've made peace with the fact that I won't be able to play certain games. Their loss; there's plenty of other games to buy with my money.

I also have a spare windows drive for BF6, but it's so unbelievably mid that in practice I don't really even play it

TBH I don't understand what's there even to be reluctant about if you're already a Linux user. You've probably already been dualbooting, it's not exactly a lot of effort to install Steam or a gog Linux installer.