> Several of my friends own Steam Decks which is pretty wild to me given they are just normie gamers.

I would say that’s absolutely the most normal gamer way of playing PC games. As someone who is mostly given up on playing games on a computer and prefer consoles, I’ve thought of doing the same thing.

I agree it’s really impressive that lots of people have decided to try Linux, far more than I remember ever before.

But I’m worried this is “the moment“. Possibly the best shot that’s gonna happen for a long time. And if people find things aren’t as ready as they think from what they hear they’re going to be burned and they’re not coming back. The next time around not only will they not come, they’ll push other people away from trying.

I don’t know if we’ve reached that magical inflection point or not. I think some people are using rosy glasses again though. The real momentum has never been this strong. But it’s not a done deal.

I was never really a serious gamer and don't do it much at all any longer.

But one of my senses is that the sort of games that really benefited from a desktop system--primarily Windows--like serious simulations and resource allocation games are increasingly fringe.

Certainly there are games on Linux today but I also wonder if a lot of people won't decide, as you say, that consoles are just easier.