Linux

.NET is not Windows specific

Will my ability to play games be significantly affected compared to Windows?

Not significantly as long as you are on the right distro for it.

Can I mod games as freely and as easily as I do on Windows?

no. mod managers can work but its definitely not as easy. If you use steam workshop it works great usually, but something like vortex is gonna be a pain in the ass.

If a program has no Linux version, is it unusable, or are there workarounds?

You can run windows programs with wine. It's not that difficult to do. Its how games work on Linux that dont have linux support.

Can Linux run programs that rely on frameworks like .NET or other Windows-specific libraries?

Usually you can get it to work. I have run across some specific programs for my job that simply wont work with wine, but they barely work on windows as it is. It may need fiddling with tho.

How do OS updates work in Linux? Is there a “Linux Update” program like what Windows has?

Sometimes. It depends on the distro. Mint has an updater where you click update and ur done basically. Others you go in and do a terminal command which changes by package manager. For like OS version jumps if your not on a rolling release distro then it can be a bit of a bigger job. I recently updated my computer from Debian Bookworm to Debian Trixie. I went into the sources replaced bookworm with trixie, and ran the full upgrade command. Then rebooted and had to ctl alt f4 into terminal nuke gnome and reinstall that. Which is expected in that case. It can be a bit techy at times for something like that but for a normal update on a distro with a GUI updater its a button click. Usually no reboot needed either.

How does digital security work on Linux? Is it more vulnerable due to being open source? Is there integrated antivirus software, or will I have to source that myself?

Dont download shit you shouldnt download. If your not sure if something has a virus or not you can get tools to scan for them, but windows is similar in that your main protection is just not doing something dumb. You can keep regular backups and if somehow you mess something up or get a virus just restore from it. PikaBackup works well.

Are GPU drivers reliable on Linux?

AMD is flawless usually. Nvidia i dont use but hear it can be more of a hassle. With AMD the drivers will come preinstalled with your distro usually. Some do Nvidia too some dont. There is an open source and proprietary nvidia driver you have to pick which one you want. Id research it for your specific card.

Can Linux (in the case of a misconfiguration or serious failure) potentially damage hardware?

No more than windows can. If you try to overclock without proper cooling or something for example. Thats BIOS stuff usually tho not an OS thing.

And also, what distro might be best for me?

Maybe Nobara since you like gaming? Or Linux Mint its beginner friendly.

Will my ability to play games be significantly affected compared to Windows?

It will be somewhat affected, but most games can be played via wine/proton.

Can I mod games as freely and as easily as I do on Windows?

Depends on the game and mods? Some games like Minecraft can run and be modded natively in Linux.

If a program has no Linux version, is it unusable, or are there workarounds?

Again, there is wine/proton for that.

Can Linux run programs that rely on frameworks like .NET or other Windows-specific libraries?

If I remember correctly, you can install .NET, DirectX and so on in wine.

How do OS updates work in Linux? Is there a "Linux Update" program like what Windows has?

You are going to love updates coming from Windows. Basically you run your package manager update command and everything is taken care of.

How does digital security work on Linux? Is it more vulnerable due to being open source? Is there integrated antivirus software, or will I have to source that myself?

I'm no security expert, but the consensus is that it's more secure. I'll leave it to more competent people to explain.

Are GPU drivers reliable on Linux?

Depends. NVIDIA used to be annoying to manage.

Can Linux (in the case of a misconfiguration or serious failure) potentially damage hardware?

About this, I have no idea.

And also, what distro might be best for me?

I have seen Linux Mint often suggested to new users, but picking a distro is a topic that deserves a whole new post.

Will my ability to play games be significantly affected compared to Windows?

Not greatly. The games that have anti-cheat won't work on Linux. Anti-cheat is a security problem anyway (because they circumvent the kernel policies) and so linux will never support these.

Can I mod games as freely and as easily as I do on Windows?

for the ones that work yes. There's a list of how well games work on linux, there's a website for that.

If a program has no Linux version, is it unusable, or are there workarounds?

For some "difficult" non-anti-cheat games there are some workarounds. If we're talking about apps and not games, then it's best to use the Linux equivalents, and forget the Windows ones.

Can Linux run programs that rely on frameworks like .NET or other Windows-specific libraries?

While there's WINE and .NET for Linux, Windows apps don't really work well. They usually break on new wine versions, or they don't work at all. For apps, use Linux native apps. Games generally work better than apps because they don't use too many of the Windows APIs (they're mostly 3D stuff, and not app apis).

How do OS updates work in Linux? Is there a “Linux Update” program like what Windows has?

It depends on the distro. Some distros have graphical front ends, some you have to use the terminal to update the OS.

How does digital security work on Linux? Is it more vulnerable due to being open source? Is there integrated antivirus software, or will I have to source that myself?

There's ClamAV, and also you should be turning the firewall On (some distros come with it, others you have to install it manually). Don't downloads random binary packages, only from the distro itself, or official packages.

Are GPU drivers reliable on Linux?

Overall, yeah... but it does depend on the version of the driver, distro you're using, hardware etc. I use Intel graphics cards (dedicated) because I find their drivers to be more mature than nvidia's, for example.

Can Linux (in the case of a misconfiguration or serious failure) potentially damage hardware?

Very unlikely, near zero.

And also, what distro might be best for me?

Everyone is recommended to start with Linux Mint, because it's the distro with the most GUI front-end tools to do stuff. Yes, there are some distros that are more game-oriented, but they expect the user to know what they're doing. Start with Mint.

People have answered most questions. The gaming thing is a total lie though.

Some specific games will work kinda okay. The vast majority will work worse. And a good chunk of super popular games won’t work at all. Just dual boot and keep gaming on windows.

People in here straight up lie to push for Linux when it’s really not necessary. It’s great at what it does. And it’s improving in what it doesn’t.

The are plenty answers already, but also I will respond in order to give you more opinions, so, you can have a more open view about what users do think about linux.

Will my ability to play games be significantly affected compared to Windows?

Yes. In windows you put the .exe in some folder and then double click to play it, easy. Nowadays games come with a client, like Rockstar Social Club, or the Ubisoft launcher that handles your account and manages game updates. In linux, even if you had only the .exe you still had to make an uncertain number of tweaks to achieve running the game, but, with the clients, you need to do both, find the correct tweaks to run the client and do the correct tweaks to run the game next. Even with modern solutions, like Proton, we strugle with games running in Linux. See there are no silver bullets.

Can I mod games as freely and as easily as I do on Windows?

If you find trouble modding games on Windows, you also will have a bad time in linux.

If a program has no Linux version, is it unusable, or are there workarounds?

You can use WINE to give it a shot. There is a probability that works very well. But, like games, you will need to make tweaks to work properly. I had this problem with Rufus, there is not linux version, so you can run it with WINE, the problem is that Rufus under WINE doesn't reconogize your usb pendrives. Till this day I do not know how to fix that.

Can Linux run programs that rely on frameworks like .NET or other Windows-specific libraries?

Thankfully we have dotnet core now, the thing is that the library or software must have been compiled with it to work in linux. There is also Mono.

How do OS updates work in Linux? Is there a “Linux Update” program like what Windows has?

If you use a distro, like Linux Mint, there will be a job that will check for updates and then warn you. Normally, updates are done manuallly (sudo apt-get update, for example). The other thing is doing your own update script job that runs automatically weekly or monthly.

How does digital security work on Linux? Is it more vulnerable due to being open source? Is there integrated antivirus software, or will I have to source that myself?

This is a computers knowledge concern, most linux distribution have this disabled by default. Your resposability as linux administrator is set up your own security metrics. I use fail2ban, ufw, clamav and openssh. Very basic, if you ask me.

Are GPU drivers reliable on Linux?

With AMD hell yes. But, since I have never used Nvidia before my answer here could not be the most valuable, empirically speaking.

Can Linux (in the case of a misconfiguration or serious failure) potentially damage hardware?

The most probably thing that can happen to you is break your boot system. Hardware will be fine and you can always reinstall Linux/Windows with its default boot.

And also, what distro might be best for me?

As you want to play games, and, I do imagine that you also want linux as you main PC, I would recommend Linux Mint to start, all the documentation avaible for debian easily apply for Linux Mint, I mean, if you can't find some specific solution in the Linux Mint documentation.

My last two cents are the next ones: if you can, use windows just to play things and use linux for everything else. It works for me and may work with you. Cheers.

Windows 11 isn't enshittified, it's just shit. You should consider learning what that word actually means rather than just parroting it like everyone else.