I don’t know what distro you are on. I had the same problem with 2 games. Stormworks and Cyberpunk 2077. I’m on Arch and installed nvidia-prime from the AUR. Then for just those two games in the steam launch options I put prime-run in there. That fixed the problem for me. I did use nvtop to verify that it was using the igpu instead of my GTX 1060.

When stormworks was running on the igpu it was at 3fps. Now it’s buttery smooth. No other games I play have had that issue.

I did a bunch of reading before jumping into Arch so I just used archinstall. Made it nice and easy.

My answer for #2 is I have never personally had a problem with Linux on a laptop. Everything works as intended. The only funny thing was when I switched to Arch Linux took a little bit of work to get games to use my Nvidia GPU instead of the integrated one in my CPU. But that was maybe 30 minutes of googling and installing stuff off the AUR. When I ran pop_os it worked right out of the box. I believe pop has all of the Nvidia stuff installed and on Arch I just had to figure out what I needed. That problem was just from lack of experience.

My answer for #3 is I don’t know but I’ve had fun testing different software out to find something that suits me. I want to say way back in the day Ubuntu had a bunch of stuff pre installed. But that was probably 2007 when I last used Ubuntu. On Arch you can just use the discover store to find stuff. If you can’t find it there it’s in the AUR.

#4 rooting on Linux isn’t like rooting on Android. Android is built off Linux so to have “root” access is just like having administrator access or whatever on Windows. Android phones are more locked down so it’s usually a pain to root (the manufacturer don’t really want you to do it). On your own Linux computer you just use root access. For example on Arch in the terminal to do a full system update you have to use root access so you type “sudo pacman -Syu” in the terminal then it asks you for the sudo password or root password that you yourself setup on install. Sudo is the command that says hey I want to do this no questions asked.

#5 it’s Linux you can do whatever you want. You can go through and destroy the entire os if you want.

I’m coming on a year being full time on Linux so that’s about the best I can do answering your questions. I’m sure other people will explain stuff better. Good luck!

For years i’ve tried different distros on and off. Really liked arch on the steam deck and decided to give it a try. Haven’t used windows in over a year. Don’t know what it was but I’m loving arch with kde. Had a couple of things i had to figure out but all in all it was simple to get going.

I never did it on steam but years back I contacted origin support and they let me register all my old ea games keys and still have them on the ea app. Not great but I thought it was cool.

They let me do all of them except battlefield Vietnam. They said they didn’t have that one available to download at the time.

I go back and forth. Past few weeks used it a bunch but hadn’t touched it in a month. Sometimes I start a game on my deck then think this would be so much better with mouse and keyboard then just play it on my laptop.

I also play allot of strategy and building games. I still think the touchpads are awesome and work great for those types of games but like when I play Kenshi I assign the back buttons too and it ends up hurting my hands after awhile.

I travel a bunch for work so I have an extra charger always in my bag ready to go

The great thing is it’s so much easier now. About 2 months ago I cancelled all my streaming subscriptions.

My favorite is still command and conquer generals lol. Not the best in the series but I loved it. Still play it every once in awhile.

I haven’t bought any of the DLC yet. Every steam sale I’m like not yet haha.

Haven’t touched RimWorld in a few years. Got addicted to it again this week. Hopefully soon it will pass.

Also got the 512 and have a 256 sd card. More demanding stuff I put on the SSD. It made a huge difference on my 64gb deck.