Linux

I think you should check out Bazzite or uBlue.
They're both based on the immutable versions of Fedora, but more or less slightly tweaked.

I would recommend them over Nobara. Nobara is very insecure and a one-man-project, and I don't know if that are criteria for a solid distro.

The atomic Fedora spins on the other hand have many advantages:

• secure
• self maintaining and easy to use
• unbreakable, and you can roll back easily in case something breaks
• work out of the box
• you can select the -nvidia images and then your drivers are already baked in, since they are known to break or cause problems.

Bazzite is an attempt to "clone" SteamOS/ Nobara, and provides you with a great out of the box gaming setup.
The other uBlue spins are more vanilla and general purpose.

You could also check out VanillaOS, which is currently under development, but very focused on simplicity and newcomers.

Your questions:

• Nvidia: see my uBlue answer. They're baked in and the best setup. If you want a traditional mutable distro, like Fedora, Mint, etc., you can install them with one click, but they might cause problems.
• Game compatibility: look at protondb.com A lot of Anticheat software works, but a lot more don't. Depends. Remember to activate Proton in Steam, or most games don't get shown.
• Modding software should also work, check out Bottles (Wine), but you might have to allow access to the corresponding directories, since Windows apps should and get sandboxed.
• X/ Wayland: Just try WL and see if it causes problems. With the proprietary Nvidia drivers, and especially Gnome, it should work fine and is in general way better (smoother, etc.) than X

I recently switched from Windows 10 to Fedora so I can share my experience. I’ve dabbled with Linux in the past but there’s always been immediate issues which have caused me to never stay that long. It’s too easy to just ditch and go back when everything on Windows just works out of the box. I was getting sick of all the privacy issues so decided to totally bail and go balls deep. I found it easier to push through all the problems by adopting a mentality that I was living with this now and I eventually started to enjoy fixing all the problems (it took a few weeks). Everything’s working now and solutions are out there, you just need to google and power through.

Installing Steam and Nvidia drivers is easy. You open the settings of the “App Store” and enable third party repositories. Once you’ve done that the Nvidia drivers and Steam will turn up in there and can be installed with the click of a button.

However, and maybe I’m just unlucky, but the dream of Linux gaming has been an absolute non-starter for me. I guess people on Radeons may have more luck but with my 2060S I haven’t really gotten anything to play acceptably. Even with Proton-GE and whatever other hacks people talk about everything has been unstable, slow, or both, and that’s if it starts at all. I’m sure it’s probably just the certain games I’m trying to play but I ended up partitioning my drive and installing Windows 10 again just for gaming.

Something else to try is Nobara, it’s a Linux distro built for ease of use and gaming. If I’d heard of it earlier I’d probably have tried it first but I’ve got Fedora nicely set up and I don’t think it includes anything I can’t simply install myself.

MO2 does work on Linux, I've played modded Skyrim extensively on my Steam Deck. Works like a charm! https://github.com/rockerbacon/modorganizer2-linux-installer

Install PopOS, comes with nvidia drivers, and no extra hassle. Boots your GTX right up like a baby.

I highly recommend, as a beginner and a windows user, using fedora kinoite

It's immutable, which means you can't break the system unless you try very hard, and even then, it'll give you a list of previous setups to boot from, and updates can't break it.

It also keeps the system separate from your apps by using flatpak, the intricacies aren't really important as a beginner but basically this means you'll have an absolutely stable rock solid system that you never have to do weird maintenance for

I would highly recommend trying it out, and i'm absolutely willing to help with any issues you run into, feel free to message me on matrix @communist:mozilla.org or here.

as for your questions:

• How would I install NVIDIA drivers? https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/fedora-kinoite/troubleshooting/

^ guide is here, a few terminal commands, then you're done

• Does Wayland work with NVIDIA?

https://community.kde.org/Plasma/Wayland/Nvidia ^Yes, here's the known issues page for kde

• A lot of distros are moving to Wayland. How would I ensure I stay on an Xorg session?

You choose X11 or wayland on the login screen.

• I enjoy modding Bethesda games. Does Mod Organizer work fully on Linux?

https://github.com/Nexus-Mods/NexusMods.App

^this is actually the successor, and it works natively on linux.

I used to use mod organizer and it also works although is a bit more annoying to setup.

• I’ve had difficulties running my steam games through proton on my laptop. Does promton work with Fedora?

Yes, but I recommend installing proton ge through flatpak and setting it as the default with this command:

 flatpak install com.valvesoftware.Steam.CompatibilityTool.Proton-GE

Then go to steams settings > compatibility > enable steam play for all other titles, and run other titles with proton-ge

• With said difficulties with proton, would installing Steam as a flatpak work or will it cause issues?

That's the only way to do it on kinoite, and will not cause issues.

• Can you really not play any games with anti-cheat?

Right now as far as i'm aware only easy-anticheat works. With others you're SOL.

edit: use this apparently https://areweanticheatyet.com/

Fedora and OpenSUSE are supported directly by nVidia. You can add specific nVidia hosted repos to install the drivers.

Bazzite is a steam like OS based on Fedora that is tailored to gaming.

I'm not sure about other distros but many will have an option to use wayland or X11 at the login prompt.

How do I install Nvidia drivers

On fedora it's simple, you enable 3rd party repositories during install and then you install it from the software center.

Does Wayland work with Nvidia

Your experience will vary, it works fine for some and not so fine for others afaik.

Most distros are moving to Wayland, how do I ensure an Xorg session.

Distros that are moving to Wayland still provide an Xorg session and probably will do so for the foreseeable future.

Will proton work on fedora.

Yes. Proton is distro independent, it's a tool, provided by steam and it doesn't really care what distro you are running. Remember to enable steamplay for all games from the steam settings before you do anything else.

Will installing steam as a flatpaks work?

Yes. I've heard that some people have had issues with the steam flatpak, but I personally haven't, it should work fine.

Can you not play anticheat games.

Entirely depends on the game you wanna play. Some anticheat games work, others don't. Check the game you wanna play on protondb to see if it works. That being said, afaik anticheat support outside steam is basically a non existent, so if you like playing valorant (you poor, poor soul) or Fortnite for example, you're kinda out of luck, unless you wanna dual boot.

Note: Try the distro before installing, live ISOs exist for a reason.

Note 2: Take a look at ventoy

I don't know anything about Mod Organizer but I'll take a crack at the ones I actually know something about.

1. My main computer is a laptop with an Nvidia GPU and the only big issue I have with Wayland is that the HDMI interface doesn't work. However, this is probably just an issue with my individual card because I've heard that newer cards tend to be better and mine is over 11 years old. For drivers, most distros have an automatic driver install process in the software manager. If your card is fairly new, it should work just fine.
2. For the foreseeable future, the Plasma spin of Fedora (I don't read up on the GNOME see much) will allow you to use the Xorg or Wayland sessions as you see fit. All it takes is for you to log out, switch the session, and log back in.
3. Proton works just fine on Fedora. In fact, Nobara (a prominent gaming-focused distro) is built on Fedora.
4. As long as Steam has the necessary permissions in your permission manager it should work fine. I run Steam as a Flatpak and I haven't run into any issues because of it (yet).
5. The anti-cheat question is a bit tougher. Some games work just fine but others just don't. I would recommend that you check each of your games for anti-cheat compatibility before fully committing. If you have your heart set on playing League of Legends or Valorant, for example, you're unfortunately going to need Windows.

I hope this info helps. Please feel free to ask for more clarification!

Go for it. Switching to Linux has never been easier than it is today. I still keep a Windows virtual machine for when I need to use specific Windows applications, but aside from that I have been running Linux on my work and gaming machines for two years now with zero issues.

I'm surprised to hear you had problems with Proton - in my experience it has been seamless, although there are still some titles that don't work so well with it. I don't play any games that require anti-cheat, though, so there is that.

It's never easy to say which distro is best, because every user and every machine is different. I personally recommend Nobara instead of Fedora, as a lot of the post-install tweaking is already done for you and it should even install the latest Nvidia drivers for you as well.

Sounds like an opportunity has opened up to you. And I don't know if you have anything to lose here. I'd take it and go on an adventure.

I mean, don't do it if you got important stuff to finish. Or if you cannot adapt to a new workflow. But -for example- Fedora is super easy to install. And in the long run Linux will save you time and headache and it's tough and somewhat easy to maintain. And you can always delete it and switch back to Windows if you like.

NVidia isn't the best, but lots of people use it and it works somewhat alright.

First of all Fedora is a great distro and I do suggest it if you like it, otherwise I suggest Nobara(fedora based) or Pop_OS(ubuntu LTS based) as they both have iso's that come with nvidia drivers pre installed. Nobara has steam pre installed too.

(quick note about Nobara: beside pretty much being Fedora customized(and optimized) for gaming and made more user friendly it is maintained by only one devoloper. This person is the creator of the popular proton version ProtonGE and a Red Hat employee, "Glorious Eggroll" and it is still FOSS so trust shouldn't be an issue BUT due to the small number of maintainers it is more likely to break and should be considered somewhat experimental, despite this it is my daily driver and fave distro)

I use wayland just fine with an rtx 3060 but it js unstable for many othera and you can choose witch session you wanna boot into (x11 or wayland) on the login screen so that shouldn't be problem to find which works the best for you

I Mod FNV and FO4 using MO2 on linux it works fine but the initial set up was a little painfull.

Steam should work fine both as native package and Flatpak. and proton works with any distro

Many games with anticheat work with linux and many don't you can check your games on areweanticheatyet.com

I'm sorry, I don't have time to address your questions individually but you should check out Nobara Linux, it is Fedora modded heavily for gamers and they have a version with Nvidia drivers pre installed. It works near perfectly out of the box, I haven't tried mod organizers but Lutris works great for any game that doesn't run thru Steam Proton.

Fedora is a great foundation for stability and up to date software. I personally use Ultramarine Linux; it's a general purpose distro based on Fedora, but with more desktop environments, more available packages, more media codecs (plain fedora leaves out a bunch of codecs that you need to play audio or video files), and some more sane defaults. Even with all that, it isn't noticeably more bloated than Fedora; it just gives you more options and makes it so that you don't have to follow a "Things You MUST Do After I stalling Fedora" article.

Wayland works with Nvidia in my experience, and Wayland is remarkably stable and xorg-compatible. Folks will argue about that, but it's been great for the few years I've used it on my laptop and desktop. I know at least Ultramarine installs both, and you can switch between them on the login screen, so give it a shot.

If your games don't work, it's quite normal to dual boot windows just for gaming.

Also, you might consider making your home folder a separate partition. That means you can reinstall and switch distros while leaving your documents and media and such in place. That said, partitioning manually is hard to get the hang of; let me know if you want some help on that front.

How would I install NVIDIA drivers?

Depends on the distro, but you usually just need to look around in the settings, it's pretty easy.

try it, you can always install windows again

You're getting a lot of good advice. Whatever distro you decide to use, try to find a live CD that lets you use it on the PC without installing it. That should ease your mind tremendously.

Disclaimer: I don't use Fedora, but have friends who do. So I tried to include sources, below. 😅

How would I install NVIDIA drivers?

https://rpmfusion.org/Howto/NVIDIA

_Does Wayland work with NVIDIA?*

(I don't know)

A lot of distros are moving to Wayland. How would I ensure I stay on an Xorg session?

GNOME now defaults to Wayland. Instructions to use xOrg instead: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/quick-docs/configuring-xorg-as-default-gnome-session/

I expect other desktop environments will similarly have mechanisms switch, at least during a transition period.

I enjoy modding Bethesda games. Does Mod Organizer work fully on Linux?

Your mileage may vary, but it looks likely: https://github.com/rockerbacon/modorganizer2-linux-installer

I've had difficulties running my steam games through proton on my laptop. Does proton work with Fedora?

I suspect it will. Steam has been pouring money into making it's catalog Linux ready, https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/gaming/proton/

With said difficulties with proton, would installing Steam as a flatpak work or will it cause issues?

In principle it ought to, but there appears to be an issue with it currently. https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/gaming/proton/

Can you really not play any games with anti-cheat?

Anti cheat software generally works by looking for irregularities that detect if there's any program besides Windows that's intercepting system calls. It is unfortunately by exactly this mechanism that allows Proton to work (as Windows isn't present).

I would suggest, whatever you try, that you make sure to write down your windows key and then deauthorize your PC. That way, if it doesn't work out and you want/need to go back, you can reinstall windows and not deal with the unlicensed copy BS.

There are games with anticheat which are compatible with Linux. Usually Easy Anti Cheat games will work fine. Go to protondb.com if you want to check the compatibility with a game. Sorry, I can't answer the other quesrions for you, I don't use Fedora

Mod organizer has a linux install script on github that I've used without issues before. I play skyrim on Ubuntu 23.10 with well over 100 mods and it's been largely just the same as on windows.

Nvidia drivers should be automatic

Yes wayland works but I don’t use it

On the log in screen you will have an option if both are installed (typically)

Can’t answer but this exists https://github.com/rockerbacon/modorganizer2-linux-installer

Proton works with any system, if you’re having difficulties with games using it then that will likely carry over unless it’s a performance bottleneck

Yes and no; there are linux anti-cheats. But a lot of devs just block Linux - Easy anti-cheat has a Linux version but Fortnite doesn’t use it. I can play Fall Guys if I stop it from downloading Epic’s authentication

As a long time fedora user who's currently stuck with an nvida GPU in his gaming machine (and deeply regrets this investment) here's my advice. You have an older GPU model and should have less trouble with it than I do. Still, be prepared that some games will not work through proton, that would work just fine with an AMD GPU.

There are several ways to install nvidia drivers in fedora. I strongly recommend to install the proprietary driver through rpmfusion. Just follow their installation instructions and it is pretty straight forward:

• disable secure boot (works very well ootb with AMD/intel)
• Enabling the RPM Fusion repositories
• Current GeForce/Quadro/Tesla

Nvidia doesn't play well with wayland, if not entirely broken (depends somewhat on the GPU, driver version and other settings). Stick with X.Org for now. Fedora will preselect the wayland session by default now, but you can simply change that in the session drop down on the sddm login screen and it will remember the session you chose.

You will also want to look at this: Rpmfusion Howto Multimedia

I can't comment on mod organizer from personal experience, but there is this: https://github.com/rockerbacon/modorganizer2-linux-installer

Proton on fedora is no problem at all. Proton with nvidia often is. I'd suggest installing ProtonUp-Qt (preferably via flatpak). It makes managing and getting proton builds super easy. Especially with new(er) games where proton compatibility may be flaky, it's always worth a try to get the latest glorious eggroll build. And always check protondb for known issues and workarounds, especially with nvidia.

There have been some bugs which were specific to steam via flatpak. Though, generally it works fine, and I haven't seen any problem that was specific to the flatpak version.

As for anti cheat: It totally depends on the game/publisher. Steam now has linux runtimes for the three major anti cheat providers. But publishers have to support that. If you go linux-only, make sure an online game with anti cheat works before you buy it. If you "need" to play a game that won't work in linux, keep a windows install around.

Man, I've had two separate devices fail to install updates the last week, leading to tons of weirdness and troubleshooting. I even had to chkdsk c: /F at one point like a neanderthal.

I have enough coomputers laying around that I'd move more of them to other OSs, Linux included if I hadn't tried that and found it as much or more of a hassle in those specific machines, be it compatibility issues or just fitness for the application. I'm not married to Windows at all, but there are definitely things that are much easier to handle there, which does justify sticking with it through the reinstalls and awkward weirdness on those.

you should try out live usbs and see how it goes

You can play some games with anticheat. But not the biggest ones like CoD, Valorant or any borked game in ProtonDB. In my case I only play BattleBit Remastered, it uses EasyAntiCheat, apex also works. I don't really care about games now, if a game doesn't support my system, then I will not buy it nor play it. (Like league of legends)

Just because I haven't seen anyone mention it, the distro that finally allowed me to make the switch was Zorin. It is extremely noob friendly for people coming from windows and the first time (for me) I had a linux that "just worked".