You a want a suggestion on how to make the dive easier ? Install Linux on a USB stick.
Any old 32GB USB thumb drive will do. Linux is way smarter in how it handles storage devices, so you can boot it from a USB stick and it will be just as happy as if you installed it on an SSD or HDD. All you have to do is tell the installer to use the stick as the destination when installing. Then you can boot from it whenever you want and try out Steam and Proton.
Heck, you can even take it with you and use it to boot other computers into you own pre-configured Linux.
Sorry if this is dumb, but does booting to Linux overwrite the current operating system, or can you just choose to boot to one or the other?
@Lazylazycat @Anarch157a
Dual booting is an option
If you go with Ubuntu (best starting distro in my opinion) you will be able to install Linux alongside windows but there is a need for repartioning the drive.
Tutorial:
https://itsfoss.com/install-ubuntu-1404-dual-boot-mode-windows-8-81-uefi/
@Lazylazycat
You can do what’s called “dual boot” where both (or even more than 2) OSes are available and you pick which to use at boot.
@Anarch157a
This is a trap. I dual booted and just never went back to windows. Wasted disk space for years
