I'm also a Linux newbie who just installed Mint. Initially I just put it onto a flash drive for a taster. I liked it so much that I decided to allocate some disk space to dual boot it with Windows 11.
I haven't committed to it fully for the moment, but I can definitely see me drop Windows for it at some point.
It's awesome. So customisable and free of bullshit like W11 has. It also has a clean, modern UI that I'm a big fan of.
I think I'm going to continue using Windows for gaming right now, and Linux for everything else.
Steam has a native linux client and they've also spent years, developing a proprietary wine-wrapper, called Proton. I've been able to run all my Steam games on Linux with no problems. :)
Proton is incredible. Linux has come so far in the last couple years for gaming. I'm running Intel/Nvidia (which used to be a big no-no), playing 99% of what I want to play with no issues. If I ever see issues it's usually a game that uses anti-cheat. Even the vast majority of my games work fine now. Controller support is simple too.
I'm guessing another year an I won't have Windows in my setup at all.