Originally posted by Merv71:

I have 375 games in my Steam Library and i cant find any educated answer to my question. Which is. I If i choose to dump microsoft [deserved ] for Linux mint then what sort of effect will it have on my extensive Library.

None. The games on the account remain regardless of your choice of operating system. And while Steam has made some great strides in the last few years by making it possible for Windows games to run on Linux, not all of them can. You should review the games you have before making the switch to ensure the ones you care about the most can still be played on Linux.

Originally posted by Merv71:

Does steam have a way for us to Burn all our purchased games to a disc or ext hardrive .

You can make backups of your games however you want, but it's not like creating "install discs" or "offline copies" if that's what you mean. Also, the backups will age as updates are issued by the developers. At some point the backups may be so old that they'd need to be replaced in their entirety to actually run once you restore them to launch with Steam.

If it's to reduce the need to redownload the games after you switch, then you're fine to use whatever medium works best for you.

To add on,

If you do decide to make the move, the following will become your best friend:

https://www.protondb.com/

It is a database of user reports on the compatibility of steam games with linux as well as advice on tinkering settings to make them work better. Some have native support but otherwise most of them will require running with proton which is steam's compatibility layer between the linux OS and windows based games.

Sometimes you might be better off running with proton than native. Other times, an older version of proton could be better for a particular game. It's going to take more legwork on the whole.

A high level is to look at "Good on Deck" for your library

https://store.steampowered.com/steamdeck/mygames/

Anything here is tested by steam to work on Linux. Its not an exhaustive list but it is an easy 'first pass' to see how much of your library has been test fro Linux

Note also that ifyou want to go to LInux, you may want to look at your video card. If you are like most steam users, Nvidia is 'ok' on LInux but can be fairly fussy to install the drivers depending on your distro. AMD is generally better supported and easier. Its not impossible to use Nvidia, it just requires more faffing about where as AMD tends to work 'out of the box'. You might want to go with a dual boot while you get your feet wet with Linux, as it can require more technical fussing around than Windows.

Originally posted by Merv71:

I have 375 games in my Steam Library and i cant find any educated answer to my question. Which is. I If i choose to dump microsoft [deserved ] for Linux mint then what sort of effect will it have on my extensive Library.

Your library remains. Of course, compatibility might be a concern, but taking a quick glance at your games list, I don't think you'll have a problem. It's the games with kernel-level anti-cheat that are an issue, so no Call of Duty, Destiny 2, Fortnite, Madden, and so on.

I have over six times the number of games you do, and I switched to Linux and never looked back. The vast majority of my games just work. The rest work with some small adjustment, like changing which version of Proton it's using. I've actually found that when I'm trying to play older games, Linux often works better than modern Windows does, so that's pretty cool. I would even dare say that when you start counting old Windows games, Linux may actually have better compatibility with Windows games than Windows has.

Originally posted by Merv71:

I have 1 other query. Does steam have a way for us to Burn all our purchased games to a disc or ext hardrive . Microsofts win 11 bully tactics are putting my huge amount of Steam purchases at risk and i am worrid about it.

Yep. Click a game in your library. Click "back up game files", then stash that wherever you want. Burn it to a disk, save it on an external drive, upload it to the cloud. Go nuts. Of course, you could also just ensure that you log in to the same account and you can re-install all your games from Steam, no problem. Most will even still have your save files thanks to Steam Cloud. Backups are helpful if you have terrible Internet though.

Finally, I know Mint has been the go-to recommendation for beginners for ages, but personally, I suggest an immutable distro like Bazzite[bazzite.gg]. What that means is that the core system is protected from any changes. Linux doesn't hold your hand, and if you unintentionally do something that might be harmful to the system, it won't warn you. It assumes you know what you're doing and just does what you tell it. An immutable distro puts up just enough of a barrier to protect you from yourself, which is nice when you're like me and you know enough about Linux to be dangerous, but not enough to truly be competent. I've been using Bazzite exclusively for a while now, and it's been the best, most stable, most pleasant and seamless operating system experience I've had in my many decades of using computers, and I've dabbled off and on with different versions of Linux since 2002.