In 2025, how easy and how complete is the compatibility of Windows and MS-DOS games for Linux?
I think most games sold here still have only a modern Windows as a requirement/runs on, but is that accurate or just a matter GOG covering their behinds so that they don't have to support Linux issues? I am not blaming them btw.

I am thinking of installing Linux as Windows 10 support is almost gone and my old laptop can't install Windows 11 and even if I could install it, I don't know if I would like it. I am sick of all the spying, the marketing, the mining that is going on.

I am guessing some programs, like Movie Studio 16, won't run at all, some games won't run at all, but how many? If they can be run, how easy is it to set them up to run when they don't come with Linux installation files?

Perfect.
Of the 801 games I own on GOG, I can not think of a single one that does not run on my Debian Sid.

Maybe a dozen that don't work on Lutris/Linux Mint from 1500 + games.

I switched over last year and so far it's been running rather well.

I have encountered one or two hiccups every now and then but doing some research or waiting for an update to WINE or Proton has solved the issues.

If you are looking for assistance in installing games there are launcher programs such as Heroic Game Launcher and Lutris they can handle the installation and setup.

I will say to give it time as Linux does have differences compared to Windows but taking your time and learning these changes is not too difficult.

Linux Mint is a good beginner OS and there are others like Zorin OS that are trying mimic Windows to make it easier to switch.

I would say don't dive to deep into all the different Linux distributions as that can be overwhelming,

If you stick to Proton and gaming, it's rather smooth sailing to be fair. In my experience (and I've been gaming exclusively on Linux for more than 5 years now) it's the early Windows 95/98 games that have the most chances of not working properly or at all. But anything newer than that is pretty well supported. Buy Interstate '82 :P. For those you'd use DOSBox (Staging), as you would on Windows. Can't comment on GOG Galaxy compatibility on Linux, as I don't use it - but I've installed all my games by double clicking on the Windows installer, just like one would normally :P.

The only games that don't function via Wine/Linux are the ones that don't function in Windows to begin with, and even then there's things you can do to kick'em into function...mostly.

Pretty sure I76 and I82 just need someone to break down their engines and put them into new ones.

Most games should run fine on Linux, you may have some games that won't work at all or need some tweaks but personnaly, i prefer not being able to play a few games and avoid installing Windows again.

I start using dual boot 5 years ago and stopped using Windows 1 year later then i completely removed it and never felt the need to reinstall it

I'76 and its addon actually work fine, it's I'82 that's really stubborn.

Yeah, but it'd be nice to not have to do all the faffing around in the first place.

To run Windows games I use Lutris, to run MS-DOS games I use DOSBox Staging.

If your distro doesn't provide latest version of DOSBox Staging in repository, you can install it manually from ".tar.xz" archive.

When running older 2D Windows games in Lutris, cnc-ddraw is your friend, it provides better compatibility.

Some projects (fheroes2, JA2 Stracciatella, OpenXcom, etc.) allow to run these games natively under Linux.

Many Windows programs have Linux alternatives, I use Shotcut as a video editor.

Good luck! :)

I never used cnc-ddraw, in fact it’s the first time I ever read about it.
On the other hand I do not use Lutris either, so maybe it is only needed to work around some Lutris quirks?

I use cnc-ddraw with these games: Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines, Nox, Panzer General 2, Virtua Cop 2. So really old stuff that wouldn't otherwise run properly on my old Linux laptop. It's possible that Proton doesn't need cnc-ddraw, but right now I use standard version of Wine in Lutris.

I use regular WINE here (10.0, as provided by Debian), not Proton, not Lutris.

From your list I own Commandos and Nox, and after a quick try they seem to both work nicely without the need for any kind of third-party tool.

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EDIT: I’m using open-source Mesa drivers with an AMD GPU. Maybe these games would not work that well with the non-free nvidia driver.

If you are expecting them to run out of the box in Linux, mostly no.

In the best case, some games work by just running the GOG offline installer with wine and everything works, e.g. I think Planescape: Torment EE was such an easy case. At least i don't recall having to do anything extra to get it to work in Linux (WINE), just install and play and it ran fine too.

In other cases you have to hope there is some Lutris or somesuch entry for your game, and the game installs and works fine with it. Or, you might have to do some manual work to get a game to install and run successfully. For me a recent such game was Demonicon, I was probably missing some dependency in Linux that the game wanted, and installing the Linux version of Steam and some game on it possibly fixed it, ie. the Steam game happened to install the dependency that the GOG game also wanted. Naturally you can install such dependencies manually as well without Steam, if you know for sure what is missing.

For MS-DOS games, I presume they all work on Linux as long as you extract the game's MS-DOS data from the GOG version and move it to a Linux DOSBox instead. Running the GOG version running the game through a Windows version of DOSBox in WINE just sounds... too any layers there. Better to move the MS-DOS games to native Linux DOSBox, then you can skip WINE as well.

What about security? Anti virus, anti malware etc, similar to Windows Defender/security, free and all that? Is there anything? yes yes I know Linux is more secure, but that's not what I asked for.

:)