We're getting there! I think the new Valve hardware (especially the Steam machine) will help a lot, and obviously Microsoft has a lot more AI antics planned for the future, which will drive more users away from Windows.

Valve hardware is a tiny fraction of a tiny fraction of a blip for desktop hardware sales. It will not bring the Year of Linux to the Desktop.

No, but their work will. Gaming is now perfectly viable because of their investment and developers targeting the Steam Deck.

It's far from "perfect". It may be "okay" or "acceptable" or even "good", but it lacks perfection.

I wouldn't give it "perfectly viable" yet. It's very good, but there are a lot of popular titles that have kernel anti-cheat that make linux a non-starter if you play even one of the titles frequently. If this can be overcome, I would give linux the perfectly viable title.