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Valve made a compatibility layer for the Steam Deck and Linux called Proton. It uses a lot of technologies, including WINE, dxvk, and more to make Windows games run well on Linux. It basically takes Windows API calls and translates them to Linux with little to no performance penalty.
Steam also has native builds for Windows, macOS, ChromeOS, and Linux now, so you can just install it. Most Linux distros have Steam right in their software manager now.
Typically, unless the game has blocked Linux with something like kernel-level anticheat, it’ll “just work” on Linux now. There is a community database called ProtonDB that has a list of games and how well they do or don’t work.
Hope this helps and feel free to ask any questions.
Check Proton DB. If the games you enjoy work fine on Linux, which is the case for most games these days thanks to Proton, you should be good. The big exception is games with kernel-level anticheat.
If not, you can always dual boot for the few games that don’t.
I made the switch to pure Linux gaming when I got my Steam Deck two years ago. Been loving it ever since. Even SteamVR games work great streaming to my Quest headset.
There is no “TV version”. The switch docks to a docking station to make it output to a TV. You just need a docking station and controllers to make a single Switch into a shared screen experience in the living room. Anyone’s Switch can use the dock.
Physical games are sharable, but only one device can use that game at a time, because they’re physical cartridges.
Personally, I’d go with a Steam Deck over a Switch, unless your family specifically is looking to play Switch games that are exclusive to it (which technically with emulation the Steam Deck can also play, but that’s not legal unless you own a switch and the game). The nice thing about Steam games is that Steam’s Families feature lets you share the entire game library digitally to 5 family members, so unless they want to play the same game at once, you only buy games once and they can all play them. There are also some games that let you own one copy and let multiple people play multiplayer at once on it, too.
Plus, games on Steam are cheaper than Switch games and the Steam Deck is only a bit more money upfront than a Switch is, especially on sale, which I expect it to be on sale for Black Friday coming up.
Finally, Steam games also can be played on a PC. Any PC. The Steam Deck is just an easy to use, skinned UI PC. As such, when the Steam Deck becomes obsolete, you don’t have a bunch of games that are now locked to an obsolete platform. There are PC games that are decades old that still play on PCs today (although sometimes a bit of fiddling is required for REALLY old ones).
Edit:
FYI the regular switch and OLED can dock. The switch lite cannot.
Sounds like you need to enable 802.1r for fast roaming between APs on both access points and then make sure the SSIDs are the same.
Also, you can improve things by splitting your 2.4ghz, 5ghz, and 6ghz (if applicable) onto separate SSIDs, with your phone connected to the 5ghz band. Since it has lower range, it will likely roam better because the signal from one to the other will be more “apparent” to your devices.
I think it’s more important that it gives Valve a method of avoiding being shoehorned into a “Windows only world”. The Steam Deck is largely why Linux has pushed past 2% market share on the Steam Hardware Survey consistently now. Holo, which is the codename for SteamOS on the Deck, makes up over half of Steam on Linux.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not dillusional. Windows is still far and away the majority platform and will be for some time. However, there is a real, functional choice now that didn’t exist a few years ago.
And I’ll continue to not buy them and support indie developers instead.