I've been a windows user for a long time now, but I've been thinking of trying out Linux sometime soon. Which distro should I start with? And can I still play steam/origin games? I might also use a VM to see how I like it before I move over.

I'm sure I could google this, but a lot of you seem to use Linux, and this isn't stack overflow so I'm not expecting too many people to shit on me for asking 🙂

I'm having a lot of luck with Kubuntu, and have also had with Manjaro.

Not sure about games. There's a bunch on Steam, and there's also a bunch that works with Wine

Dualbooting is nice

Chances are if you're using it to get away from Windows but still game, you're not going to enjoy it. Setting up Wine is not enjoyable for the result of lower fps if the game will even still work.

I recommend dual booting both windows and a Linux distro, that way you can still natively game and still get the Linux experience

Tons of Steam games work natively on Linux.
Most of the not directly supported ones can be run by WINE.

there is on distro especially suited for windows switchers and that is Linux Mint. www.linuxmint.com

Distros are (mostly) just preference. If you want something easy-to-use out of the box, check out Linux Mint or Debian.

If you're more of a tinkerer or have some experience with unix systems, something like Arch may be more suited for you. Too daunting? Manjaro is pretty close, but much easier to set up.

Your idea of a VM is a good place to start. Lots of distros also support live installions, that way you can boot the system up on a USB drive and test drive it.