Here's what you need for Arch, for more context: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/AMDGPU
kuberoot
I like Valve, but I will point out what's been said before - Valve has a stake in making Linux gaming better, since it enables the Steam Deck to exist and prosper. They could've chosen other options that don't help the community, but they didn't choose this entirely selflessly, since they reap the benefits from not just their own work, but also that of the open source developers.
Good peanut butter is just 100% ground up peanuts, soooo....
There's nothing special about it. Linux distros are one of the options, alongside windows and osx as desktop systems.
What there are are preferences, morals, affordability. Linux is generally free, has different approaches to how the system is structured, how software is installed, how much access to the system you have, and how much responsibility for setting it up you have.
This will also vary from distro to distro, but generally software is installed from the distribution's repositories, not downloading files from various websites - and instead of having some different scheme for updating every program on your computer, you use a single command (or button in an app) to update your system and all your software. This is one of the main things I love about Linux - you get to update your stuff when you want, all at once.
I feel like Italy might have that one covered, what with all the tortellini, ravioli, and such
2025 will truly be the year of the Linux desktop! I am so happy about this information!
I think on mutable distros, or at least arch, you can run a command to reinstall all installed packages, which will verify integrity of the package files (signatures) and then ensure the files in the filesystem match package files? And I think it takes minutes at most, at least for typical setups.
I do think it's also possible to just verify integrity of all files installed from a package, but I don't remember if it required an external utility, pretty sure it's on the arch wiki under pacman/tips and tricks
Oh, just ask an Arch user about Manjaro.
It's not like Bethesda called their games "Fantasy" - "Civilization" is such a generic name that I respect putting the author's name before it to avoid any confusion.
I also recommend rEFInd for the bootloader if you don't want to set anything up (and risk messing up). You don't need to configure your boot entries, it scans for boot options and shows them with a graphical interface, so your Linux and Windows should just show up.
Except you might want a client, both to keep your games in one place, and for extra features it can provide (like cloud saves and updates) - and if you're on Linux, you're excluded from that kind of stuff on GOG.
The wiki tells you what you need on arch, and what you need it for. Those packages also don't seem to have kernel-specific or dkms versions, so seems like they're not kernel modules.
Mind you, the setup is clearly not monolithic, with different components for different purposes, including alternative options. On top of that, each distro will make different choices - Arch provides the components as packages and puts the responsibility of installing the right ones on you. Some features might be built into kernel drivers, like working video output, but Vulkan support clearly wants a dedicated driver.