I have a very similar use case to you, and when I built my PC I just never installed Windows on it. Linux is a great development environment (imo strictly superior to Windows but ymmv), and gaming is almost flawless with Proton. Only problems with that has been from the immature RX 9070 XT drivers, so not too bad.

Depending on what you program with I’d highly recommend exclusively using a Linux VM for it. Then you can fully switch once you’re comfortable working out the kinks.

I happen to have a 50% exam tomorrow, that would be awesome to have. copium

It might be a good substitute for some. Some features like contact and storage scopes are missing, and IMO they’re pretty cool Overall just worse privacy and security compared to Graphene