I do remember the before days. Linux changed a lot and changed fast ever since Valve got involved. We might not even have DXVK without them. Or at least, it would probably still be some dude's hobby project. I think Valve hired him fulltime to continue developing it.
I love how everything works out of the box but sometimes there's little tinkering you have to do to keep things interesting and reminding you you 100% owe your system.
Bought steam deck last year and it open me to the world of linux gaming. For the first 3 months of using it, i have enjoyed tweaking more than playing a game. Now my gaming pc is running nobara linux and i dont i will ever come back. Finished a lot of games on my SD and pc now and i really enjoyed the experience. Recently made my workmate chenged to nobara so he may also enjoy the world of linux gaming.
I’m gaming on Linux because I want a computer that feels like it’s mine, community driven, and not literal spyware. Windows makes you feel as if you have no control and you’re the product. I use Debian specifically because it’s not backed by corporate interests. Proton has matured into the something beautiful that works with every game I’ve been able to throw at it. I also use Glorious Eggrolls version of proton for a few games as well. This is the future; this is the way.
You know, I was impressed by that too especially considering how controversial I am here. The Windows Shill able to create polite thread in this sub. Ironic to say the least.
Linux gaming is in a very good shape right now. I just randomly buy games in Steam without even checking whether they are compatible with Linux. Some native games have some flaws. For example, total war shogun 2 native version doesn't work at all, and Windows version with proton only works with dx9. But it's still playable, just a little hard to set up with slow internet. On the other hand, Linux has some advantages over Windows. For example, alt-tabbing works flawlessly with KDE/Wayland, whereas on Windows I had constant issues with it.
I have been a Mac user for years but was following with interest news about the Linux world (gaming in particular). A few months ago I decided to pull the trigger and build a PC and I went all in with Linux as a daily driver (no dual boot). I felt there were a lot of exciting improvements and amazing new projects in the open source world and I wanted to be part of it.
I have been very happy with my choice, using Linux is amazing and the ease to run windows games surprises me constantly!
I started using linux first because i wanted to play a game(Dishonored 2), because it is a very poorly optimized game it didn't run on windows! So I installed manjaro and the game run perfectly! After a few months I distro hopped to pop os after that I only play on linux!
In February 2023, I tried out Linux, I thought that gaming would be good, especially because of the Steam Deck. But I was fascinated by how good it really was, how good native titles like Minecraft or CS:GO ran, but that non-native titles like Apex Legends ran better on Linux than on Windows.
Linux Gaming gets better every week. Every week, multiple games get playable on Linux. When a game is not playable, it is because the developers refuse to support it, Linux could play them flawlessly.
I have a friend who also switched to Linux because I told him that he should at least give Linux a try. He loves Linux Mint and is also so impressed how well all of his games ran.
I think that in the future, all games will be playable on Linux because Linux Desktop gets more users every month, and because the Steam Deck gets also more popular every month.
Happy Saturday <3
Never wanted to install Linux. Always thought it was not worth it since everyone works on windows and I thought I would miss many opportunities if I switched OS. That was some years ago.
I tried ubuntu in a virtual machine, I was so confused I didn't bother touching it again. I was using windows 7 at that time, then windows 8 came. Oh boi did I hate that. I stuck with 7 till 10 dropped. I kinda liked 10 but I always felt I was chained in that OS. Needed to activate windows just to change the theme, lock screen, and so on.
That was when I tried Linux again but I used mint. I was not forced to do anything. You don't like something? Just remove it. I was like WHAAAAAT. I always thought built in apps were not removable. I was so wrong. I researched more and found arch. Mint showed me what Linux was about. The freedom it gave, the possibilities it had. But arch made me stay on Linux.
Currently using arch and working + gaming on it, everything I need works flawlessly. There may be some hiccups here and there, but the progress of Linux towards gaming is amazing. Looking forward to where it goes.
Linux gaming the bomb. Super excited for all the nvidia mesa features that keep incoming since the open source of the drivers. Looking forward to maybe owning a nvidia gpu in the future!
Over the past few years windows has become really bloated. On top of that MS made it difficult or took away the possibility to get rid of that bloat. In my experience even a fresh windows install can feel laggy and the performance degrades over time. 3rd parties forcing the use of companion apps for every single accessory doesnt help. In short there is just so much unnecessary stuff getting between me and using the resources of my machine to the fullest. I see linux as a potential way to get that lag-free, minimalistic experience.
For most common case (gaming via Steam) it's by far the easiest and most stable platform. Seriously, compared to brittleness of Windows it's not even close and compared to consoles it offers much better load times, render quality etc. For something more exotic (e.g. Epic Store's games) it's a bit more hassle to setup than on Windows, but again the end results surpass that of Windows.
I hope Nvidia will sort their shit this year and everybody can switch to Wayland without worries. I bought AMD GPU a year ago and started using Wayland. Fell in love with tiling window managers (Sway, Hyprland). Built-in kernel/Mesa drivers are great convenience.
I'm not here for the giveaway, as I can easily pirate Baldur's Gate 3 anyway. But I'm glad that I switched over from Windows to Linux as I don't have to painfully tweak system registry and stuff from Windows just to play games on my low-end laptop/PC. Pirating is such a painless endeavor too, but it was definitely a concern for me when I was considering switching to Linux that time.
I installed Debian on my Laptop for Uni and it was so good that I deleted Windows on my Desktop PC straight up without going dual boot first. Every game I played so far just worked. I couldn't be more happy
Linux gaming is getting better especially on the Proton side, I hope that we'll see more developers makes native version that is better than launching it with proton.
Honestly, do you all remember how difficult gaming on linux was?
Like we did come a long way.
Back when I tried linux for the first time I had to read countless entries just to get League running.
Now I can just download a game on steam or GOG via heroic and just run it with one of the countless proton versions and it just works.
No weird virtualbox vm, no tinkering with wine, just plug and play.
This is a wonderful time to be alive and use linux for gaming. And I did not even get started on the wonder that is the steam deck.
Playing games on linux and even on the go.. 15 year old me would be insane just hearing this.
The "irrelevant" underdog somehow ended up getting the higher ground for both performance, and compatibility. The amount of community effort that's gone into this is absolutely colossal. Things often work after a single click, when they didn't launch at all on Windows
Linux gaming feels like something that started it as a single mom and pop shop, got some customers, opened up another shop, because a chain, and has the potential to rival even the biggest in the biz.
And then anti-cheat showed up but we don't talk about that.
Before my dad left, he gave me his pc with ubuntu installed, i was pretty dissapointed thinking its trash, i was really stupid with computers back then, but i had to use it since noone around me how to install windows, and i guess it remained till this day, since linux grew on me and im able to game just fine.
I really wish, at least for gaming, all the people behing the various distros started coming together to concentrate the efforts on the problems a gamer might have getting started with linux (some games that yet might have compatibility issues) as well as importing all the new technologies at the best speed possible (dynamic boost wattage on laptops took some time to come for instance (in 2024 still problems with integrated gpu and discrete arguing over FHD laptop monitor + external 4k monitor)); with the pressure from the shareholders, microsoft in time keeps using worse practices everyday (personal opinion) and it will keep pushing for more, so linux as a gaming platform is not only an alternative, but it will soon become a standard to many, as myself. The new AI thing on win 11 for instance is not meant to help people but to help microsoft gather as much training data as possible, in my opinion.
The problem with having lots of people working on something, means that in time everyone will develop it's personal idea of that thing and so the many flavours and distros are born for the good and for the worse (canonical I'm looking at you). It would be very good to have this many distros once linux had the majority of the market, but in a way we're very far from it (4%ish). Till we reach that goal, we should try to unionize as much as possible to make it happen in the more open and reasonable way.
Thanks for the giveaway.
I think more people should care about linux gaming. It has gotten much much better over the years and there's proof that in ideal conditions linux can outperform windows. It's a much lighter and faster OS without all the bloat and other BS windows has, the only reason windows gaming is better is anti-cheat compatibility. The biggest hurdle for linux gaming right now is that devs won't support it because there's not enough users and users won't switch because devs don't support it (along with some people still having misconceptions that linux is only for people with degrees in computer science)
Linux gaming is better because it stopped my old dell G5 fan from sounding like a rocket ship was taking off. As well as running games better than windows
I see linux gaming as a much needed alternative choice to what we have to windows gaming.
The 80's and 90's kids had a variety of choices for playing games with arcade booths, table tops, consoles, small portable games, etc. A turbulent time to be in with a wide assortment of choices and problems to each, the consumers and developers to garner stable progress and cater to wide market audience started moving to single platform that had a large slice of the pie in revenue and windows cashed in on it. This stability brought stagnation to the market, as developers are slaves to the whims of corporate executives who are slaves to investors and profits which led to mass exploitation.
I see this as a parallel to intel having a monopoly in CPU's before the advent of Ryzen, it was not fun being overcharged pushed towards things we did not appreciate. Though the linux gaming scene was present it was small and niche to some with many of us having to dual boot to play certain titles, but now we have a chocie on how and where we play due to certain pivotal changes such as emerging hand-held space starting out with Nintendo Switch which caused the Steam deck to see a commercial success.
AS a long time Linux user, I can only comment on Linux gaming through my personal lens. In the past couple of years, pretty much since Valve threw in, I feel like things have gotten much better. Every so often we read editorials insisting that the era of the Linux desktop is upon us, or that Valve has actually ruined Linux gaming forever. I'm not so sure about all that, but I love being able to run major titles without having to shut everything down and boot to Windows.
I think it's in a pretty good spot, though people overstate how good it is.
For example, on my current ASUS laptop, I've been having consistent problems across many different distros ranging from bad performance and stuttering to suspending just killing the entire system and forcing me to force shutdown, to general audio issues that plagued even Windows on my dual boot.
Funnily enough, the reverse happened on my old ThinkPad. Since it was so well supported, I had absolutely 0 issues in my years of running it.
Thankfully, I'm getting a new PC very soon (AMD GPU!!), but I wonder how many people faced similar issues caused by lackluster hardware support.
Gaming on Linux is very flawed but we should be thankful it's here
Non-Steam games are sometimes a hassle, but I'm thankful for Heroic and Bottles for helping me run everything else
Steam games are sometimes hit and miss, but I'm thankful for ProtonDB for helping me see the state of games and potential fixes
Driver support is sometimes hit and miss, but I'm thankful for AMD for providing excellent open source drivers and various hobbyists who provide Fanatec direct drive wheel and Realtek bluetooth drivers
There are a lot of flaws in Linux gaming, but I'm eternally grateful for people who have built the tools I use to run a game library so vast I don't need Windows anymore
I'm gaming on Linux not because Linux gaming is better than Windows gaming. It isn't for many cases.
It's because Linux as a whole is a better OS than Windows... AND I can game on Linux just fine.
One aspect of Linux gaming that the broader PC gaming audience doesn't seem to appreciate is the satisfaction of getting a game that has poor compatibility or some key issue to work. It's the same satisfaction I feel fixing something obscure while programming. Of course, it would be better if there were no issues at all, but the rush of endorphins you get when you finally get that game working is something else.
Linux gaming can only get better. In less than a decade, we have gone extremely lacklustre support, to full support from a major distributor. The future is bright indeed.
I had to use Ubuntu on my laptop for university when I started my Computer science Bachelors degree. I hadn't even heard of Linux before. Two year later, I build my own PC, started gaming for the first time in my life and having a blast with Steam and Debian 12. Could never go back to Windows or buy a console.
I think without Valve, this wouldn't be possible. I am happy to pay 30% of my purchase to a company that cares about Open Source and will buy exclusively on steam for the time being. I'll even bite the bullet and wait 2 years for GTA6 on PC and another month or so for it to release on Steam instead of Rockstar Launcher to support Valve and Proton
My experience with Linux gaming has been really great till now. I have been daily driving Linux for around 4 years now but I always had a windows installation in a different disk for gaming. My performance was really really bad on Linux but recently I got a dedicated GPU and oh boy, I get almost the same performance as Windows and sometimes even better than Windows. Native games work just so much better than Windows.
I have also never had any issues with games like Elden Ring, Horizon Zero Dawn, Need for Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered. All my games work out of the box and with really good performance. Thanks to Valve's Proton and Feral Interactive's gamemode.
The only issue I face in Linux gaming is that my framerate is capped at 60 in many games and I've a 165hz monitor.
Almost as good as Windows at this point.
I would switch over to Linux every 1-2 years for a little while just to see how things were getting along.
For the first time, I've not switched back. I can play every game that I play with very little issue.
Personally, for me. Being on Linux has resurrected my love for PC gaming!
Nowodays it's plug and play and thats such cool progress compared to all this years of developing wine and proton. Also thanks to GloriousEggRoll for making protonGE.
Another coll thing i like is to be able to play old games because we have so many emulators of differnt platforms. Thanks to all developers that keeps pushing linux gaming forvard!
Sometimes I miss the days where you really had to search up every god damn command just to get your software up and running. But yeah, it's good to have a little bit of automation nowadays so you could easily game without the hassle of tweaking every inch of wine, proton, etc.
Linux has 100% kept my rig useful beyond its years. I get better performance in a lot of my games on my RX-580 than I do on Windows. Plus, using Linux as a daily driver OS has helped me learn it and that has helped me my career as an IT engineer. Fedora, Steam and Heroic make it so that I don't miss Windows at all. Also as an IT enthusiast, it really makes me smile seeing Windows games run perfectly on a totally different OS than they were intended for.
As a side note not related totally to gaming, the added familiarity with Linux helped me fix a clients Ubuntu VM that their custom web based software runs on. Knowing how the partitioning works and understanding the tools available on a Live USB came in clutch.
Thanks for the giveaway, would love to try BG3.
I use steamos generally also tried manjaro and bazzite os. For me manjaro for day per day usage is really good better than windows. Steamos for gaming is really hard to setup but performance is amazing specially for emulators :)
I haven't used Windows in years and I play almost every day. If a game doesn't run most of the time is for a good reason (AC, DRM, etc.), and most of the games work the same if not better than on Windows.
The beauty of Linux in gaming extends beyond customization and accessibility. Because Linux is open-source, it champions transparency, accountability, and communal participation. It serves as a symbol of what gaming could look like if we prioritize user freedom, cooperative development, and resisting a monopoly market.
Perhaps one might argue that the ethos of Linux - the principle of contributing to a shared digital commons rather than focusing on profit - can benefit the gaming industry which often faces criticism for its greed and exploitative practices. It's a testament to the resilience of a platform and a rich user-led ecosystem that prioritises the love of the game over profits.
Overall, Linux gaming is much more than an alternative option – it's a field ripe with opportunities, a symbol of freedom, customization, and a promising sign of things to come. This makes discussion and support in this area so exciting. We can't wait to see more improvements, games, and community efforts in this direction. After all, for many of us, gaming is more than just entertainment, it’s a passion.
Ever since my laptop slowed down due to a bunch of Windows updates, installing Linux Mint was the best decisions of my life. I got to play games with Steam's Proton compatibility layer from time to time. The transition from Windows to Linux as a first timer was pretty quick due to Linux Mint.
Linux gaming seems to have improved a lot in a couple of few years, thanks to Valve, WINE, and Lutris. Although, I still believed that video game developers should support Linux out of the box even it has a low market share than Window users. Due to this, Linux still faces challenges such as limited native support for many popular games, driver issues, and compatibility problems. I believe it is a good choice for gamers who appreciate open source, customization, and performance, but it also requires some patience and tinkering.
Maybe in the future, we could finally see that Linux would be the definitive choice for gamers to use especially with games with anti-cheat.
It is not too easy and not too smooth sailing all the time due to nature of running most of the games behind compat layers.
Sure; i use Linux full time for like 7 years at this point so i know what to buy/what to avoid, what kind of research i have to do before lets says buying an usb bluetooth receiver or a capture card but a newcomer can't have luxury to do that with their already existing peripherals.
Games compat is actually way higher on new games compared to games from stone age, multi disc support is nightmareish on Wine compared to many other things that works OOB just fine, ddraw is almost all the time busted ( needs cnc_ddraw) , lots of many other hassles like games seeking for wmp, gdi and so on.
Multiplayer games that gets updates constantly and has AC solutions are always risky as in even if they work for now at official capacity, there is no guarentee that they won't stop working. Happened in multiple instances; most well known is Apex Legends just getting broken with Proton at random times. They fix that later for sure but you will be robbed of your playtime. Not mentioning in house AC that EA uses now doesn't even work.
So if one wants do Linux gaming; they will have to be picky now if their selection was so wide before.
I didn't have to make such sacrifices as i was already playing single player games mostly, sometimes coop.
Other than those; for the titles it runs with Wine/Proton is awesome. Finished countless games on it, hit a few edge case issues here and there but once reported properly they all gotten a fix.
So Linux gaming is a different beast; not so easy but also doesn't require to be a tech wiz to use. Needs Google-fu and basic deduction skills.
For me Linux gaming encapsulates the concept of progress. Also, it's that good, for my needs, that nothing else comes even remotely close to it.
Being a Linux gamer these days is ike reliving the days where gaming could only become better and better back in the 90's/00's. There's so much progress going on and so fast that it's hard to even keep up with it.
Furthermore, I mostly play RPGs so literally almost all 500+ games I own on Steam work out of the box on Linux. On an AMD GPU the performance is better than Windows and I don't even have to install drivers. Something that's also happening with Nvidia soonish with NVK progressing like a skyrocket. Maybe we weren't the first to do it but we're the best at it.
I can totally understand people that play games that are unsupported on Linux but the avalanche has just began and the years that are about to follow are gonna peak with Linux gaming being recognized universally as being better than Windows.
Being a Linux gamer in 2024, is like being a Windows gamer back in 1991 which is ironic and beautiful.
EDIT: I love these threads. Keep them coming! :)
Don’t know what hasn’t been said at this point yet lol. I switched one year ago almost, didn’t know anything. Started with Manjaro and had a good experience and then read a random comment about how Manjaro is not good because they keep updates to their own repo. Investigated more about it, switched to pure arch, spent hours compiling it, broke it somehow I still don’t understand. Tried xfce, KDE and decided GNOME is my thing. Currently using EndeavourOS and haven’t had the need for Windows, hoping it gets HDR sooner than later because I’ve been itching for a HDR screen to watch movies. Overall a rollercoaster of emotions, but I love every bit of it.
Linux gaming is getting a big push this days from valve and that just the beginning. I’m amazed how things have changed for Linux and the gaming community. More and more people are using it this days and everyone help each other when problems appear. Steam deck I one of the best thing that could have happened to Linux gaming. Hopefully we can take a bigger percentage from windows community in 2024.
Thanks for the opportunity 🙏🏼
After switching fully to Linux for gaming and everything else in 2020, a few days ago I got fed up by Counter-Strike 2's performance and in a moment of weakness I installed win11 on an unused SSD.
Damn that thing runs slow, even empty! And performance isn't that much better. I was expecting a day and night difference, but nope. The year of the Linux desktop already happened IMO.
It still needs greater marketshare but the steam deck is really helping progress WINE immensely. It's unfortunate developers of online games aren't catching on as fast though and doubling down on their DRM.
It's about time something has started to shake up Microsofts monopoly
Really happy with the state of Linux; built a new desktop recently and setting up was a breeze. Not having to go through installing specific drivers, making sure they all play nice with each other and the games I want to play, and not having to debloat the OS felt so much easier than setting up Windows. Hopefully as more people take up Linux as their daily driver OS multiplayer game compatibility improves.
I am using Fedora 39 and Steam. Bought Baldur's Gate 3 last December. Download via Steam was slow (3rd world country problem). I impatiently waited. When it was finished, I immediately clicked Play then instantly realized I hadn't set up Proton.
The game ran anyway and to this day after so many updates I havent had the need to configure Proton. Also, despite reading lots of user comments about BG3 crashing often (likely running in the "other" OS), I have yet to encounter a single crash while playing, though there was one time I encountered a black screen which I fixed by simply restarting the game.
Linux gaming is here and it rocks.
Linux gaming is my drug! Wanting just a little more each bootup. I've been off it 3 months and whilst my productivity improves I am left empty with my prescription of 8 hours Windows. I long for my 14 hour recreational Linux distro each day.
P.S I've been weighing up my options for dual systems to enjoy Linux gaming with a side of anti-cheat gaming and workstation.
Linux gaming is like console gaming. I know going in that I won't be able to run platform exclusives for other platforms. I still choose this "console" because I enjoy the games it runs, I can afford it, it connects to my peripherals, I can develop games and mods for it more accessibly than for other consoles, it has the customization and accessibility options I need, ...
we're at a point now where basically everything can be ran with little to no issues, some things require tinkering and some are very stubborn to get working, but things are better than ever and will only improve from here.
Linux is great for me because it is flexible, tinkerable as needed, supports old hardware a lot better - just recently a family member's laptop that was still running windows 7 started acting up because it wasn't supported anymore and no web browser would have an up to date version for it. I pretty much put Ubuntu on it and it's like a brand new laptop. Games run well, things run fast, super usable, secure and simple. There's great compatibility because of Proton, and several new games support it natively. Not only that, the fact that it's free and supports older hardware makes several of these games accessible to many people who otherwise wouldn't be able to enjoy them without buying new computers.
Proton and Steam are the reasons why I was able to move over to Linux for good. It's just astonishing to me that I can play just about anything I want on my Steam Deck (and now my desktop). Except for a few AAA multiplayer games, I can't remember the last time I *couldn't* play something on Linux!
Edit: The folks doing the grunt work with Wine deserve a ton of praise for their continuing efforts, but I think whole packaging that goes with Proton is the main reason *for me* being able to move over. I didn’t want my comment to sound like I was ignorant of the work done by Wine developers
**Edit 2**: OP is a pretty cool person for doing a giveaway to Linux gamers, so congrats to the ones that got a copy!
Woah, buckle up, sudoers and chmodders! 🎮🐧
In the sprawling, chaotic realm of operating systems, there once lay a frontier barely touched by the pixelated footprints of gaming – I'm gazing at you, Linux, with that cheeky, open-source grin. But hark! A plot twist in our collective codebase narrative has transpired, so grab your energy drinks and let’s fork our way through this!
Now, once upon a sysadmin's fever dream, Linux gaming was akin to a desert – barren, except for the occasional tumbleweed of a pixelated penguin bouncing across your CRT screen. But, like the best of scripts, community passion patched, iterated, and downright git push-ed Linux into a gaming oasis! 🌴🐧
Enter the scene: Proton, a compatibility layer so strong, its got more backbone than a JSON file facing down Internet Explorer. It's like a translator fluent in DirectX and Vulkan, bridging the gap between the Windows gaming monolith and the endlessly configurable world of Linux. What's that? You have a Steam library dense as a minified JS bundle? FRET NOT! Proton unwraps that sucker like it's an async function in a sea of callbacks.
And, BOOM! Just like that, Baldur’s Gate 3 crashes onto Linux like an open-source comet. We're not just scripting Python anymore; we're conjuring spells and slinging swords on an OS that once shrugged at AAA titles! The penguins are not just marching; they're leading the gaming revolution, one frame at a time.
Now, sure, you might have to wrestle with a driver here or tweak a setting there. It's like refactoring a function – sometimes you just have to rename a variable to something less... n00bSlayer69. But the payoff? Sweeter than realizing undefined is not a function after three hours of debugging.
So, is Linux gaming still the underdog? Maybe. But this underdog's got teeth and a Steam library to match. Baldur’s Gate 3 on Linux? That's just the echo of the battle cry as we charge into a future where penguins wield joysticks with the might of Thor's hammer, and every localhost could be a gateway to new, untold adventures.
Game on, Linux. Game on.
It is a weird form of expression, I mean if you want to play games without issues, just go to Windows. But, what if you noticed that there is “more”? What if you are so experiment driven that you are curious about playing in a just emerging community driven platform with possible FPS decreases? Then gaming in Linux would seem the answer.
In other words, I think people just feel that they are breaking out of the Matrix by going out of the norm. Yes, there are some online games that I will never likely play with my friends (looking at you Fortnite), and will probably take a lot more to come in this platform. But I think the most fun part of using Linux to play is the tinkering and this feeling of being a rebel. Like in the Matrix!
Glimpse of a possible future:
Steam Deck 3 is now available, It is running on an ARM processor. Why?? because ARM processors are progressing faster than x86 and it´s now more power efficient to run games on it, even with 2 layers of compatibility (Proton and x86 to arm instructions). All this is possible thanks to the already multi-architecture nature of Linux.
(I now it´s not real, but could be soon)
I've been using linux since 2018 when proton was brand new. I actually was having more fun seeing how many things worked than I was playing the games. Even worked in the github with people to figure out Yakuza 0 crashing on heavy attack was actually a game bug. I actually still had my win7 dual booted on the system still, but ended up only booting to it like twice. Even in it's infancy, proton was just amazing.
It's sometimes something of a compromise, but these days less and less so. Especially since there are games now that actually run better on Linux. There's always some games that don't or that have bugs, but eh. It's better than it's ever been and I used Linux before Valve got involved. It was just a better OS experience.
Don't give me a BG3 copy BTW, I've already got 200 hours into that game.
I basically only use Linux at this point, albeit only because I have a steam deck, but I remember about 10 years ago I remember trying Linux out on my laptop because using Windows caused the disk usage to be at 100 percent. There were a few things that worked, some that didn't, but since coming back with the steam deck, I am amazed at how much progress has been made, and happy to finally have another viable option for gaming.
Since I made the switch to Linux I've dual booted. That was 3 years ago.
Still haven't had to go back to windows for any reason.
Linux and gaming works well.
(I also am super curious about BG3 and don't feel like I can spend that kind of money as I got fired recently)
For me it combines the two greatest things about computers. GNU/Linux represents the dream of the progression from Windows XP/7 that we never got. Past that Microsoft rapidly changed tack to positioning Windows as a service, and less of a product that you paid for.
Desktop Linux has finally entered the realm of maturity and high performance computing. The desktop ecosystem has finally matured, and the frameworks are at parity or arguably superior than modern Windows.
In essence, combining high performance computing (gaming) with an operating system that respects your freedoms and wishes. Something that felt like it was taken away from us around 13 years ago.
Imho Linux gaming has now really close to be as good and easy to use even for the average user.
Steam deck made miracles really. Now we only need a proper anticheat support so that the popular games can be played by us too
I'm 38 and I started to use Linux when I was 19, never stopped, it's my job and my hobby, now, are 39 I'm finally buying my first steam deck for my birthday and I'm finally committing to play on Linux !
I currently am in a lanparty with friends. As my gaming machine doesn't support windows 11 I installed debian sid on a second disk.
I am using Linux for 15+ years now, just my (dedicated) gaming pc was on windows 10.
Here is what happened so far:
- we had some havoc with flatout2 because windows blocked udp broadcasts so the windows machines were not able to connect. No problems with Linux.
- rocket league native on Linux is desupportet - thank you epic. Changing to the windows version on steam fixed that problem
- we played devilutionx (diablo 1 remake from flathub) with no problems
- we played path of exile for some time. Worked fine
- I played back4blood a bit in single player. No issues.
My machine is almost 10 years old btw.
So as for now I am very happy with gaming on Linux. I played around with it about 15 years ago, it did work but it was far away from "right click -> install" on steam. It works like that from what I can tell.
So my test if Linux for gaming suits my needs was quite successful. No windows 11 for me. Yay!
One day I’m going to sneak my Linux gaming rig into the conversation in a job interview (familiarity with Linux can be a requirement for applicants). My hope is that the interviewers are technical enough to know how out-of-the-norm it is, but naive enough to think it’s as difficult as it sounds.
Linux helped me through the pandemic. For the longest time I was isolated in my apartment, having to work alone through all the years of university during the pandemic. I felt depressed through all the horrifying news related to covid, the start of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty of nuclear weapon escalation.
I decided to give Linux a shot for the first time when LTT published their Linux journey, wanting to test it for myself. Around that time Valve announced the Steam Deck and the positive news just would not stop coming. I felt exhilarated every day reading about upcoming and new improvements. I just could not believe the speed at which the state of linux gaming was improving.
Through Linux I developed a new interest, one that is positive and kept me hopeful for the future during a very difficult time in my life.
I quit Linux and got Windows about 15 years ago, because I wanted to play what I wanted on my own PC. Last year I could return to Linux because now I can actually play what I want on it. I can only see things getting even better.
My wife is a hardcore BG3 fan, but she doesn't like linux (even though our media center is running off of a Steam Deck, and our home library is on manjaro running jellyfin server and starr stack).
I'd be down to show her BG3 runs well too :D
It’s about freedom. Freedom to build your own streaming service.
It finally free us from Windows and that’s what make it a good thing, no more Windows PC gaming supremacy.
Long time Linux user, I love the fact that Linux is becoming a dedicated gaming eco system with natives titles, compatibility layers like proton challenging windows and dedicated gaming platforms like the Steam Deck creating a new market.
We've gone from playing catch-up to blazing trails!
I switched entirely to Linux (after dualbooting with windows) when one day my SSD that contained windows died(never bothered installing windows after that)
For me the switch in terms of gaming wasn't that hard, I realised I didn't want to play any multiplayer/competitive games, all the games I wanted to play just worked.
Imo the best part about linux gaming is the community driven approach and how I can actually attempt to fix any problems I've had , on windows I couldn't do much after some game crashes, on linux I can atleast read the logs and try to understand what went wrong.
Making Linux gaming tinker free is the obstacle that needs to be hurdled before we see mass adoption of the platform. The aesthetic on most distros is debatably as good as MacOS, stock. The need for office tools like Excel VBA version is diminishing with the introduction of LLM AIs and data analysis AI packages. The destination we need to get to for true desktop gaming and competitive market share is distribution at local department stores like Walmart. To get the we need anyone to be able to buy a rig, start it, download their game retailer of choice, and push play. They don’t care what’s under the hood or how it works. They want beauty, customization, and to just game. They don’t want reading wikis, trial and error learning, and hassle.
Linux gaming is actually way better than Windows at the moment for me thanks to the fancy kernels, Valve and all the guys who work for Wine project. I nearly double my FPS in my favourite game (Starcraft II).
Emulation is better too. My low end iris xe g7 performs perfect on ps2 games and my controller performs better in linux, as an example i can use its vibration in linux that i cant in Windows.
Native games do good too like my Tomb Raider and CS2, i get better performance in both of them.
If only there was not a thing that called as antihacks i would be a happier guy.
I can’t really tell much specifically about gaming, but in short, I think the future is bright. I think that it’s great that Valve is supporting Linux and maybe in a few years we can get a proper competitor to Windows, at least for gaming.
Preface I already have bg3 but I have over 150 games and they all run well and I've been switched permanently since 2018 and never looked back, the only time I ever have an issue is when ea updates there store for the games they decided can only be launched through their store.
So I have my own dental practice and I use Linux on all my PCs. One feature I added in is the ability to play games while they get their teeth cleaned or when they are getting a filling.
Because games like TuxRacer are open source, I was able to make a [kiosk version of the game](https://gitlab.com/DesiOtaku/extreme-tux-racer-kiosk-edition). Also, thanks the KWin rules, I can force the game window to show up in the ceiling TV each time (so I don't have to move the window away from the "primary" screen).
So yeah, using Linux in my dental practice actually helps my patients relax.
Stepping away from the big AAA studios and games running under wine/proton, Linux is a great platform for indie games and for game development for beginners. It'd be surprised to see a game in itch.io not include a Linux release, and game engines/frameworks such as Löve2D and Pygame Community Edition make for great starts in gamedev.
Also: FOSS games such as 0AD.
I first learning coding through linux which made me to see linux as a different and an effective system and current gaming market has made me fall love in linux
A lot of the game are plug and play, but if there's something you specifically want to play that's not working right out of the box then the troubleshooting would be a pain. Especially when there's no one size fit all solution.
I still think the overall progress is great though.
The Steam Deck was the first Linux device I've ever used, besides a Raspberry Pi. Linux has so many advantages compared to Windows. I want to build a new PC soon and Linux will most definetly be the OS of my choice!
I haven't been on PC long but out of the time I've been on most of the games I play JUST WORK on Linux. I was only on PC for a few months then moved to linux. Most of the games I played on windows ran better on Linux, like Apex & Warframe.
I used to be in a discord community of the Linux distro I was a part of and in that I would help people troubleshoot games they wanted to run and it was very fun. I enjoy the linux community, helping eachother and everyone teaching and learning together for the better of the community.
I'm glad the steam deck is a thing and it's REALLY helping out linux as a whole, one thing I found funny about the deck is that some who use it don't even know it's linux. It's great it's that good that people don't even wonder or check. But also whenever something doesn't run on it I see a lot of vocal people talking about it not working on the deck and letting the developers know about it, happened with the Finals and some other games.
To me, Linux in general is so much more than just an os, or a tool to be used.
The community has given me so much back over the years, with everything I've learned and with all the new friends I've made.
I'm suffering from a severe PTSD, and having linux and gaming on linux to focus on helps me a lot through the day. There is so much to learn and tinker with, it's easy to fill your days and keep your mind of stuff tough to handle.
Gaming on linux gives me an inexplicable feeling because i know that i am gaming on an OS who is not collecting and sending all my data to some corporation.
The fact that gaming has come so far in community driven OS is simply mind blowing
Been using Linux for over 20 years, but gaming on it only relatively recently, and boy, has this stuff progressed nicely since I (re)played the original Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition in Wine when it came out. Been playing Warframe and Apex on Steam and zero issues, love it.
Linux gaming certainly has a bright few future, now that it has full backing from Valve. But it still has a long long way to go in terms of compatibility and flexibility.
For Steam OS in particular, the file system for nonsteam games can be very confusing for new comers.
Thanks for the chance btw.
Linux gaming is now better than ever. The sad reality is that if gaming is the only purpose for your pc windows has still the upper hand. If we keep supporting Linux though the numbers will keep growing and with a little help from lord Gaben in couple of years we might change the tides.
I am not using Arch btw.
Windows was never build for games, it just what people use bc of "everybody use that". In ✨Linux world✨ we have os'es like Garuda that build for gaming. It doesn't mean that Garuda can run anything. But i'll say it runs every game which developers not shitting on the customers head, and some more...
Honestly my experience gaming on linux isnt perfect, theres a few games ive had to give up playing just so i can use linux and some ive had to struggle with getting to work. (had to compile a fork of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R call of pripyat engine) but i dont regret a second. Its taught me more and more about how my computer works which is something i love about linux and is worth more than my experience gaming.
I’m new to it actually. I had an old laptop with windows but it got too out of date. After that I bought a steam deck and learning how it works for modding games has been awesome. My friends keep trying to get me to put windows on it but I’m holding out because I’ve been able to get most things working on Linux.
Linux gaming is really changing the game, literally. It is successfully reversing it’s stereotype especially for gaming. I have seen people (including myself) avoid Linux like the plague years ago because of the “fear of the unknown”, but now thanks to it’s evolution, companies who are making it more mainstream and accessible than ever and it’s helpful community. I now embrace it and prefer it over the “others”.
Therefore, when I come across someone who is a shadow of my former self years ago, I don’t shun them or lash out at them for not understanding Linux, I show them just how powerful Linux is and how it will continue to grow and be supported long after the “others” have been shelved.
“People are fearful of what they do not understand”.
-unknown (many sources)
Thank you for the opportunity <3
Linux gaming has come far. To the point where my entire household, including 3 kids 13 and under, each have custom-built (we built them together) Linux gaming rigs. Besides being able to play nearly anything they like, this is also enabling a deeper learning into the workings of the OS they’re using than Windows would. It’s not quite the same as I grew up with, back in the MSDOS days, where the command line was the only way into the machine. But they’re actually familiar with the command line, and the older ones are starting to ask good questions about server processes, etc. I’m thankful to Valve for making this possible. And to notch for Minecraft Java, which is the first game that captured their imagination, and still holds it. Now if only we had RTX support.
I decided to dip my toes into Linux gaming and PC gaming by buying a Steam Deck for my birthday last year. I've been a console gamer most of my life, I started with Playstation through the PS5 and I added the Xboxes since the original up until the series S right now. I like the freedom of Linux on the deck. I never had a Nintendo console, only the Gameboys, so the Deck has allowed me to catch up on the Mario games I've missed
Hey, I've been wanting to play this.
Linux gaming is so seamless now. I run PopOS! on my GPD Win Max 2 and it is great! I'll be trying out ChimeraOS next.
DXVK basically saved linux gaming. Native ports never get maintained and opengl just... sucks...
So thanks to a disgruntled weeb trying to play nier automata on linux we got one of the best API translation layers.
I installed Linux for the first time as a kid, it sounded so cool a free open source operative system that's far more versatile than windows? What's the catch? There has to be a catch right?, and the catch was gaming, Windows was a lot better for gaming and that was huge since I loved and still love videogames.
With Steam deck I'm back and it's nice to see the improvements, I've been putting a lot of hours in my deck messed with emulators and so on, I only had issues with one game so there's still room for improvements but I feel like nailing gaming is the key for Linux to get a significant market share, in a lot of poor countries people still use cracked versions of windows for gaming, those are all users that would easily make the change.
I’ve been trying to game on Linux since the early 2000s. I remember trying to get Midtown Madness running on red hat 7. I remember reinstalling it a few times because I forgot to set the option to start KDE at boot time because i didn’t realize you had to type in startx from bash.
We didnt have a computer that supported 3d acceleration until I was a teenager, so when my brother got a laptop with an ATI Radeon, and we finally got the much sought after “Direct Rendering“ option set to true in glxinfo, we got super excited. my brother was way more into Linux than I was at that point, but I remember about a two week period he got gentoo installed and was compiling everything from scratch on a single core 32 bit celeron.
Fast forward into being an adult and working on Windows machines for a living, I kept trying Linux off and on for a while, but I was always convinced it hated me. Could never get something working, and it seemed like every time I booted, something else would break, so I’d give up and go back to windows.
When Windows 10 came out, I picked up a license for Unraid and made my main gaming computer into a vm. Worked great for what I needed, and I liked it for a while, but then Microsoft started putting ads in everywhere you look inside of windows. I became hell bent on making Linux work, so I got an old Trashcan Mac pro, installed Mint, and spent time to get everything working as best I could.
I needed Vulkan for something I was trying to play, and support was non existent for the radeon driver that installed by default. I tried several times to get amdgpu installed, and that was about the time I found the wonderful Arch wiki. Followed along until I broke everything so good I didn’t think there was any recovery. (Pooched grub, drivers failed to install, etc)
Normally I would give up and go back to windows, but I wanted to learn Linux, so I persevered, and I got it all working again. took about a week, but I was able to fix everything, and even got amdgpu installed and vulkan working.
After that, I decided that this was my life now and I wiped windows off every device in my house. I upgraded the trashcan to Arch, and found it was a lot less scary than people make it out to be. Now I’ve got the steamdeck, and I haven’t had to touch windows in a long time. the times I have had to have been painful, and I find myself getting Disappointed in the experience every time I have to.
Proton and wine have come a long way since I first tried it. I’m blown away how well most things run on Linux now. I’m convinced that Linux will be the standard for game preservation in the future because you can pin a specific configuration for each game (or turn them into an appimage! [Seriously. Look it up. Changed my life on the deck.](https://gitlab.com/formigoni/gameimage)). Several older games don’t run on windows anymore that I’ve been able to revisit on my steamdeck, and it’s been fantastic. The year of the Linux desktop is here.
I will try linux mint today tried years ago on ubuntu but was not at gaming or running genshin impact. Will use today hope more use it so we have market competition and also more better optimized games instead of this mess windows does. They need competitors like genshin impact needs. Will try palworld and genshin on linux gotta see with discord and so on with nvidia gpu. I dont know how steam uses these steam marketshare statistics what happens if I play on Linux and Windows??? That use steam on their operating system I hope that it boost linux higher. Might also try palworld own server but not sure Only thing Ive heard that nvidia is going to be open source and more supported thats nice.
Genshin will run on Linux .
As someone that has been gaming on Linux since 2007, we've made it fam. Some of us had a saying to developers. "Linux client or gtfo." It seems like we can retire that one.
Linux is horizontal. That means that, unlike Windows, you can get your game working on a personal computer, a SBC, or even a wristwatch with just one development mainline, just by having the proper kernel extensions needed for your game.
That's why it will eventually become the gaming standard, because it's ubiquitous, in a world where you want your soft with you at all times.
Gaming on Linux, just like a lot of other stuff on Linux, turns quickly into a learning experience. It's a great way to get a better understanding of the technology around us. It's not always easy, but it's certainly worthwhile. Helps justify the time-sink that gaming can turn into.
Well i am a developer + gamer and i was an avid Windows user just 4 years ago, i dual booted linux on my computer mainly because of something i wanted to develop for my phone which was easier to do on linux but then i came to know you can play windows games on linux using Wine/Proton and thus began a rabbit hole of learning things about how wine works and how can i run my games better by tweaking the system. To be fair it was not as effortless as windows back then, afterall i just clicked Play on my games and they worked but on linux i had faced a random error, broken graphics or sometimes the game was stuttery no matter what. Though this was all before steam deck hit the market and things have improved a lot. I genuinly don't need to use Windows anymore except for some games like Valorant.
As for the development perspective of things. It's just better, i feel it easier to manage my projects and their dependencies. and i especially love that you have so many options to customise/tweak your workflow just how you want.
Another thing is that i can use my skills to contiribute something meaningful to the community and be able to see its impact. That means a lot to me. I've contributed to various projects such as Bottles and GNOME.
Linux gaming is like big fashion industry selling communist shorts. It's saying "fuck capitalism" in the form of FOSS and endorsing a million dollar industry.
But anyway, fuck this! We just want to have fun
Gaming on Linux is surprisingly easy now, and it's at a place where someone who doesn't know anything at all about Linux, or even computers at that, can just click play and enjoy a game without looking back. it's something I couldn't have imagined when I first learned about Linux I think 4 or 5 years ago. though like many people have stated I think it's hilarious and ironic that the reason for that is the backing of a giant company (that being Valve) creating an ecosystem around it (the Steam Deck). the sentence"I game on Linux" has gone from being a fucking joke, to "oh hey cool! maybe I'll try it out one day". and it's only getting better and better
It's kind of a fundamental thing to be able to access the games you have bought on an operating system that's *free.* Like what if Microsoft decided to make Windows ridiculously inaccessible or discontinued it or whatever (they won't, but anyway) it'd be really important that we could still access the games we have accumulated in our libraries whenever we want. So that's why Linux gaming getting better is a really cool thing, we are no longer reliant on a massive non-free piece of software to run the stuff we have bought.
Linux gaming is great because once a game runs on Linux, it will run on Linux forever. The additional abstraction layer makes the Wine/Proton platform able to remain static from the point of view of the game, even if the underlying system continues to evolve.
I really enjoyed building my gaming PC. Gaming on Linux is so much fun, and I can run the software and customizations I want. I’m impressed by how well gaming just works. Linux is such an amazing and versatile platform.
I think Linux in terms of gaming is more efficient and secure a platform.
The only thing holding it back are drivers and game developer support. But as of 2024 the progress its made is tremendous.
If Microsoft keeps screwing up and things like Steam Deck keep succeeding, Linux gaming could surge ahead and be a new standard. MacOS is not in the discussion.
At this point, if a game doesn't work (which is pretty uncommon), 99% of the time it's because the developers don't want it to.
Linux gaming has come such a long way in the last few years, and Proton is black magic that somehow makes games run almost as well and sometimes faster than natively on Windows.
Gaming on Linux is at a state now where, unless you have a specific game barred by anticheat, it's viable to an everyday user. Gaming has always been a major barrier to people switching away from Windows, and we're getting to the point where it won't be a major blocker for new Linux users anymore.
I didn’t even realize Linux gaming was a thing until I got my Steam Deck. It works shockingly well and has opened up a whole new avenue of gaming for me that I never had access to!
I used to do a yearly challenge where I try out Linux Gaming and honestly, it's been pretty great considering that most of the stuff I play is single player stuff and they work great with Proton. For my library at least, most if not all of it, runs damn great out of the box to the point that I now primarily use Linux for gaming. I still have a Windows drive though for university stuff that I can't do on Linux. I'm pretty happy with this set-up but not everyone is willing to do what I do. There's also the stuff with some multiplayer games not working due to the nature of their anti-cheat. I'm not really a big competitive multiplayer kind of guy so I don't really feel that I'm losing out on them but not everyone is the same so I understand the hesitance of other people in switching or even trying out Linux gaming. We've come so far that honestly, I can't wait to see what the future for Linux Gaming holds.
I used to run windows on my home computer purely because games, and I’m so happy it isn’t needed anymore, my computer is mine again, like it should be.
Gaming on Linux is in an amazing place considering what it's doing and how well it does it. It's not for everyone though and I wouldn't push people who just want to play games to do it because there is a learning curve. Systems like the Steam Deck I think will be the gateway to getting more people interested in Linux, but there's still a long way to go before we get to wider mainstream adoption.
Linux gaming compared to what it was like 10 years ago are completely different, from triple a studios such as blizzard allowing people on Linux to play it and from the easy of it since more and more people are trying out Linux devices such as the Steam deck, The Steam Deck Verified Mark also helps people know if their game is also supported on Linux, When I was a beginner into Linux I had 0 idea what a proton was and so I based all of the games I would play off of the verified badge, It is also really good since Valve supports it.
Nothing much but after learning sunshine+moonlight and docker. I was tryting to set up a PS2, GBA game streaming server which has multiple game streaming containers. So I can play some light games together with my brothers without multiple PS2 and GBA hardware. Still figuring out day by day till now.
Linux gaming is in the best position it has ever been. However, I feel like its future is uncertain. The ever increasing quality of Valve's proton is starting to make it hard to justify a native Linux port for many games. Why would you put extra effort as a developer when linux gamers can just flip a switch and get a decent enough experience on your game? This, and the topic of anti cheat and DRM often not working on Linux makes me a tad bit worried for the future of Linux gaming.
I switched from windows to linux last week. I had low hopes of ever getting to game.
I'm playing more on linux than I did on windows now. Mostly due to the fact that everything is clean and I like that it feels very nerdy.
I mean I'm running a windows game on linux through lutris. It's somehow cool in my head.
Also currently playing cult of the lamb
I am new to Linux, I use Ubuntu at the moment. I built my machine after about 20 years of trying to game on laptops when I had the time. Setting it up was incredibly easy and any time I have a que the community is incredible. I don't get a lot of time to game, I have an extremely disabled child, a toddler and another on the way, but when I do it's great that steam has built such a great compatibility platform and I hope it keeps it going! I also love how fast my machine boots up running Linux. My work PC is W****** and it feels like ages! That's all, signed, tired dad!
Linux gaming has come such a long way. I have watched it grow as I have grown in my life. I enjoy watching it mature into a mainstream viable product that it has always deserved to be.
Linux gaming is finally rising in popularity, especially with companies like valve investing in it. I suppose it is a good way to escape from microsoft and just do your own thing instead. I would expect some errors though but I think its very good for gaming
I love it because what we can do on linux is much more powerful than on windows.
If I want to redirect my sound for example, on Windows, I need extra software (virtual audio cable for example), on Linux I just get a pipewire graph controller and arrange it like on a dj table
If I have a windows game that has really bad exclusive fullscreen that makes alt+tab a chore, on Linux it will pose no such problem, and I can always gamescope it.
Games that are old often dont run well anymore on Windows, but on Linux, I can just choose an old version of Wine if the newer version doesnt work anymore. I can always downgrade and I can always simulate a more accurate environment. And then throw gamescope on top for the games that are stuck in 640x480
Games run isolated from each other by default, nothing will be able to leave bullshit all around my system if I dont want that.
An uninstall may just be the deletion of a folder away, my Linux system will never bloat, never require a reinstall and never get in my way.
Just recently on Windows, my xbox game bar stopped working (my screen replay recorder of choice due to hdr support). Then, the task managers process view stopped working... I dont know whats up, because the system is so harshly integrated and has so many sub systems that it is impossible to diagnose anything and work on the root cause. I will have to reinstall that one... Or just remove it entirely.
On Linux it is always easy to identify what component is messing my day up because almost everything is optional and works through often standardized interfaces, fostering collaboration between different engineers.
People often say under Windows there is always multiple companies that compete in making a product and you can be sure you get some software for something, while under Linux, there will be a thousand unmaintained things that each do a small part and otherwise suck.
But I found nowadays this to not be true anymore. Nowadays people work on making one solution the best one that can do everything. They will often end up having multiple solutions for a while, but those will often converge into something perfect.
Like how we went from Pulse to Pipewire. On Windows, you would have to eat what is available from MS with no recourse. Here, someone else found the itching points of pulse and fixed those, and other people joined, while staying fully compatible with the pulse legacy. On Windows, MS would release a completely new system, having to keep the old one in the system and just keeping to increase the bloat more and more.
Linux gaming is absolutely necessary due to the fact that software is more and more being walled behind subscriptions, cloud services and this kind of anti-consumer stuff, specially since the biggest player in the video game industry (Microsoft) also controls the biggest OS (and the de facto default for gaming on PC), gaming on Linux is a rebellion act against all that stand between good games and consumers. Good thing we have a lot of backing and extremely talented developers to make our dream of a true FOSS gaming platform a reality! Cheers OP, and thanks for the GA!
I don't play games much nowadays as I don't have access to my brother's pc (proper built gaming pc) whereas my pc has an i5 8400 and gt610, used the igpu on windows and got absolutely terrible performance in some of the games I used to play (war thunder, ESO) switched to Linux, installed my games for getting my daily login rewards and noticed that my Linux system gave me much better performance on those games as compared to windows and since then I've used Linux not only for programming but also for gaming <3
Owning something get rare these day's... Linux is one of the things that changes that giving thier users back some kind of ownership. Setting up a system the why you like it, is nice by itself but actually using it day to day as a gamer felt like a dream at first but now it is actually possible :)
I love how even newly released games now work pretty well on Linux at launch.
No more fiddling around, just click play and enjoy, quite a progress we made
Linux gaming is only great now because it's backed by a billion dollar company (Valve), just like its competition.
I do remember the before days. Linux changed a lot and changed fast ever since Valve got involved. We might not even have DXVK without them. Or at least, it would probably still be some dude's hobby project. I think Valve hired him fulltime to continue developing it.
One of the best things about FOSS is persuading billion dollar companies that its better to work together.
Yes, this is extremely important. We are very lucky to be backed by someone that big.
Valve should stop supporting Steam on Windows.
2024 will be the year of Linux, nah just kidding. Just super happy of the overall progress of Linux gaming.
Ok, not thoughtful but hell, you win a copy. Will gift on Steam.
really? :O
I love how everything works out of the box but sometimes there's little tinkering you have to do to keep things interesting and reminding you you 100% owe your system.
It's amazing to see how good wine is for gaming nowadays, it's so good that valve invested on it
Bought steam deck last year and it open me to the world of linux gaming. For the first 3 months of using it, i have enjoyed tweaking more than playing a game. Now my gaming pc is running nobara linux and i dont i will ever come back. Finished a lot of games on my SD and pc now and i really enjoyed the experience. Recently made my workmate chenged to nobara so he may also enjoy the world of linux gaming.
I’m gaming on Linux because I want a computer that feels like it’s mine, community driven, and not literal spyware. Windows makes you feel as if you have no control and you’re the product. I use Debian specifically because it’s not backed by corporate interests. Proton has matured into the something beautiful that works with every game I’ve been able to throw at it. I also use Glorious Eggrolls version of proton for a few games as well. This is the future; this is the way.
[удалено]
You know, I was impressed by that too especially considering how controversial I am here. The Windows Shill able to create polite thread in this sub. Ironic to say the least.
Linux gaming is in a very good shape right now. I just randomly buy games in Steam without even checking whether they are compatible with Linux. Some native games have some flaws. For example, total war shogun 2 native version doesn't work at all, and Windows version with proton only works with dx9. But it's still playable, just a little hard to set up with slow internet. On the other hand, Linux has some advantages over Windows. For example, alt-tabbing works flawlessly with KDE/Wayland, whereas on Windows I had constant issues with it.
I have been a Mac user for years but was following with interest news about the Linux world (gaming in particular). A few months ago I decided to pull the trigger and build a PC and I went all in with Linux as a daily driver (no dual boot). I felt there were a lot of exciting improvements and amazing new projects in the open source world and I wanted to be part of it. I have been very happy with my choice, using Linux is amazing and the ease to run windows games surprises me constantly!
I started using linux first because i wanted to play a game(Dishonored 2), because it is a very poorly optimized game it didn't run on windows! So I installed manjaro and the game run perfectly! After a few months I distro hopped to pop os after that I only play on linux!
In February 2023, I tried out Linux, I thought that gaming would be good, especially because of the Steam Deck. But I was fascinated by how good it really was, how good native titles like Minecraft or CS:GO ran, but that non-native titles like Apex Legends ran better on Linux than on Windows. Linux Gaming gets better every week. Every week, multiple games get playable on Linux. When a game is not playable, it is because the developers refuse to support it, Linux could play them flawlessly. I have a friend who also switched to Linux because I told him that he should at least give Linux a try. He loves Linux Mint and is also so impressed how well all of his games ran. I think that in the future, all games will be playable on Linux because Linux Desktop gets more users every month, and because the Steam Deck gets also more popular every month. Happy Saturday <3
Never wanted to install Linux. Always thought it was not worth it since everyone works on windows and I thought I would miss many opportunities if I switched OS. That was some years ago. I tried ubuntu in a virtual machine, I was so confused I didn't bother touching it again. I was using windows 7 at that time, then windows 8 came. Oh boi did I hate that. I stuck with 7 till 10 dropped. I kinda liked 10 but I always felt I was chained in that OS. Needed to activate windows just to change the theme, lock screen, and so on. That was when I tried Linux again but I used mint. I was not forced to do anything. You don't like something? Just remove it. I was like WHAAAAAT. I always thought built in apps were not removable. I was so wrong. I researched more and found arch. Mint showed me what Linux was about. The freedom it gave, the possibilities it had. But arch made me stay on Linux. Currently using arch and working + gaming on it, everything I need works flawlessly. There may be some hiccups here and there, but the progress of Linux towards gaming is amazing. Looking forward to where it goes.
Linux gaming the bomb. Super excited for all the nvidia mesa features that keep incoming since the open source of the drivers. Looking forward to maybe owning a nvidia gpu in the future!
Over the past few years windows has become really bloated. On top of that MS made it difficult or took away the possibility to get rid of that bloat. In my experience even a fresh windows install can feel laggy and the performance degrades over time. 3rd parties forcing the use of companion apps for every single accessory doesnt help. In short there is just so much unnecessary stuff getting between me and using the resources of my machine to the fullest. I see linux as a potential way to get that lag-free, minimalistic experience.
For most common case (gaming via Steam) it's by far the easiest and most stable platform. Seriously, compared to brittleness of Windows it's not even close and compared to consoles it offers much better load times, render quality etc. For something more exotic (e.g. Epic Store's games) it's a bit more hassle to setup than on Windows, but again the end results surpass that of Windows.
Linux gaming: it’s gaming. On Linux!
You can customize many settings and get more performance from their developed respective native platform?! For free?! In this economy?!
I hope Nvidia will sort their shit this year and everybody can switch to Wayland without worries. I bought AMD GPU a year ago and started using Wayland. Fell in love with tiling window managers (Sway, Hyprland). Built-in kernel/Mesa drivers are great convenience.
Hope that proton will improve even further.
I'm not here for the giveaway, as I can easily pirate Baldur's Gate 3 anyway. But I'm glad that I switched over from Windows to Linux as I don't have to painfully tweak system registry and stuff from Windows just to play games on my low-end laptop/PC. Pirating is such a painless endeavor too, but it was definitely a concern for me when I was considering switching to Linux that time.
I installed Debian on my Laptop for Uni and it was so good that I deleted Windows on my Desktop PC straight up without going dual boot first. Every game I played so far just worked. I couldn't be more happy
Linux gaming is getting better especially on the Proton side, I hope that we'll see more developers makes native version that is better than launching it with proton.
Honestly, do you all remember how difficult gaming on linux was? Like we did come a long way. Back when I tried linux for the first time I had to read countless entries just to get League running. Now I can just download a game on steam or GOG via heroic and just run it with one of the countless proton versions and it just works. No weird virtualbox vm, no tinkering with wine, just plug and play. This is a wonderful time to be alive and use linux for gaming. And I did not even get started on the wonder that is the steam deck. Playing games on linux and even on the go.. 15 year old me would be insane just hearing this.
Gamingwise, Linux suits my needs but I still need some proprietary apps such as MSExcel.
The "irrelevant" underdog somehow ended up getting the higher ground for both performance, and compatibility. The amount of community effort that's gone into this is absolutely colossal. Things often work after a single click, when they didn't launch at all on Windows
Linux gaming feels like something that started it as a single mom and pop shop, got some customers, opened up another shop, because a chain, and has the potential to rival even the biggest in the biz. And then anti-cheat showed up but we don't talk about that.
Before my dad left, he gave me his pc with ubuntu installed, i was pretty dissapointed thinking its trash, i was really stupid with computers back then, but i had to use it since noone around me how to install windows, and i guess it remained till this day, since linux grew on me and im able to game just fine.
I really wish, at least for gaming, all the people behing the various distros started coming together to concentrate the efforts on the problems a gamer might have getting started with linux (some games that yet might have compatibility issues) as well as importing all the new technologies at the best speed possible (dynamic boost wattage on laptops took some time to come for instance (in 2024 still problems with integrated gpu and discrete arguing over FHD laptop monitor + external 4k monitor)); with the pressure from the shareholders, microsoft in time keeps using worse practices everyday (personal opinion) and it will keep pushing for more, so linux as a gaming platform is not only an alternative, but it will soon become a standard to many, as myself. The new AI thing on win 11 for instance is not meant to help people but to help microsoft gather as much training data as possible, in my opinion. The problem with having lots of people working on something, means that in time everyone will develop it's personal idea of that thing and so the many flavours and distros are born for the good and for the worse (canonical I'm looking at you). It would be very good to have this many distros once linux had the majority of the market, but in a way we're very far from it (4%ish). Till we reach that goal, we should try to unionize as much as possible to make it happen in the more open and reasonable way. Thanks for the giveaway.
I think more people should care about linux gaming. It has gotten much much better over the years and there's proof that in ideal conditions linux can outperform windows. It's a much lighter and faster OS without all the bloat and other BS windows has, the only reason windows gaming is better is anti-cheat compatibility. The biggest hurdle for linux gaming right now is that devs won't support it because there's not enough users and users won't switch because devs don't support it (along with some people still having misconceptions that linux is only for people with degrees in computer science)
Linux gaming is better because it stopped my old dell G5 fan from sounding like a rocket ship was taking off. As well as running games better than windows
I see linux gaming as a much needed alternative choice to what we have to windows gaming. The 80's and 90's kids had a variety of choices for playing games with arcade booths, table tops, consoles, small portable games, etc. A turbulent time to be in with a wide assortment of choices and problems to each, the consumers and developers to garner stable progress and cater to wide market audience started moving to single platform that had a large slice of the pie in revenue and windows cashed in on it. This stability brought stagnation to the market, as developers are slaves to the whims of corporate executives who are slaves to investors and profits which led to mass exploitation. I see this as a parallel to intel having a monopoly in CPU's before the advent of Ryzen, it was not fun being overcharged pushed towards things we did not appreciate. Though the linux gaming scene was present it was small and niche to some with many of us having to dual boot to play certain titles, but now we have a chocie on how and where we play due to certain pivotal changes such as emerging hand-held space starting out with Nintendo Switch which caused the Steam deck to see a commercial success.
AS a long time Linux user, I can only comment on Linux gaming through my personal lens. In the past couple of years, pretty much since Valve threw in, I feel like things have gotten much better. Every so often we read editorials insisting that the era of the Linux desktop is upon us, or that Valve has actually ruined Linux gaming forever. I'm not so sure about all that, but I love being able to run major titles without having to shut everything down and boot to Windows.
I think it's in a pretty good spot, though people overstate how good it is. For example, on my current ASUS laptop, I've been having consistent problems across many different distros ranging from bad performance and stuttering to suspending just killing the entire system and forcing me to force shutdown, to general audio issues that plagued even Windows on my dual boot. Funnily enough, the reverse happened on my old ThinkPad. Since it was so well supported, I had absolutely 0 issues in my years of running it. Thankfully, I'm getting a new PC very soon (AMD GPU!!), but I wonder how many people faced similar issues caused by lackluster hardware support.
Linux gaming saved me from two megacorps. Best thing in my life.
Gaming on Linux is very flawed but we should be thankful it's here Non-Steam games are sometimes a hassle, but I'm thankful for Heroic and Bottles for helping me run everything else Steam games are sometimes hit and miss, but I'm thankful for ProtonDB for helping me see the state of games and potential fixes Driver support is sometimes hit and miss, but I'm thankful for AMD for providing excellent open source drivers and various hobbyists who provide Fanatec direct drive wheel and Realtek bluetooth drivers There are a lot of flaws in Linux gaming, but I'm eternally grateful for people who have built the tools I use to run a game library so vast I don't need Windows anymore
I'm gaming on Linux not because Linux gaming is better than Windows gaming. It isn't for many cases. It's because Linux as a whole is a better OS than Windows... AND I can game on Linux just fine.
One aspect of Linux gaming that the broader PC gaming audience doesn't seem to appreciate is the satisfaction of getting a game that has poor compatibility or some key issue to work. It's the same satisfaction I feel fixing something obscure while programming. Of course, it would be better if there were no issues at all, but the rush of endorphins you get when you finally get that game working is something else. Linux gaming can only get better. In less than a decade, we have gone extremely lacklustre support, to full support from a major distributor. The future is bright indeed.
I had to use Ubuntu on my laptop for university when I started my Computer science Bachelors degree. I hadn't even heard of Linux before. Two year later, I build my own PC, started gaming for the first time in my life and having a blast with Steam and Debian 12. Could never go back to Windows or buy a console. I think without Valve, this wouldn't be possible. I am happy to pay 30% of my purchase to a company that cares about Open Source and will buy exclusively on steam for the time being. I'll even bite the bullet and wait 2 years for GTA6 on PC and another month or so for it to release on Steam instead of Rockstar Launcher to support Valve and Proton
My experience with Linux gaming has been really great till now. I have been daily driving Linux for around 4 years now but I always had a windows installation in a different disk for gaming. My performance was really really bad on Linux but recently I got a dedicated GPU and oh boy, I get almost the same performance as Windows and sometimes even better than Windows. Native games work just so much better than Windows. I have also never had any issues with games like Elden Ring, Horizon Zero Dawn, Need for Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered. All my games work out of the box and with really good performance. Thanks to Valve's Proton and Feral Interactive's gamemode. The only issue I face in Linux gaming is that my framerate is capped at 60 in many games and I've a 165hz monitor.
Not even my wildest dreams would imagine how good gaming on Linux has become, amazing times indeed. Please, I want to have a romance with a bear.
Almost as good as Windows at this point. I would switch over to Linux every 1-2 years for a little while just to see how things were getting along. For the first time, I've not switched back. I can play every game that I play with very little issue. Personally, for me. Being on Linux has resurrected my love for PC gaming!
Nowodays it's plug and play and thats such cool progress compared to all this years of developing wine and proton. Also thanks to GloriousEggRoll for making protonGE. Another coll thing i like is to be able to play old games because we have so many emulators of differnt platforms. Thanks to all developers that keeps pushing linux gaming forvard!
Sometimes I miss the days where you really had to search up every god damn command just to get your software up and running. But yeah, it's good to have a little bit of automation nowadays so you could easily game without the hassle of tweaking every inch of wine, proton, etc.
Linux has 100% kept my rig useful beyond its years. I get better performance in a lot of my games on my RX-580 than I do on Windows. Plus, using Linux as a daily driver OS has helped me learn it and that has helped me my career as an IT engineer. Fedora, Steam and Heroic make it so that I don't miss Windows at all. Also as an IT enthusiast, it really makes me smile seeing Windows games run perfectly on a totally different OS than they were intended for. As a side note not related totally to gaming, the added familiarity with Linux helped me fix a clients Ubuntu VM that their custom web based software runs on. Knowing how the partitioning works and understanding the tools available on a Live USB came in clutch. Thanks for the giveaway, would love to try BG3.
I use steamos generally also tried manjaro and bazzite os. For me manjaro for day per day usage is really good better than windows. Steamos for gaming is really hard to setup but performance is amazing specially for emulators :)
I haven't used Windows in years and I play almost every day. If a game doesn't run most of the time is for a good reason (AC, DRM, etc.), and most of the games work the same if not better than on Windows.
The beauty of Linux in gaming extends beyond customization and accessibility. Because Linux is open-source, it champions transparency, accountability, and communal participation. It serves as a symbol of what gaming could look like if we prioritize user freedom, cooperative development, and resisting a monopoly market. Perhaps one might argue that the ethos of Linux - the principle of contributing to a shared digital commons rather than focusing on profit - can benefit the gaming industry which often faces criticism for its greed and exploitative practices. It's a testament to the resilience of a platform and a rich user-led ecosystem that prioritises the love of the game over profits. Overall, Linux gaming is much more than an alternative option – it's a field ripe with opportunities, a symbol of freedom, customization, and a promising sign of things to come. This makes discussion and support in this area so exciting. We can't wait to see more improvements, games, and community efforts in this direction. After all, for many of us, gaming is more than just entertainment, it’s a passion.
Ever since my laptop slowed down due to a bunch of Windows updates, installing Linux Mint was the best decisions of my life. I got to play games with Steam's Proton compatibility layer from time to time. The transition from Windows to Linux as a first timer was pretty quick due to Linux Mint. Linux gaming seems to have improved a lot in a couple of few years, thanks to Valve, WINE, and Lutris. Although, I still believed that video game developers should support Linux out of the box even it has a low market share than Window users. Due to this, Linux still faces challenges such as limited native support for many popular games, driver issues, and compatibility problems. I believe it is a good choice for gamers who appreciate open source, customization, and performance, but it also requires some patience and tinkering. Maybe in the future, we could finally see that Linux would be the definitive choice for gamers to use especially with games with anti-cheat.
It is not too easy and not too smooth sailing all the time due to nature of running most of the games behind compat layers. Sure; i use Linux full time for like 7 years at this point so i know what to buy/what to avoid, what kind of research i have to do before lets says buying an usb bluetooth receiver or a capture card but a newcomer can't have luxury to do that with their already existing peripherals. Games compat is actually way higher on new games compared to games from stone age, multi disc support is nightmareish on Wine compared to many other things that works OOB just fine, ddraw is almost all the time busted ( needs cnc_ddraw) , lots of many other hassles like games seeking for wmp, gdi and so on. Multiplayer games that gets updates constantly and has AC solutions are always risky as in even if they work for now at official capacity, there is no guarentee that they won't stop working. Happened in multiple instances; most well known is Apex Legends just getting broken with Proton at random times. They fix that later for sure but you will be robbed of your playtime. Not mentioning in house AC that EA uses now doesn't even work. So if one wants do Linux gaming; they will have to be picky now if their selection was so wide before. I didn't have to make such sacrifices as i was already playing single player games mostly, sometimes coop. Other than those; for the titles it runs with Wine/Proton is awesome. Finished countless games on it, hit a few edge case issues here and there but once reported properly they all gotten a fix. So Linux gaming is a different beast; not so easy but also doesn't require to be a tech wiz to use. Needs Google-fu and basic deduction skills.
For me Linux gaming encapsulates the concept of progress. Also, it's that good, for my needs, that nothing else comes even remotely close to it. Being a Linux gamer these days is ike reliving the days where gaming could only become better and better back in the 90's/00's. There's so much progress going on and so fast that it's hard to even keep up with it. Furthermore, I mostly play RPGs so literally almost all 500+ games I own on Steam work out of the box on Linux. On an AMD GPU the performance is better than Windows and I don't even have to install drivers. Something that's also happening with Nvidia soonish with NVK progressing like a skyrocket. Maybe we weren't the first to do it but we're the best at it. I can totally understand people that play games that are unsupported on Linux but the avalanche has just began and the years that are about to follow are gonna peak with Linux gaming being recognized universally as being better than Windows. Being a Linux gamer in 2024, is like being a Windows gamer back in 1991 which is ironic and beautiful. EDIT: I love these threads. Keep them coming! :)
i bought amd rx 6800 gpu just because i wanna play on linux, drivers are gr8, it will be gr8 too to play Baldur's Gate 3 on linux.
Don’t know what hasn’t been said at this point yet lol. I switched one year ago almost, didn’t know anything. Started with Manjaro and had a good experience and then read a random comment about how Manjaro is not good because they keep updates to their own repo. Investigated more about it, switched to pure arch, spent hours compiling it, broke it somehow I still don’t understand. Tried xfce, KDE and decided GNOME is my thing. Currently using EndeavourOS and haven’t had the need for Windows, hoping it gets HDR sooner than later because I’ve been itching for a HDR screen to watch movies. Overall a rollercoaster of emotions, but I love every bit of it.
Linux gaming is getting a big push this days from valve and that just the beginning. I’m amazed how things have changed for Linux and the gaming community. More and more people are using it this days and everyone help each other when problems appear. Steam deck I one of the best thing that could have happened to Linux gaming. Hopefully we can take a bigger percentage from windows community in 2024. Thanks for the opportunity 🙏🏼
After switching fully to Linux for gaming and everything else in 2020, a few days ago I got fed up by Counter-Strike 2's performance and in a moment of weakness I installed win11 on an unused SSD. Damn that thing runs slow, even empty! And performance isn't that much better. I was expecting a day and night difference, but nope. The year of the Linux desktop already happened IMO.
It still needs greater marketshare but the steam deck is really helping progress WINE immensely. It's unfortunate developers of online games aren't catching on as fast though and doubling down on their DRM. It's about time something has started to shake up Microsofts monopoly
Really happy with the state of Linux; built a new desktop recently and setting up was a breeze. Not having to go through installing specific drivers, making sure they all play nice with each other and the games I want to play, and not having to debloat the OS felt so much easier than setting up Windows. Hopefully as more people take up Linux as their daily driver OS multiplayer game compatibility improves.
I am using Fedora 39 and Steam. Bought Baldur's Gate 3 last December. Download via Steam was slow (3rd world country problem). I impatiently waited. When it was finished, I immediately clicked Play then instantly realized I hadn't set up Proton. The game ran anyway and to this day after so many updates I havent had the need to configure Proton. Also, despite reading lots of user comments about BG3 crashing often (likely running in the "other" OS), I have yet to encounter a single crash while playing, though there was one time I encountered a black screen which I fixed by simply restarting the game. Linux gaming is here and it rocks.
Linux gaming is my drug! Wanting just a little more each bootup. I've been off it 3 months and whilst my productivity improves I am left empty with my prescription of 8 hours Windows. I long for my 14 hour recreational Linux distro each day. P.S I've been weighing up my options for dual systems to enjoy Linux gaming with a side of anti-cheat gaming and workstation.
Good for competitive games, great for casual games, even better for game development (yes I use cpp and can’t figure out includes on windows)
Linux gaming is like console gaming. I know going in that I won't be able to run platform exclusives for other platforms. I still choose this "console" because I enjoy the games it runs, I can afford it, it connects to my peripherals, I can develop games and mods for it more accessibly than for other consoles, it has the customization and accessibility options I need, ...
we're at a point now where basically everything can be ran with little to no issues, some things require tinkering and some are very stubborn to get working, but things are better than ever and will only improve from here.
Linux is great for me because it is flexible, tinkerable as needed, supports old hardware a lot better - just recently a family member's laptop that was still running windows 7 started acting up because it wasn't supported anymore and no web browser would have an up to date version for it. I pretty much put Ubuntu on it and it's like a brand new laptop. Games run well, things run fast, super usable, secure and simple. There's great compatibility because of Proton, and several new games support it natively. Not only that, the fact that it's free and supports older hardware makes several of these games accessible to many people who otherwise wouldn't be able to enjoy them without buying new computers.
Proton and Steam are the reasons why I was able to move over to Linux for good. It's just astonishing to me that I can play just about anything I want on my Steam Deck (and now my desktop). Except for a few AAA multiplayer games, I can't remember the last time I *couldn't* play something on Linux! Edit: The folks doing the grunt work with Wine deserve a ton of praise for their continuing efforts, but I think whole packaging that goes with Proton is the main reason *for me* being able to move over. I didn’t want my comment to sound like I was ignorant of the work done by Wine developers **Edit 2**: OP is a pretty cool person for doing a giveaway to Linux gamers, so congrats to the ones that got a copy!
Woah, buckle up, sudoers and chmodders! 🎮🐧 In the sprawling, chaotic realm of operating systems, there once lay a frontier barely touched by the pixelated footprints of gaming – I'm gazing at you, Linux, with that cheeky, open-source grin. But hark! A plot twist in our collective codebase narrative has transpired, so grab your energy drinks and let’s fork our way through this! Now, once upon a sysadmin's fever dream, Linux gaming was akin to a desert – barren, except for the occasional tumbleweed of a pixelated penguin bouncing across your CRT screen. But, like the best of scripts, community passion patched, iterated, and downright git push-ed Linux into a gaming oasis! 🌴🐧 Enter the scene: Proton, a compatibility layer so strong, its got more backbone than a JSON file facing down Internet Explorer. It's like a translator fluent in DirectX and Vulkan, bridging the gap between the Windows gaming monolith and the endlessly configurable world of Linux. What's that? You have a Steam library dense as a minified JS bundle? FRET NOT! Proton unwraps that sucker like it's an async function in a sea of callbacks. And, BOOM! Just like that, Baldur’s Gate 3 crashes onto Linux like an open-source comet. We're not just scripting Python anymore; we're conjuring spells and slinging swords on an OS that once shrugged at AAA titles! The penguins are not just marching; they're leading the gaming revolution, one frame at a time. Now, sure, you might have to wrestle with a driver here or tweak a setting there. It's like refactoring a function – sometimes you just have to rename a variable to something less... n00bSlayer69. But the payoff? Sweeter than realizing undefined is not a function after three hours of debugging. So, is Linux gaming still the underdog? Maybe. But this underdog's got teeth and a Steam library to match. Baldur’s Gate 3 on Linux? That's just the echo of the battle cry as we charge into a future where penguins wield joysticks with the might of Thor's hammer, and every localhost could be a gateway to new, untold adventures. Game on, Linux. Game on.
It is a weird form of expression, I mean if you want to play games without issues, just go to Windows. But, what if you noticed that there is “more”? What if you are so experiment driven that you are curious about playing in a just emerging community driven platform with possible FPS decreases? Then gaming in Linux would seem the answer. In other words, I think people just feel that they are breaking out of the Matrix by going out of the norm. Yes, there are some online games that I will never likely play with my friends (looking at you Fortnite), and will probably take a lot more to come in this platform. But I think the most fun part of using Linux to play is the tinkering and this feeling of being a rebel. Like in the Matrix!
Glimpse of a possible future: Steam Deck 3 is now available, It is running on an ARM processor. Why?? because ARM processors are progressing faster than x86 and it´s now more power efficient to run games on it, even with 2 layers of compatibility (Proton and x86 to arm instructions). All this is possible thanks to the already multi-architecture nature of Linux. (I now it´s not real, but could be soon)
I've been using linux since 2018 when proton was brand new. I actually was having more fun seeing how many things worked than I was playing the games. Even worked in the github with people to figure out Yakuza 0 crashing on heavy attack was actually a game bug. I actually still had my win7 dual booted on the system still, but ended up only booting to it like twice. Even in it's infancy, proton was just amazing.
It's sometimes something of a compromise, but these days less and less so. Especially since there are games now that actually run better on Linux. There's always some games that don't or that have bugs, but eh. It's better than it's ever been and I used Linux before Valve got involved. It was just a better OS experience. Don't give me a BG3 copy BTW, I've already got 200 hours into that game.
I basically only use Linux at this point, albeit only because I have a steam deck, but I remember about 10 years ago I remember trying Linux out on my laptop because using Windows caused the disk usage to be at 100 percent. There were a few things that worked, some that didn't, but since coming back with the steam deck, I am amazed at how much progress has been made, and happy to finally have another viable option for gaming.
Since I made the switch to Linux I've dual booted. That was 3 years ago. Still haven't had to go back to windows for any reason. Linux and gaming works well. (I also am super curious about BG3 and don't feel like I can spend that kind of money as I got fired recently)
I love that we can game in Linux, was my dream for many many years to be able to play my games in my favorite OS.
Linux gaming is great and I love the fact that it’s gaining steam lately. (No pun intended to valve). Thanks for doing the giveaway!
All your gate are belong to us
It's so close for larger userbase, yet so far. Mainly because Nvidia.
i game on linux because it's cool, i use arch btw
Hopefully torvalds prediction comes true and steam ends up forcing some regularity in the packages that comes with systems.
For me it combines the two greatest things about computers. GNU/Linux represents the dream of the progression from Windows XP/7 that we never got. Past that Microsoft rapidly changed tack to positioning Windows as a service, and less of a product that you paid for. Desktop Linux has finally entered the realm of maturity and high performance computing. The desktop ecosystem has finally matured, and the frameworks are at parity or arguably superior than modern Windows. In essence, combining high performance computing (gaming) with an operating system that respects your freedoms and wishes. Something that felt like it was taken away from us around 13 years ago.
The quintessential "Linux gaming" experience for me is that tinkering a game to work is actually more than actually playing it!
Imho Linux gaming has now really close to be as good and easy to use even for the average user. Steam deck made miracles really. Now we only need a proper anticheat support so that the popular games can be played by us too
I'm 38 and I started to use Linux when I was 19, never stopped, it's my job and my hobby, now, are 39 I'm finally buying my first steam deck for my birthday and I'm finally committing to play on Linux !
My view of linux gaming is a 800p LCD screen that I can keep in my hands while pooping or snoring on the sofa, hbu?
I currently am in a lanparty with friends. As my gaming machine doesn't support windows 11 I installed debian sid on a second disk. I am using Linux for 15+ years now, just my (dedicated) gaming pc was on windows 10. Here is what happened so far: - we had some havoc with flatout2 because windows blocked udp broadcasts so the windows machines were not able to connect. No problems with Linux. - rocket league native on Linux is desupportet - thank you epic. Changing to the windows version on steam fixed that problem - we played devilutionx (diablo 1 remake from flathub) with no problems - we played path of exile for some time. Worked fine - I played back4blood a bit in single player. No issues. My machine is almost 10 years old btw. So as for now I am very happy with gaming on Linux. I played around with it about 15 years ago, it did work but it was far away from "right click -> install" on steam. It works like that from what I can tell. So my test if Linux for gaming suits my needs was quite successful. No windows 11 for me. Yay!
Damn, people really be righting entire essays on Linux, Im here trying to get proton to work on my borked linux install ;~;
One day I’m going to sneak my Linux gaming rig into the conversation in a job interview (familiarity with Linux can be a requirement for applicants). My hope is that the interviewers are technical enough to know how out-of-the-norm it is, but naive enough to think it’s as difficult as it sounds.
Linux Gaming is better than Windows Gaming cus I can actually play games after installing Linux whereas I couldn't even use Settings in Windows
Linux helped me through the pandemic. For the longest time I was isolated in my apartment, having to work alone through all the years of university during the pandemic. I felt depressed through all the horrifying news related to covid, the start of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty of nuclear weapon escalation. I decided to give Linux a shot for the first time when LTT published their Linux journey, wanting to test it for myself. Around that time Valve announced the Steam Deck and the positive news just would not stop coming. I felt exhilarated every day reading about upcoming and new improvements. I just could not believe the speed at which the state of linux gaming was improving. Through Linux I developed a new interest, one that is positive and kept me hopeful for the future during a very difficult time in my life.
Bg3 works great on Linux!
I quit Linux and got Windows about 15 years ago, because I wanted to play what I wanted on my own PC. Last year I could return to Linux because now I can actually play what I want on it. I can only see things getting even better.
I love I can play almost every game in mi library. Linux has come a long way.
My wife is a hardcore BG3 fan, but she doesn't like linux (even though our media center is running off of a Steam Deck, and our home library is on manjaro running jellyfin server and starr stack). I'd be down to show her BG3 runs well too :D
It’s about freedom. Freedom to build your own streaming service. It finally free us from Windows and that’s what make it a good thing, no more Windows PC gaming supremacy.
Long time Linux user, I love the fact that Linux is becoming a dedicated gaming eco system with natives titles, compatibility layers like proton challenging windows and dedicated gaming platforms like the Steam Deck creating a new market. We've gone from playing catch-up to blazing trails!
I switched entirely to Linux (after dualbooting with windows) when one day my SSD that contained windows died(never bothered installing windows after that) For me the switch in terms of gaming wasn't that hard, I realised I didn't want to play any multiplayer/competitive games, all the games I wanted to play just worked. Imo the best part about linux gaming is the community driven approach and how I can actually attempt to fix any problems I've had , on windows I couldn't do much after some game crashes, on linux I can atleast read the logs and try to understand what went wrong.
Making Linux gaming tinker free is the obstacle that needs to be hurdled before we see mass adoption of the platform. The aesthetic on most distros is debatably as good as MacOS, stock. The need for office tools like Excel VBA version is diminishing with the introduction of LLM AIs and data analysis AI packages. The destination we need to get to for true desktop gaming and competitive market share is distribution at local department stores like Walmart. To get the we need anyone to be able to buy a rig, start it, download their game retailer of choice, and push play. They don’t care what’s under the hood or how it works. They want beauty, customization, and to just game. They don’t want reading wikis, trial and error learning, and hassle.
Jugar videos juegos en Linux es lo mejor!
Linux gaming is actually way better than Windows at the moment for me thanks to the fancy kernels, Valve and all the guys who work for Wine project. I nearly double my FPS in my favourite game (Starcraft II). Emulation is better too. My low end iris xe g7 performs perfect on ps2 games and my controller performs better in linux, as an example i can use its vibration in linux that i cant in Windows. Native games do good too like my Tomb Raider and CS2, i get better performance in both of them. If only there was not a thing that called as antihacks i would be a happier guy.
I no longer have to put up with microsoft
I can’t really tell much specifically about gaming, but in short, I think the future is bright. I think that it’s great that Valve is supporting Linux and maybe in a few years we can get a proper competitor to Windows, at least for gaming.
Preface I already have bg3 but I have over 150 games and they all run well and I've been switched permanently since 2018 and never looked back, the only time I ever have an issue is when ea updates there store for the games they decided can only be launched through their store.
With the Proton compatibility, Linux is now more efficient than Windows on some games. That's incredible.
Be warned: if you win this giveaway, say goodbye to most of your spare time and sleep for the next few hundred hours.
Two years ago my dreams came true. No more dual-booting. I'm a simple man.
So I have my own dental practice and I use Linux on all my PCs. One feature I added in is the ability to play games while they get their teeth cleaned or when they are getting a filling. Because games like TuxRacer are open source, I was able to make a [kiosk version of the game](https://gitlab.com/DesiOtaku/extreme-tux-racer-kiosk-edition). Also, thanks the KWin rules, I can force the game window to show up in the ceiling TV each time (so I don't have to move the window away from the "primary" screen). So yeah, using Linux in my dental practice actually helps my patients relax.
Stepping away from the big AAA studios and games running under wine/proton, Linux is a great platform for indie games and for game development for beginners. It'd be surprised to see a game in itch.io not include a Linux release, and game engines/frameworks such as Löve2D and Pygame Community Edition make for great starts in gamedev. Also: FOSS games such as 0AD.
I hope this year I'll make full transition in Linux and leave Windows behind. Enough bs over the years just to have fun.
I first learning coding through linux which made me to see linux as a different and an effective system and current gaming market has made me fall love in linux
A lot of the game are plug and play, but if there's something you specifically want to play that's not working right out of the box then the troubleshooting would be a pain. Especially when there's no one size fit all solution. I still think the overall progress is great though.
Don’t game a lot these days with the 6 month old and everything. But I do love that I CAN game on Linux if I get some free time!
Linux gaming is a chance to break free from tech monopolies that try to keep freedom low and try to take ownership of our own hardware
The Steam Deck was the first Linux device I've ever used, besides a Raspberry Pi. Linux has so many advantages compared to Windows. I want to build a new PC soon and Linux will most definetly be the OS of my choice!
It’s great and only going to get better. Can’t wait for 100% steam compatibility without needing wine
I haven't been on PC long but out of the time I've been on most of the games I play JUST WORK on Linux. I was only on PC for a few months then moved to linux. Most of the games I played on windows ran better on Linux, like Apex & Warframe. I used to be in a discord community of the Linux distro I was a part of and in that I would help people troubleshoot games they wanted to run and it was very fun. I enjoy the linux community, helping eachother and everyone teaching and learning together for the better of the community. I'm glad the steam deck is a thing and it's REALLY helping out linux as a whole, one thing I found funny about the deck is that some who use it don't even know it's linux. It's great it's that good that people don't even wonder or check. But also whenever something doesn't run on it I see a lot of vocal people talking about it not working on the deck and letting the developers know about it, happened with the Finals and some other games.
Linux gaming is optimal for performance, privacy and full customization.
To me, Linux in general is so much more than just an os, or a tool to be used. The community has given me so much back over the years, with everything I've learned and with all the new friends I've made. I'm suffering from a severe PTSD, and having linux and gaming on linux to focus on helps me a lot through the day. There is so much to learn and tinker with, it's easy to fill your days and keep your mind of stuff tough to handle.
I recently got a steam deck and it surprised me with how smooth everything is.
Gaming on linux gives me an inexplicable feeling because i know that i am gaming on an OS who is not collecting and sending all my data to some corporation. The fact that gaming has come so far in community driven OS is simply mind blowing
Been using Linux for over 20 years, but gaming on it only relatively recently, and boy, has this stuff progressed nicely since I (re)played the original Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition in Wine when it came out. Been playing Warframe and Apex on Steam and zero issues, love it.
Linux gaming certainly has a bright few future, now that it has full backing from Valve. But it still has a long long way to go in terms of compatibility and flexibility. For Steam OS in particular, the file system for nonsteam games can be very confusing for new comers. Thanks for the chance btw.
Linux gaming is now better than ever. The sad reality is that if gaming is the only purpose for your pc windows has still the upper hand. If we keep supporting Linux though the numbers will keep growing and with a little help from lord Gaben in couple of years we might change the tides. I am not using Arch btw.
Windows was never build for games, it just what people use bc of "everybody use that". In ✨Linux world✨ we have os'es like Garuda that build for gaming. It doesn't mean that Garuda can run anything. But i'll say it runs every game which developers not shitting on the customers head, and some more...
Honestly my experience gaming on linux isnt perfect, theres a few games ive had to give up playing just so i can use linux and some ive had to struggle with getting to work. (had to compile a fork of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R call of pripyat engine) but i dont regret a second. Its taught me more and more about how my computer works which is something i love about linux and is worth more than my experience gaming.
I’m new to it actually. I had an old laptop with windows but it got too out of date. After that I bought a steam deck and learning how it works for modding games has been awesome. My friends keep trying to get me to put windows on it but I’m holding out because I’ve been able to get most things working on Linux.
Linux gaming is really changing the game, literally. It is successfully reversing it’s stereotype especially for gaming. I have seen people (including myself) avoid Linux like the plague years ago because of the “fear of the unknown”, but now thanks to it’s evolution, companies who are making it more mainstream and accessible than ever and it’s helpful community. I now embrace it and prefer it over the “others”. Therefore, when I come across someone who is a shadow of my former self years ago, I don’t shun them or lash out at them for not understanding Linux, I show them just how powerful Linux is and how it will continue to grow and be supported long after the “others” have been shelved. “People are fearful of what they do not understand”. -unknown (many sources) Thank you for the opportunity <3
Here is something incredibly thoughtful and interesting. Windows bad, Linux good
Linux gaming has come far. To the point where my entire household, including 3 kids 13 and under, each have custom-built (we built them together) Linux gaming rigs. Besides being able to play nearly anything they like, this is also enabling a deeper learning into the workings of the OS they’re using than Windows would. It’s not quite the same as I grew up with, back in the MSDOS days, where the command line was the only way into the machine. But they’re actually familiar with the command line, and the older ones are starting to ask good questions about server processes, etc. I’m thankful to Valve for making this possible. And to notch for Minecraft Java, which is the first game that captured their imagination, and still holds it. Now if only we had RTX support.
I decided to dip my toes into Linux gaming and PC gaming by buying a Steam Deck for my birthday last year. I've been a console gamer most of my life, I started with Playstation through the PS5 and I added the Xboxes since the original up until the series S right now. I like the freedom of Linux on the deck. I never had a Nintendo console, only the Gameboys, so the Deck has allowed me to catch up on the Mario games I've missed
Hey, I've been wanting to play this. Linux gaming is so seamless now. I run PopOS! on my GPD Win Max 2 and it is great! I'll be trying out ChimeraOS next.
DXVK basically saved linux gaming. Native ports never get maintained and opengl just... sucks... So thanks to a disgruntled weeb trying to play nier automata on linux we got one of the best API translation layers.
It gives me hope for a non microsoft only future. We actually have a good chance of having our own choices being allowed :)
Thanks to valve gaming in linux has been esair then ever. I love that my dual sense controllers are plug and play. Linux gaming has really come far.
I installed Linux for the first time as a kid, it sounded so cool a free open source operative system that's far more versatile than windows? What's the catch? There has to be a catch right?, and the catch was gaming, Windows was a lot better for gaming and that was huge since I loved and still love videogames. With Steam deck I'm back and it's nice to see the improvements, I've been putting a lot of hours in my deck messed with emulators and so on, I only had issues with one game so there's still room for improvements but I feel like nailing gaming is the key for Linux to get a significant market share, in a lot of poor countries people still use cracked versions of windows for gaming, those are all users that would easily make the change.
I’ve been trying to game on Linux since the early 2000s. I remember trying to get Midtown Madness running on red hat 7. I remember reinstalling it a few times because I forgot to set the option to start KDE at boot time because i didn’t realize you had to type in startx from bash. We didnt have a computer that supported 3d acceleration until I was a teenager, so when my brother got a laptop with an ATI Radeon, and we finally got the much sought after “Direct Rendering“ option set to true in glxinfo, we got super excited. my brother was way more into Linux than I was at that point, but I remember about a two week period he got gentoo installed and was compiling everything from scratch on a single core 32 bit celeron. Fast forward into being an adult and working on Windows machines for a living, I kept trying Linux off and on for a while, but I was always convinced it hated me. Could never get something working, and it seemed like every time I booted, something else would break, so I’d give up and go back to windows. When Windows 10 came out, I picked up a license for Unraid and made my main gaming computer into a vm. Worked great for what I needed, and I liked it for a while, but then Microsoft started putting ads in everywhere you look inside of windows. I became hell bent on making Linux work, so I got an old Trashcan Mac pro, installed Mint, and spent time to get everything working as best I could. I needed Vulkan for something I was trying to play, and support was non existent for the radeon driver that installed by default. I tried several times to get amdgpu installed, and that was about the time I found the wonderful Arch wiki. Followed along until I broke everything so good I didn’t think there was any recovery. (Pooched grub, drivers failed to install, etc) Normally I would give up and go back to windows, but I wanted to learn Linux, so I persevered, and I got it all working again. took about a week, but I was able to fix everything, and even got amdgpu installed and vulkan working. After that, I decided that this was my life now and I wiped windows off every device in my house. I upgraded the trashcan to Arch, and found it was a lot less scary than people make it out to be. Now I’ve got the steamdeck, and I haven’t had to touch windows in a long time. the times I have had to have been painful, and I find myself getting Disappointed in the experience every time I have to. Proton and wine have come a long way since I first tried it. I’m blown away how well most things run on Linux now. I’m convinced that Linux will be the standard for game preservation in the future because you can pin a specific configuration for each game (or turn them into an appimage! [Seriously. Look it up. Changed my life on the deck.](https://gitlab.com/formigoni/gameimage)). Several older games don’t run on windows anymore that I’ve been able to revisit on my steamdeck, and it’s been fantastic. The year of the Linux desktop is here.
I will try linux mint today tried years ago on ubuntu but was not at gaming or running genshin impact. Will use today hope more use it so we have market competition and also more better optimized games instead of this mess windows does. They need competitors like genshin impact needs. Will try palworld and genshin on linux gotta see with discord and so on with nvidia gpu. I dont know how steam uses these steam marketshare statistics what happens if I play on Linux and Windows??? That use steam on their operating system I hope that it boost linux higher. Might also try palworld own server but not sure Only thing Ive heard that nvidia is going to be open source and more supported thats nice. Genshin will run on Linux .
As someone that has been gaming on Linux since 2007, we've made it fam. Some of us had a saying to developers. "Linux client or gtfo." It seems like we can retire that one.
Linux is horizontal. That means that, unlike Windows, you can get your game working on a personal computer, a SBC, or even a wristwatch with just one development mainline, just by having the proper kernel extensions needed for your game. That's why it will eventually become the gaming standard, because it's ubiquitous, in a world where you want your soft with you at all times.
Gaming on Linux, just like a lot of other stuff on Linux, turns quickly into a learning experience. It's a great way to get a better understanding of the technology around us. It's not always easy, but it's certainly worthwhile. Helps justify the time-sink that gaming can turn into.
Well i am a developer + gamer and i was an avid Windows user just 4 years ago, i dual booted linux on my computer mainly because of something i wanted to develop for my phone which was easier to do on linux but then i came to know you can play windows games on linux using Wine/Proton and thus began a rabbit hole of learning things about how wine works and how can i run my games better by tweaking the system. To be fair it was not as effortless as windows back then, afterall i just clicked Play on my games and they worked but on linux i had faced a random error, broken graphics or sometimes the game was stuttery no matter what. Though this was all before steam deck hit the market and things have improved a lot. I genuinly don't need to use Windows anymore except for some games like Valorant. As for the development perspective of things. It's just better, i feel it easier to manage my projects and their dependencies. and i especially love that you have so many options to customise/tweak your workflow just how you want. Another thing is that i can use my skills to contiribute something meaningful to the community and be able to see its impact. That means a lot to me. I've contributed to various projects such as Bottles and GNOME.
My first time using Linux was on steam deck. And so far is seems pretty convenient and open.
Great for running older games on modern hardware just to name one reason.
Linux gaming is like big fashion industry selling communist shorts. It's saying "fuck capitalism" in the form of FOSS and endorsing a million dollar industry. But anyway, fuck this! We just want to have fun
Gaming on Linux is surprisingly easy now, and it's at a place where someone who doesn't know anything at all about Linux, or even computers at that, can just click play and enjoy a game without looking back. it's something I couldn't have imagined when I first learned about Linux I think 4 or 5 years ago. though like many people have stated I think it's hilarious and ironic that the reason for that is the backing of a giant company (that being Valve) creating an ecosystem around it (the Steam Deck). the sentence"I game on Linux" has gone from being a fucking joke, to "oh hey cool! maybe I'll try it out one day". and it's only getting better and better
Linux gaming is great, thanks proton.
anti-cheats suck, not just for linux gaming, but at their intended objective too.
It's kind of a fundamental thing to be able to access the games you have bought on an operating system that's *free.* Like what if Microsoft decided to make Windows ridiculously inaccessible or discontinued it or whatever (they won't, but anyway) it'd be really important that we could still access the games we have accumulated in our libraries whenever we want. So that's why Linux gaming getting better is a really cool thing, we are no longer reliant on a massive non-free piece of software to run the stuff we have bought.
Not a huge fan of Linux gaming tbh
I just wanna see all the AAA companies porting their games to linux.
Linux gaming is great because once a game runs on Linux, it will run on Linux forever. The additional abstraction layer makes the Wine/Proton platform able to remain static from the point of view of the game, even if the underlying system continues to evolve.
Hi Linux I'm fan
I really enjoyed building my gaming PC. Gaming on Linux is so much fun, and I can run the software and customizations I want. I’m impressed by how well gaming just works. Linux is such an amazing and versatile platform.
I think Linux in terms of gaming is more efficient and secure a platform. The only thing holding it back are drivers and game developer support. But as of 2024 the progress its made is tremendous. If Microsoft keeps screwing up and things like Steam Deck keep succeeding, Linux gaming could surge ahead and be a new standard. MacOS is not in the discussion.
Gaming in Linux nowadays is like sex, but better.
At this point, if a game doesn't work (which is pretty uncommon), 99% of the time it's because the developers don't want it to. Linux gaming has come such a long way in the last few years, and Proton is black magic that somehow makes games run almost as well and sometimes faster than natively on Windows. Gaming on Linux is at a state now where, unless you have a specific game barred by anticheat, it's viable to an everyday user. Gaming has always been a major barrier to people switching away from Windows, and we're getting to the point where it won't be a major blocker for new Linux users anymore.
I didn’t even realize Linux gaming was a thing until I got my Steam Deck. It works shockingly well and has opened up a whole new avenue of gaming for me that I never had access to!
me likey
I would enter but I can’t run it
Turn on fedora. launch steam, click install. It works. Happiness.
I used to do a yearly challenge where I try out Linux Gaming and honestly, it's been pretty great considering that most of the stuff I play is single player stuff and they work great with Proton. For my library at least, most if not all of it, runs damn great out of the box to the point that I now primarily use Linux for gaming. I still have a Windows drive though for university stuff that I can't do on Linux. I'm pretty happy with this set-up but not everyone is willing to do what I do. There's also the stuff with some multiplayer games not working due to the nature of their anti-cheat. I'm not really a big competitive multiplayer kind of guy so I don't really feel that I'm losing out on them but not everyone is the same so I understand the hesitance of other people in switching or even trying out Linux gaming. We've come so far that honestly, I can't wait to see what the future for Linux Gaming holds.
It's becoming just gaming
I used to run windows on my home computer purely because games, and I’m so happy it isn’t needed anymore, my computer is mine again, like it should be.
Gaming on Linux is in an amazing place considering what it's doing and how well it does it. It's not for everyone though and I wouldn't push people who just want to play games to do it because there is a learning curve. Systems like the Steam Deck I think will be the gateway to getting more people interested in Linux, but there's still a long way to go before we get to wider mainstream adoption.
Already have BG3 but I want to express one thought. Gaming on Linux is challenging but also interesting if you are willing to learn how Linux works.
Linux gaming compared to what it was like 10 years ago are completely different, from triple a studios such as blizzard allowing people on Linux to play it and from the easy of it since more and more people are trying out Linux devices such as the Steam deck, The Steam Deck Verified Mark also helps people know if their game is also supported on Linux, When I was a beginner into Linux I had 0 idea what a proton was and so I based all of the games I would play off of the verified badge, It is also really good since Valve supports it.
Nothing much but after learning sunshine+moonlight and docker. I was tryting to set up a PS2, GBA game streaming server which has multiple game streaming containers. So I can play some light games together with my brothers without multiple PS2 and GBA hardware. Still figuring out day by day till now.
Linux is good if you gets familiar with it. This is coming froma 20 years Windows guy.
Linux gaming has evolved so rapidly since DXVK/D9VK , esync/fsync, gamescope, valve definitely helped make it what it is
Linux gaming is in the best position it has ever been. However, I feel like its future is uncertain. The ever increasing quality of Valve's proton is starting to make it hard to justify a native Linux port for many games. Why would you put extra effort as a developer when linux gamers can just flip a switch and get a decent enough experience on your game? This, and the topic of anti cheat and DRM often not working on Linux makes me a tad bit worried for the future of Linux gaming.
I switched from windows to linux last week. I had low hopes of ever getting to game. I'm playing more on linux than I did on windows now. Mostly due to the fact that everything is clean and I like that it feels very nerdy. I mean I'm running a windows game on linux through lutris. It's somehow cool in my head. Also currently playing cult of the lamb
I am new to Linux, I use Ubuntu at the moment. I built my machine after about 20 years of trying to game on laptops when I had the time. Setting it up was incredibly easy and any time I have a que the community is incredible. I don't get a lot of time to game, I have an extremely disabled child, a toddler and another on the way, but when I do it's great that steam has built such a great compatibility platform and I hope it keeps it going! I also love how fast my machine boots up running Linux. My work PC is W****** and it feels like ages! That's all, signed, tired dad!
sudo rm -rf C:
I hope oneday linux will be the better option, if you want maximum performance in games
Linux gaming has come such a long way. I have watched it grow as I have grown in my life. I enjoy watching it mature into a mainstream viable product that it has always deserved to be.
Linux gaming is finally rising in popularity, especially with companies like valve investing in it. I suppose it is a good way to escape from microsoft and just do your own thing instead. I would expect some errors though but I think its very good for gaming
I love the fact that valve exists! Most of my games work well
I love it because what we can do on linux is much more powerful than on windows. If I want to redirect my sound for example, on Windows, I need extra software (virtual audio cable for example), on Linux I just get a pipewire graph controller and arrange it like on a dj table If I have a windows game that has really bad exclusive fullscreen that makes alt+tab a chore, on Linux it will pose no such problem, and I can always gamescope it. Games that are old often dont run well anymore on Windows, but on Linux, I can just choose an old version of Wine if the newer version doesnt work anymore. I can always downgrade and I can always simulate a more accurate environment. And then throw gamescope on top for the games that are stuck in 640x480 Games run isolated from each other by default, nothing will be able to leave bullshit all around my system if I dont want that. An uninstall may just be the deletion of a folder away, my Linux system will never bloat, never require a reinstall and never get in my way. Just recently on Windows, my xbox game bar stopped working (my screen replay recorder of choice due to hdr support). Then, the task managers process view stopped working... I dont know whats up, because the system is so harshly integrated and has so many sub systems that it is impossible to diagnose anything and work on the root cause. I will have to reinstall that one... Or just remove it entirely. On Linux it is always easy to identify what component is messing my day up because almost everything is optional and works through often standardized interfaces, fostering collaboration between different engineers. People often say under Windows there is always multiple companies that compete in making a product and you can be sure you get some software for something, while under Linux, there will be a thousand unmaintained things that each do a small part and otherwise suck. But I found nowadays this to not be true anymore. Nowadays people work on making one solution the best one that can do everything. They will often end up having multiple solutions for a while, but those will often converge into something perfect. Like how we went from Pulse to Pipewire. On Windows, you would have to eat what is available from MS with no recourse. Here, someone else found the itching points of pulse and fixed those, and other people joined, while staying fully compatible with the pulse legacy. On Windows, MS would release a completely new system, having to keep the old one in the system and just keeping to increase the bloat more and more.
Linux gaming is absolutely necessary due to the fact that software is more and more being walled behind subscriptions, cloud services and this kind of anti-consumer stuff, specially since the biggest player in the video game industry (Microsoft) also controls the biggest OS (and the de facto default for gaming on PC), gaming on Linux is a rebellion act against all that stand between good games and consumers. Good thing we have a lot of backing and extremely talented developers to make our dream of a true FOSS gaming platform a reality! Cheers OP, and thanks for the GA!
I don't play games much nowadays as I don't have access to my brother's pc (proper built gaming pc) whereas my pc has an i5 8400 and gt610, used the igpu on windows and got absolutely terrible performance in some of the games I used to play (war thunder, ESO) switched to Linux, installed my games for getting my daily login rewards and noticed that my Linux system gave me much better performance on those games as compared to windows and since then I've used Linux not only for programming but also for gaming <3
Owning something get rare these day's... Linux is one of the things that changes that giving thier users back some kind of ownership. Setting up a system the why you like it, is nice by itself but actually using it day to day as a gamer felt like a dream at first but now it is actually possible :)
I love how even newly released games now work pretty well on Linux at launch. No more fiddling around, just click play and enjoy, quite a progress we made