Drivers
Linux has no problem with them. Unlike only one manufacturer, that breaks all drivers without holy blessing since late Maxwell era.
I just installed bazzite on a spare drive this week, trying to get off win11.
So far generally pretty impressed but hardware support is eh for some lesser known devices. For example my headset (Lucidsound LS50) detects the dongle but can’t find drivers for the dedicated wireless channel and Bluetooth is patchy at best.
It’s friction points like that that make migration from a lifetime of windows challenging.
Hopefully I’ll figure out a solution that doesn’t involve replacing the headset!
Not sure. Usually having BlueZ(Linux bluetooth audio stack) and glue in audio server or bluez-alsa should be enough.
Well, at least you got that far. Imagine if you tried migrating to MacOS.
If you want a non immutable distro, I switched to Garuda after Bazzite and it has been great for gaming.
I’m new to Linux, sorry if this a dumb question butwhy would I want a non immutable distro? How would it help solve the hardware issue I described?
Non immutable just means that your system isn’t locked down to make sure you don’t accidentally break something. Some people have a strong preference for it one way or another.
As to why it might help, every distro comes with a custom mix of software and tweaks. Bazzite is fedora based while Garuda is Arch based. Some things may work better or worse with less tweaking.
So if you are frustrated enough to consider something else and aren’t committed to an immutable distro, it might be worth experimenting with.
On the one hand, there absolutely are some places where Linux has so dramatically improved it’s insane. Apps like Lutris have really blown me away, it’s incredible how some popular multiplayer titles like World of Warcraft which used to take me hours to get running back in high school can now practically run out of the box.
On the other hand, one of the major gpu manufacturer’s still has terrible driver support. Systems like Proton are imperfect, and seem to be depressing interest in making native Linux clients. Even though some things work out of the box, you can just as easily spend months failing to get a modern title running. To argue it’s the best gaming system is just laughable. In some respects, it hasn’t progressed at all in the last decade. When it gets to a point where users can run literally any game out of the box without any additional hassle, then it will be the best gaming system. Until then, this is a gross exaggeration at best.
On the other hand, one of the major gpu manufacturer’s still has terrible driver support.
Major PC GPU manufacturers and their drivers:
Intel AMD noVideo Perfect Good They hate opensource Major phone GPU developers and their drivers:
ARM PowerVR Qualcomm Great Looks promising Looks good But it’s not like Windows is necessarily better! I’ve spent far longer trying to get some games to work on there than I do on Linux. I’ve spent more time on random driver issues in Windows than I do on Linux. I’m quite technical, and Windows has been far more frustrating in the bad cases - especially when talking about older games.
When it gets to a point where users can run literally any game out of the box without any additional hassle, then it will be the best gaming system. Until then, this is a gross exaggeration at best.
No, that’s ridiculous. It will be the best gaming system when it can run more games out of the box without any additional hassle than Windows can. I’m not sure we’ve reached that point, but we’re damn close - since I switched to Linux full-time, there’s been a handful of games that I’ve had trouble getting to work, but all of them were niche (or modded) games. All the big titles have worked flawlessly, and better than on Windows (since all the additional crap like launchers, background services etc. are contained to when the game is running).
I’ve spent more time on random driver issues in Windows than I do on Linux.
I’d honestly be interesting to hear why this is, because it’s the exact opposite for me. I can count on my hands the number of times I’ve experienced driver issues on Windows. Now, I typically only use stable updates, so I generally avoid the dreaded “new update breaking driver compatibility” or “new driver incompatible with old version” issues, but compared to working with Nvidia drivers on Linux? literal night and day difference. even trying to stick to the stable 535 drivers on Ubuntu 22.04 has been a huge nightmare, and many of my favorite titles are still unplayable after weeks of tinkering.
On Windows, I’ve had countless instances where a game wouldn’t start after updating NVidia drivers (updates recommended by Geforce Now, to simplify/streamline the process). I’ve also had cases where game A wouldn’t start with driver X, and game B wouldn’t start with driver Y, so I had to uninstall & reinstall when I wanted to play either. This has also bricked Windows installs before.
Compared to that I haven’t had any NVidia driver issues on Linux, apart from (and since) the Wayland sync issues last year. But I also chose a distro that handles it all for me (first Fedora Kinoite through Ublue, later Aurora). It just works, especially since I’m not doing any driver installs or anything myself. It’s just handled for me, I get a new image, and everything works.
The worst I’ve had were issues that were solved by doing a Flatpak update.
It’s so wild, it’s like we’re in different mirror universes. That being said, I’ve never used either of the two distros you mentioned, which might honestly be my biggest issue; saying you have a problem with Linux, or trying to claim Linux as the best gaming system, is such a meaningless sentence because of the variety of distros available. I can absolutely believe that you’ve never had an issue with the distros you listed, but you have to also understand I’ve persistently experienced issues every time I’ve tried Mint and Ubuntu.
Oh, I definitely believe you regarding Mint/Ubuntu. I’ve had plenty of issues with Ubuntu (not with gaming, but regular applications). Inevitably, every install turns into a Frankenstein monster of deviations and abnormalities, especially after updates. While I’ve had good experiences with Debian, I’m still scared every time there’s a big system update.
That’s why I immediately jumped on the Atomic Fedora train when I first heard of it, and I couldn’t be happier. That’s because it actually fixes the issue by ensuring everyone has the same system. My Aurora install is pretty much exactly the same as anyone elses (except for 2-3 packages I’ve layered on top). That’s because it’s literally the same Docker image running on everyones PC, with the system itself being immutable. All my actual dev stuff, my application-specific things and everything non-default is running nicely contained inside distrobox containers, so my system isn’t different from anyone elses install. It dramatically cuts down on the possible incompatibilities.
And if there’s an issue, I just boot into an earlier version. That works even when there’s been a major version update. It’s amazing, I can’t recommend it enough if you want stability.
I’m planning on looking into them now, thanks. Will probably test both Aurora and Bazzite this week based on the recommendations I’m seeing, hopefully I’ll have more success with one of them.
Good luck! Bazzite is basically a different version of Aurora, they build on the same basis and just include different software (and are developed by the same organisation, Ublue). You can even switch between the two with a couple of commands: https://docs.bazzite.gg/Installing_and_Managing_Software/Updates_Rollbacks_and_Rebasing/rebase_guide/
But I’d recommend trying one and sticking with it if it works for you, not sure if there’s some possible incompatibilities when doing the rebasing.
If you have questions or issues, feel free to hit me up. I’m no expert, but I’ve used Atomic Fedora for more than a year, so I have some idea how things go.
On my rog ally X no man’s sky runs far better on bazzite than windows. On windows, it’s unplayable
It’s quite easy. Just don’t buy NVIDIA…Consoles aren’t using NVIDIA either and with the tariffs they make even less sense
My experience with Linux is that a lot of games tend to run better than windows these days
Not everyone wants to play AAA stuff
The main game I’m having problems with is an indie online title whose recent update peaked at less that 150k players. I don’t care for AAA either, indie games also break on Linux.
You can definitely say “Oh just don’t support Nvidia,” but I bought my card nearly 10 years ago, and at the time it was the best I could afford. Upgrading to an AMD card would be great, but absolutely not happening any time soon in the current economic climate. If your response to that is “oh well get fucked ig,” pretty hard to argue Linux as a universal gaming solution.
On top of all of this, it seems like everyone in this thread who’s had success with gaming on Linux is saying run Bazzite, an OS I’d never heard of prior to reading responses here. That’s cool if there’s a distro that’s actually solved a lot of gaming issues, but if I haven’t heard of it, the average user is never going to find it. Maybe the title of this article should have been “Bazzite is now the best system for gaming.”
I second your feelings on bazzite. Last year when I switched to Linux I spent a while researching the best distro for gaming and what I could find pointed to PopOS or Mint. Never even heard of bazzite.
Bazzite is just a spin of Fedora…
People know about it, because a lot of people use it on handhelds like the Rog ally and Steam decks
Which indie game are you having trouble with though? The only game on my Rog Ally I have trouble with is Goat Simulator 3 (and, I think that might be broken in general now), and I seem to recall canabalt was broken (but may be wrong… There was definitely a second game)
Even with Nvidia though I wasn’t having issues last I tested, but that was a while ago
Last Epoch, which recently had a major update. I’ve been flatly unable to get it running in two different operating systems now, and haven’t even bothered to try tinkering with it for the last two days. It even mocks me with a Platinum rating on protondb…but all the reviews on Ubuntu are at least 9 months old and that was back when the game had a native Linux version. My biggest worry is that the latest patch has broken something for Ubuntu, but what’s most likely is that my configs are just borked in a unique way that I’m too stupid to fix.
That’s fair enough then. Did they maybe do something like switch to vulkan?
Maybe worth sending a new rating to wine appdb? That way they could isolate if it’s a regression.
Last epochs been bad for me too. I had lots of graphical issues last I tried but that was a year or so ago.
Average users don’t install OSes. They don’t care about OSes. Nobody would ever expect an average user to even think about looking for a gaming distro. I think you need to retune your idea of what an average user is.
My idea of the average user is a complete idiot who doesn’t know how their computer functions. I know they don’t know how to install an OS. My point that if I was unable to find Bazzite, they have no hope of doing so still stands.
Nobody is expecting them too. That’s all in your own head.
Linux is now the best gaming system.
I’ll just share how my latest bout with gaming on Linux looked like, compared to Windows.
Install Anno 1800 on Windows:
- Start installation in Steam
- Ubisoft Launcher installs
- Anno 1800 starts
- Enjoy the rest of my evening
Install Anno 1800 on Linux:
- Install Anno 1800 in Steam
- Research how to start game
- Enable Proton compatibility layer
- Game fails to start due to missing Ubisoft Launcher
- Install Ubi launcher using method ‘add installer as game, set compatibility layer, install and change executable for application executable’
- Game fails to start due to missing Ubisoft Launcher
- Try with different Proton versions, fail each time
- Install Lutris and install Ubi launcher through that
- Game fails to start due to missing Ubisoft Launcher
- Give up for the evening
Next day:
- Read up some more
- Install Protontricks
- Encounter weird errors when starting it
- Try to find out what is going on
- Suppress tendency to just say ‘fuck it’ and start Windows
- Install Protontricks through Flatpack instead of system package, as the Flatpack version is slightly newer. Accept that this will result in a much larger installation due to not using system-provided libraries.
- Add Ubi launcher through protontricks, ignoring out-of-date instructions on the Internet
- Start game
- Cry at slideshow performance
- Give up for the evening
Next day:
- Research possible causes of performance issues
- Try multiple ways of enabling Nvidia GPU instead of integrated graphics
- Fail each time
- Turn off Secure Boot
- Correct GPU now available
- Better performance, although still not great
- Feel no enjoyment anymore at getting it to run or while playing
As much as I want to like it, this experience makes me feel that Linux is not fully ready for the masses yet.
Steam is supposed to handle installing the Ubisoft launcher during the first-time setup, it sounds like for whatever reason it failed to do that. It’s very likely that verifying the game files would’ve fixed the issue easily, as it re-runs the first time setup. If that didn’t work, deleting the compatibility files would probably have been the next step. I’d be very surprised if one of these didn’t fix it.
The rest of the troubleshooting steps you took until the GPU stuff were unnecessary, as they were basically Windows troubleshooting steps, not Linux ones. It’s completely expected to have to relearn how to troubleshoot stuff on a different OS and I’d really recommend asking in a Linux gaming community when you run into issues like that, until you’ve gotten the troubleshooting steps down.
Install Ubi launcher using method ‘add installer as game, set compatibility layer, install and change executable for application executable’ … Install Lutris and install Ubi launcher through that
Wine/Proton games are run in their own individual “prefixes”, which are essentially individual Windows instances. Both of these steps just installed Ubisoft launcher in a different instance. This would be a fine fix on Windows, but this is a different OS. The correct fix isn’t necessarily harder either, just different.
Install Protontricks through Flatpack instead of system package, as the Flatpack version is slightly newer. Accept that this will result in a much larger installation due to not using system-provided libraries.
“much larger” is relative, software is pretty small in general, especially compared to any modern games. It’s really not much space, and the flatpak runtimes will be reused for other flatpaks you install.
As much as I want to like it, this experience makes me feel that Linux is not fully ready for the masses yet.
I don’t even entirely disagree, but also don’t think the issues you faced completely demonstrate that. The Ubisoft installation issue was most likely a Steam client bug. First-time installations failing is 100% something that has happened on Windows, that’s why verifying game files is often the first recommended step when troubleshooting a game. Most distros that get recommended now have features to easily install Nvidia drivers. My personal recommendation for gaming, Bazzite, has an Nvidia ISO, which would’ve had them set up from the beginning.
Do you mind sharing what distro you were using? It sounds like whatever it is has bad instructions for setting up Nvidia drivers, I’d like to avoid recommending it.
Edit: Just read this back and wanted to add that I wasn’t trying to be rude or condescending at any point, or blaming you for the issues. I don’t think gaming on Linux is difficult, but I think people do need to do a better job preparing new users when they recommend it. It isn’t, and never will or even should be, the exact same as Windows. You have to learn the differences to be able to troubleshoot effectively, which just takes some time. Nobody knows how to troubleshoot correctly the first time they use Windows either.
I’m a bit strapped for time, so I won’t be able to touch on everything you said. But here goes:
It’s very likely that verifying the game files would’ve fixed the issue easily, as it re-runs the first time setup. If that didn’t work, deleting the compatibility files would probably have been the next step. I’d be very surprised if one of these didn’t fix it.
Of course I had to condense the experience a bit for readability and I don’t remember every step, but validating the game files, doing a reinstall and trying different Proton versions were parts of my troubleshooting steps. They absolutely didn’t work. I didn’t try removing the compatibility files afaik, but switching versions should basically have had the same result as that did trigger an first-time setup each time. The Ubisoft installer wasn’t part of that install for as far as I could see, or failed for each proton version without any visible signs.
The rest of the troubleshooting steps you took until the GPU stuff were unnecessary, as they were basically Windows troubleshooting steps, not Linux ones. It’s completely expected to have to relearn how to troubleshoot stuff on a different OS and I’d really recommend asking in a Linux gaming community when you run into issues like that, until you’ve gotten the troubleshooting steps down.
Linux is far from new to me, but gaming is a whole different beast compared to what I usually do with it. The steps I took were the recommendations from Linux gaming communities I came across. Even though I already suspected that the whole ‘install the Ubisoft installer through Steam’ wouldn’t work, if it is suggested, I’m not one to ignore that.
The problem here is mostly that the information offered on various locations differs and it is a question of trial and error to find out what works and what not, especially if you’re still figuring out the gaming ecosystem.
“much larger” is relative, software is pretty small in general, especially compared to any modern games. It’s really not much space, and the flatpak runtimes will be reused for other flatpaks you install.
From the top of my head it was 3 GB vs 160 MB. Which is quite the difference, especially if you’re working with a relatively small SSD. Flatpack is a mixed blessing in that regard, it’s not meant as criticism against Flatpack, it’s just a trade-off of having sandboxed applications.
Do you mind sharing what distro you were using? It sounds like whatever it is has bad instructions for setting up Nvidia drivers, I’d like to avoid recommending it.
It was Linux Mint, on an Nvidia Prime-based laptop. Drivers were included by default, no installation required, but couldn’t load due to not being signed. Hence the ‘turned off Secure Boot’. I could have MOK’ed around and signed them, but at that point I simply couldn’t be bothered anymore and just went for the simplest solution. Not sure it were official drivers or Nouveau.
Just read this back and wanted to add that I wasn’t trying to be rude or condescending at any point, or blaming you for the issues.
No worries, even though I don’t fully agree with you on everything, I appreciate your response and the fact you are trying to help out. I already saw somebody else mentioning Bazzite, so my next attempt will be to try that distribution.
I also noticed some ‘Ubisoft is just shit’ remarks, which might be true, but telling aspiring Linux gamers “well, you shouldn’t play that part of your gaming library anyway” is simply off-putting and unhelpful. So thanks again for being constructive, that’s what this community needs.
Linux Mint
As someone who just ditched them, apparently here was where you went wrong. Trying to get Nvidia drivers working on Mint for gaming is bad enough that some documentation for programs I’ve wanted to run has straight up said “Don’t even try this on Mint.”
Real shame because I liked a lot about Mint, but I would like to be able to run games like Warframe and Last Epoch more. I wish they were a lot more up front about the issues the distro seems to have with Nvidia.
Not denying you’ve had trouble, but my experience of Linux Mint gaming was
- Install Mint
- Install Steam.deb
- Install Nvidia driver
- Install games
- Play games
Only game that didn’t work first time was Star Wars: The Souls-like One With the Ginger Jedi. Tried a few months/updates later and it worked
Ubisoft isn’t ready for the masses yet. Linux works just fine
lmao I thought that i was the only sisyphus here
And if you play simulator games, especially any that use extra peripherals, it’s not even worth trying.
Huh… I just installed and played Anno 1800 on my Bazzite PC a month or two ago with no issue whatsoever. Played great.
Yeah, the secret here is Bazzite honestly. If a game will run on Linux, then it’ll run with minimal setup on Bazzite.
Nobara too.
I cant remember the last time I had to futz with anything to get a game to work, been well over a year. The games just work. Only extra step compared to windows is the one time effort upon installing steam to enable steam play and set the default proton version to experimental. Experimental has run everything for me, flawlessly, for like a year now.
I’m sure theres still the occasional, rare game that might need some tweaking/setup/patch/whatever to get going… but thats something you run into on windows from time to time as well, so its hardly a ding against linux.
I had no issue getting to run gr wildlands on lutris but even the 3 step setup was not worth it for how shit the game was.
Thanks, I’ll give Bazzite a try. Hadn’t heard of it before and it didn’t come up in my search results when trying to find out what gaming in Linux entails these days. Back in the days Linux gaming was done straight in Wine or, if you wanted to fork over some money, WineX (later Cedega).
Bazzite, and Proton over Wine (like 99% of the time). Pretty much everything works. Check Protondb.com for instructions for individual games if any of them are giving you trouble. Sometimes you just need to add a command to your Steam launch option or something. But that’s pretty rare.
I also keep up with the most recent version of GE-Proton as it’ll usually work if the regular version doesn’t. Every now and then (usually older Windows games), Wine might work better. Or something like Lutris or Bottles.
But the overwhelming majority of games “just work” through Steam with Bazzite.
Ubisoft games that use their launcher can be annoying, but these days they usually work no problem. I don’t think there was anything specific I needed to do for Anno 1800. I don’t even think I logged in? Unless I’m thinking of a different game, I’m pretty sure I skipped the ubisoft login and it still let me play the game?
I’m not just willing to never play another ubisoft game, I’m eager to. The games that don’t work are typically exploitative investment vehicles moreso than games.
Same. Bought a new gaming laptop sans OS with the intention of switching to Linux full time. After 3 weeks climbing the walls trying to get the thing to run properly, I submitted and installed windows. Everything is designed to work with windows, Linux is redesigned to run windows stuff, we are not the same. Once Linux has caught up I will make the leap, but today is not that day.
I had a similar experience but when i installed lutris everything worked so in total it only took like 20 mins to get everything up and running. Tho i do have a huge bias because i started using linux first(more than 10 years ago) and only started playing pc games a few months ago. Also if its a proper game without 20 launchers its really easy to get working, usually works outa the box.
Let’s not become delusional now. Linux as an overall operating system feels much better to use but only because we care to become tech savvy and to troubleshoot. There are so many headaches that come with Linux which makes it unattractive to most people.
We are probably not most people.
I’m not a techy, or a sys admin, or anything.
I never wanted ot think about my OS. I just want to click things and go.
Linux did have headaches when I switched. Some from my lack of knowledge, some from shit in linux just being fuckywucky. but that was many years ago.
I wouldnt say I’m any smarter today, than i was back then… but I will say Linux is so much better today than it was back then. Its reached the “it just works” stage, even for gaming, in everything I’ve tried with it. I am back to where I was on windows all those years ago, where I dont even think about my OS. I just click things and go.
I’m not so foolish to say its all sunshine and lollipops, especially with gaming, I’m sure there will always be a problem that crops up that needs a tweak/patch/config change to fix it… but honestly? Windows had that shit too. which is why I’d say, from a usability aspect, Linux is pretty much at parity with windows at this point.
And thats for gaming and shit.
if you are just a regular PC user where entertainment/email/bills/etc are all done in the webbrowser? Fuck…Linux has been good and ready for that for over a decade. My grandparents PC has run linux for over 15 years now, without nary an issue.
Thank you for being the sane one.
I’ve recently stumbled upon a lot of people like whoever wrote the article, rampaging all over the place, going “Linux is more user-friendly than Windows”, which is just an insane thing to say.
Linux is great, I love my Garuda to bits. But games are still optimised for Windows, we still need to use compatibility layers to get them running, and even though it’s gotten MUCH easier these days, there’s still a lot of titles that require tweaking/hacking. And some just refuse to run, period.
And then you have all the hardware compatibility issues that come with manufacturers just not supporting stuff. I can’t turn my GPU’s RGB off without Windows. I had to distro-hop to get the GPU drivers working correctly (it might be a “skill issue”, but that just proves the point, I think). Even titles that are marked as Gold on ProtonDB sometimes crash or refuse to run randomly.
Ive had less issues getting gamws to run on linux than windows. Mh world runs without bsod and has better performance on linux, older games are easier to run since proton handles that while on windows theres tons of tweaking involved if it runs at all on 11 etc.
Not to mention all the drivers for tablet not needing to be manually started on linux every time I want to use it, my discord no longer has missing audio or audio input issues that I had on windows and almost everyone else still does etc. Flight sims and vr are the only two things I miss.
there’s still a lot of titles that require tweaking/hacking. And some just refuse to run, period.
run into that shit on windows, too. and theres not compatability layers to blame, there.
Even titles that are marked as Gold on ProtonDB sometimes crash or refuse to run randomly.
and shit doesnt crash on windows? All protons in the world arent going to fix a games inherent bugs that make it crash.
run into that shit on windows, too. and theres not compatability layers to blame, there.
I honestly cannot remember the last time I had trouble running anything on Windows. Probably around early Windows 7? It’s been years.
and shit doesnt crash on windows? All protons in the world arent going to fix a games inherent bugs that make it crash.
Mate, come on… If a game crashes on Windows, you know it’s the game’s or the driver’s fault.
If a game crashes on Linux, it might be the game’s fault, or the driver’s fault, or the virtualiser’s fault, or the virtualised driver’s fault, or maybe a config file somewhere has something commented for no reason, or maybe you just rebooted and forgot to re-mount the secondary drive, or maybe a billion other reasons.
Gaming on Linux is MUCH better than it used to be, but pretending that it’s anywhere near Windows’ level of “fire and forget” is just being silly.
I honestly cannot remember the last time I had trouble running anything on Windows. Probably around early Windows 7? It’s been years.
I have the feeling you don’t play much non-popular games.
I have the feeling you don’t play much non-popular games.
Such as?
do you have nvidia?
i’m going to push back on this a bit. gaming on Linux today is nothing less than a miracle story thanks to Vulkan, Valve and Wine. i can play AAA titles on launch and it just works, and often better than on windows.
gaming on Linux isn’t like it was 10 years ago. i’d say for most users, it’d be perfectly fine on an easy to use distro.
some things will not work, because of companies that still oppose Linux, like Epic and Nvidia, making using those products difficult. but that isn’t Linux’s fault, it’s theirs.
do you have nvidia?
AMD. The distro I had did something weird where I was getting around 10-15 FPS on the Desktop until I added the community repos and installed drivers from there. Everything was great until I realised that Steam stopped working at all and Heroic Launcher wouldn’t launch any games. After hopping over to Garuda, everything is fine-ish. Every now and again I launch something like Hogwarts Legacy and just need to reboot because nothing loads after the disclaimers. Still haven’t figured out how to launch Mafia DE. Etc., etc.
i’m going to push back on this a bit (…) gaming on Linux isn’t like it was 10 years ago
I’m not arguing that, I myself said that it’s great today with things like Proton.
But saying that it’s “better than on Windows” is just flat out insanity.
but that isn’t Linux’s fault, it’s theirs.
Average Joe doesn’t care who’s fault it is, just that he can’t play his favourite game without issues or terminal hacking.
I’m on EndeavourOS and it’s nothing but smooth sailing for gaming.
Things often do run better than on windows, plus with the added benefits of not being on windows.
If one were too say it’s “easier” or “more seamless” than Windows, then I’d take a pause at that statement.
Even so, I do think gamers should start migrating to Linux, even if it’s just SteamOS.
Every now and again I launch something like Hogwarts Legacy
cringe tbh
Are you 12?
If I was, I’d still be old enough to know Harry Potter is cringe
Yikes…
If it is not the best, we will make it the best
They will know our peaceful ways, by force if necessary
Not really. Linux is all about openness and choice, but going with Linux as the only OS will significantly limit what you can play. As a modder, I’m against EAC and and the like as much as the next person here, but ideally I want to be able to play anything that looks appealing, not have to skip games for no reason other than their anti-cheat solutions not being compatible with Linux. I agree that we shouldn’t support those practices, but it’s one thing to willingly boycott something and another is to not have that agency at all.
Depends on what types of games you want to play. If you play a lot of competitive multiplayer games you’re gonna have a bad time.
More people need to say that if you’re going to want ring 0, I’m not going to give you my money.
…which is a completely valid point if you don’t mind not playing those games. But if you do want to play them (for example because back when you got to love them, they didn’t have this), you have yourself a dilemma.
Unless you want to play against a shitload of cheaters every day (ruining the fun whenever you have 30 minutes to wind down), your game should have a decent enough AC to detect when someone loads a cheat, including the lowest level. And guess who doesn’t have a problem with 3rd party programs accessing ring 0.
So there you have it, you either stop playing all multiplayer games (not even just competitive ones!) entirely, or stick with Windows and all the awful things that come with it. I’ve been wanting to switch to Linux for the past 20 years, have been playing various multiplayer games over the past 2 decades, and it was always either the AC or just the sheer incompatibility (especially in the earlier years). There was even a time when people could happily cheat on Linux and get away with it in Counter-Strike: Source, because VAC simply didn’t work on Linux.
I agree with your overall point.
However, as a professional codemonkey, I promise you that root-level AC is in fact less secure than server-side heuristic AC + user reporting, and tends to be user-hostile due to false-flagging of modified systems. Root-level AC can be bypassed rather easily these days with DMA and other out-of-band tooling.
As a case-study, League of Legends lacked any root-level AC for well over a decade, and was arguably the most popular game in the world at points. Cheaters were extraordinarily rare; the average player would typically encounter well under a dozen cheaters per thousand games.
Riot Games then released Valorant with full root-level AC, and had an aimbot explosion within a few months - mostly because they devalued player feedback & reporting in favor of their “robust” automated AC solution. Their overall anticheat strategy became less reliable on the whole, but they stuck to it because root-level AC is cheaper and easier to execute from the corporate-profit POV.
So there you have it, you either stop playing all multiplayer games (not even just competitive ones!) entirely
There’s plenty of multiplayer games that run just fine on linux. Including FPS games with perfectly functional anti cheat, it’s just a select few which are unfortunately very popular that actively block linux. This is the part where you put your money where your mouth is and support the games that support the system you want to game on.
That sounds better - now I just wish those were the games that I play.
Try other games? Whatever kind of game you like, there’s likely a less invasive alternative. We’re no longer in the era of game scarcity.
I wish it was that simple… though I do like my games enough that it’s a pretty unpleasant choice either way, my friends who play also refuse to change games just for my sake, and they don’t mind using Windows. Therefore I can basically stop playing with them, or stick with this rubbish.
I agree with your first paragraph, if you just got hooked to these games and want to compromise your own privacy and security by playing these games, that is your own trade offs.
But your second paragraph claims that not compromising security and privacy means you have to deal with cheaters. That is false. The games who support Linux do not have more cheaters. In fact, there’s plenty of cheaters all over the anti Linux games, such as destiny and league.
Also there are plenty of multi-player and competitive games on Linux. It’s only a few who do not (who admittedly also happen to be some of the more popular titles). I only agree with this sentiment if you’re hooked onto the specific games that are anti Linux, not the competitive multi-player genre.
Apart from the problem of my friends sticking with the same games I play regardless of my decision, the other problem is… yes, most people usually play the games that most people play. I also happen to be in that (high) percentage, so there’s not much room.
BTW I’ve been playing League for a long time, and while cheaters have been a thing for a while, in my experience it practically became a nonexistent problem recently. It doesn’t prove anything, just saying that League isn’t in the ‘cheaters all over’ category anymore (imho).
Thankfully, Rocket League is actually pretty decent in this regard, so that’s a “safe” one - but there’s several more that still necessitates Windows, so I don’t see the point of going back and forth in dual boot every time I switch games.
Take 100 random gamers. How many of them will know what ring 0/kernel level anti-cheat even means? They don’t care. They will happily accept whatever the publisher puts inside the game.
The only exception to this is Denuvo because it was affecting performance.
Disclaimer - I’m an ardent linux fan
They don’t know ring 0, but they would understand “this anti cheat is the most privacy invasive kind, controlling and monitoring everything on your computer”.
this anti cheat is the most privacy invasive kind, controlling and monitoring everything on your computer
Avg gamer: Woah that’s really bad.
Me: So you’ll uninstall the game now, right?
Avg gamer: What? Heck no. I’m Diamond in Valorant. And all my friends are playing it
They will understand what you said. But changing habit is way harder on a mass scale. It’s well known for years that Vanguard is a rootkit but the game is as popular as ever. If you tell this on any gaming community, you’ll be responded with “Oh and switch to LinSux and play decade old games?”
How about popular sports games like:
- Madden
- FC 25
- NHL 25
- MLB The Show 25
They’ll sell every year to their fan base. The guys I know who play FIFA, only play fifa on console and they absolutely love it. They want the new version with the new player names and jerseys.
Then you’re really gonna have a bad time trying to play them on Linux since at least half of those are not even on PC at all.
Its a bad time to play them, tbf
Good riddance imo
Honestly at this point those fanbases are allowing companies to expand on anti-consumer practices to a similar degree as sports games. I wouldn’t feel bed if they started being left behind as well
No one’s “allowing” companies, the companies see the profits from MTX and are going full steam ahead in that direction. The users that don’t spend on MTX aren’t considered because they’re not profitable.
You’re not wrong. I would never install a rootki- I mean anti-cheat on my machine regardless. But the point stands.
The author lost me when they showed the terminal command to install Nvidia drivers on Debian. Yes, it’s one sentence. That’s still extremely daunting to the vast majority of computer users. It undermines the author’s own thesis.
Linux is a better gaming OS for some (myself included) but there is still a small learning curve. It’s nowhere near as bad as it’s made out to be, but it’s not nothing.
I’d have softened the title and focused on the ways Linux shines as a gaming OS: compatibility with older games (1990-2010 in my experience) that dont work on modern Windows, the ability to get more performace out of older hardware, consistent behavior, and a much more pleasant desktop experience.
Windows is a better choice for many people, but Linux is just as good for many and a better choice for some.
Id rather disable secureboot and copy paste a command in terminal than mess around with regedit tbf
agreed
Depending on your distro, that command likely has a GUI alternative. It just depends on the distro implementation, the disparity is a weakness of GUIs in general. instructions for windows won’t match MacOS or others, and sometimes even older versions of windows
I agree with your comment…except for the part about a small learning curve. The learning curve is steep and difficult. You’ve got to be willing to jump in as an enthusiast and not a casual user. This is not the choice for the vast majority of normies (as you rightly conclude). The saving grace for Linux will be pre-installed systems with extremely polished UI’s (like the Steam Deck).
I’m highly motivated to stay on Linux, but there’s still a list of open issues for me (this is a year and a half after adoption…I’m just living with these limitations now, and there are a couple more I’ve added to my list of unsolvable problems since).
That’s still a five year old stance. Just install bazzite and have a steam deck like experience on any PC without ever touching a terminal. It even does nvidia drivers out of the box for you. The curve is not steep at all. It’s still there, but it’s getting much easier very fast.
Until you need to install something that isnt on Flatpak. Then the flat learning curve suddenly becomes a vertical cliff :)
At least the climbing gear is FOSS though!
I kid, but I’m guessing Bazzite has something like openSUSE Aeon’s
distrobox, which let’s you install anything you want inside of a container and expose it as an app. If not, they should consider adding it.distrobox
It has exactly this. And comes with BoxBuddy pre-installed if you want gui.
They absolutely do, but i’m sure you’d agree it’s a bit technical for most people
Edit: By technical i mean obscure, not difficult.
It would be interesting for that to be the default shell and silently “just work” for installing stuff. They could even handle debs or rpms in the correct container. So you could pull a PPA, AUR package, etc and could just work.
Bazzite uses boxbuddy for distro box automation. It’s literally two buttons on a gui, then the app is just another icon in your start menu. It even works well with autostart and desktop integration. It updates on its own. It has an extensive but easy to understand documentation. I’ve seen literal children do this without issue.
vertical cliff
Massive exaggeration.
Agreed. There are tons of random papercuts that a lot of us just ignore or workaround without thinking about it.
I absolutely think Linux is the bees knees, but I always list a bunch of caveats whenever I recommend it. If you go in with modest expectations, you’ll be pleasantly surprised, and that’s much better than being disappointed.
The author lost me when they showed the terminal command to install Nvidia drivers on Debian. Yes, it’s one sentence. That’s still extremely daunting to the vast majority of computer users. It undermines the author’s own thesis.
I think it’s just a consequence of the variety of ways a Linux distro can present its options and settings. It’s far easier—and arguably, safer—to share a command than to anticipate how to get to a certain option or setting.
Just as an aside, I had this exact same problem when a friend asked me to do something on my system. I ended up having to send them screenshots of what I’m looking at in order to direct me to where I need to be. All that trouble could have been avoided had they sent me a command to run on my terminal.
Is it better to have a utility that a user can just click? Yeah! Someone can write a utility program that can do just that, I guess. But then again, the problem now becomes how the user can make sure this utility program is in their system.
I guess it can be a bash script? The user can download the script and then make it usable. It’s a few clicks in Dolphin and (Gnome) Files, probably the same in Thunar, but we’re back to the same problem: the variety of ways a GUI can take to the same end.
I highly doubt that Linux users, at least the ones who value customization, will want to lose that customizability in order to make things easier for Windows refugees and pull more of them in.
Why do we treat people as if they’re too stupid for this. This is nauseating.
Im treating them as too lazy and not willing and not as too stupid. And both lazyness and not willing to put in extra effort are completely valid reasons to not do something.
They arent stupid. The information is opaque unless you are an enthusiast.
99% of people have no interest in installing an operating system. They have no interest in learning about different types of software installation. That’s not stupidity, it’s just preference.
As a happy and satisfied Linux gamer I disagree.
Linux is the best OS overall, at least for me, but not the best for gaming for most people. Not yet.
Emulators Xenia (xbox 360 emulator) was not mentioned, because it is Windows only. There is no Xbox 360 emulator for Linux.
Game compatibility 80% are platinum or gold on ProtonDB https://www.protondb.com/
This is impressive, but you can’t claim that a system that can’t play up to 20% of game titles is better. Not to mention that some of the other titles might need some tinkering as well.
Conclusion Linux gaming is now a great and viable option for most people. But it still isn’t better than Windows if you don’t care about bloatware, security or privacy, and just use your machine exclusively for gaming.
Bonus: Linux is free, so you could maybe also get slightly better hardware by selecting it over Windows.
Also, platinum doesn’t mean shit. I’ve been trying to get a Platinum rated game on Proton working for the last week. the first distro I was using straight up could never run it, and I don’t think anyone using the distro I’m now on has been able to run the latest patch. So that 80% comes with the heavy asterisk of “Your personal machine may still not be able to run this.”
Until recently, the only Ps4 and Ps5 emulators were linux only.
This particular point cuts both ways and has for a while. Some emulators are Windows only, some (though likely fewer) are Linux only, and the vast majority are cross-platform
Well, there are games you can’t play on current Windows. Like I couldn’t get Fahrenheit work on it at all. On Linux it worked first try no modifications.
Probably not as many as 20% of games, though.
Haven’t played Fahrenheit in forever (not since it was Indigo Prophecy on the US Steam release), but never had issues. Is it having problems with more modern Windows versions now?
Yep, just couldn’t make it run on Win11 last time I tried, nor Win10.
Both the normal and remastered just couldn’t run well.
Ah, bummer. Well as long as it can run on Proton, I guess there’s no loss for me anyhow. But always a bad sign when newer OSes fail to support older games.
a system that can’t play up to 20% of game titles is better
That’s not how those ratings work.
Hit the nail on the head.
Linux has come so far, but windows is brain-dead easy. Linux also a non option if you play league, FC, fortnite, destiny, battlefield and more with anti cheat
Yeah like, as a keen advocate for Linux desktop use, this is a wildly dishonest take / headline to run with.
Lots of people comment on this subject pointing out that some games don’t run on Linux, and conclude that Linux is still behind Windows. This fails to recognize a distinct advantage that Linux has: More efficient use of hardware.
If your system doesn’t have an especially fast SSD or lots of RAM, you might find that Linux gives a better gaming experience. It can often do more with less.
Edit to add: When I consider the fact that we’re mostly talking about games designed and built just for Windows, I find this really damn impressive. And it just keeps getting better.
The counter argument is that some games don’t run on Windows anymore either. All the software, all the time is the classic disingenuous argument that is always levied against Linux. It has to do something that not even windows does anymore. Then people ignore the fact that Linux sometimes offer greater compatibility with old games than windows itself.
Yeah, I’ve still got a win11 install, but every game that did not run on linux did not run on win11 either. I do not play multiplayer games though and those games had pretty obscure engines. Compatibility with older games is great though.
I rarely use windows these days, and I hate that updates can take up to half an hour and you can’t do anything with your system.
If your system doesn’t have an especially fast SSD or lots of RAM, you might find that Linux gives a better gaming experience. It can often do more with less.
This has been tested to death and, barring some exceptions, and barring Nvidia hardware, performance is more or less the same.
Then whomever tested it “to death” wasn’t particularly comprehensive. I speak from more than a little personal experience.
Of course it won’t help in every case, nor did I claim it would. That’s not the point, and your contrarianism doesn’t help anyone. Good day.
Helps everyone who might make the mistake of thinking your information is accurate.
Linux can feel faster in a number of cases because its scheduler is better IMO, but that doesn’t help when running something like a game. A desktop feeling snappier won’t increase your benchmark scores or framerates.
It’ll certainly breathe new life into that crappy old laptop, but it’s not magic.
It is not, ext4 does circles around piece of junk ntfs and I’ve got the load times from my own old world of warships install to prove it.
Windows gg ez’d its way out of making a better filesystem with the advent of SSDs which doesn’t have performance hits from fragmenting like a spinning disk does.
I still remember running defraggler every few months just so I could play Batman Arkham Knight on Windows, otherwise the game would freeze lag and run at a ridiculous 10 FPS.
Windows also eats 2GB RAM at idle for no reason compared to usually 1.3-1.4 for KDE and 1.0 flat for XFCE. Zswap/Zram also helps a lot when you don’t have an SSD.
And to top it off, Compiz, Wayfire, KWin, etc all outperform Windows’s desktop compositor by miles in terms of performance and visual snappiness. Windows lags heavily on anything mobile like a light laptop or tablet, yet you can run a full transparent 3D compiz cube no problem with basically no hit to hardware usage due to its use of OpenGL.
I’ve got the load times from my own old world of warships install to prove it.
That’s what we call an anecdote.
No that’s what we call HDD fragmentation, and the whole point of fragmentless filesystems like ext2/3/4, UFS, HFS, APFS, etc.
And it’s not like a small difference, the load time and HDD read demand was down by 40% system wide, not just videogames.
I’d even go and demo it again, but I removed windows from my ye olde HDD a few years ago. I mentioned WoWs specifically because its a asset heavy game that I actually happened to have installed both on Windows and on Linux on the same HDD, each within their own respective partition.
spoiler
Also bonus, HDDs were getting so bottlenecked that Vista introduced preload file fetching to guess which files to cache in RAM based on read call usage, which then also became a feature in Linux with the preload daemon which no one uses anymore.
SSD speed only affects boot time. Which on any reasonable SSD isn’t bad.
Linux distros can use a good bit less ram than windows, but the gap isn’t that big. Unless you’re borderline on windows Linux won’t make much of a difference. Especially the more noob friendly distros since they tend to be more bloated.
And they only talk about games built for windows through proton/whatever because native games suck balls. Proton emulating windows made Linux gaming good. Native Linux gaming is still typically worse than native windows.
Well…it has the opportunity to be. More native integration and/or wine fixes for certain issues, and anti-cheat being allowed would definitely put it on track to be there.
Anti-cheat is allowed. There are a handful of anti-cheat systems that can’t work on Linux, but IIRC, they are in the minority.
They are the minority, but have large player bases. Eliminating that barrier would mean that Linux devices (not just desktops) would be a one-shot win for most consumers.
personally, I’m really glad they are not writing kernel level rootkits disguised as games for Linux yet
Which is why it won’t ever happen (anti cheat allowed). Microsoft makes sure of that with $$$ to those devs that refuse to support Linux.
This is not a thing.
Yep im waiting for windows kernel emulation or some other techniques to fool it to think it’s on windows. Honestly I want to break client side cheating to the point they have no choice but to go back to server side cheat detection.
Yup. It’s a cat and mouse game until server side can become enconomial enough to broadly deploy (computational & network constraints).
Yeah but still cheating doesn’t give game companies the right to Rootkit my computer and have ring 0 access.
I’m aligned on this. Server side ought to be the way.
Also fuck cheaters.
Nobody left server side cheat detection. Client side is a complement to it.
Server side detection simply won’t do the job by itself to the degree the bigger games need (which is effectively replicating a locked down console environment). The only real alternative is running the entire game server side. If you’re ok with cloud gaming (or at least with running nothing but the renderer and the controller input client-side) then maybe it can be done, although it probably would require some type of subscription service to compensate for the skyrocketing server costs. Otherwise I don’t think so.
at least with running nothing but the renderer and the controller input client-side
Nearly all competitive multiplayer games run this way. The client is an untrusted rendering service, while the overall state of the game world is tracked server side.
It really depends on the game. For things that are fundamentally PvP with a bunch of players, sure. 1v1 games sometimes use a bunch of other solutions and if there are big PvE components things may get complicated.
And that’s why I said “maybe” up there and why I went with cloud gaming as the default. Rendering on client means you can still do all sorts of crap in terms of wallhacks, spoofing inputs and so on. I really wonder how safe even cloud gaming would be. Could you do effective autoaim with just a rendered frame fast enough? I bet somebody would try.
Hell, in some cases the cheating isn’t even on software these days. CS had a big argument about some keyboard behaviors recently, as did fighting games about leverless sticks enabling certain shortcuts. I genuinely don’t know the current state of affairs around those these days.
Rendering on client means you can still do all sorts of crap in terms of wallhacks, spoofing inputs and so on.
The solution for this that’s now in vogue is server-side occlusion checking. Basically, map what objects/characters that player has line-of-sight on server-side, and send the client only data for those which are visible.
Could you do effective autoaim with just a rendered frame fast enough? I bet somebody would try.
This exists - it’s usually done with a microcontroller that intercepts the monitor feed, scans nearby the player’s cursor or center-of-screen for probable targets, and softly fuzzes mouse movements towards that target.
Hell, in some cases the cheating isn’t even on software these days. CS had a big argument about some keyboard behaviors recently, as did fighting games about leverless sticks enabling certain shortcuts.
Yep, 100%. That’s why root-level AC is a bad option: cheaters are just switching over to these out-of-band techniques.
Companies prefer root-level AC because it gives non-technical stakeholders the impression that a game is “cheat-proof”, and therefore, that they don’t need to fund customer support to monitor and review reports of cheating. They’re not using root-level, client-side AC because it’s more effective than alternative options.
Not the case in my experience. Nobody is backing out from server-side checks and nobody is spending a ton of money either developing or purchasing anticheat to appease “non-technical stakeholders”, such as they are. Technical directors and technical leads exist. You won’t convince a random executive with a grumpy engineer in the room saying things are a waste of money. And that’s assuming your decisionmakers are “non-technical” in the first place. Plenty of studio heads came from engineering.
Game developers have metrics for cheating, they’re not making it up, and as far as I can tell you get better results on PC by doing both than just one. Worse, when you don’t have tight enough anticheat players can feel it, too, which is ultimately the only thing that matters.
As I was telling someone below, the goal of anticheat isn’t to fully secure the game. No game is fully secure. But it matters to make abuse onerous because it’s a very different experience to go from multiple cheaters a game to a cheater every multiple games. Trivial cheating that average players can access is a dealbreaker.
Not the case in my experience. Nobody is backing out from server-side checks and nobody is spending a ton of money either developing or purchasing anticheat to appease “non-technical stakeholders”, such as they are.
Riot Games is a perfect case study where this exact thing happened, IMO.
League of Legends had millions of MAU and a near zero incidence of cheating, for a ~13-14 year span. They implemented root-level AC for their next game, Valorant, and they ran into aimbot problems within weeks. Root-level AC was rolled out for League a few years later, despite vocal objections from their developers, several of whom were vocally against the move on r/leagueoflinux.
Overwatch is another example of a super-popular game that manages to stay cheater-free using only heuristics and player reports. They’re doing dramatically better at stamping out cheaters than Valorant, CoD, and other comparable games that include root-level AC.
Are there any counterexamples where you’ve seen a game struggling with cheaters fix the issue with root-level AC? I can’t think of any, but maybe my gaming pool is just too narrow.
I want to move to Linux, I tried a few months ago with a few distros but ran into two issues. One, I’m a content creator so easy access and use of my digital tools is paramount.
Secondly I make extensive use of VR and the support for VR graphics drivers was not good. I heard many duct tape and bubble gum solutions to run virtual desktops but I can’t mess around with my operating system every day when I need my machine to run and do what I need it to do without lots of little roadblocks.
I want to move to Linux but I do not think it’s where it needs to be yet to take me off of Windows :(
Ill be honest, it probrally never will be for you
Advocate for more Linux support with VR vendors. Remember that most of the time, what halts Linux development is not technical impossibility, but lack of political will. Companies refusing to spend money on development of compatibility for their hardware or intentionally blocking open source efforts is what halts the ecosystem. It’s the same exact computer, if it works on Windows but not on Linux is because someone in a suit angrily said “no”.
Can someone recommend a distro that will be used exclusively for gaming?
I’ve not used Linux in like a decade and only know I dislike Ubuntu for reasons I can’t remember (pretty sure it’s apt fucking up my system related) I’m between Mint, PopOS, and Bazzite.
Bazzite 100%
Second vote for bazzite. It’s been so great. It’s my 8 year old son’s first non-console experience and he’s loving it.
I’ve had zero problems with it. The only thing I’ve had to do is select the proton launch option using an easy-to-find gui setting. Everything else has been normal steam GUI stuff.
It’s also my first experience with an immutable distro, which has been interesting for me to learn about. Knowing about those details is completely unnecessary to run bazzite though.
Definitely bazzite
Coming from someone who gamed only on a steamdeck for a few years (i.e I have no other console or PC) and then switching to a desktop with a better GPU/CPU. I can’t believe how easy Bazzite was to install use and get gaming. Simply amazing what this team is doing to make it easy for the average person to get gaming on Linux.
I can only speak to PopOS as that’s what I chose when I switched last year. It’s been mostly fine but there have definitely been pain points. If you use a hard drive other than your os install drive then you need to go to the steam website to get the installer and not use the one in the built in app store. Getting mods working for games has been incredibly annoying anytime I have to use protontricks.
Non gaming related I’ve had numerous issues trying to manage permissions for my hard drives. Not sure if this is a Pop issue or general Linux issue.
Getting mods working for games
Yeah mods can be quite troublesome.
If you use a hard drive other than your os install drive then you need to go to the steam website to get the installer and not use the one in the built in app store.
Sounds like a steam problem.
Non gaming related I’ve had numerous issues trying to manage permissions for my hard drives
Eh, i remember mounting being a bit troublesome a few years back, but current GNOME should take of that for you with very little input on your end. This brings us to PopOS 22 which is starting to get really old at this point, I’d consider moving away to something that’s not left abandoned while they finish up Cosmic.
While I agree, the article mostly explains how Linux is almost caught up to Windows for gaming. For me, Linux > Windows, so if Linux can play enough games to keep me occupied, it’s a better “gaming” system. This was true for me before Steam even came to Linux.
That said, this article completely ignores the fact that many of the most popular games rely on anti-cheat w/o Linux compatibility, so that right there kills Linux as a contender regardless of its many other merits.
I guess my point here is to please don’t oversell Linux. You want someone’s first impression to be positive, and if they run into game compatibility issues at the start, the experience will be far from positive. I would much rather see a section right at the top about how to check game compatibility, since that’s what most people would want to check before looking at the various other things that are awesome about Linux.
Epic Games
…
We also don’t have to worry about download speeds, as they’re even better compared to the Windows client.
Is this true? If so, it’s very surprising.
By the way, I always encountered risk control and couldn’t enter the game when playing Rogue Company on Windows. I don’t understand why the anti-cheat component considers me a threat, but after switching to Linux, I no longer faced this issue; it has been much smoother than on Windows.
Anecdotal. I doubt this is a Linux vs Windows thing, but more that they saw different OSes being used by the same account and flagged based on that.
Some of these emulators also have versions for Windows or macOS, but on Linux, we can directly download and install them from the store, without the need to worry about dependencies or version issues, making it a lot easier compared to Windows and macOS.
Good point. Package management is really nice on Linux. However, if you don’t know what you’re looking for, you’re in a similar camp as on Windows.
Games on the Android platform can also run on Linux. In addition to virtualization ways like Windows and macOS, Linux can run without virtualization by using namespaces. If you’re interested, you can check out my previous article on Android Application on Linux without Virtualization.
Huh, neat!
Besides Steam, we can also use cross-platform tools like Flathub: Parsec to control Windows hosts directly on Linux. This means that even games that can’t be run through the aforementioned ways can still be played on Linux, completing the last piece of the puzzle.
So you’d need a second PC? That hardly seems convenient.
Actually, I also wanna introduce some advantages of the Linux graphical interface over Windows in terms of gaming experience. For example, GNOME’s Do Not Disturb botton allows me to toggle all notification alerts with a single click.
Yeah, this is certainly neat. I’m actually surprised Windows doesn’t have something similar, but maybe each app handles notifications itself there?
Additionally, I have never encountered the issue on Linux where I can’t temporarily return to the desktop during fullscreen gaming, which is something I often face on Windows, where the taskbar pops up but returning to the desktop is impossible. On Linux, regardless of which game I’m playing, whether in fullscreen mode or borderless window mode, I can freely switch between windows.
On the flipside, I’ve had a lot of really odd problems switching applications on Linux. I don’t know if it happens on Windows too since I haven’t used Windows in a decade or so, but I’m guessing the Linux experience here is worse.
I also sometimes have games completely lock up Linux, which I’m guessing is probably the Wayland compositor crashing. That used to happen to me on Windows, but again, this is from >10 years ago, so I’m not sure if it applies today.
Agree with your Anti-cheat point. I soooo want to move over to Linux but mainly Valorant is keeping me from switching (and I probably have other games like PUBG that might not work on Linux either?, while writing this checked and yep: https://www.protondb.com/app/578080)
Dual boot is always a thing, it doesn’t have to be one or the other.
I was thinking of doing that once I get my new pc. But having to close and reboot a pc every single time I want to play one of those games is quite a pain (certainly when wanting to do it with friends)
If I was able to just have a windows VM running while keeping Linux on my other monitors it’d be fine tbh
I was thinking of doing that once I get my new pc.
Why wait? Hard drives don’t have compatibility issues, and you can always just use clonezilla to copy and paste the system to a new NVME SSD later on if you like.
As for the VM it’d probably be better the other way around, gaming on VMs is not that great an experience and gpu passthrough is complicated to setup.
Because I just plain don’t have the time right now. I’m busy with buying an apartment and getting all of that set up while also starting a new project at work. When I have time to relax I want to relax and not have to setup an entire new PC.
I want to get the new pc after the moving is done as long as I have budget left, so it would come at the same time as when I would be interested in putting the effort in to setting up dual booting.
I’ve tried using Linux in Virtualbox on windows and use that for anything but gaming but its just plain annoying working like that certainly with multiple monitors.
Setting up dual boot takes like an hour. But yeah, there’s no rush to it, linux will still be there tomorrow. I don’t recommend buying a new pc and changing OS at the same time though. You don’t want to test your new hardware on a system you’re not familiar with.
Its not “just” setting it up but getting all software I need, installing the games again, getting my whole spiel in the browser working correctly again, figuring out how to set up and use dual booting.
The reason I want to do it on a new pc is cause I’ll still have my old one to use until I find the new one set up enough to replace it, so if I can’t figure it out in a day I can still have some relaxation time. I can sell the old one after.
Hah. Nope.
Man, I would look like much less of a hater if people didn’t keep making demonstrably incorrect claims.
No, installing Nvidia drivers wasn’t a one line affair for me last time I tried (which was just this year, btw), and even after I got things set up it was a toss-up whether features would work, work but perform horribly or not be available at all. That includes HDR, VRR, DLSS, DLSS transformer model, DLSS frame gen and Ray Reconstruction. On Windows some of the newer versions of those can be a hassle to set up in old games and necessitate forcing in dlls using third party applications, but at least official support works reliably.
Some distros do come with Nvidia drivers prepackaged and that’s fine, but all the feature issues remain. If you want a gaming-first distro there still isn’t semi-decent game mode support for SteamOS or Bazzite.
Intel GPU support is slightly better but a bit short of hassle-free. You probably don’t have an Intel GPU anyway, so we can let that one pass.
HDR support in applications is still sub par. That includes gaming and is true regardless of GPU brand, as far as I can tell.
Anticheat support is still poor and it still prevents many very popular games from running. At this point nobody has anything close to a solution to this, even conceptually. Yes, some anticheat providers have some degree of Linux support, but there is nothing close to kernel-level anticheat from Windows. Yes, this is a genuine problem.
Performance is… trading blows, I’d say. In some games you can get much better frame pacing and better overall performance. In others, particularly when using newer functionality it can go the exact opposite way. This is very situational. If you want cutting edge stuff and paid to get the hardware to run it, Linux is probably not for you. Salvaging weaker or aging hardware for older games is a better use case.
Gaming on Linux is much better than it was and it likely will keep getting better. That’s good news in itself, getting hyperbolic just triggers flamewars and negativity on something that should be a pretty clean net positive. It really doesn’t help.
Yeah at this point I’m tempted to swap back to Windows until I can ditch my Nvidia graphics card. Driver support is such a pain in the ass, it is absolutely not a single line. Getting games to run often includes installation of i386 drivers as well as vulkanlibs, because all the “easy” installations of Nvidia drivers only grab the 64 bit ones, and that’s before even starting to get into all the tweaks and fixes you’ll need to add for some games.
there is nothing close to kernel-level anticheat from Windows
Long may this continue. Fuck kernel level
anticheatmalware, and fuck the developers that use it.I want gaming on Linux to be as good as it can be, but I too draw the line at kernel level anti-cheat. I’d rather deal with cheaters than install that crap.
I want gaming on Linux to be as good as it can be, but I too draw the line at kernel level anti-cheat. I’d rather deal with cheaters than install that crap.
Yeah, well, the answer to that conundrum is called a PS5.
If “as good as it can be” means competitive games are full of cheats then “good as can be” isn’t good enough. Back when Windows wasn’t good enough in this way PC gaming was a smaller slice of the pie overall.
Games having access to everything i do on my pc is sheer lunacy. Let the devs sanitize their fucking inputs and not give client information the player shouldn’t have access to. Anti cheat has always been an arms race, nothing, and that does include your kernel anti cheat, will ever completely stop cheaters.
“Completely” is not the goal. Consoles aren’t “completely” cheat free, either.
The goal is to make cheating hard enough that the average twelve year old can’t easily do it or conspicuous enough that you can ban them when they do.
Because at that point most players will go from encountering multiple cheaters per game to encountering a cheater every many games, so the game looks like a mostly fair thing with a few outliers as opposed to an absolutely unplayable mess.
And since cheaters and hackers tend to flock to whatever is popular, particularly if they’re monetizing their cheating in some form, the more popular the game the more of an interest they have in a secure-enough environment.
If you can’t get that on PC they will focus on consoles. If you can’t get that on Linux they will focus on Windows.
You DON’T need kernel access to achieve that.
Developers that go down this route are substituting good architectural design for god tier access to your machine. Kernel access is the proverbial keys to the kingdom, there is literally nothing they cannot do with it.
It’s like a gardener saying they need access to water, so you give them the alarm codes, a copy of every single door key, the safe code, the wifi password, a silicon mold of your fingerprint, and a urine sample for good measure.
It is WAY beyond overkill, and any developer that claims to need that level of access to prevent cheating is lying. There is NO justification for it. They. Are. Being. LAZY and they are putting you at risk in the process.
Well, hey, if there is an easy way that is just as secure and is hardware and OS agnostic I thoroughly recommend you go ahead and develop it. I hear there’s good money in it.
Or is your proposed scenario that every single vendor of anticheat software working today is not only deliberately avoiding the use of equally good non-kernel level Windows anticheat but also deploying deliberately inferior, less secure Linux anticheat when they could deliver a solution just as good as the Windows alternative? How do you think that works?
