What I find most amazing about it is that this has been about a decade in the making - Valve started their Linux compatibility initiative back when Microsoft threatened to hurt Steam with Windows 8 and Microsoft Store requirements.
How dedicated they are to this effort is impressive - they first failed big with the Steam Machines when support was very half baked, but now they'll try again with the Deck just as compatibility is coming along much better.
I guess Linux gamers can largely thank Microsoft for this one!
As a Mac user I'm a bit disappointed they stopped their efforts on that front, since the new processors are quite capable.
With Valve being founded by a bunch of Microsoft employees, maybe they took a lesson from Microsoft: if you have enough money to keep trying, eventual success is likely. Microsoft did that with many products, most relevant in this context: the Xbox series.
I game mostly on Linux and I remember just a few years ago having anxiety while purchasing a new Windows game because I wasn't sure that I would get it working.
Since then the support has become so good I have practically no anxiety at all. If the game doesn't launch first try it's usually just a couple settings that need tweaking. Most things just work right out of the box.
Dealing with Apple isn't something Valve would want. They focus on Vulkan, Mesa and Wine. And Apple are pretty negative about Vulkan for some unknown reason (which seems to be even more than their usual NIH mentality). I.e. like when they were resisting adopting SPIR-V for the Web.
So Apple have no one to blame but themselves for it.
Starting at Win7 the telemetry and invasive advertising ramped up to the point where I don't feel I can customize the Desktop to what I want without heavy tweaking.
And if that amount of tweaking is necessary why not go Linux instead.
So got rid of my Win10 install, went with KDE Neon+Steam. And now I wonder what took me so long.
I haven't tested my entire Steam library yet but my top 10 games run perfectly, some times with some changes to the Proton version but beyond that even workshop mods are available.
I am seriously impressed and can't imagine myself going back at all.
If only Adobe would release their software in Linux, then, I could ditch MacOS too.
Been running Fedora + Steam for over a year, now. The experience has been great. It’s hard to imagine going back. I do miss Mac hardware, though. My 1.5 year old Dell XPS already has a bad key, and a faulty WiFi card. It’s complete garbage.
My next laptop will be the Framework 15” 4K option whenever they make one…
The way that Blender is developing they could get into trouble. Might not yet fit perfectly into the toolchain of many artists, but I guess it will make ground in a professional setting. I haven't missed photoshop either, I only paint and model as a hobby though.
I've also had a really suprising experience with my linux gaming setup: Playing old retro windows game has become easier, because wine can run a suprising amount of things. I recently itched to play Civ2 and after some wrangling with the setup file, I can now run Civ2 entirely transparently on my linux box. Same for a bunch of other Win95-era games - no need to fiddle with compat settings on windows and hoping, a lot of them just work in wine. That's pretty amazing.
The only thing I've found so far that just doesn't work is Tiberium Insurrection, because it does some weird things I don't understand. But with the way Win11 is going, I rather take that kinda problem.
Interestingly, I have windows software that were working with wine previously but new versions don't seem to work for some reason. I used the new bottles thing. Compared to a copy of among us which played seamlessly.
How is the performance of games? What I understand is that proton is a layer/adapter to run windows games and should create a FPS hit. Or do you get the same performance of running on widows?
I wonder if Wine can be used to run Windows versions of adobe software on linux. The adobe software is the same thing preventing me from switching to using a linux distro full time.
The recent Linux Challenge [0] on Linus Tech Tips has helped raise Linux's profile for gaming. Linus Sebastian's enthusiasm for the upcoming Steam Deck has really raised the channel's appetite for Linux Content and as such is exposing it much more to its audience.
We also have Anthony Young to thank for laying the groundwork for Linux Content on LTT, and in turn we have Linux content on LTT to thank for a greater awareness, acceptance and adoption of Linux among gamers (helped, of course, by the advancements being done by Valve with Proton, Steam Play, the Steam Deck, SteamOS 3.0, Steam Input, DXVK and all the rest).
My daily driver is Ubuntu 20.04, and I stopped dual booting with Windows back in December 2019, which up to that point had been the way I did all of my gaming.
I haven't looked back since.
Sure, there have been some games that haven't worked. Some of those just needed some tweaking, and for some I just waited a bit until Proton caught up. For the rest that still don't work, I am content with just shelving until such time that they work.
I have been consistently surprised at what games actually work through Proton. For instance I played Titanfall 2 & Battlefield 1 without any issues this year. On Linux.
I probably spend around 200$ each year on video games, and this initiative by Valve will be the sole reason I will continue to do so (and not having to run a Windows instance in my home).
What if you want to install games from other stores, like Epic, Twitch, or GoG? Despite never buying any games there, I have a bunch that they gave out for free.
> Linux machines make up only a bit above 1% of all Steam users.
to my knowledge, this number has remained remarkably consistent over the past 5-ish years, even as Proton/Wine become more and more reliable. it seems that library compatibility isn’t that much of a determinant for which OS a typical user chooses to game on.
but if Valve’s console effort is successful, then that number would necessarily rise. and i can see a linux console replacing something like my Switch. at the end of the day, console gamers don’t really care about the underlying OS — just the hardware and the game library (and miscellaneous HTPC features, etc). if such things can be abstracted from the actual console, that gives a huge leg up to incumbents. might pave the way to some Cambrian explosion of console development differentiated only by hardware.
> it seems that library compatibility isn’t that much of a determinant for which OS a typical user chooses to game on.
I would argue that linux would need to be installed by default for that to change dramatically. Most people don’t even know linux is an option on desktop. Not that many people bother to change their search engine to something other than google, and that doesn’t require much effort.
Switching to linux is an investment and takes time to use - let alone understand it.
I can’t wait to see what follows after the steam deck is released. Hopefully with all the publicity companies will finally start taking linux seriously.
Ive been gaming on Fedora for the past seven years. I think it has limited what I buy and play, so at tgis point I dont know what I'm missing, but it looks like at least 75% of steam's top 100 games work fine on linux [1].
It would be really nice to have it as an alternative since games bind a lot of users to Windows, which becomes a more and more intrusive OS without providing too many benefits to the user.
Valve already had fears about Windows 10, luckily their store and Windows platform wasn't successful in the end. But their intend is still pretty clear in my opinion. In the long run this will also benefit developers since they would have a dependable system to base their games on.
> Valve already had fears about Windows 10, luckily their store and Windows platform wasn't successful in the end.
A few years ago I'd have agreed with you, however the xbox game pass has been hugely successful for Microsoft to push their store and platform. I think a lot of PC gamers would struggle to switch to linux because of that alone. Looking at steam stats alone is selection bias and doesn't tell the full picture.
I bought Doom Eternal and Overload (spiritual successor of the 'Descent' franchise) over the cyber-Monday, and still haven't spoiled my uptime by booting Windows play them. With Steam's Proton there's been almost no problems or even obvious performance loss. Smooth 4k 60hz experience for both on Ubuntu 20.04 w/ Geforce 1070. No tricky optimizations or drivers.
The only issues were some audio crackle in Doom before I implemented the forum wisdom to set PulseAudio to 48khz, and, the annoyance that 'tab' stops working in game if I alt-tab out and back.
One of my favourite things about the great work done on Proton is that some Windows exclusive 90s era games of my childhood run better on Linux than they do on modern versions of Windows.
90% of my games could run fine on Arch+KDE but there are just some very weird bits that got frustrating, especially with multiplayer games or games where the player community utilize a lot of external utilities (network log parsers for MMOs are one example). This was as of last month.
Also I’m the sort of gamer that has a lot of friends I play games with. We often will play and talk about even a single player game at the same time, kinda like a book club. This is actually kinda common, talking to other gamers. You kinda play what your friends play. It can be FOMO, but more often it’s just really cool to have that shared experience.
So if something drops on EGS and I want to play along with my friends, then I need Windows installed. At the end of the day, if I have to keep a windows install around for even one game, I’m just going to use windows. The end.
Call me uninformed, but I actually have this article to thank for introducing me to Proton - I have switched to Linux a few months ago, had installed Steam and played a few native Linux games, but so far I was completely unaware that most Windows Steam games can actually run on Linux too. You can blame Steam's very conservative default setting for this - only games that they have tested and certified themselves are allowed to run by default, to try other games you have to select "Enable Steam Play for all other titles" in the Steam settings (a dialog I had never seen before). But now I can happily (re)play most of the games I have amassed in my library over the years (and partly never played) - on Linux!
Yes! I had this same experience. I was in linux + steam for a while before I realized I had to opt into proton-ifying windows games. They should enable this by default and keep providing good UX about it being in play in case you want to disable it.
I recently wanted to play some rounds of de_dust (don't judge) and while the game runs its performance are way worse than when running under windows. I know, small GPU, etc. but still.
If you're getting worse performance on Linux than Windows, it's probably because you don't have hardware acceleration working. You might be using the Mesa drivers (https://mesa3d.org/), which are awesome because they make it possible to run 3D software even if your hardware doesn't support it, but are generally much slower than the official drivers from your GPU vendor (they might even be using software emulation!)
Imagine, after months of work and sleepless nights the day has come, you have to submit your thesis. But during the final corrections your Windows decides to shutdown and update the system for an uncertain duration.
It wasn't my thesis, but I was part of the people that helped to solved the resulting mess (the update took 4 hours and the deadline was 2PM).
That day I learned to never rely on Microsoft ever again.
Maybe this is new in Windows 11, benefit of the doubt and all, but this isn’t a thing on any other versions of Windows. Forced reboots aren’t a thing. Misclicks, however, are.
Not only for gaming. I have been using Blender for over 15 years on Linux and 3D hardware support is getting better each year. Maybe some people don't like proprietary drivers, but I have been running Nvidia drivers just fine with a RTX card (on Windows you will have proprietary drivers anyway).
And as a Steam user I can only agree with the article. Games are running just fine.
I haven't tried much in the way of very recent games. It is nice to be able to play games I've bought on steam over the last nearly 20 years on underpowered laptops I put linux on. Makes me look back through my library and focus on the older ones instead of more recent or competitive games I'd play on my primary gaming pc.
I switched to Pop OS on my gaming rig and have been enjoying lots and lots of native and compatibility mode games for the past several months. However, FPS-focused anti-cheat isn't yet available (Battleye, EAC), so I'm unable to play my favorite title, Escape from Tarkov.
One big pain point is driver compatibility. Nvidia dropped 32-bit OpenGL, which is required for steam. CUDA packages in Ubuntu sometimes don’t pull in these dependencies, creating “dependency hell” for users.
[+] [-] solarkraft|4 years ago|reply
How dedicated they are to this effort is impressive - they first failed big with the Steam Machines when support was very half baked, but now they'll try again with the Deck just as compatibility is coming along much better.
I guess Linux gamers can largely thank Microsoft for this one!
As a Mac user I'm a bit disappointed they stopped their efforts on that front, since the new processors are quite capable.
[+] [-] ekianjo|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ahartmetz|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] marcodiego|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zelon88|4 years ago|reply
I game mostly on Linux and I remember just a few years ago having anxiety while purchasing a new Windows game because I wasn't sure that I would get it working.
Since then the support has become so good I have practically no anxiety at all. If the game doesn't launch first try it's usually just a couple settings that need tweaking. Most things just work right out of the box.
[+] [-] lunfard000|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] shmerl|4 years ago|reply
So Apple have no one to blame but themselves for it.
[+] [-] juusto|4 years ago|reply
And if that amount of tweaking is necessary why not go Linux instead.
So got rid of my Win10 install, went with KDE Neon+Steam. And now I wonder what took me so long.
I haven't tested my entire Steam library yet but my top 10 games run perfectly, some times with some changes to the Proton version but beyond that even workshop mods are available.
I am seriously impressed and can't imagine myself going back at all.
If only Adobe would release their software in Linux, then, I could ditch MacOS too.
[+] [-] christophilus|4 years ago|reply
My next laptop will be the Framework 15” 4K option whenever they make one…
[+] [-] raxxorrax|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tetha|4 years ago|reply
The only thing I've found so far that just doesn't work is Tiberium Insurrection, because it does some weird things I don't understand. But with the way Win11 is going, I rather take that kinda problem.
[+] [-] 2Gkashmiri|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dotancohen|4 years ago|reply
I do not use Photoshop, but I would purchase a copy for Linux just to encourage and support development.
Adobe support: https://www.adobe.com/about-adobe/contact.html
[+] [-] smusamashah|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] robotnikman|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lambdaba|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Zhyl|4 years ago|reply
We also have Anthony Young to thank for laying the groundwork for Linux Content on LTT, and in turn we have Linux content on LTT to thank for a greater awareness, acceptance and adoption of Linux among gamers (helped, of course, by the advancements being done by Valve with Proton, Steam Play, the Steam Deck, SteamOS 3.0, Steam Input, DXVK and all the rest).
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0506yDSgU7M
[+] [-] unknown|4 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] MrDresden|4 years ago|reply
I haven't looked back since.
Sure, there have been some games that haven't worked. Some of those just needed some tweaking, and for some I just waited a bit until Proton caught up. For the rest that still don't work, I am content with just shelving until such time that they work.
I have been consistently surprised at what games actually work through Proton. For instance I played Titanfall 2 & Battlefield 1 without any issues this year. On Linux.
I probably spend around 200$ each year on video games, and this initiative by Valve will be the sole reason I will continue to do so (and not having to run a Windows instance in my home).
[+] [-] jonny_eh|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wallacoloo|4 years ago|reply
to my knowledge, this number has remained remarkably consistent over the past 5-ish years, even as Proton/Wine become more and more reliable. it seems that library compatibility isn’t that much of a determinant for which OS a typical user chooses to game on.
but if Valve’s console effort is successful, then that number would necessarily rise. and i can see a linux console replacing something like my Switch. at the end of the day, console gamers don’t really care about the underlying OS — just the hardware and the game library (and miscellaneous HTPC features, etc). if such things can be abstracted from the actual console, that gives a huge leg up to incumbents. might pave the way to some Cambrian explosion of console development differentiated only by hardware.
[+] [-] u2077|4 years ago|reply
I would argue that linux would need to be installed by default for that to change dramatically. Most people don’t even know linux is an option on desktop. Not that many people bother to change their search engine to something other than google, and that doesn’t require much effort.
Switching to linux is an investment and takes time to use - let alone understand it.
I can’t wait to see what follows after the steam deck is released. Hopefully with all the publicity companies will finally start taking linux seriously.
[+] [-] marcodiego|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rookderby|4 years ago|reply
[1]https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2021/10/a-look-at-the-top-100-...
[+] [-] roody15|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] raxxorrax|4 years ago|reply
Valve already had fears about Windows 10, luckily their store and Windows platform wasn't successful in the end. But their intend is still pretty clear in my opinion. In the long run this will also benefit developers since they would have a dependable system to base their games on.
[+] [-] morbia|4 years ago|reply
A few years ago I'd have agreed with you, however the xbox game pass has been hugely successful for Microsoft to push their store and platform. I think a lot of PC gamers would struggle to switch to linux because of that alone. Looking at steam stats alone is selection bias and doesn't tell the full picture.
[+] [-] AnIdiotOnTheNet|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] marcosdumay|4 years ago|reply
A big reason for that was that Valve decided to make their games run on Linux.
[+] [-] Nihilartikel|4 years ago|reply
The only issues were some audio crackle in Doom before I implemented the forum wisdom to set PulseAudio to 48khz, and, the annoyance that 'tab' stops working in game if I alt-tab out and back.
[+] [-] esistgut|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] simooooo|4 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] _qfhw|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dmos62|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] krinchan|4 years ago|reply
Also I’m the sort of gamer that has a lot of friends I play games with. We often will play and talk about even a single player game at the same time, kinda like a book club. This is actually kinda common, talking to other gamers. You kinda play what your friends play. It can be FOMO, but more often it’s just really cool to have that shared experience.
So if something drops on EGS and I want to play along with my friends, then I need Windows installed. At the end of the day, if I have to keep a windows install around for even one game, I’m just going to use windows. The end.
[+] [-] rob74|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jakswa|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] johnchristopher|4 years ago|reply
I recently wanted to play some rounds of de_dust (don't judge) and while the game runs its performance are way worse than when running under windows. I know, small GPU, etc. but still.
Months ago an HN user helped me a bit and I found a (temporary maybe) solution: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25348159
Maybe I should try the flatpak version now that I am running ubuntu 20.04.
Anyway, don't have time/will to fiddle around so I booted in windows. And I played.
And then I wanted to play again the following day but Windows decided to update itself for an hour and a half and killed my evening.
#2021
Maybe I should start the flatpack version
[+] [-] bogwog|4 years ago|reply
What GPU do you have?
[+] [-] heyrhett|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] arendtio|4 years ago|reply
It wasn't my thesis, but I was part of the people that helped to solved the resulting mess (the update took 4 hours and the deadline was 2PM).
That day I learned to never rely on Microsoft ever again.
[+] [-] phendrenad2|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] baq|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] NDizzle|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|4 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] tdrdt|4 years ago|reply
And as a Steam user I can only agree with the article. Games are running just fine.
[+] [-] 83457|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mayormcmatt|4 years ago|reply
Then again, maybe I'm doing myself a favor.
[+] [-] mirker|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] yissp|4 years ago|reply