That is certainly true, but they usually work fine on Linux thanks to Proton. I'm a big gamer and I've been primarily Linux (for gaming too) for something like 4 years now.
I go one step further. I have a Windows PC primarily for gaming, on its own physical LAN all to itself, that can only talk to the Internet (not any other LANs). I have an almost-identical PC (sans GPU) for Linux Mint, which I do all of my actually important or meaningful work on.
Like you alluded to, I never use the Windows PC for anything else -- nothing even remotely sensitive -- nothing with identification like logging into government websites, no financial activity, etc. It has no access to my e-mail, instant messaging, calendar, contacts, pictures, videos, and so on. While it has Steam on it, I don't buy Steam games on it; I go to Steam's website on my Linux desktop and buy games there, then they show up in my Steam library on the Windows desktop. I do also use it for 3D CAD since I'm still very much in my infancy learning FreeCAD (which will remove that Windows dependency).
It spends the vast majority of its time turned off and if the entire contents of its drives were published publicly I wouldn't lose a minute's sleep over it. I still image the drive every couple months so I can revert to a known-good config should the need arise, as breaking itself for no reason is what Windows is really good at.
Which makes those god-awful prompts to "Finish setting up Windows Backup" every couple of weeks bloody hilarious...
I will bite. I have this exact setup. And indeed at the very beginning I would mostly use Linux, then I started playing more games on Windows. And that's when the convenience factor makes windows win. Having to reboot to use linux after a gaming session is annoying when I can just open another app in windows and achieve the same result (and don't forget I would have to reboot yet again when it's time to resume play).
Dual-booting means supporting 2 OSes on my personal machine. My personal machine is for doing personal things, not supporting OSes.
I use windows on my main PC because it supports all the games I want to play, and it also supports all the software I want to use. Linux does not. Simple as that, for me.
I also use Linux and Mac at work daily. I prefer to use the right tool for the job.
Right, but thanks to Proton that’s just not relevant? Blue Prince, Clair Obscure, Lost Records, The Alters, Doom: The Dark Ages, Oblivion Remastered, South of Midnight… all run just fine on Steam on linux.
If you have older hardware and play older games, Proton often doesn't run those as well as windows on the same hardware. On my laptop (win10/ubuntu dual boot, about 6 years old) windows is significantly faster in every game I have tried. I also had to do a futzy ad-hoc binary search to find a proton version that works with one game (either fallout 3 or fallout new vegas, can't remember which). And proton generally crashes more.
They run "just fine" meaning their developers and publishers just tolerate the fact that someone out there may be running them on unsupported OS's, and that too only barely. Many will straight up lock their games out of Linux, let alone support them.
There are very few games that run "better" on Linux, and that too only on specific benchmarks and after a lot of tweaks and hacks. Nvidia is a lost cause, many devices, parts and peripherals don't bother providing Linux driver support, and HDR & VRR have either bog-standard implementations or are straight-up unsupported. There is no way any current nontrivial game runs better out-of-the-box on any Linux distro for a layman than on Windows on most retail "gaming" computers.
bigstrat2003|7 months ago
int_19h|7 months ago
__rito__|7 months ago
You use Windows for games, and only games. For everything else, you use Linux.
This is a practical setup.
aaronmdjones|7 months ago
Like you alluded to, I never use the Windows PC for anything else -- nothing even remotely sensitive -- nothing with identification like logging into government websites, no financial activity, etc. It has no access to my e-mail, instant messaging, calendar, contacts, pictures, videos, and so on. While it has Steam on it, I don't buy Steam games on it; I go to Steam's website on my Linux desktop and buy games there, then they show up in my Steam library on the Windows desktop. I do also use it for 3D CAD since I'm still very much in my infancy learning FreeCAD (which will remove that Windows dependency).
It spends the vast majority of its time turned off and if the entire contents of its drives were published publicly I wouldn't lose a minute's sleep over it. I still image the drive every couple months so I can revert to a known-good config should the need arise, as breaking itself for no reason is what Windows is really good at.
Which makes those god-awful prompts to "Finish setting up Windows Backup" every couple of weeks bloody hilarious...
thmsths|7 months ago
dataflow|7 months ago
What if you need to check emails or take care of some other task mid-game?
hightrix|7 months ago
Dual-booting means supporting 2 OSes on my personal machine. My personal machine is for doing personal things, not supporting OSes.
I use windows on my main PC because it supports all the games I want to play, and it also supports all the software I want to use. Linux does not. Simple as that, for me.
I also use Linux and Mac at work daily. I prefer to use the right tool for the job.
charcircuit|7 months ago
freeone3000|7 months ago
vips7L|7 months ago
trashface|7 months ago
dartharva|7 months ago
There are very few games that run "better" on Linux, and that too only on specific benchmarks and after a lot of tweaks and hacks. Nvidia is a lost cause, many devices, parts and peripherals don't bother providing Linux driver support, and HDR & VRR have either bog-standard implementations or are straight-up unsupported. There is no way any current nontrivial game runs better out-of-the-box on any Linux distro for a layman than on Windows on most retail "gaming" computers.