Comment by thadt
4 hours ago
Pretty much the only reason I boot to Windows anymore is to play games with my kids and family. The direction of this thing is dangerously close to being all I'd care about from a desktop computer.
If Valve pivoted into making a well-supported laptop with good hardware that ran Linux and played games...
Like other commenters, I also recently made the switch. Figured I would dual-boot windows but have never needed to boot it back up again.
ProtonDB is a goldmine when a game doesn't work. Oh, and switching from Nvidia GPU to AMD GPU seems to have worked great to get games to "just work".
one limitation for Bazzite for instance would be some titles that require anti-cheating won't work but just like OP, only use case I have for windows is gaming and running some banking app which won't work on non-Windows device
love to see more and more users realize they can game just fine on linux
It's time to stop buying such games and send game studios a signal that we won't tolerate rootkits and/or closed platforms. Anti-cheats should run server-side, or better yet, servers should be community-operated. I would probably bought BF6, but since I exclusively use Arch, EA lost a sale -- too bad for them there are thousands of other games that work flawlessly on Linux.
I was in the same shoes, then one day I decided to give a shot to Bazzite. To my surprise the installation was extremely smooth, and everything worked right away. Now I’m playing almost everything on it (Arc Raiders, EU V, HLL and Horizon FW recently). If you want to _try_ all you need is 15 minutes, some HDD space and an empty USB. You don’t have to give up Windows at all, dual booting is also pretty smooth.
Loved the concept, tried it out, didn't work, at least not for RDR2 which I was trying to play. But how would it work, there is Linux, Bazzite, then there is Steam, RDR2 needs the Rockstar launcher, it's such an intricate web of dependencies, I'm not surprised something isn't working.
RDR2 has a gold rating: https://www.protondb.com/app/1174180
It should work with some tinkering.
I have finished RDR2 on Bazzite (story mode), zero issues.
RDR2 works great on my AMD Linux machine.
When silly DRM or a game launcher is all that is keeping you from enjoying a game, that is when you get the pirated version without any of this bs and enjoy it without remorse.
I have a bazzite box connected behind my TV. Even with a non optimal choice of graphic card (an old Nvidia) it works better than I was expecting.
I also bit the bullet and did a bazzite install and am blown away how seamless it has been for what I need. All the games I like run on Steam. Even Diablo 4 runs through the Blizzard launcher which does take some work to get installed, but nothing you can't find in a youtube video.
No issues using the system as my daily driver for personal things. I have dual monitors, one oriented vertically and one 144hz. All works great! I'd recommend it to anyone
1 reply →
I used to also have a dedicated Windows machine just for gaming, but two years ago I formatted the Windows drive and put SteamOS (via ChimeraOS) instead. I can legitimately say that it has been more stable than running the same games on Windows. Just flawless.
Same, if they also released something like a Steam Machine Pro with more ram+vram and bit higher specs I would instantly purchase it. Nvidia and AMD have been rightly criticized for releasing 8GB video cards in the past year and valve shouldn't be immune to that criticism.
This promises 4k 60fps gaming and Valve is good with hardware, so this is an immediate buy from me if it's under 1000€
No need to mess around building a gaming PC anymore.
Just wondering, what games are you playing that dont run on Linux yet? I can't think of games I'd play much with family that dont work well
I do not believe that _you_ are trolling with this question, but answering this is just asking to be trolled.
That said. Fortnite. Yes, I still play it with friends and cannot play it on Mac or Linux. :(
I'm sure others have similar examples. Also there are just simple things like playing with friends and streaming on Discord. Anybody streaming from Windows always comes across smooth and HD to the other participants while anybody on Linux seems to consistently be received (I don't know where exactly in the chain the problem exists, so just "received", as it may not be a broadcasting or encoding problem, I'm not an expert in this) with a lot of artifacts and lower framerates.
A friend of mine, a Linux user, says he installed Windows for gaming. Apparently the main issue isn't actual compatibility for games, but that a lot of games require some kind of kernel level anticheat (rootkit?).
17 replies →
I dont think I'm getting trolled, I know that loads of games still dont work. I just wanted to get an idea of which games are the current biggest ones holding people back.
Fortnite & Call of Duty
If I could travel back in time and prevent my kids and nephews from ever learning about Fortnite, I might do it. Instead I'm out here trying to keep from getting sniped by a Simpson character.
Fortunately, it seems like the rest of the family is getting tired of COD's ceaseless churn, and might be willing to pick up something else.
Fortnite is a fun game though, it's the only game holding me back from fully switching to Linux. Cloud streaming just doesn't cut it, latency is way too high (+ more money for a single game)
Ah I had kinda forgotten Fortnite exists haha. I think I assumed your kids were younger.
For me it's only games the specifically don't support Linux, which are mostly competitive multiplayer games with anti-cheat software. Apex Legends used to work great on Linux, but they removed support as an attempt to combat cheaters (there are still tons of cheaters).
For me the thing that pushed me to reinstall windows after I got a cheap $10 copy was Kerbal Space Program. Though, in my specific case I strongly suspect it was older hardware & driver issues than anything else, since I've not had any major problems on steam deck.
I do have more random crashes on certain games even on steam deck, but not as bad as Kerbal Space Program on my old (12 yr) desktop.
Factorio seems to work better on Linux. Which is both good and bad (since it's so addictive).
In addition to what others have said, a group of friends still plays enough League of Legends that I don't both dual booting. Also if you play RuneScape (RS3, not OSRS) the best 3rd party add-on, Alt1 Toolkit, only works on Windows.
BF6 and any multiplayer EA games with anticheat
Apex is an EA game and actually ran great on Linux until they removed support. Unfortunate, but they said it was necessary to combat cheaters though that claim is somewhat dubious since cheaters is perfectly viable on Windows still.
1 reply →
Battlefield, Call of Duty, Apex Legends, PUBG, Rainbow 6 Siege, Fortnite
Basically all the games I play regularly with my friends.
Microsoft Flight Simulator
Trying to get RDR2 to work on Linux, so far no luck.
I play it on Linux, try Proton hotfix.
I've played it on the Steamdeck without issue.
Battlefield 6, GTA V online, Escape From Tarkov, likely GTA VI
Imagine not supporting the latest releases that all your friends are playing.
Depends on your friend group; statistically speaking they're more like to play ARC raiders than EFT which does run on Linux
Steam Box 2 will be out before GTA VI
Zero of my friends are playing any of these games. GTA VI will probably do the console first release thing anyways.
Edit: Fair enough to the other ones though. This comment wasnt meant to be inflammatory or argumentative, but clearly someone else believed it was.
2 replies →
Extremely hard pass on a laptop. They already have the steam deck, and now they have this. Whether you want it portable or not, there are options. Laptops always end up being just... so disappointing.
I've been using Pop_OS, buggy as hell but steam games work great!
Everything is kinda a dumpster fire, but they nailed steam games.
Pop_OS is pretty rough. Theyre running on a super outdated base while working on COSMIC
The pop shop app being single threaded is just embarrassing. Do a search, the entire UI freezes up until the search is complete.
Also updates regularly break my KDE session and I have to restart my display server.
Sometimes I have to switch to a tty and back to my graphical console to get my display back.
It is a mess all around.
I haven't managed to get my GPU working in Docker, ugh.
That said, it does work. Mostly.