this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2024
97 points (91.5% liked)

Linux

48738 readers
1410 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

Rules

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I primarily use my pc for gaming, and want to avoid upgrading to Windows 11. Beginning the journey of looking into alternatives.

I am ignorant, trying to be less so. I have a hard time understanding what exactly makes a game not work just because of OS.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 83 points 1 week ago (20 children)

Put simply, it's like a translator that knows many of the languages Windows will speak. However, it's not always fluent in every language it might speak. This is what proton does, it translates system calls into Linux, essentially. It almost always will work, specially with Steam games.

In other cases, it's game devs making desicisons to disallow use of Linux. Specifically anti cheat. Not all anticheat is disallowed, but game devs could allow it. They just choose not too.

Most games will run just fine on Linux. I've switched entirely to Linux and said goodbye to those few online anitcheat games that disallow. Most everything works.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 week ago (14 children)

Very accurate comment, and to expand on this, things like media codecs, windows dependencies, etc also cause problems. Luckily Proton can play just about any game on Steam.

For example, Marvel Rivals is a new game that just came out and its anti-cheat works with Linux. I play it with ProtonGE, which installs extra codecs that regular proton versions don't include and it works awesome.

Check out protondb.com to search what specific games work for others on linux.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago (13 children)

Does Steam ever deliver Linux-native builds instead of running games through Proton?

[–] MorphiusFaydal 4 points 1 week ago

When you see the Windows and Apple icons on a game, that indicates native Windows and MacOS support. The Steam logo is native SteamOS/Linux. You'll also see a "SteamOS/Linux" section on the system requirements.

load more comments (12 replies)
load more comments (12 replies)
load more comments (17 replies)