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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.
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I saw a post on bluesky saying Steamdeck can't be widely adopted because of linux. I asked why is that the case? He says "Linux doesn't run as many games as windows ". I said "only a few and the anti cheat ones". He kept arguing. I asked him about nintendo and he goes "It has the games to back it up" and I blocked him lol.
Millions of games are not enough because its FOMO.
I've been using Linux exclusively for ~14 years now. Heavily gaming on Linux only for the last ~8 years.
It was possible (though sometimes headache inducing) to play most games back then (Wine and soon Proton to thank) the biggest change IMHO came with SteamPlay since it turned the headache into one click on most games (thanks to the amazing work of wine/proton developers and the tinkering of the community).
When the SteamDeck released people seemed surprised at the breadth of games that were running on day one. To me it was not really a surprise since I had been Linux gaming with SteamPlay all the time and was almost expecting games to "just work" (though I still would and still am checking ProtonDB before purchase).
What the SteamDeck changed in my view was
I feel that the SteamDeck with SteamOS has really put Linux, especially Linux gaming on the map. Even though I want to be like "Linux Gaming has been a thing forever, I was doing it before it was cool" ;) I have to recognize that fact. In the past years I've seen so many people setting up Linux especially by the way of SteamOS (using HoloISO, Chimera ...) just to play/mess with it which is also why I think an Official SteamOS release will make a huge difference.
Tl;dr: Gaming on Linux was a thing before. But the SteamDeck/SteamOS 3 made a huge impact nonetheless.
It still feels like magic at times. The SteamDeck is my backlog steamrolling machine (pun intended). Almost every game in my library that I either forgot about or feels wasteful to play on my high-end desktop, runs amazing. I'm replaying Brutal Legend just because it runs so smoothly on my deck.
When they came out with SteamOS the first time, it felt so good to have a games run on Linux without fiddling with Wine. Those were dark times. The few people making an effort to run their games with the tools they had available where really putting in work to make it happen.
God, I remember searching the ends of the internet to get Starcraft running at some point. I managed to kinda get it going but it might have taken a few days of troubleshooting silly things.
If you've been at it for 8 years, I appreciate your efforts.
When SteamOS releases on all devices people will say "I'll switch when every peice of Windows software is compatible" or some other unreasonable and impossible accomplishment. Even if every peice of Windows software was compatible people would say "ill switch to Linux when it looks and functions identically to Windows".
With bottles, boxes, and all the other small environment virtualization solutions available right now, switching to Linux with a few 'almost native' Windows application is easier than ever. The mileage will vary from distro to distro. I've managed to get bottles to run some annoyingly old statistics software I need for work. It works great. Sometimes it can be a bit of a headache to figure out where the software saves files but playing detective for a file somewhere in the system is better than enduring all that Windows imposes on the user.
It helps to think about this as a spectrum, as more features become available more people will make the switch to Linux. Not everyone will be able to swich to Linux at the same time, and some people will never switch.
Gaming was major bottleneck, even I, a person using Linux full time for the past 20 years, I used to maintain a Windows disk to play games. Only in the past couple of years I was able to sunset my windows setup, hopefully to never touch windows ever again. I had to drop a couple of games but it got to the point where rebooting to a OS wasn't worth it, as most of my games worked flawlessly without any tweaking.
There are many major pros to the Linux desktop environment, but we still need major software applications to become portable. The workflow of an average office worker is still not Linux compatible. Of course there are office alternatives, but they are not as easy to use. Though, IMO the oss world is hurting by trying to copy ms when their products are so horrible... Hopefully, the EU will drop some major cash at the issue with all these talks about digital sovereignty.
Yep. I recently started using bluesky and it's filled with linux hate posts farming likes. People just complaining about random things that don't even make sense.
I believe fomo is a real thing. Even if one doesnt play fortnite or valorant or kernel level shit, they still are afraid of missing out. So unless and until Microsoft goes bankrupt, I doubt Linux will replace it.
I recently switched to fedora and I didn't think it would be difficult, but it was even easier than I expected. Every game I've tried to play has worked perfectly.
To anyone reading this thinking "once SteamOS comes out, I'll switch", you should know:
Gaming on Linux is already here. Pick a distro and game. You can take advantage of Proton right now. You don't need to wait for one specific distro.
I've personally been gaming on Linux exclusively for about 3 years. Windows games, not Linux games.
Edit: based on other commenters' suggestions, I'll give you some.
I have gamed for those three years on PopOS. It is a distro based on Debian, ultimately, which means it's also related to Ubuntu and Mint. Realistically, you can pick any of those 4 and you should have a nice experience.
Arch is popular with the übergeeks, and I do use it on my laptop, BTW, but you shouldn't use it as a first distro.
The concept of "distro" doesn't really exist for Windows, because you pretty much get one monolithic product. But basically, it is a specific mix of software that works together and relies on the Linux kernel. Imagine it as a "version" of Windows with specific goals, some of which are overlapping (e.g. Mint and Ubuntu tend to cater to the same audience).
If you get far enough into it, the freedom that Linux allows means that you can turn any distro into any other distro.
Hell yeah.
Tbh the vast majority of people who say "ill switch to (insert Linux distro here) when (insert accomplishment here)" will most likley never switch
Fair enough. I tend to agree, but I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, because, you know, FOSS and freedom.
It's actually surprising how easy it is to use.
My wife was playing Baldur's Gate 3 on her windows laptop (GOG version, DRM free) and I just wanted to see if I can run it on my Linux laptop.
Just copied the game folder from her laptop to my external SSD, plugged it into my laptop, ran through proton. Everything works without any issues. Simple as that.
I was pleasantly surprised. We could even join via LAN and had some co-op fun. After trying it out I think I'm buying the game.
Exactly this. Many people have a lot of apprehension until they actually try it.
"Pick a distro" is why they're waiting for steamos, presumably.
This is fair. I should have given my own suggestions.
Mint is probably the choice at the moment for new folks. Also, this will be controversial, but feel free with Ubuntu. It will get you started, and that's great.
Edit: I added some (open-ended) suggestions to my original comment.
I think that is perfectly valid and I’ll happily recommend steamos to newcomers. I’m only a little worried about it being locked to flatpaks by default though. Hopefully that will change, but for most users it will be a good start.
Locked to flatpaks? aren't they worried about the disk space?
I wouldn't say SteamOS for new folks, tbh. Flatpaks are very different from the typical Linux flow.
locked to flatpaks by default makes sense long-term, I think.
Might be a little difficult in the beginning though.
Make sure your hardware is compatible. Otherwise you have to deal with kernel upgrades to get latest drivers, which is advanced linux stuff. My gpu (B580) is compatible with 6.12 and newer kernel. And I wasn't able to install newer kernel on linux Mint 22. Ended up installing Windows. And... It's not that bad. I haven't seen it for a while. Everything works better in my case. And you can uninstall all you don't need including edge. But I will go back when kernel I need will be shipped with distro.
This is generally true, but I'd also caution that the B580 is a brand new card with (somewhat lacking) Linux support.
In general, if you aren't using bleeding edge hardware, you won't have such issues. This is especially true of AMD hardware, which tends to be extremely Linux friendly.
Sons is mostly playing Valorant right now on Windows 11. I’m an old dude familiar with FreeBSD, and Debian. No clue about running games and stuff though. Would he be able to switch?
edit: thanks for the insight. Sounds like a no-go for now until anti-cheat stuff is supported outside windows.
Yes, anti-cheat specifically is a problem. That's you fighting against the corpos, to be clear. Not really an issue with gaming on Linux itself.
Edit: not only against the corpos, but more generally against the idea of "kernel-level anti-cheat". If you're giving any corporation kernel-level access to your machine, you basically no longer control your machine. That's true of Windows too.
It's a big issue and the lack of support on Linux is a bit of a feature, not really a bug.
Some Linux Competitive Multiplayer games that generally "just work" and perform well under Linux: Insurgency Sandstorm, Hunt Showdown, Hell Let Loose, Dead by Daylight, Battlebit
To be 100% honest, probably not, and you may need to confirm with someone who knows Valorant. The big issue is anti-cheat, the detectors in use for major multiplayer games tend to lose their minds when they see Linux as they're typically only built for Windows. Other than anti-cheat, it wouldn't surprise me if it played better on Linux. Some of the low level magic has improved a lot in recent years, but official support is mandatory for multiplayer.
No riot game works on linux
It's the only category of games that doesn't work, they use kernel windows modules for anti-cheat and they don't have any plans to support
I'll switch when 10 finally dies, they state Oct 2025 but if even less people go to 11 they won't really have a choice but to keep 10 up and running. Make 10 the last Windows OS ever. Never go to 11.
But... Why not now? I can't think of a single reason.
Personally, my last holdout on my desktop is VR, and I'd rather not dual boot.
My laptop has been running Linux for years now, although I've been having some issues with it lately, possibly due to repeated in-place upgrades, so I've been thinking of switching away from mint to a rolling release distro. Although, I have to say, NixOS's philosophy is really compelling.
A Linux distro with a great OOTB experience for gamers would go a long way.
Bazzite
Luckily for you this already exists, and it's effectively SteamOS:
You can even put this on a Steam Deck as a drop-in replacement.
Bazzite is fantastic and it's what I'm running on my gaming laptop, but I've always wondered why you would want to put it on a Steam Deck? Is it for the people who use it as a laptop replacement?
the biggest wall imo is still getting companies with anticheat games on board.
It will be the opposite. Even Microsoft hates kernel-level anti-cheat.
IMO, no one should be playing games with kernel level anticheat. There is no way I would let any big gaming company have that level of control over my PC. It's a security nightmare.
If gamers were buying in their best interest nintendo would be bankrupt, there is what gamers should do and there is the real world. The sad reality is that only the low end gamers care about vanguard and they aren’t paying the bills in riot
sadly theres a line between shouldn't and how the market responds to it. Regardless of the fact, it is a hurdle, and the reason why not all of the top games on the concurrent player list on steam is playable on SteamOS, whether one likes it or not.