Share your thoughts on gaming on Linux
Share your thoughts on gaming on Linux
Looking forward to sparking engaging conversations about Gaming on Linux!
I've been working with this for more than ten years, leveraging improvements from AMD kernel drivers, Wine, Vulkan, and translation layers. Valve's efforts around proton have expanded gaming on Linux from a niche interest to a broader audience—users can now fine-tune settings, script behaviors, and play popular titles smoothly. While native game support has declined slightly, Linux remains a vibrant, ever-changing platform that keeps developers engaged. There are still some long-term stable releases gaining traction, but most players quickly adopt the newest LTS versions every few years. Steam’s bundled tools and proton have made it easier to find reliable games, which makes the trade-offs worth considering. *A big thank you to Philip Rebohle for his widespread influence—his contributions are hard to overlook.*
Paradox interactive offers strong Linux compatibility. It doesn’t look like a port and performs exceptionally well, often surpassing Windows in speed. Steam remains the main Linux gaming platform except for Foss games. Gog provides a solid alternative for DRM-free titles, though its selection is smaller.
It's not entirely exaggerated and it's not as severe as it seems at first glance. Protondb doesn't always provide solutions, so it's best to let the game developer genuinely address your issue. Yes, submitting a bug report is important even if your platform isn't officially supported. This shows you truly value gaming on Linux rather than just purchasing games on Steam.
Gaming on Linux varies greatly depending on your preferences. Many complain about AAA games not running, but I seldom play them. The same applies to MOBAs. Windows tends to have more bugs compared to most Linux distributions, likely because users are accustomed to it. Benchmarks suggest many titles perform better on Linux, possibly due to lower system idle demands. Proton stands out as a strong option. I rarely consider whether games have Linux versions anymore. 99% of applications function smoothly. The only issues I've faced are with two games—WCIII: Reforged and Anno 1800—which no longer run correctly on my machine, though I don't understand why. Apart from that, Steam is consistently reliable, with most games working without problems. For non-steam titles, a Lutris script often prevents failures. Linux versions are improved with faster pre-setup commands. Overall, it offers both benefits and drawbacks, depending on what you value most.
I usually have no issues playing games on Linux, according to my channel. However, I’m facing a bit of trouble with the boot loader these days. My 4TB drive used to be GPT with EXT4 and the /home partition, but now it’s MBR fat 16 with EXT4 data... I’m not sure what that means or how it works.
I'll add my thoughts. Recently I set up Steam and started playing right away. I mostly stick with Lutris unless I need Epic Games. When I first got into Linux, the only game that didn’t work was State of Decay 2, which led me to explore Glorious Eggroll’s Proton at https://github.com/GloriousEggroll/proton-ge-custom. Since then, I’ve kept it updated with Protonup_Qt just in case some games don’t play well with native Steam Proton (though that hasn’t happened yet).
I feel pretty special about my Linux journey because I haven’t faced the usual struggles people talk about. My transition was really smooth—like plug-and-play. Although I have an AMD CPU, it seems those who complain often use Intel ones. I’ve been using Linux for three years now, with different setups and all my games running fine. My machine uses x3 screens and handles everything without issues. After a year and a half, I became interested in building my own distro and ended up creating my Arch system about a month later.
I don’t think Arch is the best pick if you just want something that works out of the box. It needs a lot of manual setup. Based on what I’ve tried, I suggest Pop! OS for those who like GNOME desktops (Ubuntu or Manjaro) or Arch Linux if you prefer a plug-and-play experience. Just follow the installation steps as you would on Windows—you’ll be fine.
If you’re using an Intel CPU, it might be trickier. I have three systems: one with a GTX 1050ti, another with an RTX 2060S, and mine has an RTX 3080 OC. No problems so far. I’m planning to replace the GTX 1050ti with an AMD Vega soon, once I get a better power supply. The RTX 2060S card originally worked fine until I upgraded my midcard. All these graphics cards are plug-and-play for me.
Gaming on Linux is surprisingly smooth for me. I’ve grown so used to it that I rarely think about Windows anymore.