this post was submitted on 21 Apr 2025
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Linux Gaming

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Discussions and news about gaming on the GNU/Linux family of operating systems (including the Steam Deck). Potentially a $HOME away from home for disgruntled /r/linux_gaming denizens of the redditarian demesne.

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[–] knightmare1147@lemmy.world 9 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

I want to move to Linux, I tried a few months ago with a few distros but ran into two issues. One, I'm a content creator so easy access and use of my digital tools is paramount.

Secondly I make extensive use of VR and the support for VR graphics drivers was not good. I heard many duct tape and bubble gum solutions to run virtual desktops but I can't mess around with my operating system every day when I need my machine to run and do what I need it to do without lots of little roadblocks.

I want to move to Linux but I do not think it's where it needs to be yet to take me off of Windows :(

Ill be honest, it probrally never will be for you

[–] dustyData@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago

Advocate for more Linux support with VR vendors. Remember that most of the time, what halts Linux development is not technical impossibility, but lack of political will. Companies refusing to spend money on development of compatibility for their hardware or intentionally blocking open source efforts is what halts the ecosystem. It's the same exact computer, if it works on Windows but not on Linux is because someone in a suit angrily said "no".

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 7 points 4 days ago (8 children)

While I agree, the article mostly explains how Linux is almost caught up to Windows for gaming. For me, Linux > Windows, so if Linux can play enough games to keep me occupied, it's a better "gaming" system. This was true for me before Steam even came to Linux.

That said, this article completely ignores the fact that many of the most popular games rely on anti-cheat w/o Linux compatibility, so that right there kills Linux as a contender regardless of its many other merits.

I guess my point here is to please don't oversell Linux. You want someone's first impression to be positive, and if they run into game compatibility issues at the start, the experience will be far from positive. I would much rather see a section right at the top about how to check game compatibility, since that's what most people would want to check before looking at the various other things that are awesome about Linux.

Epic Games

...

We also don’t have to worry about download speeds, as they’re even better compared to the Windows client.

Is this true? If so, it's very surprising.

By the way, I always encountered risk control and couldn’t enter the game when playing Rogue Company on Windows. I don’t understand why the anti-cheat component considers me a threat, but after switching to Linux, I no longer faced this issue; it has been much smoother than on Windows.

Anecdotal. I doubt this is a Linux vs Windows thing, but more that they saw different OSes being used by the same account and flagged based on that.

Some of these emulators also have versions for Windows or macOS, but on Linux, we can directly download and install them from the store, without the need to worry about dependencies or version issues, making it a lot easier compared to Windows and macOS.

Good point. Package management is really nice on Linux. However, if you don't know what you're looking for, you're in a similar camp as on Windows.

Games on the Android platform can also run on Linux. In addition to virtualization ways like Windows and macOS, Linux can run without virtualization by using namespaces. If you’re interested, you can check out my previous article on Android Application on Linux without Virtualization.

Huh, neat!

Besides Steam, we can also use cross-platform tools like Flathub: Parsec to control Windows hosts directly on Linux. This means that even games that can’t be run through the aforementioned ways can still be played on Linux, completing the last piece of the puzzle.

So you'd need a second PC? That hardly seems convenient.

Actually, I also wanna introduce some advantages of the Linux graphical interface over Windows in terms of gaming experience. For example, GNOME’s Do Not Disturb botton allows me to toggle all notification alerts with a single click.

Yeah, this is certainly neat. I'm actually surprised Windows doesn't have something similar, but maybe each app handles notifications itself there?

Additionally, I have never encountered the issue on Linux where I can’t temporarily return to the desktop during fullscreen gaming, which is something I often face on Windows, where the taskbar pops up but returning to the desktop is impossible. On Linux, regardless of which game I’m playing, whether in fullscreen mode or borderless window mode, I can freely switch between windows.

On the flipside, I've had a lot of really odd problems switching applications on Linux. I don't know if it happens on Windows too since I haven't used Windows in a decade or so, but I'm guessing the Linux experience here is worse.

I also sometimes have games completely lock up Linux, which I'm guessing is probably the Wayland compositor crashing. That used to happen to me on Windows, but again, this is from >10 years ago, so I'm not sure if it applies today.

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