I’d heard lots of pep talk about Linux being ready for gaming, so I tried Mint this year. Most of our Steam games didn’t work right. Lots of Googling, really tried to make it work, got some to work, but ultimate just went back to Windows - all games work out of the box.
Instead of having 2**32 distros and compatibility shims, y’all need to get behind a common ecosystem that laymen can get aboard… if you want Linux to proliferate. Unfortunately the chatter here really backfired for me.
No hate, I’m just surprised. I’ve legitimately never not had a game work so far, and most people I know only seem to have issues on games with anti-cheat.
Doesn’t mean I don’t believe you though, I just might have horseshoes in my ass, such that I somehow have only played games that are largely compatible without issues.
I am curious what games had issues for you though.
Yeah, that’s a worse version of my terrible experience with nvidia on linux. I’m sorry thats putting a sour taste in your mouth.
I will say that when I built my current computer I built it with amd for the CPU and GPU and the experience has been like butter in comparison. Everything I’ve used through steam has launched and ran without issue. Maybe I changed some to experimental, but I can’t remember.
I also tried mint this time around, and my motherboard is too new to have built in Ethernet drivers in the mint kernel. Plus things that just worked in KDE neon just didn’t work in mint.
I hate to be that guy, but that’s where Linux is failing. “Oh, you used the most popular distro? That doesn’t work. Try this one you’ve probably never heard of and will have a really hard time finding support for… It’s the only thing that works on this exact date, and there will be a different answer next week.” I’m not paraphrasing you - just my personal frustration.
The uncomfortable truth is that a lot of people will straight up lie just to “improve the image” of Linux. I’ve been using Linux for about 8 years now and I wouldn’t say that “it’s perfect now” or “everything just works”. No. Absolutely not. I play a lot of co-op games with friends and there are issues all the time. EA launcher taking YEARS to start, so my friend starts the game and waits, waits, waits… for me. Sometimes in-game audio decides to just stop working and I have to restart the game. And don’t even get me started on the fear “if I alt-tab right now, will the game work? will it crash? will i get a black screen when I go back?”. There are issues, nitpicks, bugs. The experience is the absolute opposite of “just works”. And this comes from someone who absolutely loves open source software and Linux. There was a time where I did a lot of that “Linux shilling” too. I recommended Linux to everyone, asked my friends if they wanted to switch, told them that it’s absolutely fine nowaydays. But I stopped, because I realized that it’s a lie. I know they’d be going through the same issues that I have, and more. And if you’re not an actual Linux enthusiast that cares about the stuff that Linux stands for, you won’t be happy with it.
Not gonna lie, you probably will get lots of hate, but fanboys will be fanboys, just ignore them.
In any case, this probably means you enjoy multiplayer AAA games, since as a general rule those are essentially the only ones that don’t work out of the box nowadays. Unfortunately those games are actively trying to detect if you’re using Linux to prevent you from playing, and if you had managed to play them you could have gotten yourself banned (like some users reported with some games).
The other large cause for problems is the wrong drivers or not using the correct GPU in multi-GPU systems. If you were having issues with games everyone else was playing in Linux this is likely the cause.
You choose Mint, which is an excellent beginner friendly distro, and it’s very close to Ubuntu which is the de-facto common ecosystem agreed to use. That discussion about having a common ecosystem was over a long time ago, it’s Ubuntu. But that doesn’t mean you’re stuck with that, it means that developers can focus on targeting one OS, and the community will figure out how to get it working in other variations when it doesn’t work out of the box. If it requires changes from the game we usually submit a bug report explaining what needs to be changed and why. But for you, the end-user, just having Ubuntu or something similar like Mint should get you a good experience since games are tested using that.
At the end of the day Linux is not for everyone, sometimes you want specific software that is not made for Linux and that’s okay (okay on your part, fuck the companies that are actively making software unusable on Linux).
Instead of having 2**32 distros and compatibility shims
But that’s the thing, pretty much all distros are the same when it comes to games. Steam manages dependencies and Proton versions for you, so your base OS really doesn’t matter too much as long as some games launch (outside of weird exceptions like using some random tiling WM).
Unfortunately the chatter here really backfired for me.
Yeah, people love to over-promise for some reason. People really should be pointing to options for users to check things before switching, such as:
Steam Deck compatibility - verified or playable
ProtonDB - gold or platinum
In general, if it has anti-cheat, it probably won’t work. If it doesn’t, then you can try adjusting:
Proton version (and Proton GE)
command-line parameters - e.g. force older DirectX or something
None of that is related to your distro though, so if people on ProtonDB say it should work with given Proton version and CLI parameters, it should work on whatever distro you choose.
I rarely play anti-cheat games, so most of my games work w/o any tweaks. If you mostly play anti-cheat games, most of your games probably won’t work.
thankfully this issue is soon to be resolved, something called nvidia open should put an end to this soon
when/if you ever decide to try again I recommend trying this, it sets up nvidia-open and everything for you (even steam) and updates fully automatically, it’s basically steamos.
Guess it depends on the games. I have no games in my collection that won’t run on Linux, either natively or via Proton. The only games I’m aware of where there are massive issues are ones incorporating certain forms of anti-cheat software.
Probably gonna get a ton of hate, but…
I’d heard lots of pep talk about Linux being ready for gaming, so I tried Mint this year. Most of our Steam games didn’t work right. Lots of Googling, really tried to make it work, got some to work, but ultimate just went back to Windows - all games work out of the box.
Instead of having 2**32 distros and compatibility shims, y’all need to get behind a common ecosystem that laymen can get aboard… if you want Linux to proliferate. Unfortunately the chatter here really backfired for me.
No hate, I’m just surprised. I’ve legitimately never not had a game work so far, and most people I know only seem to have issues on games with anti-cheat.
Doesn’t mean I don’t believe you though, I just might have horseshoes in my ass, such that I somehow have only played games that are largely compatible without issues.
I am curious what games had issues for you though.
My kid actually plays the games: Trailmakers and Satisfactory.
https://www.protondb.com/app/585420
https://www.protondb.com/app/526870
I haven’t tried either of these.
I am also curious, AMD or Nvidia?
Nvidia, and I tried ALL that shit. So many command lines options, desktop managers, driver alternatives…
Yeah, that’s a worse version of my terrible experience with nvidia on linux. I’m sorry thats putting a sour taste in your mouth.
I will say that when I built my current computer I built it with amd for the CPU and GPU and the experience has been like butter in comparison. Everything I’ve used through steam has launched and ran without issue. Maybe I changed some to experimental, but I can’t remember.
I also tried mint this time around, and my motherboard is too new to have built in Ethernet drivers in the mint kernel. Plus things that just worked in KDE neon just didn’t work in mint.
So as others have said, it depends.
Ahh, mints on a slower release cycle. I know a popular starter distro but I personally wouldn’t recommend it for starters looking to game.
If you’re ever open to trying again, Bazzite and Nobara are gaming focused and have a better nvidia experience out of the box.
I hate to be that guy, but that’s where Linux is failing. “Oh, you used the most popular distro? That doesn’t work. Try this one you’ve probably never heard of and will have a really hard time finding support for… It’s the only thing that works on this exact date, and there will be a different answer next week.” I’m not paraphrasing you - just my personal frustration.
I cannot deny that haha.
The options have pros and cons. Butnit can definitely be overwhelming to new users.
It’s frustrating that many intermediate users get elitist and recommend more advanced distros to beginners as well.
The uncomfortable truth is that a lot of people will straight up lie just to “improve the image” of Linux. I’ve been using Linux for about 8 years now and I wouldn’t say that “it’s perfect now” or “everything just works”. No. Absolutely not. I play a lot of co-op games with friends and there are issues all the time. EA launcher taking YEARS to start, so my friend starts the game and waits, waits, waits… for me. Sometimes in-game audio decides to just stop working and I have to restart the game. And don’t even get me started on the fear “if I alt-tab right now, will the game work? will it crash? will i get a black screen when I go back?”. There are issues, nitpicks, bugs. The experience is the absolute opposite of “just works”. And this comes from someone who absolutely loves open source software and Linux. There was a time where I did a lot of that “Linux shilling” too. I recommended Linux to everyone, asked my friends if they wanted to switch, told them that it’s absolutely fine nowaydays. But I stopped, because I realized that it’s a lie. I know they’d be going through the same issues that I have, and more. And if you’re not an actual Linux enthusiast that cares about the stuff that Linux stands for, you won’t be happy with it.
Not gonna lie, you probably will get lots of hate, but fanboys will be fanboys, just ignore them.
In any case, this probably means you enjoy multiplayer AAA games, since as a general rule those are essentially the only ones that don’t work out of the box nowadays. Unfortunately those games are actively trying to detect if you’re using Linux to prevent you from playing, and if you had managed to play them you could have gotten yourself banned (like some users reported with some games).
The other large cause for problems is the wrong drivers or not using the correct GPU in multi-GPU systems. If you were having issues with games everyone else was playing in Linux this is likely the cause.
You choose Mint, which is an excellent beginner friendly distro, and it’s very close to Ubuntu which is the de-facto common ecosystem agreed to use. That discussion about having a common ecosystem was over a long time ago, it’s Ubuntu. But that doesn’t mean you’re stuck with that, it means that developers can focus on targeting one OS, and the community will figure out how to get it working in other variations when it doesn’t work out of the box. If it requires changes from the game we usually submit a bug report explaining what needs to be changed and why. But for you, the end-user, just having Ubuntu or something similar like Mint should get you a good experience since games are tested using that.
At the end of the day Linux is not for everyone, sometimes you want specific software that is not made for Linux and that’s okay (okay on your part, fuck the companies that are actively making software unusable on Linux).
But that’s the thing, pretty much all distros are the same when it comes to games. Steam manages dependencies and Proton versions for you, so your base OS really doesn’t matter too much as long as some games launch (outside of weird exceptions like using some random tiling WM).
Yeah, people love to over-promise for some reason. People really should be pointing to options for users to check things before switching, such as:
In general, if it has anti-cheat, it probably won’t work. If it doesn’t, then you can try adjusting:
None of that is related to your distro though, so if people on ProtonDB say it should work with given Proton version and CLI parameters, it should work on whatever distro you choose.
I rarely play anti-cheat games, so most of my games work w/o any tweaks. If you mostly play anti-cheat games, most of your games probably won’t work.
Which games didn’t work?
My kid actually plays the games: Trailmakers and Satisfactory.
Trailmakers is bizarre, that should work OOTB with the latest proton.
The entirety of the steps on a normal machine is steam settings > compatibility > enable steam play for all other titles
and then also run other titles with the latest proton on the dropdown.
Super weird that you faced issues there, are you on nvidia? They have a lot of problems.
Oh, yup: Nvidia
Yeah nvidia sucks on linux, that’s probably the entire problem you had
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_36yNWw_07g
thankfully this issue is soon to be resolved, something called nvidia open should put an end to this soon
when/if you ever decide to try again I recommend trying this, it sets up nvidia-open and everything for you (even steam) and updates fully automatically, it’s basically steamos.
https://bazzite.gg/
Guess it depends on the games. I have no games in my collection that won’t run on Linux, either natively or via Proton. The only games I’m aware of where there are massive issues are ones incorporating certain forms of anti-cheat software.