Even gamers nexus' Steve today said that they're about to start doing Linux games performance testing soon. It's happening, y'all, the year of the Linux desktop is upon us. ᕕ(ᐛ)ᕗ
Edit: just wanted to clarify that Steve from GN didn't precisely say they're starting to test soon, he said they will start WHEN the steam OS releases and is adopted. Sorry about that.
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.
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.
ran through proton
See, this is after where most gaming folks hop off.
In all fairness, if you just run Lutris (pre-installed on Bazzite), log into GOG from there and install and run the game through their wizard, it also “just works”.
That might be easier for most.Probably true, it depends. There are Steam folks and then there are GOG folks.
I prefer GOG tbh because it's DRM free, but for some games I still need Steam, unfortunately.
The only bastion left is anticheat. Everything else are just (bad) old habits fueled by marketing.
I jumped into Linux, via Mint, about a year ago when I refreshed my hardware. The transition was pretty easy, and I haven't looked back. Steam runs fine and I haven't had a modern game that didn't work under default proton settings except for things I've run outside Steam and mods. Most of my personal PC's workload is gaming and handful of web-based apps that are effectively OS-agnostic; Everything else has an easy equivalent in the apt repos.
I would say that my decision to embrace Linux as my OS was primarily influenced by my Steam Deck. Gaming on it has been simple and the desktop UI was easy to adapt to. I replaced my laptop with the Steam Deck, bluetooth keyboard and mouse, and a USB-C dock with HDMI out (all things I already had for the laptop). I now just hook into whatever TV is handy as a monitor when I need a computer on the go.
I was a tech enthusiast when I was younger, and am thus familiar with fucking around on the command line, but now I'm an old man who just wants his stuff to work and it just has... The barrier of entry for the Linux Desktop is effectively gone. We just need PR now.
Also, I think I'd replace Mint on my primary PC with SteamOS, given a simple way to do so. About a year ago, the desktop/beta SteamOS was not fully baked.
the biggest wall imo is still getting companies with anticheat games on board.
Or getting players & friends to stop playing those types of games when there are so many compatible games to choose from.
It will be the opposite. Even Microsoft hates kernel-level anti-cheat.
Let's be honest here, they only care because when someone inevitably fucks up, people will think the fault is with windows.
It kind of is Windows' fault for letting them fuck about in kernel space though, right?
"Cant have those TenCent CCP botnets sniffing the same customers WE'RE sniffing! Get outta here!"
--M$, prolly lol
It does often feel like as soon as a significant hurdle is overcome, the industry just makes another one.
Hopefully SteamOS/Steam on Linux gets enough traction to force publishers to reconsider.
And with every step it's getting better. 10 years ago almost no games were natively supported and you needed to fuck around a lot to start anything with wine and most didn't work anyway. Nowadays everything just works, and the only category of games that doesn't is that slop with kernel level anticheat.
The improvement was monumental.
That will be more likely as more people start using SteamOS.
If SteamOS can get enough users, then not supporting it will start to hurt the game developers profits.i have faith this will be resolved eventually/they will have to admit kernel anticheat isn't even meaningfully more effective and give up on it. anyway loads of people don't play multiplayer AAA so it's a no brainer already for them. as the mass of people migrating continues to grow devs/publishers hopefully will have to catch up. 2% of the steam hardware survey is linux now, it could be 5% within the decade. that's my optimistic outlook, i know i shouldn't underestimate how out of touch the epic games suits etc. are though
It's true that a big slice of gamers play games with anti-cheat solutions that don't work on linux. That said most of those aren't even on steam, which is the biggest pc game marketplace, so I'm not sure it's that big of a dealbreaker for that many people.
you don't have to onsider off platform titles on its own. just take proton DBs list and sort by playercount and youll have your handful of misses on some of the top currently played titles. that already filters the non steam games already, and it still has its small handful of titles not on board yet.
They'll come around when the userbase increases. We live in a capitalist world, and these fuckers will always follow the money. They have zero principles, they just want the money.
The reason why I can't try Marvel Rivals with friends.
Fuck kernel-level software from commercial companies, though!
? rivals works fine on my machine on Nobara. it has a Linux compatible anti-cheat.
Hm? It wasn't very click-and-play on Bazzite before, and areweanticheatyet.com listed it as broken.
I see it's updated to Running (though not Supported)
I'll have to try this weekend, it seemed fun!
protonDB is my go-to and most people on there seem to be having a pretty smooth experience with it! it is fun!
Just in time for Windows 10 to lose support in October 2025 and for me to never switch to Windows 11 because it sucks and I hate it
Every so often they’ll release an update that breaks everything, or they’ll patch something and the processor improvements will be bigger than intel or amd get out of a generation, showing how gimped it was to begin with.
A Linux distro with a great OOTB experience for gamers would go a long way.
- Steam pre-installed
- trustworthy Flatpak packages for popular gamer apps like Discord (not uploaded by some nameless rando)
- TeamSpeak for curmudgeons like me and my friends
- desktop environment tailored to Windows users
- auto-install and configure graphics drivers for AMD and Nvidia
- configurable automatic updates and system backup
- choice between Chromium, Firefox, etc. for default browser during setup
- included in Steam Deck compatibility testing
Don’t forget real, well-tested HDR and VR support on all GPUs out of the box.
We are slightly behind on the HDR issue. I hope to see it resolved by end of 2025.
You're just shy from describing Bazzite
It's got:
- Steam pre-installed
- trustworthy (?) Flatpak packages for just about everything, even encourages it
- desktop environment tailored to Windows users (KDE, really)
- auto-install and configure graphics drivers for AMD (Mesa) and Nvidia
configurableautomatic updates and system backup (although I think you still have to click the notification for flatpak updates)- choice between anything for default anything during setup
- included in Steam Deck compatibility testing (actually in not sure but they do offer Steam Deck builds)
Once the userbase becomes bigger, those folks will move over. Capitalist will follow the money, they don't care what OS it is as long as they can make their lords shareholders happy.
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.
any game that needs to install a rootkit on my computer to play it was never going on my computer anyway. Proton can more or less handle every else on linux at this point. Hardware driver support is getting quite mature too. 2025 is legitimately the year of the linux gaming desktop imo.
I have both. As a pure console I still prefer the Switch, and there is a huge overlap in the games. But the Deck is much more than just a gaming handheld, it is now my only PC as well.
I understand why there are so many Nintendo gamers. I'm just pointing out the hypocrisy of people. Whenever it comes to linux, they demand everything be perfect. They never show the same attitude towards others. Captialism shills.
Nintendo has fans and is an established brand. But I think what most people dislike is the uncertainty. With the Switch you can know for certain all games you buy will work, but with the Steam Deck it’s not guaranteed though it will scan your library and give you a rating. Though in my case I had many “unsupported” games actually work flawlessly.
I think is more of like the fear of the unknown than the uncertainty, for example is uncertain if a new switch game will run well(looking at you pokémon)
I thought this had already happened?
I remember seeing ads on Steam for SteamOS years ago—wasn’t there a point at which you could download and run it on your own computer? What happened?
From what I recall, it wasn't something you could easily use like a normal distro, and that version was based on Debian (so stable but outdated software). It only worked on some hardware, and you had to do a full system wipe.
More likely, this is them officially partnering with handheld or gaming laptop makers, using their latest Arch-based distro and allowing them to use Valve/Steam branding as a selling point.
If I recall correctly, this has never happened the way it's happening now. It was a matter of "hey, you can fork it on GitHub and make your own iso thing", hence why there was a "holoiso" or something like that that (I keep forgetting the name) where people used if they wanted to install steamOS on a device. This one is straight supported by valve. Like "hey, here is our official steam OS that we use on our steam deck. Use it and we will support you".
Iirc the original steamOS was Debian based and you really had to be an experienced Linux user to use and enjoy it.
With the new steamOS (arch based?) it's a much more streamlined experience and opens up the user base because of it
Old steam os was an Ubuntu derived OS. Ubuntu has issues relating to the organization that runs it. New steam os is basically a coat of paint on top of Arch which is community based. The old os is deprecated.
The version on steam deck is fantastic, but they have been polishing it for desktop use for a while now. I can’t wait to have it available.
I believe so, but I never used it and didn’t read too much on it at the time. It was designed for the steam machine concept they were trying to push at the time. So it would be weird if it wasn’t.
Windows is actually fedware these days.
(Fedware that also scams and aggrevates the feds themselves) if you post here you owe it to yourself to dump that hot garbage as soon as you can.The issue for me that had me buy a Windows 11 laptop was it was the cheapest I could find. Though I have since then given it away and replaced it with a Steam Deck as my only computer.
Powered by Steamos and Stamos are not to be mixed up
I don’t understand this tbh. It’s here already. SteamOS will likely be just like the deck - immutable arch running the existing steam package.
You can totally do this today and it works great. Don’t want to mess with arch and that confusing command line? Use something easier like mint and install the flatpak - then you don’t even have to futz with nvidia drivers. Or use bazzite?
What does steamOS offer that we don’t already have? (Serious question)
these people need permission from a massive corporation calling it something other than Linux so they can dodge the cognitive dissonance of hating Linux
Every game I bought on Steam under Windows runs great on Steam in Linux Mint. The few games I didn't buy on Steam (Deus Ex, Giants: Citizen Kabuto) run great on Wine, using the default settings.
Adopting Proton was the smartest thing Valve ever did. They're going to get about 90% of gamers migrating from Windows to Linux, who don't want to fiddle with configuration settings.
