Has it really been that long? Apparently so. Valve originally announced their rebranding of Steam Play with Proton back on August 21st, 2018. Seems like a good time for a quick reflection being halfway to a decade old now with the tech that gave rise to the Steam Deck.
  • Suzie Starlight@pawb.social
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    2 years ago

    Proton is such an excellent win! In my expereince with the steam deck, theres only a small handful of games that have problems but even then, those are games that I kind of forgot about.

    I can’t wait to see how well it gets better over time. One step closer to me switching to linux full time on desktop! If only it wasnt for a few proprietary software that i need for work i would have switched over yesterday!

    • Southern Wolf@pawb.socialOPM
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      2 years ago

      Yeah, same for me. Basically, just a few games with anti-cheat (or poorly implemented anti-cheat) are the only issue for me. Most other things can be made to work, even if there can be some jank involved. But even then, 70-80% of games “just work” and it’s amazing.

      I’ve been using Linux exclusively for 4+ years now, it’s amazing whenever you can achieve it. You could consider dual-booting for your system, or running windows in a VM if the software you need isn’t something that requires a ton of horsepower.

      • Suzie Starlight@pawb.social
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        2 years ago

        Right?? Honeslty Linux for gaming is so good right now.

        The idea of using VM has been on my mind for Linux! I’ll have to consider it especially since my desktop is a workstation powerhouse, it’ll easily run a Windows VM no problem. I have at least been using Linux full time in my laptop for a while now! It just works so well especially as a laptop os.

  • Yote.zip@pawb.socialEnglish
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    2 years ago

    Hard to understate how much Proton has changed the trajectory of Linux. I remember when the Wine folks were mad at DXVK because it didn’t do it “the Wine way”- the results speak for themselves in this case. I’m not sure if Valve did it all just to make a buck and secure their game market position against Microsoft, but I’d like to think they had selfless intentions too. To this day I buy all my games from Steam just to show some support for their Linux efforts - I really hope Valve never turns into something terrible.

    (I’d also like to throw some shade towards the ‘elitist’ Linux users who kept saying “video games are for children we don’t need them on Linux” for years before DXVK got rolling. That sort of attitude is a good way to make sure Linux never catches on.)

    • Southern Wolf@pawb.socialOPM
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      2 years ago

      It really is true! Proton has fundamentally shifted how Linux can be used, and now with the Deck it’s reaching people it never would have reached before. I’m sure Valve did it for their own benefit, but some of it was born out of a need for survival too. This all started because Valve saw the trend of Windows moving towards only having the Windows store be the source for software, and Valve started planning. It was an extremely smart move on their part, cause now Valve has positioned themselves to re-unlock a category of gaming hardware that only had Nintendo competing in it viably up until now.

      And yes, the “purists” are the same ones who complain about Wayland, Systemd, etc. The things that have brought Linux to where it is now, and why it’s used by as many as it is. They should just be ignored, tbh.