I recently found that modern Linux distros are actually up to speed for almost all game development tasks and also gaming! Some notes on my experience transitioning.
what’s really surprising is how well it all works, as someone who originally switched to Linux because I’d given up on PC gaming. I’ve watched a friend decide they’re done with windows, install Linux, and play an uncompromised brand new game from their steam library in the span of about 10 minutes. there’s also a ton of games that perform better on Proton, because its implementation of a few Windows APIs (specifically around filesystem IO) is just faster than the version in the Windows kernel
a lot of it is thanks to valve’s relatively quiet open source contributions to Proton and DXVK, and the steam deck’s an amazing demo for it — the only push some of my friends needed to switch to Linux was a reminder that the same tech that makes the deck good will be even better on their gaming desktops, and it’ll work on any distro they’d want to use too
yeah – and some games even behave better when mediated via proton’s wine (fallout 76 for example doesn’t lose sound output completely just because you switch between speakers and headphones, which was one of my greatest annoyances with the game).
Unfortunately it can never be the year of Linux on the desktop because game developers are in constant crunch. Quarter of Linux on the desktop, then?
Seriously though, I’m not surprised it’s a good experience now - valve did some excellent work getting stuff up to par with windows.
Windows is so terrible now that game devs are trying Linux
what’s really surprising is how well it all works, as someone who originally switched to Linux because I’d given up on PC gaming. I’ve watched a friend decide they’re done with windows, install Linux, and play an uncompromised brand new game from their steam library in the span of about 10 minutes. there’s also a ton of games that perform better on Proton, because its implementation of a few Windows APIs (specifically around filesystem IO) is just faster than the version in the Windows kernel
a lot of it is thanks to valve’s relatively quiet open source contributions to Proton and DXVK, and the steam deck’s an amazing demo for it — the only push some of my friends needed to switch to Linux was a reminder that the same tech that makes the deck good will be even better on their gaming desktops, and it’ll work on any distro they’d want to use too
yep. Valve is throwing money at Codeweavers very effectively.
the monopoly giveth and the monopoly taketh away
yeah – and some games even behave better when mediated via proton’s wine (fallout 76 for example doesn’t lose sound output completely just because you switch between speakers and headphones, which was one of my greatest annoyances with the game).