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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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I just did that. I have a dual boot laptop where Windows was used exclusively for games, and instead of upgrading that I built myself a PC with an AMD GPU (Nvidia, fuck you!).
So far I haven't run into any problem that I couldn't easily solve, and the only games that won't run are those demanding I install an anti cheat system, but I'm fine not playing those.
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.
I've been using Linux exclusively for ~14 years now. Heavily gaming on Linux only for the last ~8 years.
It was possible (though sometimes headache inducing) to play most games back then (Wine and soon Proton to thank) the biggest change IMHO came with SteamPlay since it turned the headache into one click on most games (thanks to the amazing work of wine/proton developers and the tinkering of the community).
When the SteamDeck released people seemed surprised at the breadth of games that were running on day one. To me it was not really a surprise since I had been Linux gaming with SteamPlay all the time and was almost expecting games to "just work" (though I still would and still am checking ProtonDB before purchase).
What the SteamDeck changed in my view was
I feel that the SteamDeck with SteamOS has really put Linux, especially Linux gaming on the map. Even though I want to be like "Linux Gaming has been a thing forever, I was doing it before it was cool" ;) I have to recognize that fact. In the past years I've seen so many people setting up Linux especially by the way of SteamOS (using HoloISO, Chimera ...) just to play/mess with it which is also why I think an Official SteamOS release will make a huge difference.
Tl;dr: Gaming on Linux was a thing before. But the SteamDeck/SteamOS 3 made a huge impact nonetheless.
It still feels like magic at times. The SteamDeck is my backlog steamrolling machine (pun intended). Almost every game in my library that I either forgot about or feels wasteful to play on my high-end desktop, runs amazing. I'm replaying Brutal Legend just because it runs so smoothly on my deck.
When they came out with SteamOS the first time, it felt so good to have a games run on Linux without fiddling with Wine. Those were dark times. The few people making an effort to run their games with the tools they had available where really putting in work to make it happen.
God, I remember searching the ends of the internet to get Starcraft running at some point. I managed to kinda get it going but it might have taken a few days of troubleshooting silly things.
If you've been at it for 8 years, I appreciate your efforts.
I haven't run across a game that hasn't run on The Deck yet. I know it's capable of running quite a lot, but I got it to play indie games. It's been great and does what I want it to do phenomenally. Additionallh if I ever wanted to do something more demanding on it, I could.
Most demanding thing I've tried on it was beam ng drive, it ran but struggled a bit. I've never yet been unable to play something I wanted to on it.
Really nice. Been waiting for this. I've used linux for two decades but kept gaming pc separate last years as I've became lazy. Now I'll likely decommision that one and just rdp into my work windows machine if needed.
Thanks gaben
When SteamOS releases on all devices people will say "I'll switch when every peice of Windows software is compatible" or some other unreasonable and impossible accomplishment. Even if every peice of Windows software was compatible people would say "ill switch to Linux when it looks and functions identically to Windows".
These guys should not wait for Linux but support reactOS, lol
Absolutely this, Linux is not a Windows replacement but ReactOS is (granted its not ready yet)
It helps to think about this as a spectrum, as more features become available more people will make the switch to Linux. Not everyone will be able to swich to Linux at the same time, and some people will never switch.
Gaming was major bottleneck, even I, a person using Linux full time for the past 20 years, I used to maintain a Windows disk to play games. Only in the past couple of years I was able to sunset my windows setup, hopefully to never touch windows ever again. I had to drop a couple of games but it got to the point where rebooting to a OS wasn't worth it, as most of my games worked flawlessly without any tweaking.
There are many major pros to the Linux desktop environment, but we still need major software applications to become portable. The workflow of an average office worker is still not Linux compatible. Of course there are office alternatives, but they are not as easy to use. Though, IMO the oss world is hurting by trying to copy ms when their products are so horrible... Hopefully, the EU will drop some major cash at the issue with all these talks about digital sovereignty.
With bottles, boxes, and all the other small environment virtualization solutions available right now, switching to Linux with a few 'almost native' Windows application is easier than ever. The mileage will vary from distro to distro. I've managed to get bottles to run some annoyingly old statistics software I need for work. It works great. Sometimes it can be a bit of a headache to figure out where the software saves files but playing detective for a file somewhere in the system is better than enduring all that Windows imposes on the user.
Yep. I recently started using bluesky and it's filled with linux hate posts farming likes. People just complaining about random things that don't even make sense.
I believe fomo is a real thing. Even if one doesnt play fortnite or valorant or kernel level shit, they still are afraid of missing out. So unless and until Microsoft goes bankrupt, I doubt Linux will replace it.
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.
Tbh the vast majority of people who say "ill switch to (insert Linux distro here) when (insert accomplishment here)" will most likley never switch
I'm hoping that steamos will make Linux much more popular so that devs take notice. Whilst wine/proton are amazing anticheat still exists. If enough people move to steamos they will have to make sure they're not excluded
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.
I haven’t used Windows for more than a decade, and I am genuinely surprised reading your post that the game works in this manner even if with proton/wine layer.
I can’t help but think that this is an exception, and would attribute this behaviour to how the game is made. I wonder what other software function this way.
I recently switched to fedora and I didn't think it would be difficult, but it was even easier than I expected. Every game I've tried to play has worked perfectly.
Fedora was my first distro. But i hat issues with Hardware in my framework laptop, which should have good Linux support. But what was even more annyoing was that Video and audio codec die not work right away because it does not support proprietary which made life horrible difficult for a noob. What are your thoghts on that?
the biggest wall imo is still getting companies with anticheat games on board.
IMO, no one should be playing games with kernel level anticheat. There is no way I would let any big gaming company have that level of control over my PC. It's a security nightmare.
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.
It will be the opposite. Even Microsoft hates kernel-level anti-cheat.
A Linux distro with a great OOTB experience for gamers would go a long way.
I'd also add automatic configuration for multiple monitors, perhaps as much as 3 or as much as tmmy laptop's GPU allows for.
I've been doing some research and it seems like arandr has the best GUI for doing this.
Luckily for you this already exists, and it's effectively SteamOS:
You can even put this on a Steam Deck as a drop-in replacement.