I remember when Proton launched it was like magic playing games like Doom and Nier Automata straight from the Linux Steam client with excellent performance. I do not miss the days of having the Windows version of Steam installed separately.

  • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    In the time I have been a Linux gamer, it has gone from “here is a list of games that work in Linux” to “here is a list of games that do not work in Linux.” Which some dictionaries define as “progress.”

    • Synnr@sopuli.xyz
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      1 year ago

      That’s crazy! When I was last trying to run Linux full time in ~2014, you had WINE and then a commercial version of WINE (not by the WINE devs, but because WINE is licensed the way it is and is open source…) that would run a few more things, but I don’t remember what it was called.

      So glad to hear it’s progressing this quickly and far.

      • atmur@lemmy.worldOP
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        1 year ago

        a commercial version of WINE

        That would be CrossOver by CodeWeavers. They’re actually a huge contributor to upstream Wine and have worked with Valve (and I think Collabora?) several times over the past few years. I’m kind of tempted to buy a copy of CrossOver to support them even though I’d never use it, lol

      • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        I started out in 2014, and pretty much what I did was look to see if there was a Steam logo on the Steam store page to indicate Linux compatibility. With Proton in the last few years, I just don’t really worry about it. I will say my tastes have just about always lined up with the kinds of games, the kinds of studios, that are likely to publish for Linux, the nerd shit like Kerbal Space Program and Factorio. I don’t play Call of Fifa, Modern Fortnite or whatever.

  • kyub@discuss.tchncs.de
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    1 month ago

    It’s an important milestone as it’s the only effective way to make PC gaming available on operating systems other than Windows (i.e., reduce one of the Windows monopolies). Still, Linux gamers shouldn’t take it too far. I’d advise everyone to still not support game studios which are openly hostile towards Linux gamers. This especially includes the ones who rely on client-side anticheat tools and then use those to block Linux gamers even though the game would run perfectly fine on Linux as well. Please do not support such games or studios (e.g.: Epic Games, EA, Bungie, Riot). Thanks to Proton, there is still a massive number of Windows games that can be played instead.

  • mlg@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Okay I can definitely back up the second claim. World of Warships, a DirectX only game, runs and loads better on Linux with Proton. I tested both on SSD and HDD, and in both scenarios the game runs at a higher FPS and loads faster. I legitimately have no idea why.

    I originally tested on HDD and guessed that ext4 was just much better with the IO speeds because NTFS would fragment like hell. But then it also was the same with an SSD and now I’m not sure.

      • atmur@lemmy.worldOP
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        1 year ago

        Publishers who do this make shit games anyway.

        As someone who really wants to see desktop Linux grow, I try not to think like this because I know others care about these games…but goddammit if I don’t completely agree with you on the inside. I do not understand the obsession with these games products, they’re exclusively designed to keep you playing and paying for as long as possible to avoid fomo for digital garbage.

        There are a tiny handful of non-live service games that still use anti-cheat, and most of those have already enabled support for Proton. Dragon Ball FighterZ is literally the only exception that I can think of, and even that’s playable offline IIRC.

  • kingthrillgore@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Valve literally went “you know what fuck the profits we need off Windows” and they did what nobody else has done before.

  • Apollo2323@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year ago

    True I just moved my gaming PC to Linux and wow!! Almost all of my games run on Linux. Thank you for everyone working so hard.

  • Pofski@sopuli.xyz
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    1 year ago

    If I as an older person would like to start using linux, where would you recommend to start? Is there an easy guide I can follow on how to use linux?

    • imAadesh@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      I’ll recommend NobaraOS. It comes with everything set up out-of-the box and you can change interface to Windows or macOS style.

      DO NOT SWITCH, until you’ve found that every software you use has a Linux version… Or an alternative which works on Linux as well as for you.

      ALSO DO NOT SWITCH if you have the 30 or 40 series NVIDIA cards. Or any NVIDIA card for that matter.

      YouTube channel recommendations - The Linux Experiment, Tech Hut, Gardiner Bryant (old videos, he just makes Steam Deck content now)

      • Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        ALSO DO NOT SWITCH if you have the 30 or 40 series NVIDIA cards. Or any NVIDIA card for that matter.

        Why? I’ve got a 3060, and it’s running perfectly under Mint. It’s worked on the half a dozen or so other distros I’ve live booted too.