With the widespread support for Steam/Valve on this forum because of their contributions to making Linux gaming easier, I’m now confused as to why people here are using Linux in the first place.
I personally do so out of support for FOSS software, the customizability, and actual ownership of software, which I thought were most people’s primary reasons for using any Linux distro. Steam seems antithetical to all of these. The software in the first place became popular as a form of DRM, and it gets publishers to use it for the allowance of DRM on the platform. The Steam client has the absolute minimum customizability. Your account can be banned at any point and you can lose access to many of the games you have downloaded.
Whenever I game on Linux I just use folders to sort my game library and purchase any games I want to play on itch.io or GoG. On my Linux PC I stay away from clients like Steam because I want a PC that works offline, and will work if all of my accounts were banned. It’s more of a backup PC.
Since Steam has every characteristic of Windows, 0 customizability, DRM, plenty of games that are spyware, I see no reason to really not use Windows instead for the much easier time I can have playing games.
Yes, I prefer many of the features of Linux distros, but using a client like Steam defeats the purpose of them. Ridiculous storage requirements due to unoptimized dependencies, having to have a background client running for some games and wasting resources on doing so.
So, why use Linux and support Steam, or use Linux and use Steam?
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I use Linux because all the games I want to play run just fine through proton, wine, or native builds. I used to have a dedicated windows partition, but maintaining windows got tedious. After testing that my games worked, I fully defenestrated and never went back.
Sure, steam is proprietary and has flaws, but I’d rather run a proprietary and flawed userland application than a proprietary and flawed OS.
Many steam games don’t even have DRM and most games only require Steam to be present and not necessarily online.
The company as a whole is very stable and doesn’t perform any overly wild anti user behaviour. And they’re big supporters and developers of Linux.
If you want to install games that are spyware that’s totally up to you. And I suppose that’s really the point.
Instead of turning into hyper capitalist assholes like every other company, steam just leaves us the fuck alone while providing great great games at great prices. Also no sexual harrassment coverups or buyouts.
Steam just leaves us the fuck alone and let’s you focus purely on the game.
Many steam games don’t even have DRM and most games only require Steam to be present and not necessarily online.
Even then there are Steam emulators. If OP really wanted to they could just download the games from Steam and use that.
It’s kind of like using a Games For Windows Live fix or a no CD crack in Lutris for older games.
And they’re big supporters and developers of Linux
Not looking to disagree, but do you have a source on the “developers” part?
They fund the development of:
- DXVK (D3D9-11 wrapper)
- Wine/Proton (Codeweavers and independent contractors). Proton is open source even if it’s mostly Steam specific.
- Mesa RADV (Vulkan AMD driver)
- The Linux kernel
- KDE Plasma
- gamescope
- HDR/colour management
That’s just off the top of my head. I’ll admit that some of this work comes from 1 or 2 single paid developers that have their hands in many things, but that’s not a bad thing.
I think a better title for your post would be, “Why do you use Steam?”
It’s easy to use. I’m a software developer. *nix is really well supported by software developers, and most programming languages support Linux first. So it’s easy to develop for.
Have used linux almost exclusivly since 1999. Simply because it is the better system.
I use steam, since games just work without fiddeling, or a very easy refund.Because I do other things with my computer and use Linux because I like how I have it set up not because of ideological purism. I do not like how Windows and Mac work. I dread booting into Windows to play games.
The reality is that the vast vast majority of games are not FOSS. You have no idea what makes most games tick. So if you are that concerned about FOSS purity I question why you play games on any platform. Windows or otherwise.
Linux systems are usually laid bare for people to tinker with, which for me is specially good if I see something I don’t like, be it software, UI or UX.
Plus, most PC’s I’ve seen from at least the past ~20 years can run Linux, so if I get my hands on a working PC, Linux becomes an easy choice.
Plus², Linux can be made very privacy friendly.
So, why use Linux
Because I prefer it in functionally every way to Windows. I prefer (when feasible) to use open source and/or FLOSS software. I am vastly more familiar with Linux than I am Windows on a technical level. I generally dislike most things about Windows.
and use Steam
It works, it’s convenient, they have a generally good track record of not screwing over users.
I prefer many of the features of Linux distros, but using a client like Steam defeats the purpose of them.
That is a pretty serious leap in logic. You’re welcome to not like Steam on a technical, moral, and/or philosophical level but at the end of the day it is a single application and saying that using Linux while also using Steam “defeats the purpose of Linux” is ridiculous. Linux is an Operating System, it is meant to assist the user in computing. If the user is using Linux to compute they are fulfilling the exact purpose of Linux, that being an open and free operating system to be used by any who desire it.
Because it’s my system and not Microsoft’s system. Also I find Apple products extremely expensive for what you get, and that’s coupled with how anticonsumer they are.
Steam seems antithetical to all of these. The software in the first place became popular as a form of DRM,
It’s annoying when games require Steam in order to run, but let’s be clear: it’s not DRM.
In most of the cases I’ve seen, it’s nothing more than a library dependency, for features like Steam Input and achievements. Here’s a Steam client emulator to satisfy that dependency without Steam being present at all:
If it quacks like a duck, walks like a duck, then let’s call it a duck. Those dependencies work a lot like DRM for your typical user. And, sure, you can fix it… but you can also install a NoCD for a game with actual DRM.
If it quacks like a duck, walks like a duck, then let’s call it a duck.
It doesn’t. You might just as well call Steam a spreadsheet.
Steam binds game installations to a specific account where you purchased them; and you are not supposed to run that game instal without Steam alongside it, or through another account, or no account at all, or in 2+ computers at the same time. And the way dependencies are handled is part of that.
As such, you can argue that it’s DRM done less worse than most, or that the “DRM-ness” is not its primary “goal”, but you can’t really argue that it doesn’t behave a lot like DRM would, for practical purposes, and for your typical user.
You might just as well call Steam a spreadsheet.
Please don’t be disingenuous.
Steam binds game installations to a specific account where you purchased them;
I don’t know what you think Steam is doing in this regard, but if you have some evidence that it writes personal account data into game files to prevent their use elsewhere, then please share it. That would be newsworthy.
you can’t really argue that it doesn’t behave a lot like DRM would, for practical purposes, and for your typical user.
The only similarity to DRM is that the game expects it to be present. If that made it DRM, your graphics driver would also be DRM, as would your OS, your input devices, and your internet provider.
Obviously, these things are not the same. That’s why we have different words for them.
Please don’t be disingenuous.
Please don’t confuse people by misusing technical terms.
(Or at the very least, have the grace not to complain when someone corrects their usage. Sharing and refining knowledge is how we all learn from each other, after all.)
I bought a new laptop, and it was lagging more than my old PC. I was enraged by this fact. My old pc had 4gb RAM, my laptop would freeze playing games like osu. Yeah, 8gb was the limit in 2016, but not like to get random freezes. I installed Ubuntu and then never went back, now using Arch. Performance. No random things going under my nose, making spikes happen. Now, it’s not about performance alone. It’s about control and privacy. I study psychology and I wish my peers realized what it means using Meta services everyday, Microsoft, etc, and how these are connected with our everyday life, decisions and lack of control, thus worth to get the psychology field to debate and put the everyday services under discussion.
Did Steam finally get rid of the skin option in the recent update? I know a majority were kind of broken towards the end there even before the major UI change.
Because I wanted to use a computer and OS is needed. When I got a first computer, I didn’t even understand what OS is. Then researching further, I thought Windows is just another distribution. I tried it, and it was confusing. Linux Mint I immediately liked, so that’s what I stuck with.
No special reasons, I am just used to Linux.
I guess this would be the case for more people if Windows wasn’t the default as it usually is.I like Linux, so I use Linux. Before Steam came to Linux, I didn’t play many games, and now that they’re heavily investing in Linux, I’m playing a lot more games.
It’s really that simple.
Here’s my story:
- Someone gave me an Ubuntu install disk at college, so I dual booted it on my rented computer; Windows died, so I switched to Ubuntu for the rest of the school year
- I declared my major as CS, and the lab computers ran Fedora Linux, so I installed it on my new laptop; it worked better than Windows (Vista at the time) for class work, so I kept using it (I needed Windows for a class, so I ran it in a VM)
- I switched to using ViM and fell in love with the terminal
- I eventually tried Arch and decided Windows really wasn’t for me since I liked the control
- Steam started supporting Linux, so I all of a sudden had a bunch more Linux games to choose from (I had mostly been playing Factorio, Dwarf Fortress, and Minecraft, and StarCraft in WINE); this was before Proton, yet it was still a big deal for me
I’m now on openSUSE, but my experience during college showed me that I really want control over my system. Proton is also a thing, so I’ve picked up a ton more games from Steam.
If games stopped working on Linux, I’d just stop playing games. It’s really that simple, I pick the OS first, and games are secondary.
I see, thanks
