Experience: I have a bit of experience with Linux. I started around 2008, distro-hopped weekly, decided on Debian until around 2011, when I switched to Windows as I started getting interested in gaming. Tried switching back around 2015, this time using Arch Linux for about a month, but had some bad experiences with gaming and switched back to Windows. I have had a Debian and Arch VM in Virtual Box since then for testing different applications and a more coherent environment to work with servers.
Understanding: Which brings me to now, I am really interested in using Linux for gaming, I know there is Proton from Valve and that they have been really pushing Linux gaming forward with it.
Thoughts: I have been contemplating dual booting by installing Debian to an SSD and simply using the UEFI boot menu to choose instead of having to install to the EFI of Windows.
I guess, I should just do it, as it won’t affect my Windows installation, and I could test different games and if all works well, move over. This would also allow me to try different distributions, though my heart is for Debian, I even like Debian Unstable.
Note: I am sorry for the wall of text, I am just kind of anxious I guess.
I would say yes. I wanted my desktop to run linux in 2015, but the gaming situation was the biggest hurdle. I had been running linux on my laptop since ~2013, but I was constantly trying new games and couldn’t tell friends “sorry, I can’t run that, we have to pick something else”. These days, 99% of everything I want to play runs fine using proton on arch. There are occasional times that I need to try a different build of proton, or suffer a bit of pipeline compilation, but that’s about it. I don’t do a lot of modern competitive games though, so anti-cheat might be a deal breaker for you. I’ve been able to do some EAC games without issue though (ex. Hunt: Showdown runs fine).
@teawrecks @mouse gaming on Linux has come such a long way fr. I can count the games I play regularly that still don’t run on Linux one on finger (ie there is one game I still keep windows for), whereas a few years ago it was a 50/50 if a given game ran
That said getting some of those games to run required me to do some pretty heavy tinkering. Genshin for example requires you to download a third party launcher to disable some of the anti cheat checks. So I unfortunately don’t think it’s time to recommend linux wholeheartedly to the everyperson who isn’t very good with tech.
The hard part is, idk if the anti-cheat front on Linux will ever get better than it is. Most anti-cheat fundamentally relies on the user not having root access to everything happening in their machine so that the OS, game dev, and anti-cheat SW can communicate behind the user’s back to make sure no cheats are happening. Meanwhile, Linux is fundamentally about giving the user full control over any part of the OS they want. The two ideas seem mutually exclusive.
Personally, I think if I played on a dedicated Linux gaming device (ex. Steam Deck) I would be ok with giving anti-cheat root access. At that point it’s no different to me than a gaming console. That might be the only feasible solution here.
If you can handle there being a few games that you just can’t play, the time to switch to Linux began a couple of years ago.
If you dual boot on separate drives it should be fine to use grub or systemd boot (or sth else), most Linux bootloaders can detect Windows installations and boot them. On the same drive it is fine as well, but windows tends to overwrite the bootloader with updates (which would be the same even when not booting Windows from the “Linux” bootloader).
As you said, just do it and try it out. In my experience basically any game runs on Linux these days, with some exceptions, most of them caused by anti cheat (like Fortnite, valorant and some others)
That makes sense, thanks for the advice. I don’t play any competitive games, so anti-cheat is a bit less of a problem.
A lot has changed since 2015 thanks to Proton. However, it’s not a magic pill. Some tinkering might be required, with how much and how often depends on what you play. So just give it a try and see it for yourself, dual boot is a viable option. Pick some user-friendly distro that handles Windows detection and offers easy video drivers installation. Are you sure that Debian is that distro given your struggles with Arch Linux? I’m not that familiar with it myself, I thought that Debian comes in a relatively raw state.
Thank you. The issue with Arch Linux was more about the performance and some games at the time just not working, which looking at ProtonDB shows they work fine now. I really enjoyed my time with Arch, all the customization and manually installing applications made it feel more personal and really “mine”. I will probably give a few distros a try before really settling in.
I would ask myself “What are the games I play and how important is it to be able to play the latest AAA games when they come out?”
Proton is doing a wonderful job with compatibility, but it will likely always be behind by a bit.
If gaming is your primary focus and you play a lot of new games when they first come out, dual booting might be the best option.
On the other hand, if you are more patient and don’t have to play things on release day or just like going through the catalogue of older good games, you can probably get away with a full switch.
Personally, I’m in a more privileged scenario. I have a laptop with Linux and a desktop with Windows for gaming. I do most of my gaming on the steam deck, PS5, or switch but any first person or games that benefit from good reaction time with a mouse get played on my desktop. Some of my games just won’t work on proton because they are too intensive to run through emulation or just in too early a state to consider trying.
With all of that, if I could only have one machine it would likely be running Windows in some capacity.
I recommend you evaluate that question for yourself and go look at ProtonDB to figure out what state you’ll be in.
Thank you for this, really helpful advice, ProtonDB looks really useful. I tend to be a bit more patient with games and buy later when on sale. I might just wipe Windows and reinstall it with the bare necessities for only the games that I need it for.
Once you get it set up, all the anxiety goes away.
Back your shit up, and do it. Games that can’t be played on Linux at all are decreasing. A dual boot setup solves that problem entirely.
Yeah, proton can take a bit to get set up and running, but there’s plenty of help for it out there with a search. And, again, you’ll still have the dual boot option. Linux really does cut down on the bullshit.
How much % would you say of the games can be played on Linux?
Basically anything that isn’t Siege, Valorant…anything without an abusive anti-cheat
Ok nice! Thanks!
Since that’s going to depend a lot on your own personal Steam library, you can check what works well on Proton with this site. https://www.protondb.com/
You can even enter your Steam Profile link in there and it will show you the ratings of the games you own. Of the 155 I own, 86% had a gold, platinum or native rating.
O, I expected more %, but that’s okay.
I had very few that actually failed to run, most of the rest is silver with a few bronze.
Native means the game was built to run on Linux without Proton.
Platinum works perfectly with no tweaks.
Gold works great, but may require some tweaks to work best.
Silver runs with minor issues but is playable.
Bronze runs but may crash or have issues preventing comfortable play.
Borked is unplayable.I drew the line between silver and gold. If I moved it down one spot to between bronze and silver, almost everything I own would run. I think this is fantastic. This is literally running games that weren’t designed to run on Linux at all, and almost all of them run perfectly.
But is it easier than before? A few years ago I had to set up every game in playonlinux first. Not that big of a deal, but I just want every game to work out of the box like Windows, not set up every game first.
If the game is on steam it is pretty easy. I just install the newest custom proton from glorious eggroll. And before i start a game for the first time is select this instead of the default proton. Then it just works generally. I don’t check protondb anymore, only in case of problems. I can’t even recall a game that doesn’t work currently. Granted, i don’t play AAA, only indie games.
Got any recommendations?
Yeah. You just install them with Steam and play. The Steam client comes with Proton which runs Windows games on Linux.
For the games that require tweaks, someone on ProtonDB will have said what tweaks is needed to play it. It’s generally just adding one small command to the game properties in Steam.
Sounds fantastic to me! Thank you! I’ll try this out…
On steam it’s basically just a toggle. Maybe setting the proton version in the game’s properties. For non steam games, launchers like heroic can even detect and use the proton versions you installed through steam, so you don’t ever need to really do any setup yourself.
Thanks, this makes me feel much better about it.
@mouse @Zaphodquixote I dual boot with Windows 11 and very rarely find myself not using Linux… It plays every game I’ve thrown at it in the last 6 months. The only time I end up using Windows is because I want to use a specific peripheral, like my steering wheel for racing games, rather than because Linux won’t run the game! Lutris is great for non-steam games. Runs Overwatch 2, Diablo IV, Guildwars 2, and League of Legends perfectly for me. GloriousEggroll is worth looking at too 🙂
Proton works very well for me. I don’t play any games that use anti cheat though.
A lot of games that use anti cheat middleware don’t work, but I’ve heard support is improving.
I use Debian Testing. I recommend using Testing as well if you want to use Debian, or at least a custom kernel like xanmod to get newer drivers.I decided to try exclusively gaming on Linux for a few months as a “new year’s resolution” back in 2019, see if I could stop dual booting just for games. Never went back, deleted my Windows partition completely that Summer.
There’s a couple of important things to note, which you didn’t have in your post:
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which graphics card you have. If you’re AMD / Intel, the drivers are integrated into most distros, and they just work. NVidia is a bit of a ballache - once you know how to install their proprietary ones and disable Nouveau, they’re reasonably trouble-free. Reasonably.
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what kind of games you’re into. And really, the question is ‘are you into MMOs / online shooters’ that are likely to have troublesome DRM, because mostly everything else works.
ProtonDB has an entry for nearly every game on Steam with some compatibility notes, but really, Proton, DXVK, and the advent of the Steam Deck have really pushed things forwards - gaming on Linux seems less troublesome to me now than gaming on Windows used to be
Someone above mentioned ‘trouble with Lutris’? Works pretty damn well with my non-Steam games, but then, those are mostly from GOG, so a bit older and DRM free.
I do have AMD, so that’s nice that it will be a better experience. Recently AAA games have been very underwhelming, so I have been cutting back on new AAAs until later and when on sale. I play Guild Wars 2 (MMO) quite often, but I hear that it will play fine as it doesn’t have any anticheat. I am not into any competitive shooters, so I will be find on that front. Looking at the games on ProtonDB show that this will be a smooth experience, and I’ll be fine with some games not working or performing below average.
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It’s always the right time to switch to a free os.
Imo the only thing better about windows is its support for gaming. But Linux has been getting better and better about that.
I’d bet that Linux will be almost completely caught up when support ends for Windows 10 in two years. That’s probably when I will make the switch for my gaming PC.
You should start sooner so you’ll be well prepared when support actually ends and that Win 11 abomination will be forced…
I’m not sure what preparing I would need that would require more than like a week. I’m already extremely comfortable with Linux. I used it on my work laptop for years before moving to a company that requires Windows.
Ah, good. I thought you would be new to linux, which could be a little overwhelming.
Check https://www.protondb.com/ for the games you play. If some doesn’t work, ask yourself if you can live without them.
I’ve been full time Linux for quite a few years now, but I do have a dual boot mainly for VR. Other than that there haven’t been many games that I want to play that don’t work with Linux.
I’m actually quite excited hearing from everyone, gaming on Linux has changed so much in…oh it’s been 8 years since 2015. I will probably keep one small drive for a minimal Windows installation, just for the few outliers, however looking at ProtonDB shows that most of my games will work just fine or with a small tweak.
its night and day tbh.
🧐Linux cured a friend’s LoL addiction. Now they write code 😅😅😅😅😅😅🧐🧐🧐
There’s never a bad time to switch to Linux! The best time may have already passed, but the second best time is now!
I love the positivity!
I’ve been trying Linux since before Ubuntu existed. I switched this year to Crystal Linux (arch based), to make it short: I’m not going back to Windows ever again.
It all just works. There’s minimal tweaking.
@warmaster Interesting. I’ve been using Manjaro as my primary for a while and I like it a lot but I’ve had some unpleasant interactions asking for help on the forums so I keep an eye out for other options.
Crystal has a Discord server and a bridged Matrix room, support is instantaneous and people are awesome. I’m super happy with it. I also tried Manjaro, I don’t like their GUIs, and their work ethics.
Long story short, it REALLY depends on the games. The vast majority of them will work perfectly fine, but there are a few that will have weird things, and a few that will not work at all. The problem is that the ones that won’t work at all are competitive multiplayer, so if you’re into that you’re going to have a bad time, if not it’s very likely that almost anything you try will just work (quite a few games are better with ProtonGE, more as a heads up than anything).
I have heard this is the year of Linux, so I’d say yes /s
It’s the year of the Linux desktop
In other news half life 3 might be coming out soon
As you didn’t include “/s”
I’ll trust you with my heart.
