I've recently started gaming on linux with surprisingly little problem, given that the last time I tried was about 15 years ago. I don't even know what proton is, but I just installed steam and then my games.. surprisingly on some slightly older games (tf2, HL2) I get a huge FPS boost in Linux compared to windows. Not sure why that would be.
Proton is basically Wine bundled with other software, like DXVK and VKD3D, to run windows games.
You have to enable it in the Configuration window inside of Steam if you haven't done that yet. Enabling it is all you have to do and it will be used automatically.
Ah thanks, I don't think I have enabled it. Will that allow me to try out windows-only games in Linux? That's crazy.. literally no more reasons to go back to Windows..
Yep. You can have a look at ProtonDB to have an ideia of how well a game runs through Proton.
It's not completely correct as some games marked with lower ratings will work flawlessly, and some with higher ratings will probably give you some trouble, but it's a really useful resource.
surprisingly on some slightly older games (tf2, HL2) I get a huge FPS boost in Linux compared to windows
Oh, I remember watching video on youtube on that topic. Short answer: because opensource. Long answer: because developers better understood how to optimize. Same optimizations slightly boosted FPS on windows.
I don't even know what proton is
Valve games run natively on Linux, so no need in proton.