Been gaming on Linux for years, currently I use Play On Linux and Steam.
I remember the days you had to compile your own wine to get something working.
And those wine fixme in the console, it felt like the game was being held together with string.
Linus gaming got simple when steam dropped steamOS as a stand alone operating system. I went from windows 7 to steamOS. First was the steam piston, now I have a steam machine (Alienware / dell) and a steam deck. It's as easy as console gaming but with all the flexibility of PC gaming.
And before I get shit for prebuilts, sometimes you just want to play, and shit just works. Also am poor.
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I made the switch to Linux a year ago, and I haven't looked back since. Of course, I still keep a dual boot for those pesky games that use Ring0 anticheat or are simply incompatible with Linux, like Fortnite or PUBG. But honestly, I don't find myself playing them as often anymore. My current actual go-to games include Dota 2, CS:GO, Elden Ring, Sea of Thieves, Diablo 4, Street Fighter 6, Dead Cells, and Isaac.
about wine/proton, I want to share some advice: if anyone is struggling with installing 3rd party mods and such in Proton, try starting your installation process from ConEmu (ConEmu64.exe) (It's a simple, open-source, portable terminal emulator for Windows) instead of pointing the Non-steam Games wizard at each installation and gaming exe individually.
I originally tried to do this with the explorer.exe built into Wine, but getting that thing to launch is a pain.
for example a lot of Windows programs will have you download an .exe that installs the program, then you need to run a different .exe to actually run the program. Steam's non-steam game wizard in combination with Proton gets confused by this and runs the two .exe's in separate environments, screwing with any attempts to install a mod or install the app itself.
I don't think I've found a game that doesn't work with Proton. I only find ones where the property anti cheat doesn't work.
Honestly, by now Gaming on Linux and macOS works without problems. Most games are published natively, and if not, it generally works fine with Wine or Proton.
Well there is
- Vulkan (graphics API, successor to OpenGL which is used by e.g. Minecraft, CS Go i believe)
- DXVK (compatibility layer for games created with the DirectX Framework by MS)
- Lutris (game launcher for stuff you bought outside of steam, e.g. GOG, Epic, Uplay, etc.)
- Steam and maybe Proton but idk.
- i don't know what that Atom sign thingy is
