i know that some games arent compitable and been to the site that shows which game is and which is not, and i also know most mods dont work on linux version which is a boomer (skyrim and rimworld mostly)?
so for gamers, why did you change to linux being a mostly a gamer?
My friends are currently throwing a tantrum because I won’t “just enable Secure Boot and run Windows” to play Battlefield 6 with them. But I’ve never felt that I must play a specific game, so the few ones who are incompatible (usually due to bad anti-cheats) have been easy to ignore. There are plenty of good games I can play on Linux.
I switched to Linux exclusively 2 years ago and I gotta say it’s been pretty awesome. Pretty much everything works without fucking around.
I changed to Linux because it’s better. Windows sucks ass.
Honestly, we’ve been eating pretty good fam. See https://www.protondb.com/ for game compatibility on Linux.
The only remaining pain points are (see the provided links for databases on what does and doesn’t work):
- Anti-cheat; https://areweanticheatyet.com/
- VR; https://db.vronlinux.org/
VR on linux actually works just fine from my experience. I’ve never had a game not work. The big issue is just headset support. The HTC Vive and Valve Index are the only headsets with official drivers, since they were made by Valve. Standalone headsets, like the Quest for example, also work using ALVR. Anything else doesn’t really work. There are open source drivers but they’re not complete enough to be useable unless something majorly changed there since I last checked.
most mods dont work on linux
Mods work just fine, it’s mod managers that sometimes don’t work.
If mods don’t have manual setup instructions, I install them on Windows, copy back to Linux the mod config file and happily play on Linux.
In my experience running the Windows version of the mod manager in the same prefix as the game also works.
If the game uses Unity and the mods are posted on Thunderstore, then Gale works perfectly.
So far most things have worked fine.
It’s a little annoying when steam wants to redo the vulkan compilation thing every time, but it seems to work fine if I skip that.
Modding I’m not sure how it’ll work yet. Some stuff probably just works, if it’s like “edit this file” or “replace that file” but I haven’t tried yet.
I’m joining the linux cult. I’m switching my main gaming pc this week. I’m sick of seeing news of Microsoft aiding in atrocities and destroying game studios.
Pretty good unless your game doesnt enable anticheat support for Linux like the battlefield games or fortnite for example. Performance per game is either on par or better than Windows. Game support can be checked on https://protondb.com/
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im not a huge gamer but i don get along quite well with steam games and gog games.
i do miss warcraft classic and would love to play it again but i could never get it to work :(
Because linux wasn’t a problem for me gaming anymore
It’s great if you’re not into online multiplayer, and I was already running Linux for years as a daily driver before it ‘got good.’
To clarify there are several very popular online games with anti-cheat that will never work BUT there are also a ton of other multiplayer games that do work great. You aren’t going to be stuck in single-player only moving to Linux, you’ll just miss out on a handful of popular competitive games.
every single player game i want to play works well, sometimes better than windows. straight up.
the only issue you are gonna have nowadays is some studios blocking linux out from multiplayer games.
here’s a comprehensive list of what works: https://areweanticheatyet.com/
If you just want to play the game, then gaming works surprisingly well on Linux. Very well.
I have the same game on Steam running on 2 separate computers, Fedora and Win 11. On the Fedora one, everything is just rock solid. Heck, even when I am rendering some very intensive 3D stuff on another workspace for work and use 50% of the RAM, the game is still running. On the Win 11 laptop, random issues happen where my cursor dissapears and the entire desktop freezes.
OTOH, if you need the gaming accessories to work properly then I’m not sure, could be a 50/50. For eg, if your laptop has some proprietary sound card, then Linux might not be able to take advantage of that. On Windows, these should work OOTB.
The Venn diagram of games I want to play and games that won’t run on Linux is two disjoined circles. My buddy really likes Helldivers, but that didn’t play nice because of the invasive anti-cheat. That has been the only one.
Tell your buddy you can play Helldivers with him!
Helldivers 1 and 2 are platinum and gold rated on ProtonDB with recent reports on both confirming they work well.
Helldivers 1 and 2 are platinum and gold rated on ProtonDB with recent reports on both confirming they work well.
For a more recent report:
I’m literally playing Helldivers 2 right now, on Wayland with HDR, and an Nvidia graphics card.
I just assume games work now and rarely need to check protondb. All of the games with kernel Anticheat are just as scummy as Microsoft with their microtransactions and FOMO systems intended to manipulate their players… so, I don’t care to play them anyway.
Sad to hear Hell Divers doesn’t work. Odd that they’d be so strict, it’s CoOp
I switched to Linux at the start of this year, and it’s been great, some small hiccups but nothing I couldn’t solve in a few min
I play helldiver’s just fine. Unless they’ve changed something in the last few months
Ah good to hear, I loved that game
Because it’s easier, it just works and it doesn’t nag me.
I use Bazzite, it’s been the best computing experience I had.
Ask anything you want.
have you tryed more distros other then bazzites? what would you recommend?
- 1998:
I tried my first linux distro: Mandriva
- 1998 - 2020
Every year I chose a distro and spent a month with it. Mandrake was a an eye opener. Then Ubuntu was the easiest, but it was not ready for me yet.
- 2021:
Linux is now ready for work & gaming, so I switched and tried these major distros and their downstream forks:
Debian
- Ubuntu
- Zorin
- POP OS
- Mint
- Tails
- Vanilla OS
Arch
- Manjaro
- Endeavour OS
- Crystal
- BlendOS
- SteamOS
Fedora
- Fedora Workstation
- Nobara
- Fedora Silverblue
- Ublue:
- Aurora
- Bazzite
I recommend Bazzite for gamers and Aurora, for everyone else. They are as if not easier to use than a smartphone.
I use Aurora on my work laptop, and Bazzite on my gaming desktop. Both have been great with no issues.
damn interesting, i see on steamchart that
july 2025, arch linux is most popular, what would you recommend?Every distro I listed is awesome in it’s own ways. Arch is great, but you will break it.
Arch is for people that want to learn Linux enough to fix it and/or tailor it down to the last package, if you want something that just works no matter what, it’s not for you.
However, if you have a second PC and your activities are not critically important and you have lots of free time, it’s great to learn how Linux works.
Having 2 drives also works fine. Just don’t dual boot on the same drive, as that will eventually result in being unable to boot.
Built.myself a new.gaming desktop and decided to dive into thw deep end by installing linux. Been working quite well, so far. Almost all the games i play do not use any anti-cheat, so i don’t feel that i’m missing out on anything. The only game which does not work that well is Roadcraft. I’ll just wait until it is patched to run better. I have lots of games in my backlog to play anyway.
