I’m a few months into Linux Mint on my gaming PC and love it; 99% of my games work. The only one that doesn’t so far is FiveM but that’s because the devs appear to be very anti-linux unless you’re hosting a server.
Is there a way to confirm which games in your library will work well on Linux for your specific hardware, gaming is the only thing keeping me on Windows for now, I’d be happy to get rid of windows if I could run most of my games on Linux and the rest maybe I can run on Wine or a virtual desktop
Not for specific hardware but you can sign in to ProtonDB with your steam account and get an overview of your entire steam library. For online games there is areweanticheatyet.com, you will have to check games manually.
AMD, Nvidia (9xx and newer) and Intel iGPUs (Skylake and newer) have roughly the same compatibility, performance differs usually favoring Windows on Nvidia.
Do it, just don’t play the games that don’t work on Linux. I switched 15 years ago and didn’t look back. There are so many games at this point why bother with the ones that only work on Windows?
The only game I actively played that didn’t work on Linux was destiny 2, and switching to cachyOS has really helped me kick that toxic game out for good.
It comes down to how much the publishers care about their own product. Devs shoveling third party kernel anti-cheat into their product often cause those games to be Linux incompatible. Devs bundling their own unnecessary launcher with the game and requiring it to run the launcher in order to run the game sometimes cause those games to be Linux incompatible. It often isn’t even the devs themselves making this decision, which is why I blame the publisher more than the developers in most cases.
But with how robust Proton has become these days there isn’t a whole lot outside of those two cases that will make a game not run on Linux. It’s pretty intentional at this point.
Outside of a handful of multiplayer games pretty much any game will work under proton, new or old. Stalker 2 worked out the box on release day, early awkward 3D games like Gothic runs just fine, and your early point and click games will likely run just fine. Out of my 460 games*, only EA WRC doesn’t work because they introduced kernel level anti cheat after release.
*Edit: Just to clarify i haven’t tested all my games, but I have played a good number of them. Also another game that doesn’t run is Ground Control 2, but that doesn’t work on Windows since about 7 or 10, so it doesn’t count! ^^
This isn’t really true. At least on the steam deck. Of the 156 games I have in my library, 52 of the are “great on deck”. Id say twenty of the other ones work great anyways.
I don’t play multiplayer games, but the one I do have are in the works great category. The vast majority are single player games. (Just checked, i have 15 games that not compatible at all)
Definitely double check your games before making the switch.
A lot of the “unsupported” or “unknown” games also work fine. Some may require switching to a specific Proton version (check protondb.com), but many work fine.
I easily game +6 hours a day on Linux though. PoE 1-2, D2, modded d2, Cyberpunk, witcher3, ffxiv, Monster hunter world-ride-wilds, HotS (year the blizzard client works and with it all blizzard games without anticheat)… To name a few.
From a gaming perspective: Get a new drive (NVMe/whatever your OS is on), drop Nobara on it, be done, have the option to switch back without a hassle if you need it for some special tasks or games.
And after 6 months find out that you never actually did that so delete windows/migrate it into a VM and enjoy the extra game drive you won.
That’s at least what worked for 90% of my friends meanwhile.
The only person I know who routinely uses windows is myself- and I only do so,because I need certain MS Office stuff that I need for work. (And no,libre or Softmaker,etc. are sadly not a replacement for that. )
And after 6 months find out that you never actually did that so delete windows/migrate it into a VM and enjoy the extra game drive you won.
This is where I am at. As of last week I banned Windows to the deeps of a vm and went all in on Linux (Mint, in this case). Dual bootet for a couple of months but since I never used Windows outside of a vm anyway…
Havnt had a single issue with games so far, besides some very minor hick ups that were resolved easily. Than again, im lucky that the game so play have been supported so far.
No,sadly not, but I have a very special use case - user Information based access to files of external customers. They basically require a shitload of Azure,etc.
Already takes a lot of work on Win, it is simply impossible with Wine.
But again: A very special use case that even most Enterprise users won’t need.
I was ready to do that back when I switched, but still found games to play. Back then, Steam hadn’t yet come to Linux (I didn’t even have an account), so it was mostly random indies (back when Humble Bundle was baller) and some FOSS games. I played a bunch of Minecraft and Factorio as well. Then Steam came and brought a few more games, then Proton came and I’ve been back buying a ton of games.
Switching to Linux is so much easier these days with the incredible game support.
I did it a few months ago, honestly after the initial learning it has been a great experience. That’s including me having to fuck around with stuff because I chose to run extremely new graphics hardware, and that’s kinda on me.
Bro, I’m so fucking close to removing Microsoft from my life
Currently backing up, moving to Zorin Core after work!
Do it. You’ll be asking yourself why you haven’t done so a year ago!
Do it
I’m a few months into Linux Mint on my gaming PC and love it; 99% of my games work. The only one that doesn’t so far is FiveM but that’s because the devs appear to be very anti-linux unless you’re hosting a server.
Is there a way to confirm which games in your library will work well on Linux for your specific hardware, gaming is the only thing keeping me on Windows for now, I’d be happy to get rid of windows if I could run most of my games on Linux and the rest maybe I can run on Wine or a virtual desktop
Not for specific hardware but you can sign in to ProtonDB with your steam account and get an overview of your entire steam library. For online games there is areweanticheatyet.com, you will have to check games manually. AMD, Nvidia (9xx and newer) and Intel iGPUs (Skylake and newer) have roughly the same compatibility, performance differs usually favoring Windows on Nvidia.
To add, ProtonDB usually has the user’s specs next to their reports, so you can try to find reports with similar specs to your computer.
Do it, just don’t play the games that don’t work on Linux. I switched 15 years ago and didn’t look back. There are so many games at this point why bother with the ones that only work on Windows?
The only game I actively played that didn’t work on Linux was destiny 2, and switching to cachyOS has really helped me kick that toxic game out for good.
I got that game for free and I overpaid.
For some reason it seems to me like toxic games are less likely to run on Linux compared to the average
It comes down to how much the publishers care about their own product. Devs shoveling third party kernel anti-cheat into their product often cause those games to be Linux incompatible. Devs bundling their own unnecessary launcher with the game and requiring it to run the launcher in order to run the game sometimes cause those games to be Linux incompatible. It often isn’t even the devs themselves making this decision, which is why I blame the publisher more than the developers in most cases.
But with how robust Proton has become these days there isn’t a whole lot outside of those two cases that will make a game not run on Linux. It’s pretty intentional at this point.
The whole reason I have a computer is to game on it though! :P
Outside of a handful of multiplayer games pretty much any game will work under proton, new or old. Stalker 2 worked out the box on release day, early awkward 3D games like Gothic runs just fine, and your early point and click games will likely run just fine. Out of my 460 games*, only EA WRC doesn’t work because they introduced kernel level anti cheat after release.
*Edit: Just to clarify i haven’t tested all my games, but I have played a good number of them. Also another game that doesn’t run is Ground Control 2, but that doesn’t work on Windows since about 7 or 10, so it doesn’t count! ^^
This isn’t really true. At least on the steam deck. Of the 156 games I have in my library, 52 of the are “great on deck”. Id say twenty of the other ones work great anyways.
I don’t play multiplayer games, but the one I do have are in the works great category. The vast majority are single player games. (Just checked, i have 15 games that not compatible at all)
Definitely double check your games before making the switch.
“great on deck” is a lot more than Linux support. It also means the text is readable on a small screen and the game has 100% controller support.
Yes
A lot of the “unsupported” or “unknown” games also work fine. Some may require switching to a specific Proton version (check protondb.com), but many work fine.
Yes
I already don’t have time to play all the games I want to play. Narrowing that list somewhat isn’t going to change that for me, so why not Linux?
I easily game +6 hours a day on Linux though. PoE 1-2, D2, modded d2, Cyberpunk, witcher3, ffxiv, Monster hunter world-ride-wilds, HotS (year the blizzard client works and with it all blizzard games without anticheat)… To name a few.
If not for work I’d already be there
From a gaming perspective: Get a new drive (NVMe/whatever your OS is on), drop Nobara on it, be done, have the option to switch back without a hassle if you need it for some special tasks or games.
And after 6 months find out that you never actually did that so delete windows/migrate it into a VM and enjoy the extra game drive you won.
That’s at least what worked for 90% of my friends meanwhile.
The only person I know who routinely uses windows is myself- and I only do so,because I need certain MS Office stuff that I need for work. (And no,libre or Softmaker,etc. are sadly not a replacement for that. )
This is where I am at. As of last week I banned Windows to the deeps of a vm and went all in on Linux (Mint, in this case). Dual bootet for a couple of months but since I never used Windows outside of a vm anyway…
Havnt had a single issue with games so far, besides some very minor hick ups that were resolved easily. Than again, im lucky that the game so play have been supported so far.
Wine was originally made specifically for running MS Office on Linux. Does that not work for you either?
No,sadly not, but I have a very special use case - user Information based access to files of external customers. They basically require a shitload of Azure,etc. Already takes a lot of work on Win, it is simply impossible with Wine. But again: A very special use case that even most Enterprise users won’t need.
I see, fair enough then.
Yeah. This and CAD software sadly are the last things windows is really needed for me,sadly.
After my experience with nobara blowing up after a major update I’d probably go for bazzite instead
Bazzite is amazing, best distro I’ve used. It works perfectly as a gaming focused distro. I’ve been rocking it for a year now without issue.
Best thing I ever did. I got tired of being told how I could use my computer and the spying or course.
i mostly quit videogames in order to do this. it’s nice to think that maybe I’ll get some more of them back
I was ready to do that back when I switched, but still found games to play. Back then, Steam hadn’t yet come to Linux (I didn’t even have an account), so it was mostly random indies (back when Humble Bundle was baller) and some FOSS games. I played a bunch of Minecraft and Factorio as well. Then Steam came and brought a few more games, then Proton came and I’ve been back buying a ton of games.
Switching to Linux is so much easier these days with the incredible game support.
I did it a few months ago, honestly after the initial learning it has been a great experience. That’s including me having to fuck around with stuff because I chose to run extremely new graphics hardware, and that’s kinda on me.