circuitfarmer

By and large, unless you are playing one of a few multiplayer games which require kernel-level anti-cheat schemes, you won’t have issues running Windows games on Linux. Note that kernel-level anti-cheat is also a huge issue in general, for privacy and other reasons, so it’s not really something that should or will be fixed in Linux – it’s up to developers to stop requiring such schemes.

I’ve been a Linux gamer for about 3 years. 3 years ago, I had occasional issues. Now not for a long time. But I play almost entirely single player titles.

Hardware does matter a bit. AMD is extremely Linux friendly and drivers for AMD hardware tends to be in the Linux kernel, so there’s nothing else to load. Nvidia makes things more difficult.

I don’t even check ProtonDB anymore before buying a game. It just works the vast majority of the time, even without additional configuration.

I see the point about KDE, though I don’t think the learning curve on Cinnamon is hefty. I also think that KDE being so configurable can seem overwhelming to new folks.

This is generally true, but I’d also caution that the B580 is a brand new card with (somewhat lacking) Linux support.

In general, if you aren’t using bleeding edge hardware, you won’t have such issues. This is especially true of AMD hardware, which tends to be extremely Linux friendly.

Exactly this. Many people have a lot of apprehension until they actually try it.

Fair enough. I tend to agree, but I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, because, you know, FOSS and freedom.

Yes, anti-cheat specifically is a problem. That’s you fighting against the corpos, to be clear. Not really an issue with gaming on Linux itself.

Edit: not only against the corpos, but more generally against the idea of “kernel-level anti-cheat”. If you’re giving any corporation kernel-level access to your machine, you basically no longer control your machine. That’s true of Windows too.

It’s a big issue and the lack of support on Linux is a bit of a feature, not really a bug.

But… Why not now? I can’t think of a single reason.

I wouldn’t say SteamOS for new folks, tbh. Flatpaks are very different from the typical Linux flow.

This is fair. I should have given my own suggestions.

Mint is probably the choice at the moment for new folks. Also, this will be controversial, but feel free with Ubuntu. It will get you started, and that’s great.

Edit: I added some (open-ended) suggestions to my original comment.

To anyone reading this thinking “once SteamOS comes out, I’ll switch”, you should know:

Gaming on Linux is already here. Pick a distro and game. You can take advantage of Proton right now. You don’t need to wait for one specific distro.

I’ve personally been gaming on Linux exclusively for about 3 years. Windows games, not Linux games.

Edit: based on other commenters’ suggestions, I’ll give you some.

I have gamed for those three years on PopOS. It is a distro based on Debian, ultimately, which means it’s also related to Ubuntu and Mint. Realistically, you can pick any of those 4 and you should have a nice experience.

Arch is popular with the übergeeks, and I do use it on my laptop, BTW, but you shouldn’t use it as a first distro.

The concept of “distro” doesn’t really exist for Windows, because you pretty much get one monolithic product. But basically, it is a specific mix of software that works together and relies on the Linux kernel. Imagine it as a “version” of Windows with specific goals, some of which are overlapping (e.g. Mint and Ubuntu tend to cater to the same audience).

If you get far enough into it, the freedom that Linux allows means that you can turn any distro into any other distro.

My Linux experience has been command line training. Now I avoid GUI stuff like the plague if I can help it.

Also Silicon Power is practically a name brand at this point. I’ve had many and never an issue.