this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2026
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If I see someone installing windows on a steam machine, I’m losing it.
I did it for a few months to play gamepass games direct on hardware. If it’s any consultation, I used windows 10 IOT and eventually switched back to SteamOS.
It works, but windows is so clunky for actual gaming right now.
It wasn’t terrible but it was NOT good. It was useable and I got through a couple of smaller gamepass games.
I wouldn’t recommend it unless a lot has changed for windows portable gaming since 2024.
There were people doing that with their Steam Decks day 1
It’s the only way to play any of the most played and most popular games on a Steam machine.
This hasn't been true for years
Of the top 10 best selling games of all time, 9 of them run perfectly fine on Linux and the one that doesn't, requires you installing a rootkit, which only windows is stupid enough to allow.
so I'm not sure what your talking about?
Im all for linux but damn your comment is just incorrect and argumentative.
Youre telling me linux doesnt allow you to install programs that act as a rootkit?
Im not sure what your talking about.
Idk what specific game they are talking about, but usually, when the game runs through proton, said rootkit cannot work as intended due to containerization or whatever (sorry, my knowledge of the intricacies of Linux/proton is pretty poor) so it's either not doing its job properly because it can't really detect stuff like DMA, or the devs just prevent Linux users from playing to make their job easier.
League of Legends and stuff like that, I think Velorant, these games.
They’re not the most played and most popular now.
People want to play online shooters, and those generally don’t work on Linux. Fortnite, COD, Warzone, battlefield, apex, gta, pubg, etc. None of them work on Linux.
I've played warzone, battlefield, and apex on Linux in the past. I don't anymore because I don't find them fun, but they definitely worked fine. These days I mostly play Overwatch and Marvel Rivals, which are also some very popular online shooters, and they work as well on Linux. Kinda weird to be making claims like that in such absolutes.
Sounds like Valve is catering to its veterans rather than uh younger generations. Aren't those games notorious for cheats anyway, despite kernel level anti-cheat?
Yet they’re still the most popular and most played games.
If valve wants steam machines to ever be more than a niche, they need to fix this problem - and it IS a problem.
Of the top 10 games currently on Steam, 9 of them run perfectly fine on Linux, and the tenth is Apex.
And apex used to run fine under proton till they decided that it shouldn't.
Precisely because the "rootkit" (whatever anti cheat solution it uses) couldn't actually do its job when running the game through proton iirc
Yeah, and those top 10 numbers pale in comparison to the games I named in terms of player counts. Most of these games aren’t played through Steam.
Fortnite is the only one of those with a higher player count than CS:GO, though admittedly PUBG would slip in around the middle. The rest aren't particularly popular games, maybe you should have named League of Legends instead.
But then you would just play dota or deadlock
gta does actually, if you and people in yout session block punkbuster
btw anyone wants to do a heist with me at 2am (in gta)
Look at this guy who never heard of Proton gaming
Proton doesn't support Kernel Level Anti Cheat
Sounds like a win to me.
Oh when did proton let you play GTA Online? Call of Duty? Warzone? Battlefield 6? Fortnite? Apex? PUBG?
Did I miss proton getting kernel level anti-cheat? Do you even know what proton is? The difference between proton and steamOS?
Maybe delete this comment of yours too and try again. Third times the charm maybe? The first time you misread what I said, the second time you’ve misunderstood why these games don’t work on steamOS. Maybe next time you’ll get it.
The funny thing is that this is nearly an exhaustive list of games that don't work.
Ironically, those are all games that I did not want to play when using windows either.
Every new game that came out in 2026 that I actually wanted to play does work on Linux with Proton.
The age of Windows is a PC gaming monopoly is definately coming to an end.
Kernel level anti cheat is not the solution, it is the problem: https://nooneshappy.com/article/kernel-anti-cheat-is-an-overreach/
I am glad that my computer is free of that shit.
We're sorry that youve only had experience with games that run micro transactions and brain rot. You could try better games and don't just fall in with the 16 year olds playing cod 74. Unless you are 16...
Where did I say I play them?
Good try to gatekeep and try and feel superior though.
It’s insane how much the hardcore Linux community seems to be Linux adoption rates worst enemy. Should we want Linux to get features that will remove the single biggest reason why hundreds of millions of people will never switch to Linux for gaming? No, because we need to pretend we’re superior by only playing unpopular games.
I'm not hardcore Linux, I'm anti privacy invasive software. Privacy is already at war, why are we feeding all our data to AI bullshit?
Let me get this straight, you want to install windows on steam machine to install malware on it? Windows users have really weird kinks.
Calling anti-cheat software “malware” shows you’re not arguing in good faith.
Posting this link here as well: https://nooneshappy.com/article/kernel-anti-cheat-is-an-overreach/
It isn't malware by design, but too much power and corruption and even the idea someone could access it from something like this is bizarre. Why you're defending it, I don't know.
Look at flock cameras. The idea to find a missing child or someone in trouble instantly is great, until police start using access to stalk women and their exes.
Woah, careful there, you might overload their brain. Extending your thinking and following logic to its endpoint?
Nooo, most popular game fortnite me play fortnite, me need unlock skins with credit card.
Proton? (And games that don't work with Proton are usually bad and their players wouldn't buy an Steam Machine)
Proton doesn’t play Fortnite, CoD, Warzone, Battlefield, Apex, GTA Online, PUBG, etc.
If valve want the steam machine to be anything other than niche, they need to figure out a way to get these games working in Linux. For all the “success” of the steam deck, even the abysmal selling Xbox series sells more in a year than the steam deck has sold in its lifetime.
Crazy people are trying to drown out your comments with down votes when you are just stating facts.
The stream machine is unfortunately a failure for the price. It should have been 600ish tops for the hardware. You can get a much better system for similar or slightly more which makes it's price to perf horrible.
Yes I know it's because of datacenter and price fixing but it doesn't make the steam machine a good system compared to others
You maybe could have gotten a much better system for a similar price a year or two ago but I’m not sure you could at today’s prices. Especially if you price out a small form factor one. I wouldn’t be surprised if the original price of steam machine was in the 6-700 range before the current ram/storage/gpu crisis
You can get a sff machine with a dedicated gpu and better processor though
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GLDVNNFG
One example that has a much better processor and gpu and smaller form factor too. Plus you can upgrade it so its not a giant paper weight.
https://www.microcenter.com/product/708800/G533_Gaming_PC;_AMD_Ryzen_5_7500X3D_40GHz_Processor;_AMD_Radeon_RX_9060_XT_16GB_GDDR6;_16GB_DDR5-6000_RAM;_1TB_Solid_State_Drive;_Microsoft_Windows_11
Way better but limited to microcenter.
Many DIY options too
https://www.pcmag.com/news/i-configured-four-small-pcs-to-beat-the-steam-machine-at-its-own-game
https://lemmy.world/comment/24678198
Gross
You mean ew
Unfortunately some games don’t run on Linux, my fav apex legends doesn’t. If I had the disposable income to grab one of these I’d at least be dual booting…