Depends on what types of games you want to play. If you play a lot of competitive multiplayer games you're gonna have a bad time.
this post was submitted on 21 Apr 2025
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More people need to say that if you're going to want ring 0, I'm not going to give you my money.
...which is a completely valid point if you don't mind not playing those games. But if you do want to play them (for example because back when you got to love them, they didn't have this), you have yourself a dilemma.
Unless you want to play against a shitload of cheaters every day (ruining the fun whenever you have 30 minutes to wind down), your game should have a decent enough AC to detect when someone loads a cheat, including the lowest level. And guess who doesn't have a problem with 3rd party programs accessing ring 0.
So there you have it, you either stop playing all multiplayer games (not even just competitive ones!) entirely, or stick with Windows and all the awful things that come with it. I've been wanting to switch to Linux for the past 20 years, have been playing various multiplayer games over the past 2 decades, and it was always either the AC or just the sheer incompatibility (especially in the earlier years). There was even a time when people could happily cheat on Linux and get away with it in Counter-Strike: Source, because VAC simply didn't work on Linux.
I agree with your overall point.
However, as a professional codemonkey, I promise you that root-level AC is in fact less secure than server-side heuristic AC + user reporting, and tends to be user-hostile due to false-flagging of modified systems. Root-level AC can be bypassed rather easily these days with DMA and other out-of-band tooling.
As a case-study, League of Legends lacked any root-level AC for well over a decade, and was arguably the most popular game in the world at points. Cheaters were extraordinarily rare; the average player would typically encounter well under a dozen cheaters per thousand games.
Riot Games then released Valorant with full root-level AC, and had an aimbot explosion within a few months - mostly because they devalued player feedback & reporting in favor of their “robust” automated AC solution. Their overall anticheat strategy became less reliable on the whole, but they stuck to it because root-level AC is cheaper and easier to execute from the corporate-profit POV.
So there you have it, you either stop playing all multiplayer games (not even just competitive ones!) entirely
There's plenty of multiplayer games that run just fine on linux. Including FPS games with perfectly functional anti cheat, it's just a select few which are unfortunately very popular that actively block linux. This is the part where you put your money where your mouth is and support the games that support the system you want to game on.
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The author lost me when they showed the terminal command to install Nvidia drivers on Debian. Yes, it's one sentence. That's still extremely daunting to the vast majority of computer users. It undermines the author's own thesis.
Linux is a better gaming OS for some (myself included) but there is still a small learning curve. It's nowhere near as bad as it's made out to be, but it's not nothing.
I'd have softened the title and focused on the ways Linux shines as a gaming OS: compatibility with older games (1990-2010 in my experience) that dont work on modern Windows, the ability to get more performace out of older hardware, consistent behavior, and a much more pleasant desktop experience.
Windows is a better choice for many people, but Linux is just as good for many and a better choice for some.
Id rather disable secureboot and copy paste a command in terminal than mess around with regedit tbf
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Depending on your distro, that command likely has a GUI alternative. It just depends on the distro implementation, the disparity is a weakness of GUIs in general. instructions for windows won't match MacOS or others, and sometimes even older versions of windows
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As a happy and satisfied Linux gamer I disagree.
Linux is the best OS overall, at least for me, but not the best for gaming for most people. Not yet.
Emulators Xenia (xbox 360 emulator) was not mentioned, because it is Windows only. There is no Xbox 360 emulator for Linux.
Game compatibility 80% are platinum or gold on ProtonDB https://www.protondb.com/
This is impressive, but you can't claim that a system that can't play up to 20% of game titles is better. Not to mention that some of the other titles might need some tinkering as well.
Conclusion Linux gaming is now a great and viable option for most people. But it still isn't better than Windows if you don't care about bloatware, security or privacy, and just use your machine exclusively for gaming.
Bonus: Linux is free, so you could maybe also get slightly better hardware by selecting it over Windows.
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Lots of people comment on this subject pointing out that some games don't run on Linux, and conclude that Linux is still behind Windows. This fails to recognize a distinct advantage that Linux has: More efficient use of hardware.
If your system doesn't have an especially fast SSD or lots of RAM, you might find that Linux gives a better gaming experience. It can often do more with less.
Edit to add: When I consider the fact that we're mostly talking about games designed and built just for Windows, I find this really damn impressive. And it just keeps getting better.
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