Linux

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.

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/

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.

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.'

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 :(

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.

I switched to Linux a few weeks ago after being a windows user. Windows is pretty much all I've known and grew up on it. I made the switch after my partner had been using it for a long time. We are both gamers and play things like palworld, sims 4, dark souls, etc. I've found that most games run fine even though they say that it's not Linux supported. My PC runs faster and responds faster than I'm used to than it was on windows.

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.

I switched full time to Linux last year and primarily use my computer for gaming. It's been great. I play games through steam so YMMV with other systems. I haven't had any issues playing a variety of games such as Factorio (built for Linux), GTFO, Horizon: Forbidden West, PEAK, Ready or Not, Plate Up... It's been rare for me to have an issue. I remember an issue trying to play Plate Up via steam remote play.

I uninstalled Windows few years ago even though I play the latest AAAs and indies games, including in VR, that's how good Linux for gamers.

You can check my post history but basically once you have your hardware well supported (basically the right drivers) and rely on a good system to evaluate compatibility (e.g. ProtonDB) then you won't get any surprise.

I suggest though that you try it yourself, e.g setup a Linux distribution of your chosing, a game you already own and... see if it feels good. If it does not, feel free to ask around and people will be happy to help if you provide a clear problem with your documented attempts to fix it, at least you can count on me.

So... finally why did I change? Well beside the "it actually works" it is also a lot more coherent with my own WorldView and my skillset. I'm a professional developer, WebXR prototypist to be more specific, so having an OS that does not put arbitrary (well, mostly about control for profit) limits on what I can or can not do is simply better. I can play for fun AND I can tinker with the same OS. I don't have to reboot if I just happen to have an idea that I want to try, I can just do it right here and there.

TL;DR: it works and it's better, giving me all the freedom I need to be creative and not feel constrained.

PS: also not giving more money to multibillionaires from Microsoft does feel nice.

I've never played Rimworld, so I don't know the modding situation on it.

I attempted to mod Skyrim, and as far as I can tell, it's not that the mods don't work, it's that the primary mod manager Nexus is currently using (Vortex) is kind of a pain in the ass to set up on Linux. They are currently working on a new mod manager that should be natively compatible and should resolve that issue.

But for every other game I've ever modded on Linux it works exactly the same as it does on Windows.

Truthfully, outside of the handful of games that don't want me playing them because of my OS, 90% of my games work exactly the same, if not better. The remaining 10% might require a little tinkering to get running, or have some weird hiccup (having to run it in Proton instead of native because for some reason they're "different versions" thus menaing I can only play with friends on Windows in the Proton version), but I honestly couldn't be happier.

It feels like I'm playing on my computer again, not Microsoft's computer.

Games mostly work. If they have a native Linux version they work (and more games have a native Linux version than you may expect). For Windows-only games, there's a compatibility layer called Proton (which is a gaming-focused fork of a more general compatibility layer called Wine) that lets you run Windows executables on Linux. IME most Windows games run flawlessly with Proton. You can check games on https://www.protondb.com/ to see how well they run on Proton.

Rimworld has a native Linux version, and I've not had any problems with Rimworld mods from Steam workshop on Linux. Never tried modding Skyrim so can't say on that.

As a gamer and a Linux user for more than 20 years this thread is so awesome.

I actually mostly stopped playing sometime in the late 2000s (dual booting was annoying) and restarted around 2017. We have come so far...

I used to play a lot on my Ubuntu install but nowadays I just use my PC to watch YouTube videos and series.

It works.

The only game I have not been able to get work has been pubg. Everything else has been great and run fine once proton was up and running. I am using bazzite 41 as my current distro.

Pop!_OS was a lifesaver when I was learning Linux. You can just look up Ubuntu related questions for tech support, the graphics drivers are preconfigured, and the interface is easy to use.

I'm on CachyOS with KDE now, but I highly recommend Pop! for a first-timer not looking to tinker.

Also, with ProtonTricks you can still mod stuff. It's not perfect, but there's a version of Mod Organizer 2 for Linux ;P

I've only had problems with Stellaris mods, i guess they use some windows only libraries? Ah and Elite Dangerous mods. Games like Starbound work even better on Linux though

90% of games can be played on Linux, though some of them actually happened to require some sort of tweaks to get them working. That said, the experience my producer and I have had for about 5 years (August 20th I think will be 5 years) was nothing short of wondrous.

We'll continue to use LInux until we die.

It's ok, not great but just ok. I mostly recommend people to keep a one drive for linux and one for windows exclusively for gaming. That way you can also keep any propietary software you need on your windows drive without compromising your linux drive.

Bazzite looks good for beginners, I like cachyos as a beginner but im a tinkerer, using gnome reminds me of cydia, I like cachyos because unlimited options, never feel like I can't install something, it's prob on the aur or whatever.

if cachyos pacman for cachyosrepo paru for aur At first I was confused on packages being missing

grab flatpak support and use flathub for some things

appimages are nice with gear lever (updates/menu)

can easily grab snapd support if you want to cover more areas

debtap to make debs usable on arch

I had always been turned away from linux because of the many formats deb, snap, etc. and being confused about support. But now I know I can get support for most things just installing whats needed from their website. (seems easiest with arch, least instructions)

BTW, while that made me comfortable when I swapped, knowing I can have whatever. I only needed to add flatpak support, and grab gearlever, everything else is unnecessary and available on the aur or as an appimage typically.

Its has been great:
Most of the games I already played worked on Linux.
Some you might have more fps.
Some less Some Games (e.g, Gmod) use Proton instead of the Native build.
Some games (e.g, Tf2) you can only Use Native which uses DXVK.
For Gmod cause its very outdated(Chromium is outdated,OGL only,lower fps) Had to quit Roblox and Fortnite to remove windows + those games sucked anyways and roblox just platform decision
I also Like how Directx 9 and 11 are Vulkan underneath the hood results in more fps.
And you can also Translate OGL calls into Vulkan via Zink. (Also via Nvidia it works)
Modding is also Similar how you do it on Windows(except maybe for some special windows only mods)
The only things I hate is VKD3D-PROTON sucks on Nvidia.
And that some games require launch options(which is fine for me,But not fine for people who want No tinkering).

Fantastic, try it yourself!!

http://nobaraproject.org/

It really depends, what you want to play. Old games run great for me, emulation is also good.

New games mostly work if they are not competetitive multiplayer.

Mods also mostly work for the games I play (FTL and Celeste e.g.), also mods through steam workshop like in Tabletop Simulator just work for me.

What didn't work are as mentioned some multiplayer games that are too harsh on anti cheat. SMITE e.g. works, but LoL doesn't.

As others mentioned, its best to have either a native version or an entry in ProtonDB with gold or platinum.