Close to switching to a Linux distro full time.

Swimmerman96, 11 months ago

I've been Linux fulltime for years, settled on Pop!_OS for it's excellent NVIDIA graphics integration. As far as game compatibility goes, check your games on ProtonDB. Even if they don't have a Linux native version, the Proton Compatibility Layer may let you play your "windows only" games on Linux without streaming.

HrBingR, 11 months ago

So one thing that might be worth looking into is virtual machines.

Currently on my desktop I run a variant of Arch (Endeavor I think) where I primarily do my gaming , but for any highly incompatible games, or Game Pass games, I have a virtual machine running Windows that uses pass-through to pass my graphics card through to the virtual machine for games I can't play on Linux. I also use CPU pinning to 'pin' 10 of my 12 CPU cores to the virtual machine to reduce potential overhead.

Works really well, might be an option for you, although it's not super easy to setup. I've tried passthrough on PopOS as well before, but it wasn't as performant, and Arch Wiki provides a ridiculous amount of super useful guides for doing just about anything, including setting this up.

Edit: Otherwise in terms of daily driver, I love Fedora, and likely won't move away anytime soon on my laptop.

Powderhorn, 11 months ago

I started down the road from Windows to Linux for my main rig a couple of months back after trying out a few distros on a new mini PC for HTPC/media server. Currently running KDE Neon on the TV, and I'd really like to get away from my Win11/Kubuntu dual-boot tower situation, since Proton is handling everything I throw at it short of Cities: Skylines.

The real sticking point is that I need to be able to use InDesign on rare occasions. I've used VirtualBox in the past for old DOS games and mused that a VM would be nice for the edge cases where I need Windows but haven't gotten any further than that since it felt like the ROI wasn't there.

What's involved in setting that up in modern times? Obviously, I'm coming at this from Debian rather than Arch, but pointers on where to start looking would be appreciated.

d3Xt3r, 11 months ago

VirtualBox in the past for old DOS games

Why though? DOSBox is a far superior experience if you wanted to play DOS games. Better performance, better compatibility, better config options (like being able to adjust the CPU speed on the fly), plus controller support and custom config and launcher support so you can just one-click launch your favorite DOS game.

Powderhorn, 11 months ago

Sorry I was unclear. That's just the extent of my VM experience ... it's not relevant to my current needs, as I've not played DOS games since Win2K.

d3Xt3r, 11 months ago

Ah, well you're missing out. DOS games are still pretty fun and awesome. Having a blast paying Dangerous Dave right now, and will play Prince of Persia once I clock this.

Powderhorn, 11 months ago

I've still got quite the collection of classic DOS games that I may throw on the TV computer alongside classic console stuff ... played a lot of A-Train back in the day. Getting the tower sorted is just a far higher priority.

RichardTickler, 11 months ago

Are you using single GPU passthrough? I run windows for games and linux for everything else with dedicated GPUs for each. Now I'd like to be able to do some gaming on linux as well because proton has come so far, but my linux GPU is definitely not up for the task. It barely handles hardware acceleration at 1080p without dropping frames on the nvidia proprietary driver and on nouvea it isn't even worth it to try anything higher than 720p.

HrBingR, 11 months ago

So yes. I had a similar setup to you, passed through my Nvidia card to Windows and kept my onboard Intel card for Linux, but much like you I wanted to game with both Linux and Windows, so now my onboard Intel card is disabled and instead I have some qemu scripts that detach the Nvidia card from Linux and to the VM, and vice versa once the VM is shut down. Was a pain to get setup, but actually works really well.

RichardTickler, 11 months ago

I'm glad to hear that. Last time I looked into it was when I was first building a PC specifically for KVM virtualization and it wasn't working the greatest then (especially returning the card to host on VM shutdown). Now that it's working better I may make a backup then try to see if I can get single GPU passthrough working. I'm excited by far linux gaming has come and wanna give it a try myself on better hardware.

ozoned, 11 months ago

Gaming on Linux has grown leaps and bounds and it’s only getting better. Game Pass Ultimate though, I’m guessing you’re gonna have a rough time. That’s built for Window’s ecosystem. So more than likely that’s going to be a very sore point. The streaming Game Pass can and does work on Linux, but if you’re against that then Linux might not be for you.

Steam has gotten to the point on Linux where it’s basically just install and run, as long as you have compatibility for all games turned on. Very very very few games haven’t worked for me or even require little tinkering anymore. That being say I pretty much really only play Indie games.

XLRV, 11 months ago

I'm in the same case, I really tried using Linux as my primary OS but I always go back to Windows for some games.

Honestly I don't think that local Gamepass will come to Linux ever.

For other games it will work mostly, except some multiplayer games that use anti cheat, some games will work with anti cheat but it's on a per game basis, so it depends which multiplayer game you want to play.

asexualchangeling, 11 months ago

I abandoned Windows early last year and I haven't encountered any game that I couldn't get to work in Linux, and with steam it's pretty much plug and play, so as long as you don't play anything on This list you should be good imo

Anticheat is really the last great hurdle, if you play those games anyway

Well that and stuff like Photoshop, but there are alternatives

alehel, 11 months ago

I've heard cutscenes can be problematic on some games. Something about the SteamDeck not supporting h264 I think 🤔. Warhammer 40,000 Boltgun is an example.

asexualchangeling, 11 months ago

To add context Valve can't Legally add support for h264 in proton, but GE-proton is a community project not maintained by valve

alehel, 11 months ago

They can't legally add it at all due to licensing restrictions, or they have chosen not to pay for a license?

asexualchangeling, 11 months ago

Honestly I don't know the details there, something about copyrighted code preventing a commercial solution? That's as far as I understand it anyway

asexualchangeling, 11 months ago

On cases like that switching to GE proton would be the way to go, easy to do you just need to click around in a program called ProtonUP-QT (easily found in the distros package manager) to install it, and then change it in the games properties

A good place to look to get help on getting games to work would be Protondb

Raincloud, 11 months ago

I exclusively use Linux on my PC, including for gaming, and have so for ten years.

It's... A mixed bag. Getting to use Linux instead of Windows is the great part about it. The totally different philosophy, a convenient way to install apps, no mess with device drivers, easy distro-hopping and reinstallation, a way to free yourself from the vendor lock-in. If you haven't tried it, but think you'd enjoy it, I'd strongly encourage you to try it.

Gaming works but isn't pain-free. I can enjoy a lot of games, and SteamPlay is fantastic. But there's moments like when I have to redownload all 20GB of Transport Fever 2 on GOG after an update was released, because there is no GOG Galaxy on Linux. Last week I was trying to get Trackmania 2020 running with a friend. The gameplay worked fine, but the Ubisoft Connect overlay was totally bugged. Whenever I opened the overlay, the game would then refuse all keyboard and controller inputs until I restarted it. Since the party system uses this overlay, I couldn't play with my friend because of this bug. And our entire evening was wasted reading through forums and ProtonDB to try to fix the problem to no avail.

I encourage you to take a look and see for yourself and try it, I will never go back to Windows, and it's free so you're not losing anything by trying. A passion for fixing things yourself helps. And it's not all sunshine and roses. But good luck, and we'll do our best to help you if you need it.

Lowbird, 11 months ago

It's possible to get gamepass and steam (and epic and ubisoft and itch.io) to both integrate with Playnite launcher.

This would still require you be able to run the xbox launcher, but it makes Playnite the interface you use and the other launchers are just opened in the background mostly, except for updates.

Anyway Playnite is a very customizable and lightweight open source launcher and maybe you might like it even though it doesn't actually solve the problem you're talking about here.

Edit: Playnite works on both windows and linux.

mtizim, 11 months ago

I'd recomment Lutris over this, as it often does contain custom install scripts with workarounds.

HER0, 11 months ago

If you must have Game Pass Ultimate to play games on PC, and must not use streaming, switching to Linux full time will probably never be possible.

I think that if you want to switch entirely, you will either have to accept that you can't use Game Pass or get an Xbox to play those games. The more practical approach is probably to use Linux as much as you can, and reboot into Windows when there is a game you really want to play which isn't available otherwise.

d3Xt3r, 11 months ago

I know you can use the cloud version, but I cannot stomach streaming games in their current state, so it is a no

Why is that so? Do you have a slow internet connection or something? Just curious because I stream games from XCloud and it's been a good experience so far.

sad_distro, 11 months ago

I have 1gig internet and it works great in every situation except for streaming games. I may give it another go and see if I feel any differently (may work better on a wired connection?)

d3Xt3r, 11 months ago

I have gigabit as well and it works great on both wired and wireless. But I do have a WiFi 6 router and a my devices are WiFi 6 as well. But yeah, wired will definitely work better regardless.

orbit, 11 months ago

Only thing keeping me from Linux full time is music production. Just not their yet unfortunately. Until I can run ableton and plug-ins natively it's a no go. That being said gaming is great thanks to Valve at this point.

aaronbieber, 11 months ago

A long, long time ago I ran Linux full-time on my desktop. Then I got into graphic design very seriously (early '00s) and went full Mac. I was full Mac for years and years, until a handful of years ago when I started to get more into photography and I wanted a fast Photoshop computer that didn't cost $5,000, so I went PC.

The photography world is similar to music and video production; there just aren't Linux alternatives that are mature enough. Lightroom is still the best catalog system. CaptureOne might be a better RAW processor, but that's OK, neither have Linux ports anyway!

I am on my Steam Deck all the time, and it's amazing to me how well games run on its Linux-based OS, but on the desktop I need one of the two commercial operating systems, there's just no getting around it.

orbit, 11 months ago

I'm 100% in your situation, and its funny how the Steam Deck has made me start neglecting my gaming pc lol. It's just so much better in bed or on a couch.

Mewio, 11 months ago

The only reasons I still have Windows on a drive is for my work but I only boot it up like once a month to update it these days. I use VMware for most of my windows related tasks now so maybe it's time I format that drive and use it for something else.

MoistHoagie, 11 months ago

I have looked into this myself recently. Still a few blockers for me, one of the big ones being VR. The Steam Deck and its OS have really pushed gaming forward on Linux though.

alehel, 11 months ago

SteamDeck has been great for Linux gaming. I've ordered a ROG Ally, and I really hope that Steam will officially open up their latest SteamOS version for other device makers. Considering that's how SteamOS was originally released (a desktop gaming OS for pc based consoles), I'm surprised they're not still operating like that

Valliac, 11 months ago

As someone who's been throwing the idea around putting Mint or another distro on my main desktop, is it a good idea for a main gaming computer? I use my laptop for DJing and stuff, but my desktop is primarily for games and videos.

Would that work out with Steam's linux compatibility or is there a better distro that could work?

mtizim, 11 months ago

Gaming works well for most Steam games, but if you go out of Steam it can be less nice. I've been linux-only for around two years now, and there's been only a handful of games that I wanted to play that wouldn't run on linux (but there's only a handful of online games I play so ymmv)

fred, 11 months ago

Its probably a mixed bag and dependant on what games you play (and your GPU).

I just dual boot. I use Ubuntu (currently 22.04) for most things like work etc. Using it now. And when I want to play games I use Windows.

That said, i Do have a mac as well, for recording music. I have considered moving to something like Renoise on Linux. Definitely wont be on windows.

All told, im not a evangleist for an OS. I just stick to what works for the task at hand.

Proton CAN play a lot of games. I believe its how the steam deck works too. So its probably more feasible than ever to run a gaming rig on linux. But ive been down that road before, and its been a fools errand for me.

Squiddles, 11 months ago

I've been maining Linux on my gaming rig for about a decade. It's way better now with modern Proton/Steam. Most games run great. Some have weird issues that will take some extra work or need a special version of Proton. A few are completely incompatible, like Destiny 2 (requires some gnarly security software that Bungie isn't willing to support on Linux).

You can check the ProtonDB site for the games you want to play to get an idea of what to expect. I notice about a 5% performance drop in Linux compared to Windows for most games, but that may have to do with the extra stuff I have running in the background on Linux for work/dev.

I love Linux and advocate its use, but if Windows is meeting your needs don't feel like you have to change. If you do try it, it's a good idea to start with a dual boot and jump back to Windows if a game you want to play doesn't work in Linux. Or if you hit an issue you just don't want to deal with right then. Computers can sense when it's been a long day and you only have 20 minutes to play.

johnthedoe, 11 months ago

After owning a steam deck I put mint on my pc and windows still in there I open once in a blue moon.

I haven’t had any issues gaming wise on Mint. Everything works. The OS is snappy and not in your face. I have a Mac for work which I use most of the day. I wouldn’t be able to run Linux as my daily driver. But it’s a great gaming pc option.

Mummelpuffin, 11 months ago

This is why I just dual-boot. Keep Windows on a short leash and basically just have it for the rare instances where there's something I really want to play and somehow can't on Linux.

WorseDoughnut, 11 months ago

If you do dual boot though, it's important to keep Windows on it's own hardware if you use grub. Windows tends to cannibalize the boot manager partition during updates.

overlordror, 11 months ago

Yes, this has happened to me twice. It's easy enough to fix, but terrifying the first time it happens.

CDN, 11 months ago

What kind of setup do you have? There's a few issues you may come across with an Nvidia GPU, but it's largely smooth sailing for everyone else with their Mesa drivers.

fred, 11 months ago

My biggest gripe with nvidia is the total number of gpu options. You have mesa, nouveau, and even the dedicated proprietary gpu, but then also specific kernel builds with said gpu drivers.

Personally I use the nvidia kernel module drivers. They are good, even for my wonky egpu+dgpu+onboard graphics setup. I have to reboot to connect/disconnect the egpu, and had to copy my x11 config over to the gdm login manager but otherwise it works great (with x11).

Wayland and other dwm…will have different results.