It’s scary and disorienting, but imo it’s worth it.
I can now say anecdotally I have more friends that have tried Linux and are happier on it, than I have friends who went back to Windows.
Most of the people who went back went back for edge cases, weird hardware or that “one game” that has kernel level anticheat and doesn’t run on Proton.
Quick question: I’m assuming a Linux install requires a complete reformat of the drive, aka having to reinstall / redownload my games, right? Also the cloud saves that I have stored on Steam, would those be transferrable / usable if I install on Linux? Or am I going to have to start out at point zero on those games?
I’m assuming a Linux install requires a complete reformat of the drive, aka having to reinstall / redownload my games, right?
Not necessarily. You can back up the game files or transfer them from another PC over the local network. You can also install Windows and Linux in different partitions on the same drive but Windows will sometimes eat your Linux install.
Also the cloud saves that I have stored on Steam, would those be transferrable / usable if I install on Linux?
In addition to the other guy who answered you: Technically you don’t necessarily have to reformat you hard drive to install Linux. Many installers give you the option to resize an existing drive and install Linux alongside windows.
Also according your steam library: As far as I remember you can export and import single games and you may be able to move your steamapps directory to your Linux installation but this may or may not work depending on your setup and your games. If you don’t have a limited Internet connection I would recommend just re downloading the games your planning to play.
Cloud saves work fine whether on Windows or Linux.
But the best thing you can do is just go buy a new 1 tb os drive. Not too expensive, even for nvme, and it guarantees you lose no data. Then you have more storage once you actually know you migrated all the old data.
There are a handful of mostly-older games that had native Linux ports by third-party porting houses which broke save compatibility between the Windows and Linux versions of the game. However, these old Linux native ports are generally absolute garbage and you’re better off running the Windows version via Proton, which does have compatibility with your Windows saves as it is running the same exact game version. It seems most games with native Linux versions released by the actual developer are fine, it’s just when they offload the Linux version to a porting house that it can get messy. Those old third-party ported games were typically from the original SteamOS/Steam on Linux era (2012-2015 or so) before Proton became a thing though.
It doesn’t require a reformat, no. It depends on what drives you have. It works best to have one drive dedicated to Linux though. In that case you install Linux on a seperate drive and point the Steam library to the existing Windows Steam library. Then you can use all the same game installations on both Windows and Linux and boot back into Windows if you want to.
Plug an external disk and create a new steam library there, then move all your games to the new library. Now you have a portable library you can take with you on the go. Install Linux then add that library to the Linux Steam client. Now you have all your games back (including cloud saves).
Would likely want to do this over a dock because of power consumption. Dunno if it would actually turn it on without it, someone else would have to comment on that
It’s scary and disorienting, but imo it’s worth it.
I can now say anecdotally I have more friends that have tried Linux and are happier on it, than I have friends who went back to Windows.
Most of the people who went back went back for edge cases, weird hardware or that “one game” that has kernel level anticheat and doesn’t run on Proton.
Quick question: I’m assuming a Linux install requires a complete reformat of the drive, aka having to reinstall / redownload my games, right? Also the cloud saves that I have stored on Steam, would those be transferrable / usable if I install on Linux? Or am I going to have to start out at point zero on those games?
Not necessarily. You can back up the game files or transfer them from another PC over the local network. You can also install Windows and Linux in different partitions on the same drive but Windows will sometimes eat your Linux install.
Completely, yes.
Yes, reformat. Cloud saves in my experience work just fine.
Yeah same. Once I turned on the compatibility layer everything just worked and I picked up where I left off seamlessly.
In addition to the other guy who answered you: Technically you don’t necessarily have to reformat you hard drive to install Linux. Many installers give you the option to resize an existing drive and install Linux alongside windows.
Also according your steam library: As far as I remember you can export and import single games and you may be able to move your steamapps directory to your Linux installation but this may or may not work depending on your setup and your games. If you don’t have a limited Internet connection I would recommend just re downloading the games your planning to play.
Cloud saves work fine whether on Windows or Linux.
It depends on the game and service.
But the best thing you can do is just go buy a new 1 tb os drive. Not too expensive, even for nvme, and it guarantees you lose no data. Then you have more storage once you actually know you migrated all the old data.
There are a handful of mostly-older games that had native Linux ports by third-party porting houses which broke save compatibility between the Windows and Linux versions of the game. However, these old Linux native ports are generally absolute garbage and you’re better off running the Windows version via Proton, which does have compatibility with your Windows saves as it is running the same exact game version. It seems most games with native Linux versions released by the actual developer are fine, it’s just when they offload the Linux version to a porting house that it can get messy. Those old third-party ported games were typically from the original SteamOS/Steam on Linux era (2012-2015 or so) before Proton became a thing though.
You can also partition or use a separate drive and have both. I took the jump ship and reformat route, but you definitely don’t have to
It doesn’t require a reformat, no. It depends on what drives you have. It works best to have one drive dedicated to Linux though. In that case you install Linux on a seperate drive and point the Steam library to the existing Windows Steam library. Then you can use all the same game installations on both Windows and Linux and boot back into Windows if you want to.
Plug an external disk and create a new steam library there, then move all your games to the new library. Now you have a portable library you can take with you on the go. Install Linux then add that library to the Linux Steam client. Now you have all your games back (including cloud saves).
Wow that sounds amazing. Would that work to hook up to your steam deck as well?
I don’t own one, so I can’t say from experience, but it definitely should.
Would likely want to do this over a dock because of power consumption. Dunno if it would actually turn it on without it, someone else would have to comment on that