I made the switch this year
I’ve been gaming on Linux mostly if not entirely full time since 2014. Back when you had to look to see if there was a Steam icon alongside the Windows and sometimes Apple logo because Proton wasn’t the “everything works” magic it is now.
Anyone complaining about the state of Linux today look like diaper shitting babies. “WAAAH! My privacy invading rootkit requiring multiplayer CoD Fortnite meme slop sippy cup game is specifically designed to not run on Linux. WAAAAH!” Yeah, I remember when hair didn’t grow near my genitals too, but then I stopped acknowledging any of my feelings in public except anger and pretended to like beer out of sheer force of peer pressure, and thus became a fully grown man by the standards of my culture. Get on my level.
What were we talking about?
our university put linux mint on all the desktop computers this year.
Cool. Which university is that? How did it go?
I’ll take whatever positive press Linux can get at this point. More people switching over is a good thing.
Couldn’t get Europa Universalis III to work on Steam, though.
o7
(tears streaming down my face, Born in the USA on soundtrack)
Some of y’all are showing your bubble side; outside of our communities here, Linux very much is obscure. That said, there really does seem to be a leak in the mainstream and it’s nice to see it mentioned in a publication. Even if just a little gain, thanks in large part to Steam raising awareness for gamers, US decline in Europe and Canada, and Windows 11 blunders with security.
I’ve gone from people being completely oblivious when I mention Linux, to going “oh, like steam deck?” but there’s still plenty of others who still are oblivious. Then again, mentioning file extensions goes over the heads of 95% of who I talk to, so I wouldn’t have too high hopes.
Everyone acts like it’s all about gaming, but people want to use Lightroom, Photoshop, Excel, their banking and tax software etc. They don’t want the alternatives because they’re not integrated well, they can’t access their Dropbox/Apple Cloud/whatever and they gave Linux their Google password already, why does it need it again for that mail software that has some stupid bird name instead of “mail”.
Yup. Although I’ve become a fan of things like GIMP, you do need to learn a new software and depending on who you are, it might take a while. Lucky (?) for me, I was too poor to afford it for school and since it was for official assignments, I didn’t want to pirate.
That said, Microsoft integration is more a curse than a blessing at this point. Privacy and junk aside, it’s dumped hundreds of GB of files onto my tiny SSD C: since it kept changing settings and ignoring my preferences. That’s why Microsoft messing things up is converting people who even prefer integration, when there’s an option to anyway!
Idk one of my siblings who I never chalked up as a non-windows user and not particularly tech savvy sent me a screenshot of their linux install. If like the tech barriers to linux are falling then the only thing left to fall is software developers for commercial software.
I built a high end Steam machine in October. I haven’t played many Windows games since. There are games I can’t play, like Space Marine 2, but I have so much that I can play I’m kind of fine with it. Being able to PC game in the living room with an OS that is well formatted for TV play is wonderful.
Linux very much is obscure
To paraphrase Bill Hicks about drugs…
See, I think
drugsLinuxes have done some good things for us! I really do. And if you don’t believedrugsLinuxes have done good things for us, do me a favor. Go home tonight, take all youralbumsbookmarks, all yourtapeslinks and all yourCDswebsites and burn 'em. 'Cause you know what? Themusiciansservers whomadehost all that greatmusicweb content that’s enhanced your lives throughout the years?Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreal fuckin’
highhosted ondrugsLinux.:3 Well, that nearly worked. n_n
(I had intended to add a “they[servers]'re all running linux” meme… but failed to find… instead, this’ll do nicely too…)
https://images3.memedroid.com/images/UPLOADED455/6859360c6abcc.jpeg
I’d say it worked. Bravo. Haha
“Like an Android, but without Google’s control.”
Since Android was built off Linux, just way locked down. Might appeal to a wider range of folk since it isn’t strictly to do with gaming and more people are likely to be familiar with Android than a Steam Deck.
Seriously, all the lutris & co mess is obsolete now.
Open Steam > add non-steam game > properties > compatibility > force proton 10 > profit
Worked for all the cough responsibly ripped .exe’s I’ve thrown at it so far
If I have an .exe from the high seas that still needs to be unpacked/installed how do I deal with it?
Just started using Linux for playing, currently playing Dispatch (highly recommend it), used Lutris to first install the compacted .exe and then run the launcher .exe. Is there a better way to go about it?
Hell, I’ve got a game I legally purchased on CD back in the Win XP days I’d like to play, and the farthest I got is installed but fails to run.
I still use bottles to have a persistent virtual drive for things like modding tools.
Most things work perfectly in Steam though.
Yeah. I also use Bottles for GOG / itch games that don’t have a native linux version. And I’m pretty happy with how it works. Things install smoothly and easily, and it has a very nice menu for the games I’ve installed. Here’s what it looks like:
However, there have been some hiccups along the way that might have caused less patient people to give up. In particular, it took me awhile to work out that although I could tell bottle to launch a windows .exe from anywhere on my computer, it would only actually work properly if I first move the exe into the virtual drive - which deep inside a confusing directory structure. (The “troubleshooting” menu option goes directly into talking about this issue; but even finding that menu option isn’t totally straight forward, especially if you’re just launching the exe from a file browser or something.)
Anyway, the upshot is that I like bottles; because it is easy to use but also very transparent about how it works and what it is doing, which I like. But I wouldn’t say it’s the best option for everyone.
Lutris has allowed me to use battle.net though which I don’t think steam can do, afaik. I’m happy to be proven wrong, though
I run battle.net through Steam. Works just fine.
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Thanks, I need to give that a try. Most of my non-Steam games (“Deus Ex”, “Giants: Citizen Kabuto”) run just fine under Wine, using the default settings. The only one that doesn’t work is NOLF 1. (Everything works except music).
The steam hardware survey showed Linux has 3.8% while Mac has 2.2% and windows the remaining 94%
Desktop Linux is niche, it will always be niche if they continue to ignore the user experience. Linux is for nerds, Linux nerds love that.
Linux is niche, because every computer sold comes with Windows on it.
I’ve always considered Windows to be a toy OS, because the only use case that could legitimately justify its need is gaming. Removing that requirement leaves only the clownishly unserious and terminally incurious users, which is a large population in computing today, but I’m fine with leaving them to kick in their wading sewer.
What a hot take.
Literally trillions of dollars in business have taken place on applications that only work on Windows. They were developed for 95 or XP or whatever and are still in use today.
For me, music production is my reason for being on Windows. Gaming I could do on Linux, but there’s nothing to drum up the interest in in fixing music prod on Linux that there was for gaming.
I’m brave enough to say it
I don’t know guys, I miss AI.
Stockholm syndrome?
Never been there. Is it nice?
Still anxious that there’s no clear roadmap for linux gaming after gaben passes (Hopefully decades until then).
That’s the beauty of it - Valve has done generous and miraculous things for Linux, using their money to fund work towards a common goal of both the users and their corporation.
But it doesn’t go away if they do. Valve cannot close Pandora’s box. The compatibility layers are open and accessible to the community and cannot be taken away.
IFF it becomes the standard before he dies, it might become as sticky as Windows was — but without enshittification.
THIS is the year.
Posts 30 year old photo of Linus
Posts 30 year old photo of Linus sourced from Getty Images. They paid for the image to discuss FOSS.
While talking about the PC desktop in a gaming magazine.
brave enough
It was good enough for me at least as early as 2003.
It took no bravery to say.
I wonder why it takes Joshua Wolens any bravery to say “linux is good now, and if you want to feel like you actually own your PC, make 2026 the year of Linux on (your) desktop”. I’ll skip writing a list of possibilities (~ most which would not be kind to the content of his character).
I’m all-in, baby. I’m committed.
This is the way. :)
PS, it’s the “Free Software” (Free As In Freedom ~ Free to use, study, share, change, as you wish), not the “Linux” that really matters, in the long run.
