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?
You’re definitely living up to your username 👌
I always have since before joining this experiment in mediocrity we call the Fediverse.
In an age of enshitification, pretty ok most of the time is to be celebrated
I only have one problem with my linux mint distro: Sometimes cheats for video games don’t work.
Like I like to use savegame editors for Cyberpunk 2077, but they don’t work on linux despite all my attempts, and PINCE (Pince Is Not Cheat Engine) works for almost all games but just not for some.
And that, ladies and gentlemen (and all those in between or neither) is when I finally found a reason to actually code after tinkering on-off for decades: I want to make those save game editors for linux! That is something that legit doesn’t exist but needs to.
I made the switch this year
our university put linux mint on all the desktop computers this year.
Compsci labs or everywhere?
Cool. Which university is that? How did it go?
Let us know, I’m very curious. At our school (cal poly pomona), our comp sci professors were upset Ubuntu got put on their lab computers and they were upset because IT didn’t give warning and some didn’t know how to use it.
I’ll take whatever positive press Linux can get at this point. More people switching over is a good thing.
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.
I think it’s also down to windows 11 being increasingly enshitified, and unwanted AI stuff being forced on users. A lot of people are frustrated and are more open to alternatives.
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.
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
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.
“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.
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).
deleted by creator
o7
(tears streaming down my face, Born in the USA on soundtrack)
Couldn’t get Europa Universalis III to work on Steam, though.
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.
I would fuckin’ love it if we had the same support Mac users get.
Linux is niche, because every computer sold comes with Windows on it.
I’m brave enough to say 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.
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.
I don’t know guys, I miss AI.
Stockholm syndrome?
Never been there. Is it nice?
Once you’ve been, you’ll never want to leave.
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.
