Man do I feel that PS, I think the worst part of gaming on Linux (which is massive credit to how well it works) is not knowing whether a bug is just... the game, or is somehow Linux/Proton/Drivers. I hate not knowing if it's worth stopping to look into a fix or not.
this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2026
121 points (99.2% liked)
Linux Gaming
26547 readers
413 users here now
Discussions and news about gaming on the GNU/Linux family of operating systems (including the Steam Deck). Potentially a $HOME away from home for disgruntled /r/linux_gaming denizens of the redditarian demesne.
This page can be subscribed to via RSS.
Original /r/linux_gaming pengwing by uoou.
No memes/shitposts/low-effort posts, please.
Resources
Help:
- ProtonDB
- Are We Anticheat Yet?
- r/linux_gaming FAQ
- Fork of an earlier version of the above
- PCGamingWiki
- LibreGameWiki
Launchers/Game Library Managers:
General:
Discord:
IRC:
Matrix:
Telegram:
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
When our 7 days to die server is not working or we get some bug we are always joking in my friends group that it "must be a Linux issue" lol. We have checked so often and it always was a problem that had nothing to do with it. To be honest my Windows friends apps have problems with bugs and glitches in their games because the game studios often release their games in a poor state.
I have friends who says "I still run Windows because I don't want to do any tinkering," but don't realize they'd do less tinkering if they switched haha. It's not 2015 anymore.
"Windows doesn't require any tinkering, just run this to make a local account, decline 100 requests to use OneDrive and Office 365, get these debloaters, uninstall all these things, and make sure you always tell Windows to not restart your computer while you're using it every time it updates. And when it does update, you'll need to run the debloaters again."
I mean, you don't really have to do these stuff. I doubt the comment's author's friend cares about debloating and privacy.
Yes, in the same way that you don't typically need to tinker with Linux
In the end they're not so different, except Windows intentionally does anti-consumer things that make people want to tinker.
Excellent. That means it’s working as intended.
The best user interface is one that you don’t even notice. The seamless layer between you and your tool (or game in this instance).
Nice it's always great to hear the work millions of people put into the Linux ecosystem is paying off.
This is the kind of story we should forward to Linus Torvalds, the Linux mailing sublists and other volunteers so they see how their work gets recognized ^^
Glad to see the “working as intended” responses. Linux as a computer for people to use and Linux as a hobby can sometimes be at odds. It’s not a problem at all if someone’s able to use a Linux computer without noticing.
My biggest issue with games is that they still don't _just work_™, all the time, and they need to be seemless for people like that.
You download a game on a couple devices it doesn't work on one, or you need to tune the configuration, or even when it does start there are sometimes graphical issues (unrelated to GPU capability, like not all layers rendering), or ghost input (one game I have circles round and round like the R joystick was glued right even with just a mouse and keyboard), or modern games designed to work only with a mouse when the developer could have easily supported keyboard and controller.
A couple of years ago, I might have still checked protondb for Linux compatibility before making a purchase, but it seems a waste of time now. Everything that I've bought through Steam, or bought on GoG / claimed for free on Epic through Heroic has Just Worked, and has done for years. I think it got better when the Steam Deck was released; put a lot of visibility on Linux compatibility.
If you aren't in to AAA, and even then only the competitive multiplayer with intrusive anticheat, then Linux is all you need.
I can barely get anything to run on Mint, but it probably has more to do with the fact my desktop is 14 years old and I refuse to put any money into upgrading it.
Idk, my partner has an RTX 1650 but the PC runs Mint, is a Dell Optiplex 990 with stock mid-2011 mobo, Intel i5-2400 CPU and 20GB DDR3-1333 RAM (8+8+2+2). It runs really well, considering.
Linux does come preinstalled on a number of laptops if you buy them in Europe.
Problem is that the Linux variants used are usually incredibly out of date, with no straightforward way to upgrade, abysmal desktop experience and so on.
There's also simply too much choice when it comes to Linux for the average people. Your Average Joe wants to sit in front of a computer, turn it on, and have a usable desktop, readily available office and basic utility apps, and easy installation of software.
They don't want to learn the difference between KDE, Gnome, Cinnamon, X11 and Wayland, open or closed sourced drivers, licences, and so on. To most people, a computer is a tool that should be as complicated to use as a screwdriver - you can swap different heads (software for different purposes), but it works the same, no matter how you sit in front of if.
Historically, there's been a singular distro offering anything even close to this requirement, Ubuntu, and even that has gone to shit.
Hopefully, with gaming being a major pull force, this can change and we will see more generic use distros pop up like Bazzite and SteamOS, but at the moment, there's simply no alternative to Windows or macOS that can proper take them over.
Ubuntu still pretty much works for that.
And all the stuff people complain about Ubuntu enshittifying, most of that is for more advanced use cases (like switching an app from snap to an apt repo.)
This reminds me I really want to switch to Cinnamon DE on my main desktop (which is still running Unity DE. Which I love ☹️)