I'm glad gaming has come so far but it still fuckin sucks. Waiting hours for shders to compile, all the bandwidth used to download those shaders. Then the game still runs like shit compared to windows.
Don't get me wrong. I still only use Linux and have for like 8 years. But that doesn't mean it's not shite. But I don't really game like I used to. My main issue is applications like Adobe and CAD software. We need that to support Linux
Have you been playing the dead space remake? FreeCAD just made a big leap BTW (to be fair I was happy enough using it before, but I understand people's complaints)
Hey so im not sure if this applies to you but ive been told to skip the shaders compile and it works just fine. I found that to be true for linux mint with steam. Apparently its not really doing anything? I could be wrong.
If you are talking about the dialog box that comes up before a game loads in steam.
Oddly enough, the rise of software as a service I think has led to Linux being a more viable option for business use. For my work, I'd still be personally missing MS Excel but that's because I hate LibreOffice Calc with a passion. I cannot understand some of their keybindings which are not changeable. But so much of what I use these days is just in web browsers.
I've used several CAD solutions as a toolmaker. And tested even more. All Windows only. I wear the sackcloth and ashes of FreeCAD at home because
1: It's free and I don't need to buy a subscription. Billed monthly or annually-- your choice. I can use FreeCAD as I see fit.
It does NOT require me to store my data in the cloud. I have worked on things that were trade secrets.
If my internet connection goes down I can't access my work with the full ability to manipulate it.
I absolutely detest the clown car UX that is Fusion 360. I don't want to click an icon and get a dropdown menu that's a dozen entries long, then click one of those and getting a submenu that's ANOTHER 6 entries deep. Ain't nobody got time for that shit.
Because it's a Linux distribution. They're forced to be our friends because of a brilliant legal tactic that has been working marvelously. For Steam itself we have to trust a billionaire pinky promise that he won't enshittify. But if Linux becomes a major gaming platform, it could be a major turning point for free software adoption in general.
So steam has had 20 years to enshitify, in that time they have always remained a privately held company and have made choices to ensure long term growth. I imagine at some point (like after gaben hands over control) they could go public and obtain their very own collection of worthless bloodsucking vampires, but i imagine that would be quite awhile, and hopefully by then they will have removed windows death grip from gamers throats.
I wouldn't say monopolies are good, but there's a difference between monopolies existing because the one at the top is actively preventing others from offering the same services, versus the monopoly existing because no one else is capable/willing to doing it. How do you resolve the latter without forcing them to offer a worse service?
Most people just use what's in front of them. Apple takes on exorbitant costs to make sure marginalized people are the face of iphone. Microsoft takes on exorbitant costs to be the face of our soul crushing tech capitalism. What can linux represent and how can we leverage that to our advantage while taking down apple and Microsoft.
Unfortunately the biggest issue now is the anticheats that only function on windows. My friends refuse to switch to Linux because you cannot play:
fortnite
league of legends
escape from tarkov
battlefield
apex legends
valorant
R6 siege
GTA 5
Rust
Destiny 2
Etc
They'll play other games but because they mainline one of these they refuse to leave. As long as SteamOS has no answer to these anti cheats windows will maintain a dominance.
Technically, all the major anti cheats have Linux userspace binaries that even support wine/proton passthrough, so there are actually a lot of anti cheat games that run on linux as shown in the list.
The issue is not entirely something SteamOS can solve or is even linux's fault because no sane distro would ever support running a kernel level anticheat module. It would break the defining security features of linux, and I'm not even sure DKMS or Akmod would support it out of box on secure boot.
The games in question refuse to enable anticheat on linux because they know the userspace binaries are limited, but then their windows solution is just a crappy rootkit. It's not a very good or longterm solution either. EAC and Battleye both have demonstrable bypasses with various methods of fooling. Only Vangaurd seems to aggressively keep up with the arms race by literally scanning your PCIe devices for hardware cheats.
What they can do is to convince game OEMs to enable their linux AC support by marketing the potential customers they are losing out on. That's basically what happened with Halo MCC and Infinite. I'm still surprised they actually convinced Microsoft to allow both games to run on Linux with EAC.
I am an idiot, so this is probably a dumb question, but it sounds like you might be able to shine some light.
Why could we not run kernel level anticheat in a sandbox? Does kernel level inherently mean a sandbox cannot contain it?
As an aside is kernel level anticheat required for anti-cheat to function? Or are the developers of anti-cheat software just doing kernel level because its easier?
I'm sure it's on the roadmap, but not a current priority. First get it to work decently and iron all the kinks out of steamos, then they can look at anti-cheating.
Its not because steam doesnt support it. Some of the games on that list have banned players from connecting online from linux. Apex legends put out a newsletter about how they couldn't keep up with cheating using linux OSes and so they had to just cut it off entirely.
Unfortunately, the rules for apostrophes in English are made up for each individual word. Lots of native speakers get it wrong, and I don't know how non-native speakers could possibly keep it all straight.
That's the "damning with faint praise" that has been the bane of Linux since slackware came on 500 floppies.
Sometimes that "mostly" is just "oh, you have to do this simple thing that is in a FAQ once and then you're golden". Other times it's "oh, that hardware isn't supported, so I guess you don't have a usable video card".
I think what many of us are hoping with when it comes to SteamOS is that a few of the remaining really sharp edges get sanded off. And, just maybe, there will be a tipping point where the smoother the experience, the more people use it, and the more people use it, the smoother the experience will be.
Bro I had to spend 4 hours on forums trying to figure out why Windows won't reboot into BIOS. It's linked to the Fast Start option that won't turn off without rebooting into BIOS.
Same experience here. People waiting for steamos don't know most good distros work how they think steamos is gonna. Games with kernel level anti cheat that are worth playing are few and far between. And fuck their communities for not rioting when their fellow members get removed from the game for no reason.
Back when I was still on an HDD the difference between NTFS and ext4 was night and day.
I remember having the need to defragment my drive on windows every few months, or Batman Arkham Asylum would actually start to lag and stutter trying to load textures.
Meanwhile World of Warships, another texture heavy game, would load significantly faster when I tried it on Linux because surprise surpsise, ext4 doesn't fragment until your disk is nearly full.
Windows honestly gg ez'd it's way out of making a newer FS with the advent of SSDs, but there was a period of time where upgrading to Windows 8 would blow up your drive usage to 100% the entire time the PC was on.
I don't really understand this buzz about Steam OS displacing Windows.
Windows is a general purpose computer OS; whereas Steam OS is a game-platform OS designed for the Steam Deck and similar devices. It doesn't seem to be the same use case. Obviously Steam OS could be used as a general purpose OS, if you just switch modes and install this and that software... but then what are you waiting for? There are already heaps of high quality general purpose Linux OSs already designed for that purpose. Linux Mint is a drop-in replacement for Windows, and has no problems whatsoever with games.
I mean, if you want to use Steam OS on your main computer, then that's fine - but I just don't really see a reason to use that rather than something that is already available, and already a desktop OS rather than a console OS.
It's the OEM effect behind it. If Valve offers it as an OS anyone can use (which they are trialing by giving it to ASUS), then it is more likely for both users and OEMs to trust it as a platform, meaning devs would be incentivized to support it and users would be more likely to switch off windows.
I could be wrong, but I think what they really want is for a PC OEM to pick up SteamOS so that it markets to the general audience. They're beta testing it in the handheld market because of the steam deck's success.
If people get to use it truly out of box, the market for it will grow.
As of now, most Linux users are here because they have a knack for tech and trying things. Most computer users are not like this and will cling to even subpar experience because its familiar.
Windows can keep kneecapping itself all day, but linux desktop will only expand rapidly if both companies and users see immediate value (it's always been there, but hard to convince).
A large amount of non-gaming work that people do on PCs these days is inside a web browser. A chromebook would do fine. In fact, a lot of IT departments prefer it because it's a locked down environment by default.
At least we didn't have to look at goddamn Ads in the menu. Also the AI """integration""" fucked up things pretty badly. Sometime you just need a simple, light, OS to do your thing.
People want to return to a lighter simple Windows OS, but Microsoft is making that increasingly hard to access. The LTSC version of Windows 10 is close(No AI, No Ads, and minimal telemetry that can be disabled), but they dont sell it to the public unless you buy 5 copies, and there is no LTSC version of Windows 11 yet. looks like they finally released it a couple months back, but people are unhappy with it.
Linux offers an alternative, but compatibility is still a huge issue despite the impressive gains Wine and Proton have made in the last few years.
The reality is that if you have a Windows PC you can basically guarantee that you can install anything you might want(barring hardware limitations). You can often make that software work on Linux too, but there is always some tinkering involved and the general public doesn't want to deal with that, nor do they want to change to a FOSS alternative.
And if you like playing certain games with kernel anti-cheat, the only way you're getting away from Windows is on console. Unless gamers jumping from Windows to Max/Linux increase by improbable orders of magnitude, that's not changing anytime soon.
Always had windows. Never wanted Linux because I didn’t want to dick around with every game install. You give me an OS that lets me browse and game WITHOUT having to dick around with every application, and I’d switch in a heartbeat.
Windows will be worse soon thanks to passkey bullshit they are trying to force. I really think that Blizzard buyout may have entirely sunk current projects.
And lets be honest, it is not as if tinkering isn't required for a lot of things on Windows too, it is just that the tinkering is a lot more random "hope & pray" stuff like uninstalling and reinstalling things, rebooting,... and hoping the problem goes away.
For the most part that's true, but when something goes wrong, it really goes wrong.
For example, I wanted to play Path of Exile 2, and it would get stuck at a black screen on startup. The fix is "easy" on Windows, you just edit an ini file in "My Documents". To fix it on Linux, that same file is stored in
/home/[YOUR USERNAME]/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/2694490/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/Documents/My Games/Path of Exile 2/poe2_production_Config.ini
Lucky you, not my experience at all, even ended up repurchasing a game on Steam while it was on sale because at some point, time is money and I had spent a whole lot of money trying to make it work.
It's actually gotten a lot better over the last few years; Valve has been putting in a lot of work into making gaming "just work" through Steam. It's still a bit jank, but honestly all OSes are a bit jank.
If anyone in this thread is interested, I'd recommend giving Linux Mint a go. There's nothing really to lose.
Anyway, I'm done shilling Linux so I'll let you get back to your Simpsoning. :P
Just hours of your time as some random miniscule feature you were reliant upon without realizing it until it was missing, then have to look up a dozen different fixes using some stone aged console commands, none of which actually fix your issue...
The first time you try Linux will have an initial learning curve. Just like the first time you tried Windows. But once you have everything set up the way you like and get used to it, you really won't find yourself having to troubleshoot very often. You certainly don't have to "dick around with every game install" either.
There was a comment thread in one of the Linux communities the other day talking about this mindset. Obviously the comments got a bit rude and unconstructive, but the point is that you can switch to something like bazzite now and most things will work pretty well, but if you're holding out until it's perfect then you'll be waiting forever!
My old desktop has been demoted to console, and some time before Windows 10 goes EOL, I'm planning to try Bazzite on it. Seems like the closest we'll get to SteamOS on any hardware in the near future.
Recall is the final straw for me. If there really is no way to permanently disable it then I'm going to have to get used to Linux/SteamOS. Which sucks because I really do seriously value things just working and not have to dig for hours to fix random issues with every little program I want to use. :/
I value the same things and after spending a few days troubleshooting mh worlds and rummaging through internet forums, cmd line, reg edit i remembered my deck plays it fine and I installed fedora.
My os now uses 1gb of ram, i didn't need a day to find drivers for all my weird hardware as it all just worked, mh world runs without crashing, old weird games started working flawless, my graphics tablet doesn't want me to manually launch drivers to work
You will like Linux then because on Linux, unlike Windows, you can figure out why stuff goes wrong and then fix it for good instead of randomly having reappearances of the same problem (barring hardware issues like overheating of course but that affects all systems equally).
That's the best part of using Linux, you get actual error messages that can be figured out. Windows tends to just say "an error occurred" or "something went wrong." I dual boot for a couple games and Windows drives me crazy. It keeps trying to install updates, something doesn't work, and it then uninstalls the update next reboot. No idea what the problem is.
Honestly, as someone comfortable with Linux already, but running Windows because of games, it was the last straw for me in a bigger way. A bunch of people up and down the chain at Microsoft thought recall was a good idea, and didn't need really basic safety features at launch. Not only is that very poor judgement, but what they think I want and need is so far disconnected from reality that following their upgrade path is a huge risk.
Maybe they'll put switches in to disable Recall, but maybe they'll want to take them away for my own good at some point in the future. Maybe they'll do so silently. I know there'll be an adjustment curve, but I'd rather be in control of it rather than let the people who thought Recall was a good idea updating my OS internals. I'll never install Windows 11 on a device I own, and I'm not holding my breath on future versions at this rate.
Meh the Linux conversation has been going on as long as I remember and windows is still king. But Linux can play games now so who knows where the wind will blow.
If Microsoft has a monopoly on gaming it’s not because they’ve made an effort to build one. It’s just that MacOS and Linux have never been actual competition. Linux because the user base was so small that making games for it was a big financial risk. SteamOS devices could change this but I doubt it.
And Apple just wont put the effort in for some reason. I’m sure they could make a huge dent on the market, as every iPhone and iPad with Apple silicon are pretty capable of running modern AAA games with a few tweaks, as are their computers. But they just won’t invest in making porting easier and cheaper and refuse to pay more devs to bring their games to the platform or to build a proper gaming division to support them. I’m convinced that Tim Cook just thinks gaming is for losers and doesn’t want it associated with the brand in any way.
I mean no because even if all of the gamers in the world instantaneously switched away from windows, everybody else in the world - specifically the masses of idiots out there and businesses, not that there's that much difference - would still keep on using Windows because they don't give a fuck.
Proton is a much bigger deal than SteamOS itself. It's what allows you to play Windows games on Linux -- often with better performance than on Windows due to reduced overhead.
That's all been available for a while. The cat is out of the bag
No SteamOS is not a replacement for your gaming rig. The recent steamOS beta release is specifically for hardware manufactures that aren't in the powered by steamOS program to test their HANDHELD hardware as well as users with non powered by SteamOS handhelds to test steamOS on their handhelds.
There has been a lot of people taking this as SteamOS releasing a linux distro for desktop gamers but thats not the case. I hope one day that will be the case but today its not and people jumping the gun will leave with a terrible linux experience.
Does steam deck not run Steam OS..? What the Deck was meant to do is irrelevant, the OS it comes with and the OS mentioned in the OP in no way shut Windows down
I saw that after my first comment, I'm still not really sure how this is supposed to mean the death of Windows. Another mobile PC device running SteamOS isn't going to disrupt Window's position (though it is of course nice to see more handhelds on the market running the OS), and Valve saying they'll soon release a user-installable beta is nowhere near what some are making it out to be. People are acting like they just released a stable Linux distro meant to replace your main OS; the news is exciting, but it's not the death of Windows, at least not for a long while.