This is a myth and has been for several years. The only games that do not work with linux are ones that have intentionally artificially disallowed the use of linux using kernel level anticheat (rootkit). Many of these games worked on linux until adding no-linux policies to their anticheat.
There is no technical incompatibility, only artificial policy choices that game companies have made
EDIT: you can downvote me, but I am still correct.
I have been trying to get the sims to work on my wife’s Linux laptop. I can either get it to run at 3-4fps, or I can get it to run without the ability to save anything.
I have Steam deck and with every game I have tried on it so far working, I thought it would be the same with a laptop. Boy was I wrong.
It looks like The Sims 4 is the only one that might need some tinkering. Stupid EA installers…
Though the only entry for the first Sims game that appears in the results is the “Legacy Collection,” so if you’re referring to like the original CD-ROM or something, it might be different.
Edit: just noticed that Sims 3 doesn’t appear to have any entries on ProtonDB so I don’t know… If any of them don’t work is most likely because of EA bullshit
Sims 4, and I have tried every version of Proton, I have tried proton ge or whatever it is, I have tried every suggestion in the sims 4 protondb entry.
I have tried the suggestions in my thread about it. (I think there was one I still need to try, actually)
I have the fitgirl repack, I have tried via steam, I have tried the .exe from EA.
It’s a very small subset of games and most are live service microtransaction garbage not worth playing anyway. Many are spyware and viruses disguised as games, eg Valorant
The user asked why people still use Windows and I gave a few examples.
You gave examples, but they were incorrect and invalid examples. As I already corrected you, you’re parroting a myth because games do run on Linux. In fact, games run better and faster on linux than windows
I just wanted to chime in that there’s far more reasons that your software doesn’t work on Linux than just the developer saying no.
Basically, if your game or software has to interface with anything at the driver level, such as a keyboard or a headset configuration software, or anything that needs to access complete system access such as kernel level access or being able to see processes outside of the wine environment. It’s going to be incompatible. This is by design for system security and is unlikely to change on official releases any time soon.
Additionally, if the game requires any type of integration into basically anything Microsoft, so be it the Microsoft account services, the authentication token services, multiplayer services, applications on the MS store etc, it’s going to be a no go as they have yet to make a decent translation layer for those systems. Being said with the push for demand of Game Pass on PC, there are people working on those projects, but I haven’t personally seen anything that had decent progress.
I have to hard disagree with the statement that it’s a myth. Yes, many games will work with minor tinkering. However, We are still a long way from having something that is just a click play and it works style system and it’s not usually from developer choices (outside of choosing not to make a Linux distributable)
Being said, it has gone a long way since I started using Linux back with Mint Maya. ProtonDB is an excellent resource to find known workarounds when it breaks, But you definitely should not go into any Linux system expecting it to “just work™”
I have multiple versions of proton installed currently. However, I’ve mostly given up on the glorious egg rolls because they seem to have caused more issues than they are worth. But if you have a specific version that you’ve found is easier to use and not as annoying, I’m up for suggestions.
Once my system loads, I’ll tell you what versions I’ve tried and which ones I’ve had issues with.
Currently I have proton GE 9-7 as my default for steam(with the hope that it works), and when that fails I swap to proton 9-0-4 or experimental, but I have GE 10-10 and 10-4 installed but they currently aren’t on any games as I haven’t got any games to seem to want to run with them.
Then on lutris main I’m using a custom runner for one of my games because it needs to get around EAC since standard support is iffy, but I default to Wine 10 for it as they state proton shouldn’t be used on non-steam. However I do have Lutris-GE-8-26 installed but it only ever worked right on one of the games.
Then for lutris on my distrobox Arch container(because FF XIV and Genshin launchers & controller support break for some reason otherwise) I use Wine-ge-8-26 which is a coinflip of if it lets me launch or crashes which makes me suspect that theres a race condition somewhere.
I haven’t had good experiences with GE which is why I was hoping you might have some recommendations on a /stable/ version if you can call GE stable lol
If it is a system file issue, I’m not sure what it would be because I’ve already tried nuking out the wine and proton versions and reinstalling them and that had zero luck. And I have similar issues between lutris and steam in terms of it as well, and those should use completely separate paths
I mean like the other files on your system that wine or proton would use. Like glibc or vulkan or x11/wayland. If you’re on an LTS distro, maybe some file that proton is trying to call is old?
This is a myth and has been for several years. The only games that do not work with linux are ones that have intentionally artificially disallowed the use of linux using kernel level anticheat (rootkit). Many of these games worked on linux until adding no-linux policies to their anticheat.
There is no technical incompatibility, only artificial policy choices that game companies have made
EDIT: you can downvote me, but I am still correct.
I have been trying to get the sims to work on my wife’s Linux laptop. I can either get it to run at 3-4fps, or I can get it to run without the ability to save anything.
I have Steam deck and with every game I have tried on it so far working, I thought it would be the same with a laptop. Boy was I wrong.
Not sure which Sims you’re referring to, but it looks like it should work: https://www.protondb.com/search?q=the+Sims+
It looks like The Sims 4 is the only one that might need some tinkering. Stupid EA installers…
Though the only entry for the first Sims game that appears in the results is the “Legacy Collection,” so if you’re referring to like the original CD-ROM or something, it might be different.
Edit: just noticed that Sims 3 doesn’t appear to have any entries on ProtonDB so I don’t know… If any of them don’t work is most likely because of EA bullshit
Sims 4, and I have tried every version of Proton, I have tried proton ge or whatever it is, I have tried every suggestion in the sims 4 protondb entry.
I have tried the suggestions in my thread about it. (I think there was one I still need to try, actually)
I have the fitgirl repack, I have tried via steam, I have tried the .exe from EA.
Weird. I’m pretty sure I have played via steam and it worked. I’ll maybe try later if I remember.
I never gave a reason why a game would/wouldn’t run on Linux. I just said that games are a reason some people continue to use Windows.
It’s a very small subset of games and most are live service microtransaction garbage not worth playing anyway. Many are spyware and viruses disguised as games, eg Valorant
The quality of those games is irrelevant. The user asked why people still use Windows and I gave a few examples. Simple as that.
You are arguing for the sake of it.
You gave examples, but they were incorrect and invalid examples. As I already corrected you, you’re parroting a myth because games do run on Linux. In fact, games run better and faster on linux than windows
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2025/06/games-run-faster-on-steamos-than-windows-11-ars-testing-finds/
I just wanted to chime in that there’s far more reasons that your software doesn’t work on Linux than just the developer saying no.
Basically, if your game or software has to interface with anything at the driver level, such as a keyboard or a headset configuration software, or anything that needs to access complete system access such as kernel level access or being able to see processes outside of the wine environment. It’s going to be incompatible. This is by design for system security and is unlikely to change on official releases any time soon.
Additionally, if the game requires any type of integration into basically anything Microsoft, so be it the Microsoft account services, the authentication token services, multiplayer services, applications on the MS store etc, it’s going to be a no go as they have yet to make a decent translation layer for those systems. Being said with the push for demand of Game Pass on PC, there are people working on those projects, but I haven’t personally seen anything that had decent progress.
I have to hard disagree with the statement that it’s a myth. Yes, many games will work with minor tinkering. However, We are still a long way from having something that is just a click play and it works style system and it’s not usually from developer choices (outside of choosing not to make a Linux distributable)
Being said, it has gone a long way since I started using Linux back with Mint Maya. ProtonDB is an excellent resource to find known workarounds when it breaks, But you definitely should not go into any Linux system expecting it to “just work™”
Tell me you haven’t tried Proton on Linux without telling me you haven’t tried Proton on Linux.
I have multiple versions of proton installed currently. However, I’ve mostly given up on the glorious egg rolls because they seem to have caused more issues than they are worth. But if you have a specific version that you’ve found is easier to use and not as annoying, I’m up for suggestions.
Once my system loads, I’ll tell you what versions I’ve tried and which ones I’ve had issues with.
lmk
Currently I have proton GE 9-7 as my default for steam(with the hope that it works), and when that fails I swap to proton 9-0-4 or experimental, but I have GE 10-10 and 10-4 installed but they currently aren’t on any games as I haven’t got any games to seem to want to run with them.
Then on lutris main I’m using a custom runner for one of my games because it needs to get around EAC since standard support is iffy, but I default to Wine 10 for it as they state proton shouldn’t be used on non-steam. However I do have Lutris-GE-8-26 installed but it only ever worked right on one of the games.
Then for lutris on my distrobox Arch container(because FF XIV and Genshin launchers & controller support break for some reason otherwise) I use Wine-ge-8-26 which is a coinflip of if it lets me launch or crashes which makes me suspect that theres a race condition somewhere.
I haven’t had good experiences with GE which is why I was hoping you might have some recommendations on a /stable/ version if you can call GE stable lol
Is it possible that old system files are your problem? I’ve never had problems with any version of GE or Lutris.
If it is a system file issue, I’m not sure what it would be because I’ve already tried nuking out the wine and proton versions and reinstalling them and that had zero luck. And I have similar issues between lutris and steam in terms of it as well, and those should use completely separate paths
I mean like the other files on your system that wine or proton would use. Like glibc or vulkan or x11/wayland. If you’re on an LTS distro, maybe some file that proton is trying to call is old?