How are people coping with games that just won’t run on Linux (aside from leaving them behind)? Do you dual boot Windows? Virtualize? What’s your strategy for this?
This will be extremely rare for me since I don’t play a lot of competitive stuff, but I’d love to find a solution. I have a large library, and it’s bound to happen from time to time.
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aside from leaving them behind
Why are we conforming to fit the software’s needs instead of vice-versa? Fuck the devs who can’t be assed to make it work for proton at the least. This isn’t my job, I’m not being paid to use software that goes against my values. There’s tens of thousands of games out there and I’m gonna let myself get so hung up on the few hundred that don’t work that i just go back to m$?
Fuck. That. They deserve to get left behind. No piece of media is worth compronising on my values to consume.
It has been my experience that avoiding games with shitty features like microtransactions and whatnot, or where the studio treats its staff poorly, that kind of thing, also virtually guarantees Linux compatibility. Funny that.
I use Proton Experimental to play my games and they all work without exception. I’m in my late 30s, so I no longer play competitive games that have a kernel rootkit, I mean kernel anti-cheat.
Basically, Linux gaming is like this: If you want to play competitive games with anti-cheat, stay or play in Windows. For all other games, play in Linux.
Are you me? I used to play some online multiplayer games, but switching to linux (some 3 years ago?) and being less competitive came hand in hand. Now I enjoy single players only (with sprinkle of Path of Exile and World of Tanks (well, not really anymore)) and can’t understand why should I even consider going back to those toxic waters of competitive play… Am I officially old?
Generally, Proton is enough for gaming.
I use Tiny11 when I have to use Windows to run games.
This modified Windows edition has no ads, no Edge browser, no forced online microsoft account, and no forced updates, so it’s a tolerable Windows edition.
Tiny 11 comes in two variants:
Tiny11 Core is not suitable for use on physical hardware as it outright disables updates. It’s best used for short-term VM instances.
Tiny11 also has problems with updates. The advantages gained through Tiny11 will erode with applying Windows updates. The installer is more tolerable than Windows 11 by not forcing an online account (but still needing to touch telemetry settings). Components like Edge and One drive will inevitably rebuild themselves back in with cumulative updates. If this is something that coerces you to not update your system, don’t subject yourself to using Tiny11. Additionally Tiny11 fails to apply some cumulative updates out of the box, which could be a further security risk.
I recently tested the main Tiny11 in a VM based on a different user recommending it in a now deleted thread. I was skeptical knowing the history of Tiny10 onward that 11 would actually be able to update properly, and NY findings backed up my initial skepticism of functional updates.
Thanks for the long details, dude.
I just use Windows to run games. I need nothing else on Windows. So Tiny11 is good enough for me.
In terms of safety, I don’t store any information on Windows, so I never update it. It’s just a gaming tool for me.
If my game accounts like Ubisoft, Steam, or GOG are leaked, it’s acceptable. They are just some email addresses and automatically generated passcodes, easy to update. It’s not important.
And the file systems used by Windows and Linux partitions aren’t mutually readable, so running games on Windows is hardly likely to affect the safety of the Linux partition. It’s perfect.
I stopped playing games. Honestly, they are more boring than lying around watching flys buzz.
I usually go on protondb and try whatever people tried until it works. Right now I’m playing on nvidia geforce 1050 ti with proprietary drivers on Bazzite and somehow it just works. For games that run badly natively on Steam I switch to Proton.
You might have a different experience than I do since I only play games that are at least 3 years old and never online competitive games.
If it doesn’t work I try a few things from protondb I try lutris then I give up and refund the game.
I used to have a second partition with Windows for such cases, but over time I just stopped bothering with those games.
Now I just refund if it doesn’t work and move on in my to-play list.
I still have a Windows VM for some applications and for doing firmware updates but I never bothered to set it up for playing games.
For my sins, I do dual boot Windows 10. Though with wine and proton I reckon I can get ~80-90% of games to work.
I’d love to go 100% Linux, and I do my best to only buy games that support Linux. But there are sadly some old games and multiplayer games with friends that I still can’t quite convince to work.
It kinda depends on what games you are using.
If they are online only with anti cheat dual booting is the only viable solution because most anti cheat’s that don’t work with Linux/proton will flag you as cheating if you try to use a vm.
If its some older game its prolly better to use a vm for that OS, lien a lot of old games for windows XP or windows 95 are like that. For really old ones you can just use dosbox which is very tried and true.
If it’s just some random game that doesn’t work I either A: figure it will get working in some way eventually or B: give up on ever playing it again.
I think I’m at the point where if a new game comes out and it didn’t work on Linux I just wouldn’t buy it. But I might be an outlier since most of the games I like usually get a Linux port or will work with proton anyways
Dual boot, although I usually prefer to drop it rather than go to the trouble.
I wouldn’t recommend virtualization, not only do you lose performance when you need it most, but (depending on the devices and system) setting everything up properly can be very tedious.
I was a total Rust junkie, I was playing 40 hours a week. Then they dropped support for the Linux client and wouldn’t let Proton users do EAC. I had to stop cold turkey. But I fucking did it, because fuck capital-driven operating systems designed to exploit me and my own computer against me.
(aside from leaving them behind)
I do leave them behind. Same as with console exclusives or games for Macs (if they exist). If they don’t run on my system, I play some of the hundreds of thousands of games that do.
I don’t buy games that won’t run on linux.
aside from leaving them behind
Thats asking for an empty comment section.
This is the way
I prefer to stand by companies that support my OS of choice. If they support me, I will pay them back. Otherwise I would be supporting them in ignoring my choices, so I put my money where my mouth is.
This might come off as an easy way out to your question, but very simply I just don’t bother with games that don’t run on linux. There’s enough really great titles that run great on linux, especially with the help of proton.
I can’t be bothered with using windows anymore. It’s so bad. It’s very very bad, I rather do something else than have to play games under windows. I’ll only use windows if I absolutely m must, like for when I’m at work.
This. I had written a similar last paragraph in my answer below, but decided to delete it before submitting.
I have to suffer Windows at work. No way on earth this sad excuse for an operating system gets anywhere near my gaming PC. I want my gaming PC to be for fun stuff, not use it to torture myself.
