Even gamers nexus’ Steve today said that they’re about to start doing Linux games performance testing soon. It’s happening, y’all, the year of the Linux desktop is upon us. ᕕ(ᐛ)ᕗ
Edit: just wanted to clarify that Steve from GN didn’t precisely say they’re starting to test soon, he said they will start WHEN the steam OS releases and is adopted. Sorry about that.
Only 1 downvote? woah.
To paraphrase the gay chant from the 90’s: 4% is not enough RECRUIT RECRUIT RECRUIT!
I’ve been saying for years: we need a dedicated gaming operating system.
Do you mean a dedicated gaming flavor of Linux? Because otherwise, isnt that just a console?
Well here you go: https://bazzite.gg/
cloud native
Already rings an alarm bell, but thank you for sharing regardless.
Also, their website runs like shit. I don’t have much hope for them making a gaming OS that doesn’t, but time will tell.
That is astoundingly judgmental. Good lord.
Cloud native is a weird term I’ll agree, but it just means container based.
Bazzite is amazing and worth a try. I’ve been using it as a daily driver for nearly a year now.
Perhaps you’d prefer the Github over their “shit” website: https://github.com/ublue-os/bazzite
Or perhaps you’d like to positively contribute to the state of Linux gaming, and make some suggestions for the website in their post just for that: Requesting input: Bazzite’s website
At this point when people tell me the website runs like shit I just laugh and tell them they’ve been filtered. That does 120 FPS on a phone, if you’re lagging on that site just go ahead and give up on gaming.
Or even better, a dedicated gaming runtime environment. And that env can then be made multiplatform.
Hello, flatpak exists you know
I have about 7-9 months to decide what to do with my PC. I don’t want to move to windows 11. Because I will have to basically fresh-install my entire system that has 4 drives and god knows how many antiquated programs on it from the XP, Vista and 7 era that I still use. and Im just not ready for it. Im too busy
headache
Try Win10 LTSC if you don’t want to make the switch to Linux.
Sounds like a nightmare. I got sick thinking about it. Lol
Its just gonna be a question of how unsecure Win10 gets , and how fast.
My pc is from 2019, although I’ve upgraded the hardware several times. But I’ve basically reached a ceiling of practicality, its no longer practical to upgrade anything. Im on an outdated chipset (AM4) and jumping from a 3080 to a 4080 isn’t really going to fix the problem of games just being unoptimized. It makes more sense to build a new PC than it does to just change OS on this.
but right now, it just doesnt make sense to build a new PC either… I dont lift a finger on anything unless im going to be able to see at minimum 20% performance increase, I just dont see that without emptying my savings account…
It makes more sense to build a new PC than it does to just change OS on this.
I haven’t made comparisons with gaming, tho I know there is somewhat, but there’s been a big performance boost on desktop and regular applications running Bazzite over Win10.
Im on an outdated chipset (AM4)
Bruh, why do you have to say that? 😂. I just built my PC a couple of months ago and I bought an AM4 and I thought I had some kickass specs.
No worries about that, it was a bad wording. The company has stopped producing it, and that’s it. Your cpu is fine, compatible with current software, and can serve you well for still a long time.
Corporations were so successful in promoting consumerism, that they already messed with us on a psychological level.
Oh it’s totally fine, my friend. I just thought it was very funny. No hard feelings towards the commenter at all. I even actually laughed out loud. I’m that guy who never buys a brand new car, always used and has to be a great deal. Shit works, why spend the extra money? When you are bron and raised in a poor 3rd world country, you learn to be very careful with your money when you have it.
Realistically the AM4 is still more than enough for now. but its technically end of life. the AM5 isn’t worth the jump until theres no other option.
Oh yeah, it is doing all I want it to do. Plus, on Linux I’ve learnt that having a bit older hardware is always better since the software for it is mature and works no problem in most cases. Absolutely zero complaints for what I paid for it. $500 for a whole PC is unbeatable
They did still release a few ones recently for them. But am5 is the main one right now. It’s not incredibly old, just no new ones will probably be produced. (I think the last am4 were a surprise already) Just for curiosity, why did you go with am4?
The honest answer(s), money and I didn’t know any better, especially in the AMD side. I hadn’t learnt their numbering schemes and I saw Ryzen 7 and thought “hell yeah”, but it turned out it’s a 5700G and the newest is the 7000 series. lol. Still powerful as hell. I bought the whole thing from microcenter and I had the salesperson pick the parts for me. I restricted him to $500 and that’s all we were able to get with that money. I have no issues with it whatsoever. I can play all of my games on 4k mid to low settings. Not much fps, but I’m a guy who’s ok with a game if it runs at 30 fps.
might have been a deal. some retailers are dumb and think lower number means worse, so discount justified. lol
100% nailed it. I bought all parts for $500. Works great. The processor is a Ryzen 7 5700G and it comes with an iGPU, so I didn’t get a dGPU at the time, a friend of mine had an RX 580 laying around and gave it to me. Gamed on it for about a year or less, worked fine. Later on, I got an RX 6600 from Facebook for $100.
They are end of life now and have ceased production, but if you can manage to find a 5800X3D , that CPU is the definition of sleeper. I had a 5700X I think it was, and the performance boost was f***ing unreal, I expected meagre gains, I saw 20 to 50% performance increase on many games. if you’re into that kind of thing. if you see one for sale, seriously think about grabbing it.
its the whole reason aside from the OS issue, Im not even remotely worried about the next few years, it can compete with the high end stuff of the AM5 generation still. unreal.
Not a good advice. A friend of mine is still on win7 and it still works and got security updates time to time. But some programs actually stopped working or only older lts versions remain workings. Win10 is probably still ok for a year or two.
As long as they can keep it rolling stable, which is possible even with arch, I can see this pickup up a bit, especially for new users.
Plenty of users are sick of windows 11.
I jumped into Linux, via Mint, about a year ago when I refreshed my hardware. The transition was pretty easy, and I haven’t looked back. Steam runs fine and I haven’t had a modern game that didn’t work under default proton settings except for things I’ve run outside Steam and mods. Most of my personal PC’s workload is gaming and handful of web-based apps that are effectively OS-agnostic; Everything else has an easy equivalent in the apt repos.
I would say that my decision to embrace Linux as my OS was primarily influenced by my Steam Deck. Gaming on it has been simple and the desktop UI was easy to adapt to. I replaced my laptop with the Steam Deck, bluetooth keyboard and mouse, and a USB-C dock with HDMI out (all things I already had for the laptop). I now just hook into whatever TV is handy as a monitor when I need a computer on the go.
I was a tech enthusiast when I was younger, and am thus familiar with fucking around on the command line, but now I’m an old man who just wants his stuff to work and it just has… The barrier of entry for the Linux Desktop is effectively gone. We just need PR now.
Also, I think I’d replace Mint on my primary PC with SteamOS, given a simple way to do so. About a year ago, the desktop/beta SteamOS was not fully baked.
You should give Bazzite a go on your desktop, it’s very similar to SteamOS and the desktop experience has been great for me. I didn’t have a Steam Deck and transitioned to it, and the smoothness convinced me to get a Lenovo Legion Go and install Bazzite straight OOTB.
New to the Linux community here; why is a valve owned Linux OS better than any other massive company OS. Like if Microsoft released their own Linux OS, would it be good suddenly?
At the end of the day, we don’t want our OS’s big company owned right?
I am not gonna use SteamOS. But if a bunch of regular folk do, then it might convince peripheral and game makers it’d be worth putting in a modicum of effort to support linux. That’s why I’m excited for SteamOS.
It’s way easier to move from one Linux distro to another if Valve starts enshittifying SteamOS (which would really suck) than it is to move from Windows to Linux. Either way this is a good stepping stone that’s well supported.
SteamOS is better than, for example, macOS and Windows because of licenses.
Since you’re new (welcome!), I should let you in on a little secret: pretty much the entire free software movement is built around licensing. I know, it’s boring and seems insignificant. But the outcomes are profound.
Because SteamOS is built to function within the free software ecosystem, it means users are never beholden to the decisions of one centralized entity (usually the company that owns the software patents.)
If Valve ever decides to, say, include candy crush ads in SteamOS’ start menu (they’d have to make their own start menu, since right now SteamOS uses one that’s already made by the free software community), then users can choose to remove that part of the menu or replace the menu altogether without having to start from scratch.
For wealthy people who can always pay the “proprietary tax,” this might seem like a non-issue. Practically speaking, these people only want their software to work without hassle. They don’t care about the true cost of that software, such as only one entity being able to modify/distribute the software. It’s not until, say, photoshop starts charging a subscription (which they can always increase the price of) that people start to see the value in free software and the importance of licensing.
Microsoft is deeply entrenched and has undergone decades of enshittification. SteamOS is at only the beginning of this cycle. And since SteamOS is linux-based, it’s likely to have ramifications for the whole GNU/Linux ecosystem. Furthermore, if there are two vastly different OSes that developers and graphics card manufacturers need to seriously target, they’re more likely to write more platform-agnostic software that everyone can benefit from.
Because valve is a private company. They don’t have to answer to shareholders. That means, they don’t go through enshitifaction, they care about their product and their customers. Are they perfect? Absolutely not, are they good? Better than every single company out there that tries to be like them. Period.
I’m glad people bring this up.
Private companies are not intrinsically better than public ones, but at least they have the capacity to be.
Valve is one of the very few examples of a company that sees the value in working with customers, not against them. This would be impossible if Valve were publicly-traded.
Exactly. They’re (as far I know) the only company that emailed me to tell me that I can take to court directly without an arbitration. Not that I’ll ever be able to afford it, but seeing how confident and pro-consumer (I fucking hate the word consumer lol) they are is amazing.
Valve dosnt really “own” SteamOS. They maintain and update SteamOS, but SteamOS is free and open source
Plus just about everbody who knows anything about steam would tell you they are probably the most consumer friendly billion dollar company ever, and have been for decades. So yes even if they owned it like microsoft owns windows it would still be better
Like if Microsoft released their own Linux OS, would it be good suddenly?
It’s worth noting that steamOS, like any Linux distro has its issues and a bit of a learning curve. Especially if you want to go off the beaten track, it’s pretty much just using a stock arch distro.
As for if MS switched to Linux, no it wouldn’t be good because the issues with Win11 overwhelmingly aren’t a matter of incompetence or anything inherent to the code, but of conscious anti-consumer business decisions. There’s nothing about Linux that would actively stop MS from cramming telemetry, bloat, etc. In their distro.
If it’s like the steam deck version, it’ll be based on Arch with a bunch of steam-specific patches/configs to make games run more easily (with the added bonus of making non-steam games run pretty well too). Steam exists to sell games, and if they want to make it easier for me to play games, that’s fine by me.
Not sure what a Microsoft distro would look like, but if they make a distro that’ll run Xbox games with gamepass, I’d give it a shot.
Another nice bonus for either/both of those situations is that it wouldn’t be too hard to incorporate those changes into other distros. That way people who want more of an “install and go” experience would have their official distros, people who like to tinker could work on importing the official code into their unofficial setup, and people who use arch btw can install it from the AUR.
Because it’s open source and based on the Linux kernel. It’s owned by them but you can do what you want with it. You can’t with Windows.
So if a game works on the Steam OS, it works on pretty much any distro
I game with Steam on Linux, but I’m not using Steam OS
Also, that means that every effort made by Valve to improve compatibility is beneficial to everyone.
Edit: Also, even if it were closed source, I think it would still be good as it gives us alternatives to Windows. But
The source is always free so you could fork it if you disagree with them. Also it means broader support for Linux gaming
Not answering your comment directly, and I don’t even use Linux, BUT…
One reason a lot of us don’t use Linux even if we really want to us because it’s biggest strength is also one of its biggest weaknesses, that being it’s modularity.
There isn’t a single packaging system, window manager, file system, shell, etc etc.
This makes it hard for companies (and devs in general) to target Linux for releases. For example you want to release something for Windows, you build a single exe, apple is a dmg (I think) etc so you just build for one single platform with a consistent API.
When you want to build for Linux there can’t be just one build/package. This has actively been cited as reasons why some commercial software doesn’t support Linux, as it takes far more effort to support all major permutations of platform and package management.
So back to your question, why is Valve’s Steam OS going to help? Because it’s going to be a single platform with a single way of doing things. You can always go and replace the bits like any Linux distro but out the box it will be easy enough for vendors to support, it will hopefully also get more adoption because it has commercial support.
Look at Android as an example (I know it’s not entirely the same), but that is just a customised version of Linux, but as it’s consistent and has a single way to manage packages it’s widely adopted.
I am pretty sure Linus himself said how one of the reasons why Linux desktop doesn’t have mass adoption is because no one can agree on how things should be done, so we have hundreds of libs all doing the same thing in a different way. Valve will pick what they think is best (even if it isn’t technically the best) and through that we all have a singular point of effort and adoption to centralise on.
Like IBM and Red Hat!
This is so great to see, and the timing is perfect.
My son already calls the PC Steam, as in “we played game A on Xbox and game B on Steam,” so maybe by the time he has a PC in his room Steam really will run the whole platform.
Hell yeah, brother.
I thought this had already happened?
I remember seeing ads on Steam for SteamOS years ago—wasn’t there a point at which you could download and run it on your own computer? What happened?
Old steam os was an Ubuntu derived OS. Ubuntu has issues relating to the organization that runs it. New steam os is basically a coat of paint on top of Arch which is community based. The old os is deprecated.
The version on steam deck is fantastic, but they have been polishing it for desktop use for a while now. I can’t wait to have it available.
If I recall correctly, this has never happened the way it’s happening now. It was a matter of “hey, you can fork it on GitHub and make your own iso thing”, hence why there was a “holoiso” or something like that that (I keep forgetting the name) where people used if they wanted to install steamOS on a device. This one is straight supported by valve. Like “hey, here is our official steam OS that we use on our steam deck. Use it and we will support you”.
Iirc the original steamOS was Debian based and you really had to be an experienced Linux user to use and enjoy it.
With the new steamOS (arch based?) it’s a much more streamlined experience and opens up the user base because of it
From what I recall, it wasn’t something you could easily use like a normal distro, and that version was based on Debian (so stable but outdated software). It only worked on some hardware, and you had to do a full system wipe.
More likely, this is them officially partnering with handheld or gaming laptop makers, using their latest Arch-based distro and allowing them to use Valve/Steam branding as a selling point.
I think modern steamos is based on a different distro then it was then. Also proton is good enough now to justify switching for a lot of people
let’s goooo
This is the fifth person I see misinterpreting what Steve said about doing Linux performance testing, they aren’t going to start doing this soon, they will only start doing it WHEN SteamOS is released for desktops! It was very clear on the video FFS
I’m also really fucking excited for that tho, I recently switched to mint and helldivers 2 actually feels smoother than on windows, it has been such a good experience!! I cannot imagine how much better things will get with more people jumping to Linux and thus game makers actually pay attention to us
My apologies. Fixed it in the main post with an edit
Thanks you! And sorry if I was too aggressive, reading it again it sounded way more aggressive than I expected, I just wanted to sound energetic instead, my bad
Of course, and no worries. We are all good :)
I’ve been daily driving Linux since 2017, I started with Ubuntu and it’s been great. I recently got a Lenovo T14 Gen 1 and put Linux Mint 22 on it, and I’ve been playing some games on it and it’s been pretty nice for such a portable laptop.
I’m excited, but I wish gpu manufacturers would jump on board with physically compatible cards with ffs or smaller form factor business machines. HP, Dell, et al like to limit space for traditional GPUs in those machines. If there was a half height mid/low grade gpu with components on the reverse side that would be a great couch gaming machine.
If I recall Intel’s GPUs are a little slimmer right? But I’ve heard middling results with compatibility and such.
I have the sparkle brand intel low profile single slot in an hp sff PC and it barely fits and leaves about 3/8" space between the power supply. It has all the room in the world in the backside. One slot over is a 1x pcie slot if only hp had switched the two or the video card had straight through and out of the case cooling.
Every game I bought on Steam under Windows runs great on Steam in Linux Mint. The few games I didn’t buy on Steam (Deus Ex, Giants: Citizen Kabuto) run great on Wine, using the default settings.
Adopting Proton was the smartest thing Valve ever did. They’re going to get about 90% of gamers migrating from Windows to Linux, who don’t want to fiddle with configuration settings.
I just build a new gaming/creative pc, decided to make the jump to linux mint while i was setting up something new. And I honestly expected more hickups than i got, nothing which a quick search didn’t fix except for one. My xbox controller won’t connect over Bluetooth, it works when connected through a cable though. But I also noticed some stick drift, so I’m tossing it and order an 8bitdo which has those magentic sticks (forgot the name) and linux compatibility.
To fix your Xbox controller issue, you’ll need to do a firmware update on the controller itself. And that can only be done on windows unfortunately (unless you can figure out how to do it in a VM). Then when the firmware is updated, you install Xpadneo and you should be golden. How do I know? This is exactly what I had to do thanks to a random redditor who chimed in to help when I had this same issue. My controller now works on Bluetooth with zero issues.
I guess your the kind random
redditorlemmytor(?) now. That did the trick.Yay. So happy I was able to pass on the kindness. I love Linux
I have an 8bitdo controller. It’s ace:
- no issues with connection because it’s dongle (but does support BT)
- turns itself off with PC (always flakey on Xbox controller)
- hall effect joysticks so stick drift shouldn’t be an issue
- it’s detected as an Xbox controller so it works with most games
I have an 8bitdo controller, and it’s given me nothing but trouble. It’s a dongle-only version (non-bluetooth, but cheaper), and it has some weird bug where the controller is recognized as both an xinput device and a keyboard. I’ve tried updating the firmware to no avail.
I’ve heard other people sing praises about the Bluetooth version, so I think people should avoid being a cheapskate on this one.
Oh that’s a shame. This is the one I’ve got and it’s been perfect: https://shop.8bitdo.com/products/8bitdo-ultimate-2-4g-controller-with-charging-dock-hall-effect-joysticks
Looks similar to what I have. Maybe I got a bum one or they’ve updated it. 🤷
Seconding the other person asking which model you’ve got. I don’t see Linux compatibility listed on the web pages for the few models I just looked at. I also didnt see them list an included dongle, but thats something I’d be very interested in. Also do they all detect as Xbox controllers, or only the Xbox style ones?
I run Fedora, No issues with dongle. All are detected as Xbox controller (atleast by Steam). This is the one I got: https://shop.8bitdo.com/products/8bitdo-ultimate-2-4g-controller-with-charging-dock-hall-effect-joysticks
That sounds great, are there different models? What are you using?
There are. Some work with xbox’s, some have docks. This is the one I got: https://shop.8bitdo.com/products/8bitdo-ultimate-2-4g-controller-with-charging-dock-hall-effect-joysticks
Not the person you asked, but don’t get the dongle-only version. Upgrade to the version with Bluetooth. The former is cheaper, but it gives me trouble on Linux, and I’ve never seen people complain about the Bluetooth version (I think it’s called the 8bitdo Ultimate?).
This one? It says Bluetooth is only for Apple devices.
Nope, this one:
It should be compatible with everything.
Thanks! How does that “ultimate software” for PC work, is it necessary?
My brief time using it, it’s how you set up profiles (for sharing a controller or using specific layouts for different games), it’s how you tell the controller what buttons the back paddles map to, and it’s how you update the firmware.
It’s not really necessary, in my experience, unless you want to use the back paddles. Steam Input just sees the controller as a standard xinput device, so the back paddles are otherwise ignored.
I’m hoping for a Christmas sale the next few days. But I cant wait too long. Besides the point stick drift is infuriating while gaming, I also have a cat. Anything that wiggles is fair play for those claws, and that cord be wiggling.
The Steam controller 2 will be releasing soon if you want trackpads and extra buttons. I also think Valve is licencing to third parties. IIRC 8bitdo will make a Steam Controller
The Steam controller 2 will be releasing soon
I think I’ve just been avoiding news in general for a while. This is GREAT to hear! I still love my OG Steam Controller. Great little piece of hardware.
I saw a post on bluesky saying Steamdeck can’t be widely adopted because of linux. I asked why is that the case? He says "Linux doesn’t run as many games as windows ". I said “only a few and the anti cheat ones”. He kept arguing. I asked him about nintendo and he goes “It has the games to back it up” and I blocked him lol.
Millions of games are not enough because its FOMO.
Linux doesn’t run as many games as Windows
I’d argue it runs more due to compatibility breaks. Wine just-werks with a lot of old installers.
Indeed. I couldn’t get a couple of old 3DO games working on windows 10/11 even though I bought them on Steam.
Work great on Linux w/ Photon (aka wine).
Hit or miss sadly, but still damn close to magic. I can play skyrim and it runs… As expected, but can’t install dark souls rn.
Old Gfwl bullshit, probably
The psychic damage from that acronym still hurts after all these years.
I’ve got Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition (with DSFix) working just fine.
I don’t remember having to do anything weird… Have you tried ProtonGE? Maybe it was DSFix that makes it work? I don’t remember if I tried playing without DSFix first.
My copy’s pirated thats prolly Why u don’t have issues, I’m launching the installer wine installer.exe
Sadly the repacks like fitgirl is a hit or miss
Rip. At least my gta5 dodi repack plays… OK. Either play a pirated copy of gta5 or simply don’t play it at all cus my legitimate copy can’t play cus its epic games and the cockstar launcher won’t connect to the internet thus locking me out of the game, even offline🤡. It has issues with light, when it hits at certain angles the whole map becomes white AF and things from a distant draw poorly, like mountains and such. Other than that thank god triple a games are at least playable on gnux. Ty crackers and ty wine+proton :3
It has issues with light, when it hits at certain angles the whole map becomes white AF and things from a distant draw poorly, like mountains and such
WTF
I have both. As a pure console I still prefer the Switch, and there is a huge overlap in the games. But the Deck is much more than just a gaming handheld, it is now my only PC as well.
I understand why there are so many Nintendo gamers. I’m just pointing out the hypocrisy of people. Whenever it comes to linux, they demand everything be perfect. They never show the same attitude towards others. Captialism shills.
Nintendo has fans and is an established brand. But I think what most people dislike is the uncertainty. With the Switch you can know for certain all games you buy will work, but with the Steam Deck it’s not guaranteed though it will scan your library and give you a rating. Though in my case I had many “unsupported” games actually work flawlessly.
I think is more of like the fear of the unknown than the uncertainty, for example is uncertain if a new switch game will run well(looking at you pokémon)
I’ve been using Linux exclusively for ~14 years now. Heavily gaming on Linux only for the last ~8 years.
It was possible (though sometimes headache inducing) to play most games back then (Wine and soon Proton to thank) the biggest change IMHO came with SteamPlay since it turned the headache into one click on most games (thanks to the amazing work of wine/proton developers and the tinkering of the community).
When the SteamDeck released people seemed surprised at the breadth of games that were running on day one. To me it was not really a surprise since I had been Linux gaming with SteamPlay all the time and was almost expecting games to “just work” (though I still would and still am checking ProtonDB before purchase).
What the SteamDeck changed in my view was
- Showing “everyone” that Linux Gaming is a thing that’s happening and been happening for a while. So maybe check it out?
- That a Handheld that doesn’t have to work around Windows but uses a purpose built OS just makes a lot more sense
I feel that the SteamDeck with SteamOS has really put Linux, especially Linux gaming on the map. Even though I want to be like “Linux Gaming has been a thing forever, I was doing it before it was cool” ;) I have to recognize that fact. In the past years I’ve seen so many people setting up Linux especially by the way of SteamOS (using HoloISO, Chimera …) just to play/mess with it which is also why I think an Official SteamOS release will make a huge difference.
Tl;dr: Gaming on Linux was a thing before. But the SteamDeck/SteamOS 3 made a huge impact nonetheless.
It still feels like magic at times. The SteamDeck is my backlog steamrolling machine (pun intended). Almost every game in my library that I either forgot about or feels wasteful to play on my high-end desktop, runs amazing. I’m replaying Brutal Legend just because it runs so smoothly on my deck.
When they came out with SteamOS the first time, it felt so good to have a games run on Linux without fiddling with Wine. Those were dark times. The few people making an effort to run their games with the tools they had available where really putting in work to make it happen.
God, I remember searching the ends of the internet to get Starcraft running at some point. I managed to kinda get it going but it might have taken a few days of troubleshooting silly things.
If you’ve been at it for 8 years, I appreciate your efforts.
I haven’t run across a game that hasn’t run on The Deck yet. I know it’s capable of running quite a lot, but I got it to play indie games. It’s been great and does what I want it to do phenomenally. Additionallh if I ever wanted to do something more demanding on it, I could.
Most demanding thing I’ve tried on it was beam ng drive, it ran but struggled a bit. I’ve never yet been unable to play something I wanted to on it.
