Last time I tried Linux for gaming was over 10 years ago. I know there is proton now which makes it easier etc. But even then I would constantly have issues with sound or drivers or some other thing that made it less “plug and play” than windows.
Has this been improved in that time?
I have a laptop thats 16gb ram and Intel iris xe but has chugged since it was forcibly upgraded to windows 11. I want to try Linux to see if day to day things would be more performant, but I dont want to add a bunch of headaches because of it
Edit: thanks all for the great responses. It sounds like I should give it a go
Most things work great out of the box these days. If you do your gaming through Steam already then it’s the easiest it could be. Otherwise you can download some other platform like Lutris to manage your compatibility for you
There are definite exceptions though. There’s this great website ProtonDB that tells you how compatible games are if you want to look before you leap.
Kernel-level anticheat can make some games unplayable on Linux. Basically, it’s intended to detect cheaters, but it gives false positives on Linux. On the flip side, the software is super invasive, like once you’re aware of how it works it will make you wonder why anybody would allow that shit on their computer. Probably because they don’t know any better, but still. This is more of a problem with high budget PvP games like Call of Duty, so depending on your taste you may never encounter it
Hardware for the most part seems to just work through plug and play. However, if your stuff is highly customizable through software - like Razer Synapse/Chroma/whatever they call it these days - you may not have access to all the features.
Most Linux installers give you the option to just try out the OS in a non-permanent environment. So you could find a distro that appeals to you and then give it a test run without comitting to a full installation. It’d be a good way to see if there’s any hardware or compatibility issues.
If you have an Intel/Nvidia rig and are thinking about gaming, I recommend pop_os! I’ve been using it for a few years now and I have no complaints.
do yourself a favor and search your laptop model with Linux install and you’ll get a good idea of what to expect. There are some vendors who don’t play nice with Linux.
I started up an Arch box a few months ago. I have an Nvidia GPU and Intel CPU. I’ve had no issues with drivers since that install, and I’m updating proprietary drivers when available.
Same, early 2000’s was the last time I tried to run Linux for gaming and just recently moved to Bazzite and pretty much everything worked out of the box for me outside of some minor nits like suspend not working quite right but outside of that and of course my keyboard not having access to macros anymore but outside of those minor things have been more than solid for gaming and most everything else.
I recently switched from windows to fedora for my main pc, only had one issue with nvidia drivers (most likely due to user error, it was my first Linux experience), but since fixing its been almost flawless with gaming. I’ve only had 1 instance of mouse bindings not working properly, but a quick restart of the software that controls it fixed the issue
Last time I tried Linux for gaming was over 10 years ago. I know there is proton now which makes it easier etc. But even then I would constantly have issues with sound or drivers or some other thing that made it less “plug and play” than windows. Has this been improved in that time?
I have a laptop thats 16gb ram and Intel iris xe but has chugged since it was forcibly upgraded to windows 11. I want to try Linux to see if day to day things would be more performant, but I dont want to add a bunch of headaches because of it
Edit: thanks all for the great responses. It sounds like I should give it a go
Most things work great out of the box these days. If you do your gaming through Steam already then it’s the easiest it could be. Otherwise you can download some other platform like Lutris to manage your compatibility for you
There are definite exceptions though. There’s this great website ProtonDB that tells you how compatible games are if you want to look before you leap.
Kernel-level anticheat can make some games unplayable on Linux. Basically, it’s intended to detect cheaters, but it gives false positives on Linux. On the flip side, the software is super invasive, like once you’re aware of how it works it will make you wonder why anybody would allow that shit on their computer. Probably because they don’t know any better, but still. This is more of a problem with high budget PvP games like Call of Duty, so depending on your taste you may never encounter it
Hardware for the most part seems to just work through plug and play. However, if your stuff is highly customizable through software - like Razer Synapse/Chroma/whatever they call it these days - you may not have access to all the features.
Most Linux installers give you the option to just try out the OS in a non-permanent environment. So you could find a distro that appeals to you and then give it a test run without comitting to a full installation. It’d be a good way to see if there’s any hardware or compatibility issues.
If you have an Intel/Nvidia rig and are thinking about gaming, I recommend pop_os! I’ve been using it for a few years now and I have no complaints.
do yourself a favor and search your laptop model with Linux install and you’ll get a good idea of what to expect. There are some vendors who don’t play nice with Linux.
I started up an Arch box a few months ago. I have an Nvidia GPU and Intel CPU. I’ve had no issues with drivers since that install, and I’m updating proprietary drivers when available.
nVidia can still be a bit flakey. But overall gaming on linux has come leaps and bounds from a decade ago.
Same, early 2000’s was the last time I tried to run Linux for gaming and just recently moved to Bazzite and pretty much everything worked out of the box for me outside of some minor nits like suspend not working quite right but outside of that and of course my keyboard not having access to macros anymore but outside of those minor things have been more than solid for gaming and most everything else.
I recently switched from windows to fedora for my main pc, only had one issue with nvidia drivers (most likely due to user error, it was my first Linux experience), but since fixing its been almost flawless with gaming. I’ve only had 1 instance of mouse bindings not working properly, but a quick restart of the software that controls it fixed the issue