Experience: I have a bit of experience with Linux. I started around 2008, distro-hopped weekly, decided on Debian until around 2011, when I switched to Windows as I started getting interested in gaming. Tried switching back around 2015, this time using Arch Linux for about a month, but had some bad experiences with gaming and switched back to Windows. I have had a Debian and Arch VM in Virtual Box since then for testing different applications and a more coherent environment to work with servers.
Understanding: Which brings me to now, I am really interested in using Linux for gaming, I know there is Proton from Valve and that they have been really pushing Linux gaming forward with it.
Thoughts: I have been contemplating dual booting by installing Debian to an SSD and simply using the UEFI boot menu to choose instead of having to install to the EFI of Windows.
I guess, I should just do it, as it won’t affect my Windows installation, and I could test different games and if all works well, move over. This would also allow me to try different distributions, though my heart is for Debian, I even like Debian Unstable.
Note: I am sorry for the wall of text, I am just kind of anxious I guess.
Long story short, it REALLY depends on the games. The vast majority of them will work perfectly fine, but there are a few that will have weird things, and a few that will not work at all. The problem is that the ones that won’t work at all are competitive multiplayer, so if you’re into that you’re going to have a bad time, if not it’s very likely that almost anything you try will just work (quite a few games are better with ProtonGE, more as a heads up than anything).
iv moved to linux for over a year now when proton started getting rlly good and iv enjoyed it so much i started a small youtube channel lmao. software has gotten rlly good aswell in the foss universe with package managers like flatpak and some amazing gtk4 apps
gaming on linux is a breeze and with valve making more deals to get companies to support proton for linux/steamdeck
its going to continue to get better and better until windows will not be required anymore
Just lower your expectations and dive in. Unless there is a specific game that you REALLY want to play… then search if (your most wanted game) 100% works on linux and then do it.
All in all, its just a matter of not expecting much and be willing to ditch some things here and there. Get used to “do it yourself” and you’ll be fine.
I was suggested to look at ProtonDB, and it looks like all my games will work fine. I will be giving it all a test in the coming days.
Heck yeah man get in there and get linuxin. I been in the Ubuntu for a year now and it’s great stuff.
Been running Arch exclusively on my gaming rig for 3 months, now, with no issue. Thanks to Proton, the only blocker is games that use anti-cheat solutions that don’t work properly. Everything that’s relied on VAC or EAC work fine, though.
This is my third attempt at making this move on my gaming rig. The first try was back in 2016. The second was in 2018. This time, I think I’m here to stay. The Steam Deck’s success was the final ingredient.
The steam deck is almost entirely responsible for my migration to Linux, am in a similar boat to you of having attempted a number of times and written it off as impossible to use for gaming
Bought a steam deck (and received it a year later lol) and that was what made me want to give it another go. Now I don’t even have windows installed on my PC and boot into it on my laptop maybe once a month to test something for work
