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.
I don’t buy games that won’t run on linux.
Nowadays I just play something else, so many games out there that work flawlessly (thanks to wine/proton). I also did virtualization successfully for some time but it can take a while to get it right. The best and simplest solution is to get a separate SSD just for windows and dual boot.
this rarely happens, but when i run into a game that doesn’t work i - check protondb.com to see if someone else has already found a solution. trying different proton versions can sometimes help as well
Absolutely this. It is becoming increasingly rare to find a game that doesn’t work in linux (excluding stupid copy protection/anti-cheat implementations). We haven’t reached the works-out-of-the-box stage but the combination of proton-ge/wine-ge with lutris or heroic provides a solid alternative to games not on steam.
The PCGamingWiki is also another good resource especially for older or more obscure games. Most fixes are Windows specific but they can be used on Linux. For example here is the page for Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit where it links fan patches and an open source engine recreation.
If someone is really desperate there’s always the option of searching GitHub issue pages like dxvk to see if it has been documented, if there is a temporary fix, if a fix is on the way, or if it’s going to remain a constant issue (ex. FiveM).
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 still have some games that I can only run on my PS3, but I don’t really use it much.
