Linux gaming used to be awful
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Linux gaming used to be awful.
And saying that’s gonna piss off two groups—for completely opposite reasons: Linux fanboys and Windows fanboys.
Linux fanboys like to act like it was always great, just “unsupported.” Trust me—it wasn’t. I fought through dependency hell just to run Tux Racer. The pain was real.
Then you’ve got Windows fanboys who still think Linux gaming sucks just because it’s Linux. But anyone who’s run Windows 11 next to SteamOS on a handheld knows better. It doesn’t look great for Windows anymore.
So why’s Linux actually good now? Because distros like Bazzite are built for gaming. Vulkan keeps up with DirectX. Proton makes almost every Windows game just… work. -
Linux gaming used to be awful.
And saying that’s gonna piss off two groups—for completely opposite reasons: Linux fanboys and Windows fanboys.
Linux fanboys like to act like it was always great, just “unsupported.” Trust me—it wasn’t. I fought through dependency hell just to run Tux Racer. The pain was real.
Then you’ve got Windows fanboys who still think Linux gaming sucks just because it’s Linux. But anyone who’s run Windows 11 next to SteamOS on a handheld knows better. It doesn’t look great for Windows anymore.
So why’s Linux actually good now? Because distros like Bazzite are built for gaming. Vulkan keeps up with DirectX. Proton makes almost every Windows game just… work.@atomicpoet I think I've only ever tried to make one Windows game work on Linux (through Steam and Proton).
It was Gris. It wouldn't work. I could only get the initial game menu to work but nothing of the actual gameplay. I tried for a bit, but couldn't get it to work. My money would have been flushed down the drain if I didn't also have a Windows laptop around (but anyway, it was too inconvenient for me so I ended up not playing the game).
I have heard that it makes "almost" every Windows
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@atomicpoet I think I've only ever tried to make one Windows game work on Linux (through Steam and Proton).
It was Gris. It wouldn't work. I could only get the initial game menu to work but nothing of the actual gameplay. I tried for a bit, but couldn't get it to work. My money would have been flushed down the drain if I didn't also have a Windows laptop around (but anyway, it was too inconvenient for me so I ended up not playing the game).
I have heard that it makes "almost" every Windows
@atomicpoet game work, and maybe I could have figured out what to do to make it work eventually.
And it could have been worth the effort if I had multiple games I wanted to play.
But I only wanted to play one game, and it didn't work, and after a few weeks of fighting it I didn't feel like fighting it any more.
Web games seem fine, though, for the most part, and of course there's emulation of old computers (including web emulators). I don't have to fight the computer to run them.
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@atomicpoet game work, and maybe I could have figured out what to do to make it work eventually.
And it could have been worth the effort if I had multiple games I wanted to play.
But I only wanted to play one game, and it didn't work, and after a few weeks of fighting it I didn't feel like fighting it any more.
Web games seem fine, though, for the most part, and of course there's emulation of old computers (including web emulators). I don't have to fight the computer to run them.
@atomicpoet So for me, it's simple. If you wrote your game for Windows, I'm not even going to try.
That's my solution for now. Shrug
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@atomicpoet I think I've only ever tried to make one Windows game work on Linux (through Steam and Proton).
It was Gris. It wouldn't work. I could only get the initial game menu to work but nothing of the actual gameplay. I tried for a bit, but couldn't get it to work. My money would have been flushed down the drain if I didn't also have a Windows laptop around (but anyway, it was too inconvenient for me so I ended up not playing the game).
I have heard that it makes "almost" every Windows
@isaackuo I play Gris all the time on Linux—and fun fact, I’ve only ever played it on Linux. I even beat it there! It’s fully verified on Steam Deck too, with the green checkmark and everything.
And just so you know I’m not making that up, here’s a picture of it running on Linux.
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@atomicpoet So for me, it's simple. If you wrote your game for Windows, I'm not even going to try.
That's my solution for now. Shrug
@isaackuo It’s kind of funny—Gris just worked. I pressed “Launch,” and that was it. No setup, no troubleshooting, nothing.
It runs perfectly on my Steam Deck, my wife’s Legion Go, and my desktop tower—all running Linux.
So if it didn’t work for you, chances are you either tried it years ago—back before Linux gaming really came into its own—or you’re using a distro that isn’t optimized for games.
If gaming on Linux matters to you, try something like SteamOS or Bazzite. Most of the time, you’ll have a great experience right out of the box. -
@isaackuo It’s kind of funny—Gris just worked. I pressed “Launch,” and that was it. No setup, no troubleshooting, nothing.
It runs perfectly on my Steam Deck, my wife’s Legion Go, and my desktop tower—all running Linux.
So if it didn’t work for you, chances are you either tried it years ago—back before Linux gaming really came into its own—or you’re using a distro that isn’t optimized for games.
If gaming on Linux matters to you, try something like SteamOS or Bazzite. Most of the time, you’ll have a great experience right out of the box.@atomicpoet I am using Debian Stable, and I'll bet the problem is that I'm using old graphics hardware that isn't adequately supported. I do not buy new expensive video cards. I buy used ones that are inexpensive.
I do not expect things to work better now.
Running Windows games on Linux does not matter to me. Not enough to run a different Linux distribution on one computer and dealing with maintaining that. And not enough for me to spend hundreds of dollars on a better supported video card.
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@atomicpoet I am using Debian Stable, and I'll bet the problem is that I'm using old graphics hardware that isn't adequately supported. I do not buy new expensive video cards. I buy used ones that are inexpensive.
I do not expect things to work better now.
Running Windows games on Linux does not matter to me. Not enough to run a different Linux distribution on one computer and dealing with maintaining that. And not enough for me to spend hundreds of dollars on a better supported video card.
Isaac Ji Kuo There might be many factors but I suspect that using Debian Stable means you’ll have to make lots of changes before it’s ready for gaming.
The other thing is, I don’t know what kind of machine you’re using, but it definitely doesn’t require a high-powered GPU. APUs usually work fine.
Finally, regardless of age, AMD usually works better than Nvidia.
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Isaac Ji Kuo There might be many factors but I suspect that using Debian Stable means you’ll have to make lots of changes before it’s ready for gaming.
The other thing is, I don’t know what kind of machine you’re using, but it definitely doesn’t require a high-powered GPU. APUs usually work fine.
Finally, regardless of age, AMD usually works better than Nvidia.
@atomicpoet "I suspect that using Debian Stable means you'll have to make _lots_ of changes before it's ready for gaming."
I do not like the sound of that. Debian is one of the most popular Linux distributions out there.
Unfortunately, AMD is not much of an option for me because I need 4K resolution capability, and the minimum cost of used 4K capable AMD graphics cards was just too high compared to Nvidia.
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@atomicpoet "I suspect that using Debian Stable means you'll have to make _lots_ of changes before it's ready for gaming."
I do not like the sound of that. Debian is one of the most popular Linux distributions out there.
Unfortunately, AMD is not much of an option for me because I need 4K resolution capability, and the minimum cost of used 4K capable AMD graphics cards was just too high compared to Nvidia.
Isaac Ji Kuo It’s not impossible to use Nvidia—I have an RTX 3080 Ti on my desktop. But it’s nevertheless a pain. Distros like Bazzite make Nvidia seamless. Getting those cards to work well on a distro less optimized for gaming? It’s rough.
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@atomicpoet "I suspect that using Debian Stable means you'll have to make _lots_ of changes before it's ready for gaming."
I do not like the sound of that. Debian is one of the most popular Linux distributions out there.
Unfortunately, AMD is not much of an option for me because I need 4K resolution capability, and the minimum cost of used 4K capable AMD graphics cards was just too high compared to Nvidia.
@isaackuo
I'm on debian Trixie and playing steam games with no issue. Video card is relatively new though, maybe three years old. Solidly midrange now, I think.
@atomicpoet -
@isaackuo
I'm on debian Trixie and playing steam games with no issue. Video card is relatively new though, maybe three years old. Solidly midrange now, I think.
@atomicpoet@rbos @atomicpoet I had a Quadro K620, which IIRC went for around $25 on eBay at the time (used). Looking it up now, I think they go for around $15 on eBay.
I do not know how they compare to what's expected for gaming.
I didn't have any problems installing the non-free driver.
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@rbos @atomicpoet I had a Quadro K620, which IIRC went for around $25 on eBay at the time (used). Looking it up now, I think they go for around $15 on eBay.
I do not know how they compare to what's expected for gaming.
I didn't have any problems installing the non-free driver.
@isaackuo @rbos The Quadro K620 was released in 2014—respectable for its time, but heavily limited by modern standards. It’s based on Nvidia’s Kepler architecture, which Nvidia officially ended support for in 2021.
That means the last driver branch that supports it is the 470 LTS series. Anything newer—such as the 500- or 550-series drivers—won’t work with Kepler GPUs.
Because of that, the card struggles with modern Linux gaming stacks like Proton, DXVK, and VKD3D, which rely on newer Vulkan implementations. While the K620 does support Vulkan 1.1, many games today require Vulkan 1.2 or newer.
So the issue isn’t Debian or Proton itself—it’s that the K620 is stuck on an older driver that lacks full Vulkan support. In practice, Proton performance on older Nvidia cards didn’t improve significantly until the 515+ drivers, meaning your K620 can’t take advantage of those optimizations. -
@isaackuo @rbos The Quadro K620 was released in 2014—respectable for its time, but heavily limited by modern standards. It’s based on Nvidia’s Kepler architecture, which Nvidia officially ended support for in 2021.
That means the last driver branch that supports it is the 470 LTS series. Anything newer—such as the 500- or 550-series drivers—won’t work with Kepler GPUs.
Because of that, the card struggles with modern Linux gaming stacks like Proton, DXVK, and VKD3D, which rely on newer Vulkan implementations. While the K620 does support Vulkan 1.1, many games today require Vulkan 1.2 or newer.
So the issue isn’t Debian or Proton itself—it’s that the K620 is stuck on an older driver that lacks full Vulkan support. In practice, Proton performance on older Nvidia cards didn’t improve significantly until the 515+ drivers, meaning your K620 can’t take advantage of those optimizations.@atomicpoet @rbos Thanks for confirming my suspicions that the video card was the quintessential problem.
This is the sort of thing where it helps having a broader range of experience and hardware.
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@atomicpoet @rbos Thanks for confirming my suspicions that the video card was the quintessential problem.
This is the sort of thing where it helps having a broader range of experience and hardware.
