11mo ago

Linux is officially at 99% for me.

I was a long time Windows user, starting with XP. I only tried Linux a few years ago, and while I loved it, at the time I had to dual boot for a couple specific Windows only things (VR and flight/racing sim hardware).

A couple months ago though, I got sick of it. I figured if I really wanted to do those things, I could boot up a VM, or just force myself to be patient and wait for a proper Linux solution. So, I wiped all my drives and installed Arch. Around this time, I also got an AMD RX 7600XT, so that was a nice performance boost, plus it waranted a switch to Wayland.

Let me tell you, I have been so pleasantly surprised by basically everything I've tried. Cyberpunk 2077 through Heroic Launcher, for example, with 15 odd mods. Runs at a solid 80fps at 1440p on high settings, the only graphical issue I noticed was flickering volumetric clouds. This game ate my old card (the venerable GTX 1080) alive even on Windows.

Just last night, I found my joystick, an old VKB Gladiator + Kosmosima grip, plugged it in and it worked perfectly.

What has really, really impressed me though is VR. I have a Quest 2 that I used to use via Steam link to play my PC wirelessly. Obviously that isn't an option on Linux (yet) but that's where ALVR comes in. Sideload the client on the quest, run the streamer on the desktop, start SteamVR, and bam, it works. The first game I tried was Elite Dangerous, one of my all time favourite games and easily my favourite VR epxerience. Now, I won't go ahead and claim it's perfect, hence the 99% in the title. After fiddling with the settings and making sure I had hardware encoding/decoding set up right, I had very good clarity, up to 120hz refresh rate, but occasional blockiness and artifacting, especially in heavier graphical scenes, like during docking. However, out in open space, it felt just like the ED I know and love.

At this point, I'm just going to look at fiddling with some settings and hopefully smoothing out the stream, but the fact that I can play my favourite games, with my favourite hardware, with great performance and in VR, and the amount of setup is really comparable to what it is on Windows is just kind of wrinkling my brain. Plus, only a couple months ago, this wasn't the case. Support for things that were once doomed to be dual boot material for the foreseeable future is coming along rapidly. This is a great time to be a Linux gamer.

109 comments

Yeah, a lot of expectations people have around Linux are about a decade old. I think Linux has really improved a lot in the area of gaming over the last few years even.
And as long as Linux keeps being worth supporting I think we'll see more and more games targeted toward linux.
- And as long as Linux keeps being worth supporting I think we'll see more and more games targeted toward linux.
  Valve has cemented this now, their efforts are what has made gaming on Linux viable for anyone.
  
  I agree. The steam deck has been a godsend for Linux gaming.
  
  Gaming on linux is a decades old ongoing effort, there's plenty of praise to go around, vulkan and winehq, dxvk...

I switched from Windows to Linux during the whole Vista debacle back in 2008. For basically ten years I was out of the PC gaming scene. I fucking love Proton and what’s its done for Linux as a gaming platform. Now I play (almost) everything on Linux, no sweat. The only things I ever need my Windows partition for anymore are things with those shitty anticheat platforms that just assume you’re a cheater if you use Linux. Cause, you know, Linux scary.
- those shitty anticheat platforms that just assume you’re a cheater if you use Linux. Cause, you know, Linux scary.
  To be fair, the people at the cutting edge of modern computing are statistically very likely to be Linux users. Therefore it's not entirely unreasonable to have some prejudice against Linux users.
  But as a sweeping measure these anti-cheat measures are absolutely unacceptable. The only other explanation is that they just don't want to bother with the market share still being low compared to Windows.
  Personally, if a game requires anti-cheat, it's probably not a game I'd enjoy playing. Not a big fan of competitive gameplay. But for those that are, this needs to stop. Especially with all the new bullshit Microsoft has been pulling in Windows lately.
  
  To be fair, the people at the cutting edge of modern computing are statistically very likely to be Linux users. Therefore it’s not entirely unreasonable to have some prejudice against Linux users.
  Can we drop this "linux is hackerman territory for cheats" stereotype?
  Most people cheat on windows. Not cause they are technical or knowledgable.. but because they have a credit card
  cause they buy cheats designed for windows.
  The overwhelming majority of people out there cheating are cheating using tools they bought and use on windows.
  So if anything, its Windows that should be treated as the pariah dog of hackers. Cause its where the credit swiping script kiddies are.
  
  @KrokanteBamischijf @hperrin But it needs to stop in a way that keeps those competitive games fun...
  Trusted Computing-based solutions
  Don't tell the game anything-based solutions...
  ??
  Trusted-Computing requires a more locked down system than any distro provides, and also (effectively) everyone going along with some MS-controlled standards for TPMs and so forth.
  Ignorant-Games approaches perform terribly.
  What else ya got?
- Yeah I'm right there with ya, of course it's the users fault for choosing an alternative OS, it has nothing to do with gaming companies choosing the cheapest, least effective and most invasive client side anti cheat solutions instead of more universal server side ones. Nothing at all.
  
  I kinda get it, there's a reason games a turning towards P2P architecture instead of the traditional client-server architecture. Servers are expensive and turning the game effectively server-authoritative is even more expensive.
  I imagine the cost benefit analysis rarely pays out which is why companies go for the cheaper option.

Windows XP and 7 got a special place on my heart, but once i get a PC, I'm moving to Linux Mint
- Same. A friendly poster recommended Mint and I'm loving it! The fact that it automatically walks you through the dual boot set up was exactly what I wanted.
- Honestly I'd still use XP if more programs supported it. As i said to another user here, it was Windows at its peak. It created the basic layout and feature set that modern Windows still uses, but lacks all the bloat and ads.
  
  Can't recommend XP knowing it's vulnerable

the fact that I can play my favourite games, with my favourite hardware ... is just kind of wrinkling my brain.
You're finally streets ahead
- I love this reference
  
  And if you have to ask, you're streets behind.

Just FYI, bazzite is amazing. It's made for gaming, and it. Just. Works.
https://bazzite.gg/
- Been trying to get my Vive working on ubuntu on a lenovo gaming laptop, saved this to try out next

If AMD wasn't already cheering to Valve, they have to be at this point

All it's missing from me are anti-cheat games and Adobe products.
- I'm so sorry you rely on adobe products, that's horrible
- Anti-cheat: shame, but I don't play them anyways.
  Adobe products: I guess it sucks for corporate zombies, but again not giving money to adobe makes me proud.
  
  Who said anything about giving money to Adobe? Yarg.
  As a graphic designer, you don't really have much of a choice, unless you're independent.
- Many games with anti-cheat work, a comprehensive list can be found here: https://areweanticheatyet.com/
  Anyway, I wouldn't install a rootkit "anti-cheat" on a Windows machine under any circumstances, but that's just me.
- One day soon I hope. With Linux getting more market share I hope it gets more support

- Again I want to stres that it isn't perfect. You'll definitely have to play around with some settings but it is usable, at least in my case.

i only switched over quite recently (a few years ago)
i swear there has been significant improvements in wifi, bluetooth, gpu support, gaming over the last 10 years that made me think it was now good enough
also there was areas where linux was outdoing windows for quite some time; system wide audio equalizer, customization generally, home services and self hosting, development tools
- Noice. Still to chicken too go full into the deep end of the pool. lemmy posts have been slowing talking me into it more and more!
- Linux audio is really under appreciated. I'm one of the nutjobs that still uses a PCI sound card and I've never had to install a third party driver. I can manually adjust the output and EQ for every port, disable or enable them on the fly, etc. The only thing I'm missing is hardware EAX support for older games but I've kind of accepted that's just a dragon I'll always be chasing.
  
  so true and it's not just equalizers, it's compressors and all the other tools for solving audio problems
  
  What EQ do you use? I've been using Easy Effects for a while, but have been plagued by crackling and stereo sound only playing on one ear lately.

I was a long time Windows user, starting with XP.
Kind of the same here, except it ended with XP, I never switched to Vista. I started using Windows already with Windows 3.0 in 1991. I've been using Linux since 2005, because Ubuntu lifted the Linux experience enough to become my main OS.
Back then games were a huge problem, I'm glad to hear it works so well for you. 👍 😀
- Same, but I did use 7 for a bit. I started with Linux in 2006, and I was 80%+ Linux until about 2013, when I switched full-time to Linux (when Steam came to Linux). I remember buying Factorio and Minecraft in Beta because they supported Linux, and I also remember when Humble Bundle was good (lots of great indies with native Linux support).
  I'm always excited to see people finding Linux useful these days. There's no way I'm going back to Windows at this point because it's just so annoying to get anything done imo.
  
  Yes I too dual booted early on with XP, exactly because gaming was shit on Linux. Then I gamed on Wine for a long while, but Steam really is a godsend for Linux. ;)
  I admit I also tried Windows 7, because the desktop went to crap for a while on Linux, when Gnome 2 was deprecated. But there are several good ones now IMO.

I finally have Windows banished to a VM, only to be awoken for the 3 times a year I need a desktop version of PowerPoint.
I'm with you. 99% of the way there.
- Have you considered any of the PowerPoint alternatives?

Interesting that ALVR works on Wayland. Because regular SteamVR seems to be borked on Wayland ever since the SteamVR 2.0 update :(
- Valve did say that they'd be improving SteamVR on Linux quite a while ago, it's just going to take awhile because it not their main priority atm.
- I've actually never tried on X11. I will admit, using VR seems to cause some issues with the rest of my desktop (Plasma ocassionally needs to be reloaded). However in the grand scheme, I can get past that for now considering it doesn't cause any gameplay issues.

Hey OP, could you give a brief rundown on what settings you're using for ALVR? I was gifted a Quest 2 and would love to get it running on Linux. I got the ALVR app sideloaded on the Quest, but the performance seems to be atrocious. I also haven't been able to get the audio routed to the headset properly, not sure if that's something you got working either - if so I'd love to know the secret sauce for that one too!
- I left most things default. When I first set it up I played with all the settings and made everything worse lol.
  I can tell you that I set the resolution to the highest setting, the refresh rate to 120hz and the bitrate to the quality settings. Everything else, I left default. I found that this resulted in the best clarity while not really making the artifacting/lag any worse. I'm still playing with it though.
  If you have the option in SteamVR's game specific settings to enable "Legacy motion smoothing", apparently that improves things noticably. For some reason motion smoothing is completely unavailable to me though so I can't personally attest.
  I've heard audio was an issue, but in my case (Arch plus KDE6), it was as simple as picking my audio output in the system tray dropdown. I could stream it to my headset or send it out of my headphones I have plugged in.
  Edit: I'm gonna link this becaust I found it while looking into why motion smoothing was unavailable. Apparently disabling async reprojection via a config file can give a noticable performance boost. I've yet to try it but I'll add another edit when I'm back at my rig long enough to test it out.
  
  Interesting, I'll give it another go and try out your recommendations - thank you!!

Many hardware manufacturers unfortunately require windows for firmware updates. Fwupd isn't nearly used enough unfortunately
- Most (all?) motherboard vendors have a separate download you can put on a USB to load directly. Other hardware may have something similar.
  
  Indeed, motherboards are usually ok. I've had to switch to windows for SSDs a few times, as well as a monitor and various peripherals
- dont buy them? Or are you their bitch?

Glad ALVR worked for you on Wayland. It never did for me but it's been a while. All Linux needs next is support from Adobe and AutoCAD and it'll be 100% for most people
- AutoCAD alternatives
- Photoshop too, unfortunately
  
  alternatives
  
  That's part of Adobe so ye
- Dumbass, its not for Linux to support Adobe and AutoCad. Its for those companies to port their programs.

I am in a similar situation, I use quest 2 a lot to drive in assetto corsa. I have a Thrustmaster TS 300 PC, I don't think there are any Linux drivers for that base.
- Oversteer should be what you need. Just take note that you need an extra driver module for the T300RS.
  
  Ah! Thanks, I will check it out. TS-PC is indeed what I meant. Maybe this is a good reason to upgrade my sim setup to more open source friendly brand.

@bigmclargehuge it's pretty impressive how far along Linux has come. I also feel things mostly just working these days. I am facing some issue with a fingerprint reader on my laptop not being supported, but there are definitely fully compatible fp readers out there, even from the same manufacturer. And there's general stability, at least as good as on windows and I do say that while tinkering quite a bit.
And for many things AI related, like running models locally, this is almost a Linux first experience. Just the recently was I impressed how easy it was to get local llms to run using ollama, even on my laptop with an Nvidia GPU. Impressive.
- I tried LM Studio since AMD advertised it for their GPUs. Once ROCm was installed my GPU was detected and I could use LLMs on that rather than on the CPU. I struggled to get it to work on Windows even when LM Studio was trying to do everything to get it to work.

I just wish someone could have a walkthrough guide on how to get the games (and launchers) to work for me like they do for you. Every time something jams up and I have to reinstall until I shrug and put windows back on.
- ProtonDB usually has pretty good information on launcher settings for games. I've found several good walkthroughs on game forums, as well, like on Steam community forums or the game's own website.
  What games are giving you trouble and where are you looking for walkthroughs? And what are you looking for in the walkthrough?
  
  Been traditionally trying to use Linux Mint but am at my wits end so I'm willing to try anything. As far as what I'm looking for, just step by step to get Steam and Heroic installed and working. Any game I've found that has a launcher is simply a no go, never works.
  Now we've got flatpaks out and people swear by them but I usually get something working one day and the next it quits. I admit it, I need more experience at this; but I can't quit Windows until I understand what the hell is going wrong and how to fix it.
- Trial and error, lots of reading ProtonDB, wikis, etc. I only just recently got a decent handle on how to properly use wine prefixes to get mods and things working.
  In general, use Steam when you can, then use Heroic for non Steam games. Lutris is very powerful and super useful for games that aren't installed from a larger distributor, ie from a CD or direct from the devs, but I find the UI can be a bit spartan. Steam and Heroic have fewer features but are way more user friendly.
  Good luck. It can definitely be frustrating but remember that you have access to tons of resources and an excellent community if you encounter issues.

I am like you but a year behind. I hope to get there too at some point. Switched to Linux for the majority of my pc use and a lot of games. But my VR flight sim and the occasional racing is holding me back. I have an HP Reverb G2 (Windows Mixed Reality) headset which doesn't work very well on Linux (yet?) and an Nvidia RTX 3080.
There doesn't seem to be an ideal Linux VR setup yet, now that SteamVR still does not work with Wayland. Hoping they'll fix it and then I can sidegrade to a Valve Index and an RX 6900 XT and be set. I don't like the complexity and latency of wireless streaming.
- Yeah, it's definitely not ideal at the moment, loads better than it used to be though.
  I've heard that Valve has a linux native version of the Steam Link VR app in the pipeline, hopefully it comes within the next year or so.

I also recently made the switch and was pleasantly surprised at how many games I could still play, even "Windows only" titles. Though my requirements are nowhere near yours as I don't have VR or HOTAS.
I'm still rocking an NVIDIA 1060.. What's the Linux community consensus on NVIDIA vs AMD? Because I think it's about time to upgrade.
- AMD is generally a much better experience overall, but a handful of things are worse than NVidia (off the top of my head, Ray Tracing, AI, and Emulators. AMD cards tend to have graphical glitches in emulators even on Windows. They can be mitigated, and aren't universal but they are an issue).
  In my experience, AMD is the way to go. My old GTX 1080 was a beast and put in great work, but just had too many naggling stability issues that constantly got in the way of enjoying it. Been really happy with my AMD.
  
  AMD being preferred was my sense of the situation so it's good to have that confirmed. Looks like I need to get more familiar with that family of cards.

I have nothing to add except that ED with VR and hotas controllers is one of the best VR spaceflight experiences out there. Dogfighting with that setup is unparalleled. Being able to watch your target as you flip over them to their tail just gets my jimmies jumpin'.
- My jam was always turning off flight assist and just tossing a small ship through an asteroid belt. Haven't played much since Odyssey but I recently got the itch again

If only I could play Rust on it, it would be at 100% for me
- Well... Technically you can, you just can't play on servers with AntiCheat activated.

109 comments