Thanks to all of Valve's effort with Proton, Steam Deck and their funding of people working on various other bits of Linux code like GPU drivers - the Linux share on Steam as of March 2024 bounced back to a near multi-year high.
They also sell non-DRM software. And most importantly they invest the money they make from selling those games into developing Linux so it’s better for everyone, I’ll take a corporation that uses my money to make things better for myself than one that sells “only” DRM free" games (when it’s convenient, because GoG also sells DRMd games in case you didn’t knew)
I don’t get why people find that funny, he’s absolutely right. It’s gotten better but Linux is still requiring a lot more tinkering compared to Windows, and mainstream doesn’t do tinkering. Let me give some examples as well.
I have windows and fedora dual booted. I also have 4 physical drives in the PC, 1 for windows, 1 for Linux and then 2 separate drives to keep windows data and Linux data. If I do a clean install of windows and want to play steam games all I need to do is let windows update run, install steam, direct steam to access the downloaded games on my secondary drive and the rest is “Steam magic”. If I do a clean install of Fedora and I want to play Steam I have to do system update, then manually install graphics drivers, then install steam, then mount the secondary drive then direct to steam to the secondary drive and the rest is “Steam magic”. If I don’t want to do the last two steps again, because Fedora doesn’t automount secondary drives, I need to also set up automounting by messing with the terminal and confog files. Honestly, you lost the mainstream gamer the moment they had to manually install graphics card drivers (because you need to do it through a terminal).
Another less important example, but one I still found funny, is when I wanted to make a new distro installer. I’ve used balena etcher to flash my stick on Windows, but I didn’t want to reboot into It Windows so I installed it on Fedora, downloaded the image I wanted to flash, started balena and added the file. I get some header error. I didn’t feel like troubleshooting so I reboot into Windows, download the exact same image, started balena and added the file. No errors and I could flash without any issues. Same file and (in theory) same software but it works on Windows and doesn’t work on Linux.
And of course there’s the Nvidia cards sucking thing, which is not at all suitable for mainstream considering almost 80% of steam users are using Nvidia cards. I get that’s almost entirely Nvidias fault but it’s still an issue with Linux. When your entire system black screens as KDE plasma is booting up even an above average user is not going to know how to troubleshoot that.
Linux is still requiring a lot more tinkering compared to Windows
As a long time windows user who’s just got a side install of Mint for funnies until.a faster drive I can dedicate to it arrives: lol, no. That’s why people are laughing at them.
I use fedora and have to…
Pick a less annoying distro then, babe. I installed Steam in one click (during OS setup actually) and then logged in, enabled proton, and started using it with the games on an external drive. Literally easier than windows cuz Mint installed it with the OS and I didn’t have to go to Steams website.
nVidia cards sucking thing
My 2080TI has worked flawlessly on Mint without any tinkering. Used the Nvidia driver manager thing and boom, running games. They even run at a bigger fps on average (about 10%).
Sounds like you used a specific distro and think those problems exist with every version of Linux. They do not, and there’s a reason why Mint is most often the recommended distro for those unwilling to tinker
And I’m not even gonna pretend that Mint is perfect, it’s not! For example my sound card just doesn’t work in it despite the OS being aware of literally every aspect of it. But the issues I’ve had daily driving it have been LESS than daily driving windows 10 even after said win 10 install has already had years of customization and tweaking done to it.
It’s ready for a lot more than that, can you tell me something that Linux can’t do without mentioning a third party company that refuses to support Linux?
No idea why you’re being downvoted. I wish I could daily-drive Linux on my laptop, but that would come at the cost of slashed battery life, permanently on keyboard backlight, no more fingerprint sensor, issues with speakers and so on. Even after years of honourable enthusiasts trying to reverse-engineer the Windows drivers, it’s just still not there. Laptops will take a while to follow suite, but Linux really does need to take a larger portion of the market before manufacturers start being interested in Linux support.
And before I also get downvoted, yes you can get a 10 year old ThinkPad and happily install Linux on it, but please realize that not all people want to limit themselves in their choice of hardware and it’s the software that should adapt to the hardware, not the other way around.
I switched to linux on my laptop i had to do 4 reinstall to get my nvidia gpu to work and as of late my speaker arent recognised anymore, despite reinstaling pulse and alsa. One of my informatitian friend that has a linux laptop had gpu issue too, the laptop at work need frequent overseeing by the it to work properly etc etc…
I love linux and I truly think we NEED to get our hands back on our tech, and understand better the technology we use, but yeah… If you really need your laptop to be fully operational quickly and you’re not tech savvy well think twice…
I agree, I haven’t experienced the stereotypical “WiFi doesn’t work” (except for a college network), but I have had issues with screen brightness not working (though seems to be fixed in newer versions), and issues with the Nvidia graphics card that I can’t just swap out with an AMD because it’s a laptop and I don’t want to buy a whole new one.
the year of the Linux desktop is now
And all it cost was having a store sell DRM software.
To be fair, as far as DRM is concerned Steam is pretty mild and game developers gotta eat.
They also sell non-DRM software. And most importantly they invest the money they make from selling those games into developing Linux so it’s better for everyone, I’ll take a corporation that uses my money to make things better for myself than one that sells “only” DRM free" games (when it’s convenient, because GoG also sells DRMd games in case you didn’t knew)
It’s still coming, I have tried to switch using my desktop but still have. Needed to swap back to windows for stability.
That’s a very ironic sentence :)
Year of the Steam Deck. Linux still not ready for mainstream desktop usage :(
Lul
I don’t get why people find that funny, he’s absolutely right. It’s gotten better but Linux is still requiring a lot more tinkering compared to Windows, and mainstream doesn’t do tinkering. Let me give some examples as well.
I have windows and fedora dual booted. I also have 4 physical drives in the PC, 1 for windows, 1 for Linux and then 2 separate drives to keep windows data and Linux data. If I do a clean install of windows and want to play steam games all I need to do is let windows update run, install steam, direct steam to access the downloaded games on my secondary drive and the rest is “Steam magic”. If I do a clean install of Fedora and I want to play Steam I have to do system update, then manually install graphics drivers, then install steam, then mount the secondary drive then direct to steam to the secondary drive and the rest is “Steam magic”. If I don’t want to do the last two steps again, because Fedora doesn’t automount secondary drives, I need to also set up automounting by messing with the terminal and confog files. Honestly, you lost the mainstream gamer the moment they had to manually install graphics card drivers (because you need to do it through a terminal).
Another less important example, but one I still found funny, is when I wanted to make a new distro installer. I’ve used balena etcher to flash my stick on Windows, but I didn’t want to reboot into It Windows so I installed it on Fedora, downloaded the image I wanted to flash, started balena and added the file. I get some header error. I didn’t feel like troubleshooting so I reboot into Windows, download the exact same image, started balena and added the file. No errors and I could flash without any issues. Same file and (in theory) same software but it works on Windows and doesn’t work on Linux.
And of course there’s the Nvidia cards sucking thing, which is not at all suitable for mainstream considering almost 80% of steam users are using Nvidia cards. I get that’s almost entirely Nvidias fault but it’s still an issue with Linux. When your entire system black screens as KDE plasma is booting up even an above average user is not going to know how to troubleshoot that.
As a long time windows user who’s just got a side install of Mint for funnies until.a faster drive I can dedicate to it arrives: lol, no. That’s why people are laughing at them.
Pick a less annoying distro then, babe. I installed Steam in one click (during OS setup actually) and then logged in, enabled proton, and started using it with the games on an external drive. Literally easier than windows cuz Mint installed it with the OS and I didn’t have to go to Steams website.
My 2080TI has worked flawlessly on Mint without any tinkering. Used the Nvidia driver manager thing and boom, running games. They even run at a bigger fps on average (about 10%).
Sounds like you used a specific distro and think those problems exist with every version of Linux. They do not, and there’s a reason why Mint is most often the recommended distro for those unwilling to tinker
And I’m not even gonna pretend that Mint is perfect, it’s not! For example my sound card just doesn’t work in it despite the OS being aware of literally every aspect of it. But the issues I’ve had daily driving it have been LESS than daily driving windows 10 even after said win 10 install has already had years of customization and tweaking done to it.
You do realize that just kicks the ball down to a different problem that prevents from mainstream use, picking the wrong distro?
That said I’ll give mint a go.
Depends on the distro, and if unique or ancient hardware is being used.
I use Fedora/KDE (I believe it has better hardware support).
During install I click one checkbox for using proprietary code, and then everything just works. I code, office/print/scan, and game on it daily.
Only a couple more decades, we’re almost there!
Closing in!
My computer illiterate mother in law that has been using Linux for years strongly disagrees.
Sorry, Linux is ready for basic usage such as web browsing and creating a document.
It’s ready for a lot more than that, can you tell me something that Linux can’t do without mentioning a third party company that refuses to support Linux?
My computer illiterate wife’s right there with your mother-in-law.
Yeah emphasis on desktop… Laptop can be tricky
No idea why you’re being downvoted. I wish I could daily-drive Linux on my laptop, but that would come at the cost of slashed battery life, permanently on keyboard backlight, no more fingerprint sensor, issues with speakers and so on. Even after years of honourable enthusiasts trying to reverse-engineer the Windows drivers, it’s just still not there. Laptops will take a while to follow suite, but Linux really does need to take a larger portion of the market before manufacturers start being interested in Linux support.
And before I also get downvoted, yes you can get a 10 year old ThinkPad and happily install Linux on it, but please realize that not all people want to limit themselves in their choice of hardware and it’s the software that should adapt to the hardware, not the other way around.
Yes. Just yes ahah
I switched to linux on my laptop i had to do 4 reinstall to get my nvidia gpu to work and as of late my speaker arent recognised anymore, despite reinstaling pulse and alsa. One of my informatitian friend that has a linux laptop had gpu issue too, the laptop at work need frequent overseeing by the it to work properly etc etc…
I love linux and I truly think we NEED to get our hands back on our tech, and understand better the technology we use, but yeah… If you really need your laptop to be fully operational quickly and you’re not tech savvy well think twice…
I agree, I haven’t experienced the stereotypical “WiFi doesn’t work” (except for a college network), but I have had issues with screen brightness not working (though seems to be fixed in newer versions), and issues with the Nvidia graphics card that I can’t just swap out with an AMD because it’s a laptop and I don’t want to buy a whole new one.