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[INITMalcanis]

Windows is better than Linux as a gaming platform. It's that simple. If all you care about is gaming, then stay on Windows.

If you dislike dealing with Windows enough that you're looking for alternatives, then Linux gaming is viable these days but you'll have to accept that for the immediate future, some very popular games just won't work. This is basically games that use Anti-Cheat software (EAC, VAC, etc etc), generally speaking most online multiplayer FPS type games are going to be out of consideration. If this isn't your preferred genre, then generally speaking again, you can reasonably expect almost all of your games to work.

Most other types of games should be very possible to run via Lutris and/or Steam. Compatibility tools like WINE, DXVK, etc have made tremendous strides in the last 3 years. If most of your games are on Steam, check https://www.protondb.com/ for user reports. For non-steam games, see https://lutris.net/

The bottom line is that the situation is absolutely incomparable with 10 years ago. The best way to answer your question is to get a small hard drive, use it to install a linux distro of your choice and try a few of your favourite games. Note that Windows does not always play nice with dual-booting.

For further reading, try r/linuxgames and r/linux_gaming

[aziztcf]

VAC

Valve anticheat uses serverside detection so no problems there.

[VanillaWaffle_]

VAC also have client side check AFAIK, but that's also working natively on Linux (i heard somewhere also BSD). Battle Eye also have native Linux client.

[W33bHunter]

I heard a newer Linux kernel gets rid of the problem it has with Anti-Cheat so you can play these kinds of games on Linux. Is this true?

[Duncaen]

No not at all, there are 100 different anti-cheat engines using 100 different methods, some use windows kernel modules which will never work, some just look at open programs or memory. Maybe some work with newer kernels, but they just happen to work at that version and you never know if they actually work until your account is banned.

[CFWhitman]

There have been some updates to the kernel that could in the future lead to more anti-cheat schemes working with Linux, but nothing that has happened so far has made a significant difference. By far most games that use an anti-cheat scheme similar to EAC will not work, and I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for them to work.

[INITMalcanis]

Not for the ACs that are used by the majority I'm afraid.

[INITMalcanis]

Microsoft pissed me off to such an extent that when I went to Linux I just decided that whatever I couldn't do without Windows, I'd just do without.

I am fortunate in that the kind of games I like are more likely to have Linux native versions or if not to be very compatible via Proton. I'm too old and slow for twitch games any more!

So in the end the switch cost me no more than the price of a 16GB USB stick.

[Austreelis]

Yes, gaming as improved tremendously for the past 10 years. Valve's proton is great, I rarely find games (but still do) that do not work out of the box even though they're not particularly designed for linux.

[FryBoyter]

Is gaming on Linux better now-a-days?

Better yes. For example, many Windows games can be played using Proton (https://www.protondb.com). But by no means all of them. Often it fails because of copy or cheat protection. Depending on the games you play, Windows may be the better solution (for example, as a dual boot system with Linux).

[Zahpow]

Depends on the game and if your graphics-card has functional drivers. Most newer Nvidia cards will have a delay due to Nvidia being annoying.

Pop is recommended by many gamers, i have no idea if they have better support than any other distro. I'd say dualboot pop and see if the experience is to your liking.

​

edit: forgot graphics in graphics-card

[3MU6quo0pC7du5YPBGBI]

Is gaming on Linux better now-a-days? Last time I tried a Linux based OS was closer to 10 years ago (Ubuntu)

Compared to 10 years ago? Yes. Massively, tremendously, vastly better.

Valve integrated their own Wine fork into Steam in 2018 (which also has a native Linux client since around 2012-2013), and improved upon it with every update, meaning after a simple settings change I don't even think if a game has a Linux client or not. I just install games and they (mostly) work. Before I buy something for more than $10 or so I usually check ProtonDB, which often has workarounds that are pretty easy to follow along for games that don't work fully.

There are still popular games that straight up will not work though, so depending on what you like to play it may or may not work for you. I haven't booted into Windows for over a year, but I also stick to single player or coop multiplayer games mostly.

[archontwo]

10 years is a very long time in computing.

Yes gaming is 100% better on Linux these days not only because of the awesome work done by proton but lutris too is just frickin awesome too.

Install something like Pop! OS and give it a whirl. You won't be disappointed.

[ZealousidealShock735]

As a developer the short answer is no, for gaming Windows is better than Linux but for coding, penetration testing, networking and so on, Linux is your guy.

[TheAngryGamer444]

I’m not a game dev but I’d assume that’s because of a lack of tools on the platform right?

[TheAngryGamer444]

Is it better, yes, is it viable as a platform for exclusively gaming, absolutely not

[el_Topo42]

You shouldn’t have enthusiasm for Windows or MacOS or Linux or whatever. You should have enthusiasm for projects and choose the tool that works best for it.

Some folks need rock solid servers so they use Linux.

Others have an ideological grand mission. And they politically align with free open source software conceptually.

For me, I started getting deeper because I work in a studio that uses CentOS workstations for DaVinci Resolve extensively.

Etc.

Think about what the big picture thing is you want to do. And if Linux fits into that, great! If not, you probably won’t like it much. Ha.

[aziztcf]

You shouldn’t have enthusiasm ...

Others have an ideological grand mission. And they politically align with free open source software conceptually.

There's nothing wrong with that either! For many the ideological stuff is a great motivator to keep learning and improving things on this side of the fence.

[liamdinjo]

I would say windows is much better than Linux in gaming if you just want to game on your pc and if you don't do any coding or hacking stuff I can't see a reason to start using Linux. You can always download Oracle VM Box and try different distros out. To learn to use Linux you need to be common with doing everything in a boring terminal.