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Linux is good now

pcgamer.com

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Re: Linux is good now

#341

Post by reincarnate0x14 »

kentonv wrote: post #242

I switched all the machines at https://lanparty.house over to Linux a couple months ago. So far, we've experienced noticeably fewer problems on Linux compared to Windows. Stability and performance are better. I can't think of one game we tried that didn't work. And wow is it nice not to have all the ads and crapware in our faces anymore. (I'm aware that Battlefield series and League of Legends won't work due to draco…

I recently heard that Star Citizen of all things, still in eternal development hell, runs really well on Linux.

Also, amazing house, my friend is enamored of the cat-transit. I used to live not too far from you :)

Re: Linux is good now

#342

Post by prmoustache »

buu700 wrote: post #208
tkiolp4 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But what about laptops? I don’t use desktop machines anymore (last time was in 2012). Apple laptops are top notch. I use ubuntu as vm (headless) for software development tho

I did some investigation into this the other day. The short answer seems to be that if you like MacBooks, you aren't willing to accept a downgrade along any axis, and you really want to use Linux, your best bet today is an M2 machine. But you'll still be sacrificing a few hours of battery life, Touch ID support (likely unfixable), and a handful of hardware support edge cases. Apple made M3s and M4s harder to support,…

Can't one use MacOS only as an hypervisor and do everything else in a linux VM.

Re: Linux is good now

#343

Post by sroerick »

bigyabai wrote: post #322
chuckadams wrote: post #66

Just recently started using the desktop machine (under my desk, as opposed to my laptop which sits on my desktop) and put NixOS on it, and found myself pleasantly surprised. There's certainly still some parts of NixOS that require some expertise and getting your head around its package model, but overall I was surprised at how idiotproof it was to install and use. I mostly play games on it with Steam, which also Just…

NixOS is really a profound experience, once you embrace it. I used Arch for ~3 years and ended up reinstalling it maybe 15 times on my desktop alone. Switched to NixOS and I've used the same installation for 3 years, synced with my laptop and server, switching from x11 to Wayland to KDE to GNOME then back again with no problem. It doesn't feel real sometimes. My dotfiles are modularized, backed up in Github and versi…

I've heard of people doing this and I'm really interested in this. Can you recommend a write up on this or further reading?

Re: Linux is good now

#344

Post by lanfeust6 »

Biganon wrote: post #228

I'm tired of people saying Steam on Linux just works. It doesn't. Tried running Worms: instant crash, no error message. Tried running Among Us: instant crash, had to add cryptic arguments to the command line to get it to run. Tried running Parkitect: crashes after 5 minutes. These three games are extremely simple, graphically speaking. They don't use any complicated anti-cheat measure. This shouldn't be complicated,…

Don't use Arch unless you don't mind spending time troubleshooting and configuring.

Re: Linux is good now

#345

Post by kentonv »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #338
kentonv wrote: post #328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Debian... mostly just because it's what I'm most familiar with. I don't have strong opinions on distros.

But you use it for games, right? So I figured you'd pick one based on how well it runs Steam. (And maybe for GPU drivers.)

Steam supports Debian well.

I download the nvidia drivers directly from nvidia. Their installer script is actually pretty decent and then I don't have to worry about whether the distro packages are up-to-date.

Re: Linux is good now

#346

Post by ThatPlayer »

foresto wrote: post #324
MegaDeKay wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd say there are two remaining roadblocks. First and biggest is kernel level anti-cheat frameworks as you point out. But there's also no open source HDMI 2.1 implementation allowed by the HDMI cartel so people like me with an AMD card max out at 4K60 even for open source games like Visual Pinball (unless you count an adapter with hacked firmware between the card and the display). NVidia and Intel get away with it be…

Is HDMI really a roadblock to gaming when DisplayPort exists?

Up until a year or two ago, the majority of monitors (and graphic cards) used DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI 2.1. With HDMI 2.1 (42 Gbps) having more bandwidth than the DisplayPort (26 Gbps).

This is my case with my relatively new/high-end RTX 4080 and OLED monitor. So until I upgrade both, I use HDMI to be able to drive a 1440p 240hz 10-bit HDR signal @ 30 Gbps.

Re: Linux is good now

#347

Post by iknowstuff »

coppsilgold wrote: post #241
fooker wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The last remaining roadblock is kernel level anti-cheat frameworks. Pretty horrible technology, and unfortunately a good majority of the gaming industry by revenue relies on it.

Competent cheat makers don't have much difficulty in defeating in-kernel anticheats on Windows. With the amount of insight and control available on Linux anticheat makers stand little chance. The best Valve could do is offer a special locked down kernel with perhaps some anticheat capabilities and lock down the hardware with attestation. If they offer the sources and do verified builds it might even be accepted by so…

Yeah this is also the model Microsoft is moving to. A separate attested vm for games, immutable to the rest of windows.

Re: Linux is good now

#348

Post by antod »

baby wrote: post #34

What pc would someone recommend as someone who just wants to toy around and dont necessarily need the power?

An ex lease Thinkpad T Series with Intel graphics is a good choice for value and compatibility. eg a T490 or T14 era machine.

Using hardware at least 6-12 months old is a good way to get better compatibility.

Generally Linux drivers only start development after the hardware is available and in the hands of devs, while Windows drivers usually get a head start before release. Brand new hardware on a LTS (long term support) distro with an older kernel is usually the worst compatibility combo.

Re: Linux is good now

#349

Post by kentonv »

argsnd wrote: post #336
kentonv wrote: post #328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Debian... mostly just because it's what I'm most familiar with. I don't have strong opinions on distros.

I find that Fedora hits the right balance of stability while being up to date for anything desktop and specifically gaming focused, Debian has different priorities and packages can be a bit too old. And it’s less of a faff than Arch.

Eh, aside from GPU drivers -- which I download directly from nvidia anyway -- I don't feel like gaming is much affected by the distro packages being a couple years old. We pretty much just run Steam, Discord, and Chrome on these things, and those all have their own update schedule independent of the distro.

Re: Linux is good now

#350

Post by tapoxi »

vbezhenar wrote: post #308
tapoxi wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The interesting solution here is secure boot, only allow users to play from a set of trusted kernels.

What do you mean? Ship computer with preinstalled Linux that you can't tamper? Sounds like Android. For ordinary computers, secure boot is fully configurable, so it won't work: I can disable it, I can install my own keys, etc. Any for any userspace way to check it I'll fool you, if I own the kernel.

No, just have the anti-cheat trust kernels signed by the major Linux vendors and use secure boot with remote attestation. Remote attestation can't be fooled from kernel space, that's the entire point of the technology.

That way you could use an official kernel from Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian, Arch etc. A custom one wouldn't be supported but that's significantly better than blocking things universally.

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