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Linux gamers on Steam cross over the 3% mark

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Re: Linux gamers on Steam cross over the 3% mark

#381

Post by strix_varius »

chrneu wrote: post #261
strix_varius wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While you don't have to use it much , if you spend a year daily driving Linux, it's a near certainty that you'll have to use the command line.

disagree. it depends heavily on what the user is doing. that's like saying if you daily drive windows it's a near certainty you'll have to edit the registry or use powershell/cmd. It's useful if you know what you're doing but it isn't required anymore at all for most people. Most people just use their machines for the browser or office software. No reason to use command line for them, ever.

> No reason to use command line for them, ever.

That hasn't been my experience. I suspect that most others who also daily drive linux would find it remarkable if someone used Linux every day for a year and never needed to open a terminal to install anything, fix anything, reset anything, update anything, follow any instructions given by any software they found and wanted to use, etc.

Re: Linux gamers on Steam cross over the 3% mark

#382

Post by bee_rider »

lwansbrough wrote: post #185

Biggest hurdle for me to do this is just multiplayer games. I wish Linux would offer a solution to that. No idea what it would look like though. Contrary to most Linux advocates I’m a big believer in giving studios the tools they need to defeat cheaters and I don’t care much about system integrity if it means fairer games.

Well, the beauty of Linux is that anyone can go implement whatever features they want. But, I’m very happy that folks aren’t very interested in supporting this kernel level DRM stuff.

Re: Linux gamers on Steam cross over the 3% mark

#383

Post by dham »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #314
MiddleEndian wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>backwards compatibility They are getting worse at this. I bought a Surface Laptop Studio 2 two years ago. Windows Mail and Windows Calendar, two nice minimalist programs from Microsoft, were actively killed in this time. If you open them, it will redirect you to a new ad-laden Outlook app. If you somehow get a workaround going through the registry, they still fuck with it because the (incredibly simple) UI somehow h…

That's not a lack of backwards compatibility, that's an app purposefully self-destructing itself! What I'm talking about is, if your widget factory uses some app to calibrate all the widgets which was written by a contractor in 2005, it probably still works fine on Windows 11.

I used some software called Project 5 from Cakewalk back in 2006, as well as VST plugins. I can still install it and use it on Windows 11. Meanwhile, basic plugins from that time stopped working on Mac OS X Lion.

Re: Linux gamers on Steam cross over the 3% mark

#384

Post by sgjohnson »

SteveNuts wrote: post #43
TACIXAT wrote: post #26

I just made the switch. I had been developing on Windows for the last couple of years, mostly to get used to the ecosystem. I wanted to be able to write C and C++ like I do on Linux, without an IDE and with the native toolchain (i.e. no cygwin). On top of that, I play Overwatch every night. Windows just seems to have zero focus on performance though. React based start menu with visible lag, file Explorer (buggily) pa…

The only thing windows has focused on has been dark patterns to force users towards cloud and figuring out more and more ways to collect data to sell ads. I’m not naive, I know a ton of huge enterprises still run huge fleets of windows “servers” but I still find it hilarious that a supposedly serious server OS would default to showing you the weather and ads in the start menu.

> but I still find it hilarious that a supposedly serious server OS would default to showing you the weather and ads in the start menu.

Server and LTSC SKUs don’t do that :)

Re: Linux gamers on Steam cross over the 3% mark

#386

Post by cornstalks »

xandrius wrote: post #272
cannonpalms wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The unfortunate reality is that, depending on your personal preferences, "most modern games" require such a ring 0 anti-cheat. Any game that has a matchmaking mode with a competitive option requires a rootkit. As an aside, I recently found Riot Games' Vanguard installed on my Linux ESP partition... after having installed the game on my windows partition. It rooted every OS it could find mounted. Incredible.

Modern games are not just shooting stuff in competitive mode. There exist a gazillion of other games too, without anti-cheat.

GP said "depending on your personal preferences" and clearly didn't imply all "modern games" are competitive shooters.

Re: Linux gamers on Steam cross over the 3% mark

#387

Post by rewgs »

ehnto wrote: post #351
SteveNuts wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only thing windows has focused on has been dark patterns to force users towards cloud and figuring out more and more ways to collect data to sell ads. I’m not naive, I know a ton of huge enterprises still run huge fleets of windows “servers” but I still find it hilarious that a supposedly serious server OS would default to showing you the weather and ads in the start menu.

Using Windows as a server feels like using your lounge room as a commercial kitchen. I can never shake the feeling that this isn't a serious place to do business. I have this impression from years of using both Windows and linux servers in prod.

Perfectly put.

Re: Linux gamers on Steam cross over the 3% mark

#388

Post by 0xDEAFBEAD »

lunar_rover wrote: post #300
jjcm wrote: post #231

As strange as it sounds, I think Valve is extremely well-positioned to ship what becomes one of the first true Linux desktop experiences. There's a huge demand for gaming x ai development, both of which have similar hardware requirements, and Valve is already polishing their linux experience with Steam Deck. If they launch their own desktop with a properly managed OS and hardware, I think it would legitimately become…

The problem is still the desktop itself. Basically none of the existing Linux desktop components are mature, either design or technical wise and more often than not, both. Deck works because most games are self contained, allowing them to have a default game mode that bypasses the desktop entirely.

10 years ago Linus pointed out that most distros willingly break application compatibility all the time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pzl1B7nB9Kc

I'm not really following desktop Linux, is Linus' assessment still accurate?

Re: Linux gamers on Steam cross over the 3% mark

#389

Post by 0xDEAFBEAD »

keyringlight wrote: post #286
jjcm wrote: post #231

As strange as it sounds, I think Valve is extremely well-positioned to ship what becomes one of the first true Linux desktop experiences. There's a huge demand for gaming x ai development, both of which have similar hardware requirements, and Valve is already polishing their linux experience with Steam Deck. If they launch their own desktop with a properly managed OS and hardware, I think it would legitimately become…

I think that comes with risks, they will need to do a lot of work to manage expectations which is likely to be an unending uphill battle getting users to read and absorb any notice you put in front of them. If there's ever an official version of SteamOS that installs as broadly as most other linux distros along with a general/minimally trained audience, they can't do Deck certified on how well each game works on your…

I assume jjcm was talking about Valve shipping dedicated hardware, e.g. a Valve-branded gaming laptop which boots into SteamOS. That could help them achieve the same level of "Just Works" that Apple gets with macOS.

Re: Linux gamers on Steam cross over the 3% mark

#390

Post by da_chicken »

andyjohnson0 wrote: post #195
ErroneousBosh wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No real bugs beyond incorrect monitor positioning Windows really needs to catch up with this. Multiple monitors have been a thing in Linux pretty much since the beginning of X. Why can't I plug a Windows laptop into a docking station, and expect the screens to come up in the same order they were in last time? Why is it so hard?

> Why can't I plug a Windows laptop into a docking station, and expect the screens to come up in the same order they were in last time? Why is it so hard? I regularly move my work Win 11 Pro laptop between three different multi-monitor (hdmi) setups, and it works flawlessly. I don't recall any problems with Win10 over many years either. What am I missing out on?

Multi-monitor mostly works fine for me in Windows 11, but I do have consistent issues when dragging windows between displays with different dpi scaling. They have the same resolution but the dpi scaling on the laptop display doesn't match that on the two 27" displays next to it.

Adobe Acrobat in particular takes multiple seconds to drag a window from the laptop screen to one of the attached displays when a PDF is open. Now, this is on a 6 year old laptop due to be replaced, but it was fairly high spec when it was purchased (64 GB, RTX 2060, NVMe SSD). It really shouldn't be making me wait on 2d rendering of a document.

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