Linux gamers on Steam cross over the 3% mark • Hacker News Board

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

#481

Post by 71bw » Mon, Nov 03, 2025, 12:20 PM UTC

dijit wrote: post #440

zigzag312 wrote: post #436

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What win32 apps were killed by UWP migration? When UWP was added win32 wasn't removed. Win32 applications still work. > Microsoft sort of only wins in the closed-source, “run this arbitrary binary” race That is actually a big win as some manufacturers only provide binary blob drivers and a lot of commercial software is distributed as binaries only.

Binary applications do not include drivers. I only mean applications, drivers do not transfer cleanly between versions of Windows. To answer your other question though; Any GDI that is not accessible through DirectX- The Contacts API, Timers API, BITS (Background Intelligent Transfer Service), The inbound HTTP server API, NDF (Network Diagnostic Framework), SNMP. AllocConsole and ReadConsole are gone, NamedPipes (som…

>AllocConsole and ReadConsole are gone

...sorry, what? I use these intensively and they are still available to use.

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

#482

Post by nisegami » Mon, Nov 03, 2025, 12:48 PM UTC

hamandcheese wrote: post #54

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.

I curious how profitable it has been for Microsoft so far. Are they making billions and billions from these dark patterns? I feel like they'd have to be making a fortune for it to be worth throwing their brand in the gutter like they have been doing.

Perhaps the aims of these dark patterns were not to benefit Microsoft overall, but perhaps an individual or a team? For example, produce good numbers for particular KPIs at the expense of unmeasured or unmeasurable aspects.

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

#483

Post by 71bw » Mon, Nov 03, 2025, 12:51 PM UTC

tombert wrote: post #217

p1necone wrote: post #32

I made the switch more than a year ago and it's been basically problem free. Almost all modern games work flawlessly through proton and I get better compatibility for really old stuff through lutris than I ever did on windows (I used to have to run a win 3.1/95/98 vm to play certain older games, now I just use lutris/wine). The only stuff that doesn't work is multiplayer games with unsupported anticheat - it's always…

This has been my experience as well. I don't play a ton of modern games, but my wife and I played through the HD remakes of Myst and Riven, released in 2021 and 2024 respectively. I didn't even look at the Proton compatibility before buying the games because for single-player stuff then Proton has gotten so good that I almost never have to worry about it. I don't really play multiplayer games (outside of the original…

>JovianOS

Zero meaningful search results?

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

#484

Post by 71bw » Mon, Nov 03, 2025, 12:51 PM UTC

snoman wrote: post #350

p1necone wrote: post #32

I made the switch more than a year ago and it's been basically problem free. Almost all modern games work flawlessly through proton and I get better compatibility for really old stuff through lutris than I ever did on windows (I used to have to run a win 3.1/95/98 vm to play certain older games, now I just use lutris/wine). The only stuff that doesn't work is multiplayer games with unsupported anticheat - it's always…

Meanwhile nothing epic will work on mint (at least I can’t get them working), there are frequently broken components of games (eg. phasmophobia mic won’t work), most multiplayer stuff with anti-cheat won’t work. Whenever I see someone say “most modern games work flawlessly” I know they’re full of shit or just don’t do much gaming. Don't get me wrong, I’m not going back to windows, but it’s not the panacea that people…

It works fine under Arch and its derivatives. Everything aside from kernel anticheat games runs fine.

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

#485

Post by 71bw » Mon, Nov 03, 2025, 12:58 PM UTC

gausswho wrote: post #112

xrd wrote: post #80

I was really proud that my kids (8,10,12) all have used linux for gaming for the last several years. Steam runs perfectly for most games. And, they know how to to use "flatpak update" to update the sober runtime for Roblox (I know this is not steam, but it is an example of how well other things run on linux). I'm so proud (and ashamed they play Roblox, but choose your battles). But, Fortnite. I tried to run a Windows…

Fortnite might be a battle worth choosing. I wouldn't want to carve my children's gray matter into grooves of cosmetic microtransactions of psychological warfare.

...and yet they play ROBLOX, which is undoubtedly 100x worse.

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

#486

Post by throwaway106382 » Mon, Nov 03, 2025, 1:01 PM UTC

bee_rider wrote: post #380

throwaway106382 wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fortnite is a problem because of kernel level anti-cheat, trying to get it work on Proton....will probably be a long time. The solution is: buy a Playstation.

Yeah. Consoles should be consoles. It should be considered unacceptable for a general purpose computer to run kernel level DRM.

This is why I consider it a (security) feature that these anti-cheats don’t work on Linux.

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

#487

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Nov 03, 2025, 1:09 PM UTC

zigzag312 wrote: post #471

dijit wrote: post #440

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Binary applications do not include drivers. I only mean applications, drivers do not transfer cleanly between versions of Windows. To answer your other question though; Any GDI that is not accessible through DirectX- The Contacts API, Timers API, BITS (Background Intelligent Transfer Service), The inbound HTTP server API, NDF (Network Diagnostic Framework), SNMP. AllocConsole and ReadConsole are gone, NamedPipes (som…

Surprising amount of drivers do transfer between versions of Windows, even if not officially supported. But yes, most break at some point. I'm able to run binaries compiled over 20 years ago on the latest version of Windows most of the time. They do require enabling compatibility mode and sometimes installing legacy features. I don't know, if APIs you mentioned are available in compatibility modes, but at least named…

[deleted]

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

#488

Post by tombert » Mon, Nov 03, 2025, 1:23 PM UTC

71bw wrote: post #483

tombert wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has been my experience as well. I don't play a ton of modern games, but my wife and I played through the HD remakes of Myst and Riven, released in 2021 and 2024 respectively. I didn't even look at the Proton compatibility before buying the games because for single-player stuff then Proton has gotten so good that I almost never have to worry about it. I don't really play multiplayer games (outside of the original…

>JovianOS Zero meaningful search results?

https://github.com/Jovian-Experiments/Jovian-NixOS

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

#489

Post by DanielHB » Mon, Nov 03, 2025, 1:29 PM UTC

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…

Can I transfer my Overwatch battlenet account to steam? I really want to jump ship too.

How is Proton with nVidia drivers? I have a 3080.

Those are the last 2 issues keeping my home desktop on windows-land

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

#490

Post by int_19h » Mon, Nov 03, 2025, 1:41 PM UTC

dijit wrote: post #440

zigzag312 wrote: post #436

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What win32 apps were killed by UWP migration? When UWP was added win32 wasn't removed. Win32 applications still work. > Microsoft sort of only wins in the closed-source, “run this arbitrary binary” race That is actually a big win as some manufacturers only provide binary blob drivers and a lot of commercial software is distributed as binaries only.

Binary applications do not include drivers. I only mean applications, drivers do not transfer cleanly between versions of Windows. To answer your other question though; Any GDI that is not accessible through DirectX- The Contacts API, Timers API, BITS (Background Intelligent Transfer Service), The inbound HTTP server API, NDF (Network Diagnostic Framework), SNMP. AllocConsole and ReadConsole are gone, NamedPipes (som…

You are describing limitations on sandboxed UWP apps, but Windows still supports regular Win32 just fine, and everything that you describe is available there.

I still run 30 year old games on Windows and write new software using WPF and WinForms even, and it all "just works", much more so than similar attempts at software archeology on Linux.

It's really too bad that Microsoft is hell bent on shoving ads, AI, and dark patterns everywhere in what could otherwise be a decent boring "it just works" OS.