Do you use any software that made running both easier? Do you dual boot or have separate PCs? If you have separate PCs do you share peripherals with USB/HDMI/DP switches? What about sharing audio input/output? Do you stream one desktop to the other?
Ask HN: Those who run mainly Linux and game on Windows, what's your setup like?
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Re: Ask HN: Those who run mainly Linux and game on Windows, what's your setup like?
#2[dead]
Re: Ask HN: Those who run mainly Linux and game on Windows, what's your setup like?
#3When I switched to daily driving Linux I created a VFIO Windows VM that gets passed through my GPU and USB controller (and thus audio, inputs) which gives me pretty near native performance. It takes maybe 10 seconds to boot into it, and I can easily access my files from the Linux host running underneath. I recently added a VirtioFS mount so I can store my games on the Linux filesystem instead of inside the VM disk image. I've started a few games and benchmarks on it to confirm it runs great.
VM running using libvirt and virt-manager, using QEMU underneath, with custom hook script that makes passing through the hardware a bit more seamless.
Although with how awesome Wine/Proton and ecosystem are these days I have so far played almost all my games on Linux. I created the VM setup because I thought I'd need it, but turns out I didn't really. Think I've played through 20-30 games or something like that now with minimal issues on Linux, including big budget AAA games within a few days of their release, smaller indie games, all kinds of different ones. Most tinkering required was for older games that'd need similar tweaks on modern Windows as well.
Re: Ask HN: Those who run mainly Linux and game on Windows, what's your setup like?
#4When I switched to daily driving Linux I created a VFIO Windows VM that gets passed through my GPU and USB controller (and thus audio, inputs) which gives me pretty near native performance. It takes maybe 10 seconds to boot into it, and I can easily access my files from the Linux host running underneath. I recently added a VirtioFS mount so I can store my games on the Linux filesystem instead of inside the VM disk im…
I assume no based on your comment, but have you ever run into issues where your vfio setup didn’t work with AAA games with intense anti cheat? Like cs:go/cs2 or valorant? That’s what’s always held me back
Re: Ask HN: Those who run mainly Linux and game on Windows, what's your setup like?
#5When I switched to daily driving Linux I created a VFIO Windows VM that gets passed through my GPU and USB controller (and thus audio, inputs) which gives me pretty near native performance. It takes maybe 10 seconds to boot into it, and I can easily access my files from the Linux host running underneath. I recently added a VirtioFS mount so I can store my games on the Linux filesystem instead of inside the VM disk im…
I assume no based on your comment, but have you ever run into issues where your vfio setup didn’t work with AAA games with intense anti cheat? Like cs:go/cs2 or valorant? That’s what’s always held me back
I haven't so far. CS:GO and now CS2 run natively on Linux, so never played those online in the VM. I hear Valorant's anticheat is trouble, but I haven't played it (and probably won't for that reason; personally I have so many other games left to play I'd probably just do that instead of having to install Windows on a separate boot drive).
Re: Ask HN: Those who run mainly Linux and game on Windows, what's your setup like?
#6I used to do this.
First I used to dual boot.
Then I used to have VFIO with passthrough. It worked ok, but it was a pain to setup, I would not recommend it unless you really want to mess around with it. You have to have 2 sets of hardware, multiple graphics cards, e.t.c.
Then, I gave WSL2 a try. Its actually pretty good. It runs all things linux, and you can even run graphical applications under windows since it includes an X server.
My current setup is Win 11 Pro for everything, with WSL2 for all dev. The pro version is worth it so I can disable all the annoying shit with WSL2 (Cortana, One Drive, e.t.c). It works super well. VSCode remote extension natively integrates with it, so I basically just open VSCode and its a linux system.
Re: Ask HN: Those who run mainly Linux and game on Windows, what's your setup like?
#7I have dual boot on my computer, but Steam on Linux has been getting so much better that I've been running stuff mostly on Linux. It's been a while I had to boot on Windows... But I also own a PS5 and prefer to game on it. Seriously, try gaming on Linux for a while!
I share my headphone and the monitor between the PC and the PS5, but the laptop has its own screen so I don't need to use the monitor all the time. The headphone is one of those wireless headsets that has a USB dongle, so I just need to unplug it form the console and plug it into the PC. No need to keep bluetooth pairing, and I don't suffer from latency issues as well.
As a bonus I can have my laptop open when I play the PS5 so I can see notes related to the game (e.g., combo lists).
Re: Ask HN: Those who run mainly Linux and game on Windows, what's your setup like?
#8Steam on Linux is nice, and handles a lot more games than you think. I dual boot windows but rarely ever do so.
Re: Ask HN: Those who run mainly Linux and game on Windows, what's your setup like?
#9I have an extremely rudimentary dual boot. I installed windows first and then followed the live install for Ubuntu to set up the dual boot. Been running great for 4.5 years. I don't mind the extra 3ish minutes to switch between the OSs and get Discord and Steam open.
All that to say, a dual boot works fine, but maybe not the absolute best option.
Re: Ask HN: Those who run mainly Linux and game on Windows, what's your setup like?
#10When I switched to daily driving Linux I created a VFIO Windows VM that gets passed through my GPU and USB controller (and thus audio, inputs) which gives me pretty near native performance. It takes maybe 10 seconds to boot into it, and I can easily access my files from the Linux host running underneath. I recently added a VirtioFS mount so I can store my games on the Linux filesystem instead of inside the VM disk im…
I assume no based on your comment, but have you ever run into issues where your vfio setup didn’t work with AAA games with intense anti cheat? Like cs:go/cs2 or valorant? That’s what’s always held me back
Not all, but many, of these can be avoided with edits to the libvirt XML. Some things just rely on seeing hyper-v extensions. Others use more indicators.
Since you mention CS - I had ESEA working and they're notably difficult to bypass. Valorant was the only game I couldn't figure out that I had tried. Destiny was fine.
Past tense because I've chosen liberty instead - not playing anything with invasive AC, dropping Windows, and running Linux full time