It really depends on the games you play. The thing is, you need to be really honest with yourself in regards to what you play and how far you're willing to go for the ease of use. Most, if not all games that don't require invasive anti cheat will just work,there are outliers like media foundations cinematics that just don't work without protonGE, but even that's not really a problem and getting smaller and smaller with every proton update. Are you comfortable installing the heroic games launcher from a terminal if it's not available in your software center? If so, then that opens up a whole new library of games to play from Epic and GoG, if not then use a distro that has it preinstalled.
The Linux community will make you think it's an easy transition, and for the most part it is, but as someone who moved to Linux full-time and has been running only Linux for about 6 months, there are still hurdles to jump over, it was about 80% click install and play, and the other 20% was troubleshooting and trying different versions of proton. I'm willing to live with those odds if it means complete freedom of my computer and cutting all ties to Windows. If I want to play games that have anti cheat though, I either have to use GeForce now or use my consoles. However, increasing support for crossplay makes this a non-issue in most cases.
I do hope you make the jump, it's pretty clear the path Microsoft wants to follow and I don't want any part of it, neither should anyone else. We're in sort of a golden age of Linux gaming right now thanks to Valve, and the momentum doesn't seem to be slowing down thanks to the steam deck.
I don’t really play any anti-cheat multiplayer but I do play some AAA with DRM like Assassins Creed.
I’m fully comfortable with linux to the degree that I can start with a TTY and set up my own GUI with a window manager (though I prefer to just install a DE.)
Proton has been hit or miss with me on my laptop: sometimes the game won’t load, or it’ll load but the graphics will suck, or it’ll run nicely but all the good mods aren’t supported. That’s what I mean by seeing what the state of gaming is in 2 years: at that point Steam Deck and Proton should be pretty mature.
Outside of that, the Windows streaming apps support 4k but resolution is generally limited in the browser, though I suppose I could use my tv’s streaming apps. I’ve used my work software on my linux laptop so I know that’s a non-issue.
At this point, I don’t have a push to switch, but I’m not really excited for 11 and I might have to reinstall anyway to upgrade because apparently the Windows 10 install didn’t leave Windows 11 enough free space at the start of the disk or some bullshit. And if I have to reinstall anyway in 2 years, I’ll probably just do linux.
If your laptop is Nvidia unfortunately it can be hit or miss and that's just the nature of Nvidia on Linux right now. If you have AMD and in some cases Intel, you're set and there's minimal to no setup required.
Yep, I’m aware. Though NVIDIA has been a little more willing to push kernel modules, so it might be closer to parity in 2025.
Both my laptop and desktop have NVIDIA cards.
My one game that isn’t fully supported (with mods and add ons) is FFXIV. I’m not switching until ACT (DPS parsing with packet capturing as a windows firewall) is supported. All my others mods for FFXIV are supported very easily it seems.
Why in the world do you need packet capturing for an MMO...I can understand DPS meters and tracking, but surely there's an addon that works.
It parses the damage this way. It’s for people who don’t want to use plugins in the game as it doesn’t mess with the game at all. It’s against TOS, but no one cares as long as you don’t talk about it in game. And since a lot of people use this and fewer people use plugins, it’s better supported and will work on launch days most of the time.
There’s also another plugin that does this too for crafting so you know what you have in what inventories, making it quicker to gather and craft stuff.
It’s just easier to capture and parse packets than to put a whole plugin in the game. Plugins are getting better but they do take some time after a patch to get updated to be stable.
It really depends on the games you play. The thing is, you need to be really honest with yourself in regards to what you play and how far you're willing to go for the ease of use. Most, if not all games that don't require invasive anti cheat will just work,there are outliers like media foundations cinematics that just don't work without protonGE, but even that's not really a problem and getting smaller and smaller with every proton update. Are you comfortable installing the heroic games launcher from a terminal if it's not available in your software center? If so, then that opens up a whole new library of games to play from Epic and GoG, if not then use a distro that has it preinstalled.
The Linux community will make you think it's an easy transition, and for the most part it is, but as someone who moved to Linux full-time and has been running only Linux for about 6 months, there are still hurdles to jump over, it was about 80% click install and play, and the other 20% was troubleshooting and trying different versions of proton. I'm willing to live with those odds if it means complete freedom of my computer and cutting all ties to Windows. If I want to play games that have anti cheat though, I either have to use GeForce now or use my consoles. However, increasing support for crossplay makes this a non-issue in most cases.
I do hope you make the jump, it's pretty clear the path Microsoft wants to follow and I don't want any part of it, neither should anyone else. We're in sort of a golden age of Linux gaming right now thanks to Valve, and the momentum doesn't seem to be slowing down thanks to the steam deck.
I don’t really play any anti-cheat multiplayer but I do play some AAA with DRM like Assassins Creed.
I’m fully comfortable with linux to the degree that I can start with a TTY and set up my own GUI with a window manager (though I prefer to just install a DE.)
Proton has been hit or miss with me on my laptop: sometimes the game won’t load, or it’ll load but the graphics will suck, or it’ll run nicely but all the good mods aren’t supported. That’s what I mean by seeing what the state of gaming is in 2 years: at that point Steam Deck and Proton should be pretty mature.
Outside of that, the Windows streaming apps support 4k but resolution is generally limited in the browser, though I suppose I could use my tv’s streaming apps. I’ve used my work software on my linux laptop so I know that’s a non-issue.
At this point, I don’t have a push to switch, but I’m not really excited for 11 and I might have to reinstall anyway to upgrade because apparently the Windows 10 install didn’t leave Windows 11 enough free space at the start of the disk or some bullshit. And if I have to reinstall anyway in 2 years, I’ll probably just do linux.
If your laptop is Nvidia unfortunately it can be hit or miss and that's just the nature of Nvidia on Linux right now. If you have AMD and in some cases Intel, you're set and there's minimal to no setup required.
Yep, I’m aware. Though NVIDIA has been a little more willing to push kernel modules, so it might be closer to parity in 2025.
Both my laptop and desktop have NVIDIA cards.
My one game that isn’t fully supported (with mods and add ons) is FFXIV. I’m not switching until ACT (DPS parsing with packet capturing as a windows firewall) is supported. All my others mods for FFXIV are supported very easily it seems.
Why in the world do you need packet capturing for an MMO...I can understand DPS meters and tracking, but surely there's an addon that works.
It parses the damage this way. It’s for people who don’t want to use plugins in the game as it doesn’t mess with the game at all. It’s against TOS, but no one cares as long as you don’t talk about it in game. And since a lot of people use this and fewer people use plugins, it’s better supported and will work on launch days most of the time.
There’s also another plugin that does this too for crafting so you know what you have in what inventories, making it quicker to gather and craft stuff.
It’s just easier to capture and parse packets than to put a whole plugin in the game. Plugins are getting better but they do take some time after a patch to get updated to be stable.