With all that’s going on. I’ve been really considering setting up a dual boot and testing Linux Mint properly. (i hate virtual desktops, but I have Mint running on one now) I know I have to make some changes to my productivity workload, as I’m an Adobe Lightroom user. I’ll keep that on Windows for now.
But my question is regarding gaming.
I play a lot of varying games, from new singleplayer and multiplayer stuff to old games back up to about 1999. I know I have to do a bunch of research setting things up, but right off the bat I have a question.
What games will not be possible to use on Linux?
For example, will something like Escape from Tarkov work? That’s a game I do not want to even install of there’s a chance it will lead to a ban.
And is comparability with older games better or worse than W11?
Edit: I just wanna extend a huge thanks to the community already! There’s some great info here so I’m gonna set up a dual boot soon!
Edit 2: Dual boot is now setup! Even though Mint makes sense from a long time Windows user. There’s a bit of a learning curve. But I’ll try it as a daily driver for a few days. Right now my disk setup prioritize Windows, obviously. But if I end up loving Mint, I’ll make a full switch and keep a small partition for Windows to run whatever Mint can’t.
Edit3: Spent hours trying to get anything to work. Games just would not launch and I exhausted everything I found online. Trying a reinstall and Pop Os this time. Learned a bunch of lessons my first try
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What games will not be possible to use on Linux?
Most online games that have anticheat. (yes some work but most don’t even if the anticheat could support linux.)
For example, will something like Escape from Tarkov work?
No
And is comparability with older games better or worse than W11?
YMMW. but often linux plays older windows games better than windows.
Most do work. Anything with EAC or Battleye (the huge majority) work as long as the devs have updated it recently really.
EfT runs (with some effort last I tried, most of the issues coming from the launcher I needed to run to install the game, not the game itself) but I think multiplayer probably doesn’t work. I was trying to play the Single Player Tarkov mod last I played, and it was able to work.
It’s at the point now where I just assume a game will work and am rarely disappointed.
Often the games that “don’t work” still run just fine, but the developers that use anti-cheat will stop you from playing.
The EFT devs have their heads very far up their asses when it comes to Linux. They specifically banned the platform and have deleted forum posts about the topic. Fuck em, there are better games in the genre by this point (Hunt Showdown runs great on Linux for example…)
EFT and Hunt are two very different games.
Luckily I rarely play EFT anymore since I don’t have time to grind PvP. PvE is kinda stale anyways. I thought they tried to get their anti cheat to work in Linux a while back. But BSG is BSG I guess 😂
Look into Day-Z or Stalker—they both run on Linux and might scratch that Tarkov itch. There’s also a top down pixel art Tarkov lite called Zero Sievert. All of which run on Linux. Good luck!
I mostly play single player indie games, but still. The amount of games that I can’t play on Linux can be counted on one hand (sadly on of them EFT). Older games generally work great, very old games can be a bit cranky. I would roughly compare the compatability to windows 7 regarding old games.
I’m no good for compatibility layer help, but for an open source Lightroom alternative, I really like darktable.
It’s been a while since I tried it. I’ll give it a go.
I need the catalogue part of LR too, not just the editing.
Ah yeah, got it. That’s important!
ProtonDB is a popular site for checking how well a game runs on Linux systems. Users upload reviews that rate the level of support along with their system specs.
I switched to Pop!_OS and I’ve rarely run into issues with games. Games with anti-cheat typically won’t work. It seems like Escape from Tarkov doesn’t work. It uses Battleye which requires special configuration to work on Linux and it seems the devs don’t care to do that. Other games that use Battleye work fine.
To be clear, at this point BattleEye requires no effort from the devs to get working on Linux. On the contrary, the EFT devs have gone out of their way to ensure it does not run on Linux, and have deleted forum posts requesting a change in this policy.
Older games are hit or miss. If we’re talking Steam games prototondb.com is the single best resource. If we’re talking GOG or games installed from CD-ROM or something it may be a bit harder to get working perfectly. Often GOG’s remasters will work great minus controller support. I still can’t get LEGO Island working :( Feel free to DM if you have questions. I’ll try to help best I can.
Proton makes things super easy for the most part. I mostly only game on my PC and ended up distro hopping to bazzite. It’s mostly setup for gaming out of the box and is atomic, updating similarly to a console. I’ve found it relatively hard to break and easy to reset.
As most have said here, it mostly boils down to anti cheat
In my opinion linux runs old windows games better than windows itself. When I was on XP I used to play games like Starcraft and Lemmings Revolution which absolutely refused to work on Windows 10 after I switched, even in compatability mode. Later when I switched to linux, they worked great with Lutris with very few issues. Linux is great for older games. For newer games, Steam has most bases covered and worked ootb.
Yep… Every now and then I’ll come across a really old game in my library that Steam says is “unsupported” and I’ll take it as a challenge to see how long it takes for me to get it running.
Usually takes like 5 minutes lol. Proton is legit incredible.
I very recently made a shift similar to yours, though I don’t play anything MMO. I’ve been playing Minecraft (finally moved to Java) and Starfield, and both work perfectly well on Bazzite Desktop. I keep Windows for my CAD app and some other little garbage apps.
Between Steam and Heroic, most Windows games seem to install fine, though I haven’t dived into many of them really. Because of Valve funding Proton development, gaming has gone from a huge liability for Linux to a significant strength.
Do the dual boot and test it. For now, it’s mint when I want to tinker and be happy 1 game out of 300 works, and windows when I want to actually play any games.
