Desktop Linux

[Ghan_04]

Is anyone using Linux as their daily driver? There's been a fair amount of talk about Linux gaming lately, driven in no small part by Valve's planned Steam Deck handheld device. It's becoming very viable to run Linux for even gaming machines, either to avoid the Microsoft ecosystem or just because you like open source software.

I'm still running Windows at the moment because some software I use just doesn't work on Linux (yet) and also because Linux doesn't yet support variable refresh rate displays in a multi-monitor configuration.

 

[Dr Super Good]

LinusTechTips is doing a series where two of their people daily drive Linux for a while. During it they highlight some of the issues Linux still has and why it still has a long way to go before becoming a truly user friendly experience.

If you are reasonably tech savvy you should have a fairly good time. I would still recommend external backups of important files regularly in case something goes wrong. If you are not tech savvy then sticking with Windows or MacOS is recommended as you will run into problems that require some tech knowhow to solve when using Linux. Of course Linux being free you can always clean install it whenever you want and learn from your mistakes, but that is also why I recommend keeping backups of sensitive files to avoid data loss should something go wrong.

The likely reason Valve is going with Linux for their steam deck is to help keep per unit cost down. If they used Windows 10/11 then there would be a $/£ 50+ added to the retail price due to the required licence, and if not then other compromises would need to be made such as paid advert deals like default browsers.

Valves decision seems to be a good one for Linux in general. As they want gaming on the OS to be a good experience they have helped improve the operating system in general, including improving the kernel for better power management and performance as well as leaning on AMD to create better graphic drivers for Linux.

Sadly the main down side of Linux is still from a graphic driver perspective. Even the proprietary, closed source, drivers from Nvidia are a lot more buggy and less feature filled than they are on Windows, let alone the open source ones. Due to graphic accelerator developers wanting to protect their intellectual property, development on good/efficient open source drivers is slow and it is unlikely some key features will ever be supported.

 

[BogdanW3]

I'd recommend not trying to switch to Linux as a daily driver immediately, and instead installing it alongside Windows so you can utilize both while you see how Linux is for you, after which you can choose to delete one or even keep both. "Dual-booting" or even "multi-booting", as this is called, is both well documented and easy to do (Linux will do it automatically in most cases). What is important is to install a Linux distribution last so it can generate all the data (Linux can see all partition types that Windows uses, but not the other way around).

What might make more people reconsider is the obvious points which Dr Super Good made, but also just the overabundance of choice.
There are many Linux distributions that operate very differently from each other and have varying degrees of community resources about them.
I use Manjaro (a distribution on top of the Arch base) because I am already familiar with how it works and prefer it a lot over Ubuntu, but someone just coming into the whole Linux field might want to try Debian or "Linux Mint" first, but the overarching issue of graphics acceleration might not be immediately solved on any one of them. While using Manjaro, it is easier to completely destroy the system if you don't upgrade all the packages at once (which you should always do anyway).

At the end of this long and probably nerdy rather than informative text, I'd say that dual-booting and trying it all out is still the best way to see how both you and your games will fare with Linux.

 

[Luashine]

I'm in the process of switching and now writing this from the other side Do you have a reason to switch? I did.

It's becoming very viable to run Linux for even gaming machines, either to avoid the Microsoft ecosystem or just because you like open source software.

I'm not trying to avoid the ecosystem as in software, I'm trying to avoid Windows as in Microsoft and Windows 10. I disagree with involuntary telemetry on all levels and want to be in control of my machine (whereas Microsoft wants to own everybody). These are enough reasons for me to switch. On the bonus side: Linux-centered software better suits me. I also do not want to contribute to the Microsoft ecosystem (as in ecosystem) anymore

I'm running in dual-boot: old Windows, fresh Windows, Linux. Obviously a lot is different than on Windows, that's the price. In terms of spent time: if you can google, you'll manage. Probably better than on Windows because you'll actually find a solution most of the time and won't land on spammy websites. My old Windows install too was tweaked and configured to my liking, I'd say it's time spent on either system. I would describe multi-DPI support as 'worse' - but this is my opinion of how it should've been made and why it will never be properly done here either. I don't care about VRR. Low latency takes v. blood tearing as a sacrifice.
For a regular user, there're practically zero differences. Browser works - covers 90% of stuff, LibreOffice works - 92%, audio player/VLC etc - 95%.
Games/Programs - depends on what you do. My programs will run even better, that's another reason I'm switching. Less games is better, but my top favorites all work. Warcraft 3 TFT used to be flawless, now Reforged's main menu is causing major problems with drivers/libraries... remains to be seen. On a funny note: except for this bug, I do get better in-game performance here than on Windows, and on Windows I can either choose FPS or crashing on one of the maps I play!
I'm also unencumbered by Nvidia driver problems. Like company, like relationship to Linux. Choosing not to buy Nvidia was a deliberate choice nearly 3 years ago. The only annoying problem in general is the configuration software that's missing, like for mouse macros/buttons or overclocking. Dual booting is inevitable.

Again I want to stress that if you've spent time adapting Windows to your needs, the same will be true for Linux, the process will just be different. But there're more opportunities to increase productivity and this begins with the desktop environment and window management. Dragging windows is so 1973.

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The likely reason Valve is going with Linux for their steam deck is to help keep per unit cost down. If they used Windows 10/11 then there would be a $/£ 50+ added to the retail price due to the required licence, and if not then other compromises would need to be made such as paid advert deals like default browsers.

That's not their primary reason. They don't want their business to depend on Microsoft, Epic Games was very vocal about this too. And I must say I find Epic's fight against Apple and Google lovely, the only smartphone space duopolists. They can afford it too now! They're investing in their long-term future and possibly making space for their own mobile store. More power to them in this case.

 

[BogdanW3]

It is good you mentioned Warcraft 3 specifically, I've had some experience with it on my own as well: Manjaro linux, wine-staging + dxvk winetricks installations were seemingly perfect for my PC, and depending on the distro or how far into the future wine head is compared to my tests, you may not even need the staging branches.

On the other parts, I concur, Linux will be able to get you through most of your daily activities, many of which even quicker than Windows due to some small improvements (lazy memory allocation), of which some are possible precisely because of the fully open system (libraries are not duplicated, many more filesystems to choose from, drivers made by the community and thus more support for less cutting-edge hardware). Even DosBox runs on Linux for those nostalgic for games before Windows ran on its own kernel

 

[Dr Super Good]

That's not their primary reason. They don't want their business to depend on Microsoft

Pretty sure it is the main reason. This is basically the entire argument of Epic Games, they do not want to pay the huge percent that companies like Apple and Google take for using their platform. If Steam Deck used Windows then every unit sold would represent some amount paid to Microsoft rather than kept for themselves. This is also why Ubisoft Connect, EA Play, BattleNet, e.t.c. all started since they could make more money selling directly than depending on other platforms like steam (ironically) which take a large cut.

 

[Chaosy]

I tried it half a year ago.
I was using PopOS because it's very friendly for idiots like me.

Everything was pretty smooth, nvidia drivers worked out of the box (which apparently is a common problem).

...until it came to gaming.
Most Steam games worked reasonably well, just setup Proton and it worked for most games I tried and ran without extra configuration. (with some FPS cost, but it was still very playable)
The exceptions are games with certain anti-cheat which do not like Linux at all.
And games that use their own launchers but technically run from Steam, Final Fantasy 14 was utter hell to get working and I had to use their old launcher which is the most ghetto I have seen in any modern game since 2000.

I don't recall trying wc3 but thanks to Lutris I got WoW to run without much hassle.
LoL was very hit or miss for me but once I got it working the only bug was that I could not tab out.

So my takeaway is that unless you genuinely like tinkering, don't install Linux yet if you intend to game on it. It's not as good as it needs to be - in my experence.

 

[kovadarra]

LoL was very hit or miss for me but once I got it working the only bug was that I could not tab out.

I got a complete system freeze (driver crash?) during LoL once and have since used Windows for LoL (I take ranked way too seriously to risk another random crash).

Is anyone using Linux as their daily driver?

I try to, but am using dual-booting and recommend the setup for people dabbling in Linux world. I see others here recommended this too.
VS Code and Firefox run fine, have faced no crashes or the like with them. And since OP mentioned gaming specifically, Hearthstone has worked fine. I don't know what "variable refresh rate displays in a multi-monitor configuration" means so can't comment on that.