this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2024
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Linux Gaming
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I dunno. I'll probably get hate for this, but it's not ready. It's better. But Linux isn't a good replacement for Windows yet. I love Linux. Love the customization, the *NIX filesystem makes sense, and it's beautiful. Also no ads in my start menu!
I want to use Linux regularly, and I tried last week. It failed. Kind of miserably.
I need to pick a distro. Mint and Pop_OS were consensus recommendations.
Try mint: Installing dual boot alongside windows was beautiful. But no internet connection, says cable is unplugged (it's not). Realize I downloaded an earlier version (20). Get the most recent version, and problem resolved. It's kind of odd to me that even a pretty recent version wouldn't support my adapter, but whatever. I tried to update and install Nvidia drivers: update fails because dependencies were not installed. Okay.... Why not prompt me to install them? Why make me apt-get all the dependencies by hand? I don't expect handholding, but some things should be. If I NEED something as a pre-req for what I'm trying to do, queue it up!
Fuck it. Let me try Pop_OS, instead - that has some gaming chops, right? Dual boot was more challenging to stand up, but it all worked. Nice. Fire up game: get ~20 fps drop compared to windows (108 from 130) with the same settings. I don't want to troubleshoot the performance hit. It should just work. I want a tool not a project.
Never mind if you want HDR support. That seems to vary by distro. Variable refresh rate also seemed to be spotty from what I read in gaming distro recommendations. ALSO, do you need UEFI support? RIP. Enjoy toggling that on and off when you have to jump back and forth between Windows and Linux. Nvidia driver support I chalk up to those arseholes only now starting to open source some things.
And I don't care that you were able to run everything fine. You had a flawless experience: great. Love that for you. I didn't. I'm not a computer novice - I know to Google shit and how to implement it. I remember trying to fuck around with Ubuntu back in 2002.
I'm gonna continue trying to stand up Linux for everyday use because I love Linux and I want to use it, but it's pretty clear that even as someone that wants to use Linux. I've been trying to switch to Linux every few years for decades. It's still far short of being ready for average users.
Hey! Sorry you had these bad experiences.
My setup is on Debian
testingand is documented on this blog post: https://blog.c10l.cc/09122023-debian-gamingI don’t have an Nvidia card but other than that, this should give you a head start, including virtual surround on headphones if that’s your thing!
I promise it’s not a lot of work and I tried to make it all easy to follow (feedback welcome though!).
If you decide to give it a go, let me know how it went!
Thanks, I'll take a look!
This comment is tough because in its wrongness, it reveals a greater problem with Linux gaming. I think you’re right that it’s probably not ready outside of SteamOS. But it’s not correct to say it’s not ready in general. They are several distros that have all the latest features for modern gaming, the issue is you weren’t recommended even one of them. Pop_OS is currently outdated since they are working on their new desktop and mint is on the Ubuntu LTS version meaning they are both significantly behind. The community needs to take that into account when recommending things. That’s the reason I only recommend Bazzite. Cause it’s the closest to a SteamOS experience.
I will check out Bazzite over the weekend. Someone told me about Pop OS but this seems less of a tinkering hassle
I appreciate your comment! I'll take a look at Bazzite. How does it do with everyday tasks? Any other distros you'd recommend?
If what I said was so wrong, I feel even more like there's a fragmentation issue with Linux (or something). This is especially true if some of the most well known distros have issues with gaming. It only fuels my urge to make a table of features for each distro and then evaluate pros and cons of what distro has what. But distro choice shouldn't matter outside of UI, pre-installed programs, and maybe package management.
I was just super bummed that I didn't have one of the perfect experiences that I had seen so many people talking about lately.
Honestly Bazzite does great with pretty much everything I've had it do. Some things were difficult in the beginning (I've been on it since nearly the beginnimg), but these days everything just works. It's really matured. I'd also like to make an honorable mention for VanillaOS which would be my second pick for general stuff and my number one for development and sysadmin.
Distro choice really shouldn't matter but unfortunately not all systems are created equal. There's tradeoffs to everything. What you get by having the latest features you sacrifice in compatibility with older hardware. The stability benefits you get from waiting update packages may cause you to miss out on needed performances improvements or bug fixes. Tradeoffs to everything. Immutable distros handle most of those problems fairly elegantly, but lose out somewhat when it comes to ease of package installation.
I hope in the future you get to have a perfect experience friend.
Shouldn't Arch be the recommended gaming distro? Not because any focus on gaming but because it is the distro SteeamOS is based on?
thanks, your objective experiences are wrong too
Wrong? Is this about me using the word wrongness? In retrospect it was poor word choice but I did not mean to offend. I just meant that the situation is more complicated than what OP may have initially thought. You know what this explains the downvotes.
Maybe, but as someone who spent a summer school breaks worth of time in 2002 getting drivers for a Nvidia GeForce 2 card to run under Mandrake (oh the kernel panics...) to play counter-strike 1.X on wine... It's come a long fucking way.
I use Debian for everyday work and on my private machine nowadays and struggle with the shitty experience of windows when helping someone out now and then. Granted, I don't have much time for games these days, and often fire up the PS for that, but I feel experience can vary as long as you know what you want and manage expectations.