this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2023
185 points (97.4% liked)

Linux

48256 readers
765 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

Rules

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
185
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by orac@feddit.nl to c/linux@lemmy.ml
 

I used linux in the past, both privately and work-related, but the last time was over 10 years ago, so I'm a bit out of touch. I am in need of a new PC, but it'll be a good year before I have the funds, so for now I am making due with an i5 7500 and a gtx 1660. I do have 32 GB so there's that. I finally feel confident enough to make the permanent switch to linux from windows as all of the programs I use are either available on linux or have a good/better equivalent. The only thing I fear will hold me back is games. I know Steam has Proton now which will run most games, but how does it compare? The games I play most are Skyrim (heavily modded) , RDR2, Witcher 3, Transport fever, Civilization, Crusader kings 3 and Cities Skylines (uninstalled atm waiting for 2). I'm on the fence to either wait until I can afford a new PC and dual boot or make the switch now and deal with a few gaming problems. Thing is, what kind of problems may I expect? Anyone able and knowledgeable to give me some advice?

EDIT: Wow, those are a lot of replies; thank you everyone! You really helped me. I will make the switch sooner rather than later.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] simple@lemm.ee 41 points 1 year ago (19 children)

Check out https://www.protondb.com, to see which games work well on Linux. Games that are platinum should work out of the box, ones that are Gold might need some tinkering. Most games work great, but a lot of multiplayer games aren't supported.

In general gaming on Linux has been a pretty smooth experience lately. Games on Steam usually just work, but IMO running games outside of Steam is pretty hit or miss. They sometimes need following a guide or trying to fix an obscure issue that only like 2 other people have.

The thing about Linux is that you might have some issues outside of gaming. Things you might not expect like Discord not being able to screenshare audio or that one program you need not working on your distro properly. Also you should know games on an NTFS drive don't work well on Linux, so you can't expect your drive full of Windows games to just work if you have them on a 2nd drive. In general I still think you need some patience if you're going to settle on a Linux desktop, it's not entirely a bug free experience yet.

[–] JetpackJackson@feddit.de 7 points 1 year ago (15 children)

I'm not the OP, but drat, I didn't know that bit about the NTFS drive not working nice... that was gonna be my plan for my games so I wouldn't have to re-download hundreds of gigabytes of games (Battlefield 1, Borderlands, TF2, Genshin, etc...)

[–] VerbTheNoun95@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 year ago (4 children)

NTFS will work, I used it for a few years without even realizing. I eventually switched to EXT4 for my games drive from an old Windows install when I realized ntfs-3g was using a decent amount of CPU and had a small impact on performance.

[–] JetpackJackson@feddit.de 2 points 1 year ago

Oh ok, that's interesting that there would be a performance impact! But that's cool that it does work. I'm honestly more worried now about getting Nvidia to work since that's what my pc has since I'm using sway, but I guess I'll worry about that when the time comes. Thanks!

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (13 replies)
load more comments (16 replies)