this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2026
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Linux ABI compatibility is a fuck.
Valve archives an acceptable level of Linux game compatibility by shipping ancient Ubuntu libraries.
Honestly Proton is the better option.
If game developers make use of the new API and wine or proton doesn't add support for the new API. Sure. It happens it's not a big problem just an ongoing effort.
It won't break all existing games just new builds that use the newest APIs that aren't supported.
I think the bigger risk is Microsoft harassing wine or proton developers. Perhaps similar to the oracle google lawsuit about the use of the Java API in the android SDK.
I’m never convinced by this argument. If game developers have problems with ABI they can do what they’re already doing on Windows: ship their game with all the dependencies. Casual gamer’s Windows system might have more versions of Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable than they have games installed. This had been my experience.
With gl/Vulcan and some other libraries that's pretty challenging to do if your goal is to become more portable not less portable.
Shipping also sort of different libraries with your proprietary game could also be a licensing issue.
I still don’t see how this is different from Windows. Games on Windows ship with DirectX. Ship whatever graphics libraries you need if you’re worried about ABI breaking.
No, it’s not. Any library you’re dynamically linking to that’s present in a Linux distribution, you can distribute yourself.
I guess there is also the MSIX installer format which doesn't work with wine which can be a problem occasionally.