this post was submitted on 02 Jan 2024
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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.
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I've seriously been writing down the pros and cons thinking about switching over to Linux on my main desktop at home. It covers all the games I play now. I was very surprised.
Without the games to hold me back, I don't see why I wouldn't.
Follow Up: I'm on Linux mint! And my two favorite Windows games work just fine with zero configuration with Steam.
Do it. I switched a couple of months ago. I hated it at first, then cought on to what's different. Long story short; I never want to go back to windows.
The more the number change in that direction, the more game devs will not choose to ignore non-Microsoft Windows options too moving the needle to native support. Imagine a future where a game only works after enabling WSL with command flag workarounds if you want to play on a proprietary OS 😂
Yeah its really awesome how many games work without a flaw on Linux now, was my main reason why I still hat a Windows Partition for a long time
Its just sad that some Multiplayer Games wont work on Linux because they want to install Spyware or something that wont work
My only extreme concern, is, I run a Nvidia system. And even if my current list works, I'd be concerned about future games.
Nvidia will probably be even better supported in the future and opensource drivers are getting close to proprietary feature sets.
Wayland support has also been improving in major ways so we can have fractional scaling, HDR and all those nice things soonish.
Then in general there will be an even bigger push for games to support Linux via DXVK, Wine etc to support Steam Deck.
I would recommend trying out dual boot setup for a while and then deleting Windows when you're ready.
I know some Linux users trash talk Nvidia on Linux like it just a piece of shit. But it's simply okay. Don't get me wrong it's not great. But it works.
But if you have a simple setup it will probably work. My SO PC has a rtx 2060 and one monitor and it works fine.
You can of course always dual boot. I still have windows for VR gaming and just in case. I do recommend a stable os with Nvidia (especially if you just starting out with Linux). Something like pop os. Don't go with arch just for the meme.
With dual booting you can try Linux and test if it's okay for you. If not just give the disk space back to windows. If not great keep using Linux.
I have used nVidia on OpenSUSE since 2017, it has been 100% fine, no issues. it may help that nVidia maintains their own OpenSUSE repo for leap and tumbleweed etc
I'm also running NVIDIA (RTX 4070), and while I did have to try drivers from a few different sources, I eventually got it working pretty quickly.
But my mistake was choosing an OS that doesn't bundle non-free drivers (Fedora), from what I've heard some distros like Ubuntu come with NVIDIA support by default, so I guess that's also an option.
Nvidia hosts their own RPM packages for OpenSUSE and I believe Fedora. On new installs it is just adding the nvidia repo
True, but iirc there are several alternatives, from different repositories, and i was unlucky enough that j choose the wrong one for the first time.
I'm on an Ubuntu derivative called Mint, and on the first boot it gave me a pop up from the driver tool recommending that I change to the proprietary driver with an option for one click automatic download and install.
You are correct that this is detected and handled.
Nvidia drivers are mostly bad for Wayland afaik. Games shouldn't be particularly problematic.
I literally did this two weeks ago, switched Win11 for Fedora and so far it has been an amazing experience. So far, I only had to dual boot to Win once, and that was because I wanted to play some SteamVR games, which is the only thing I didn't manage to get working (I know there's ALVR, but SteamVR refuses to launch for me unfortunately).
Just go for it, get a new SSD drive and dual boot your choice of distro. You can always go back, and unless you use bitlocker you can just access your windows files from the Linux, so there's not need to move stuff around that much. With dualboot, you have nothing to loose.
I don't have money for a new SSD right now but my current SSD is mostly empty, 2TB. I turned off BitLocker to facilitate easy copying of files and because I'm pretty sure secure boot would be a pain. I'm running Linux Mint and I hope to go back into the windows install as little as possible. Maybe one day I'll dump it entirely.