Should you try Linux for gaming? Or at all?

A while back I got fed up with the whole paying for online shenanigans, the close systems, where I had to wait patiently for a publisher or developer to fix its game if it was broken. So I went back to PC gaming. Where I can fix things myself and not have to pay more and for everything.  

But one thing was still annoying me, that damned architectural feature, still on my desktop. 

Let’s be honest, Windows is not the worst thing on the earth, I have plenty of examples or worse things, especially in that time and age, but it was annoying to me. There must be a better way. 

As you say Bilbo.

Playing on my Steam Deck I figured, hey this Linux thing is working pretty well! So.. why not. Why shouldn’t I try it? 

Disclaimer! This is in no way sponsored by anything, and it relates my very experience. It may differ greatly for you. 

Limitations and considerations before switching.

Before switching I had to consider several things: My daily usage, my devices. I invite you to do the same before anything else.

If you want to know more you can consult the Bazzite documentation there : https://docs.bazzite.gg/Gaming/index.html 

I use my computer for work. My needs were to be able to play games, write my articles, record my videos and voice, and edit it. I had to inventory my hardware and check for potential compatibility issues, especially for the graphic card but to my surprise there were none.

Bazzite didn’t support Nvidia until January, and officially requires a 20XX or newer, though I’ve seen reports of it working on 10XX series cards.

Then onto the software compatibility. Recording software both audio and video? Yes.

Editing software? But of course! (We'll come back to that however).

Drivers for my rig? No worries mate. (I love to think that my distro speaks with the Australian accent, don’t ask). 

I chose Bazzite (a supposedly gaming oriented user friendly distribution), which seemed to match my needs.

For context my last attempt to use Linux was a Red Hat distribution when I was in university. Must have been close to 20 years ago. 

I dusted my whip and hat and onward to adventure!

Installation & First Impressions

All lights on green, I went on to install it. The process required me to create a bootable device, and basically that was it.

Started on it, clicked two or three menus and voila! It was, in my experience, not harder to install than Windows. 

The Bazzite default installation is very usable out of the box. No half a day updating and installing drivers.

Everything was working straight away. 

Sure I had to adapt to some philosophy after more than two (three?!)  decades under Windows. But once I understood it it was pretty easy.  That would be my first take, don´t go in expecting Windows, keep an open mind and a browser tab and you should be OK.

It is worth noting that this applies to Bazzite. Other distributions are more modular and require more of you. The downside is that a lot is “hard coded” and you depend on when and if the whole distribution will be updated. You can’t just decide to update some drivers by yourself. (Or that’s what I understood and I will be called a dummy by some in the comments!) 

Pros and Cons

Now, not everything was perfect and I had to fix some things myself. But here’s the thing. There is a huge community around Linux and also it is open source, so if you have an issue, others will most likely have it and find a solution. 

For example I had an issue with my computer not going to sleep. It did, but instantly woke up, like my three years old daughter.

What did work however, was simply edit a setting in a file via a script found in some obscure forum, that consisted in determining the name of some specific thing (PPP08 or something like that) and changing its status to disable. 

The terminal, your new best friend!

Pretty obvious if you think about it! Ok, not really… 

And that’s the part where some people will run away screaming, and I totally understand them. 

That’s twofold, on one hand: there is a solution, almost always. On the other hand, it requires you to get your hands dirty, well if your keyboard is not clean.

There is also a whole new lingo to learn, which may be fun for some, not so much for others. I now know about Wayland, X11, KDE, Gnome… But do you want to?

It's all fine and dandy, I have a working system, but what about gaming?

Valve and its Proton did help a lot. I am yet to encounter a game that won’t work on Steam. And there are ways to double check before hand with sites such as : www.protondb.com 

Proton is a layer that will translate Windows to Linux (it is a very very simplified way of seeing it but you get the idea, and if you are curious : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton_(software) ).

But what if I want to use something other than Steam? Well… You absolutely can. I use Heroic Launcher for my GoG and Epic libraries and have no issue.

Why?

The only problem I had was using a Ubisoft game that would not recognize my controller. But I will blame it on Ubisoft and their need to have a third party launcher which I will not name as I don’t want demons spawning in my office. 

Should you switch to Linux?

If you read until here, first of all congratulations, and then we will answer the big question: should you switch to Linux?

And the answer is pretty simple : Yes and no. 

I know, But there isn´t a simple answer.

If you are willing to accept some things will not work as you are used to, or even at all, and you are ready to fiddle around a bit then absolutely yes. But make sure you understand how it works and why you want to switch. I still believe if you need a free, lightweight system to play your games on Steam, it is a great choice.

But... Yes there is a but and a big one with that, and unlike Sir Mixalot I did not like this one too much.

In my current workflow I have to capture and edit videos and DaVinci Resolve would not play ball. It will install and start, but importing, editing my videos resulted in many crashes. It may be a "me" issue. But it prove too complicated.

It's a shame as there is a lot to like in Bazzite, the snappiness, the interface, the fact that it is not bloated with many useless things.

I invite you to try if you are curious, choose the distribution that matches your needs, but be sure to know what you are getting into. 

What's to come ?

The whole reason why I went to try Linux was the bloat on Windows, the useless features I never asked for (Gamebar anyone?), the games with subpar perfs for some reason then when I turn off my computer seeing: Updates are being installed…

Microsoft has been sleeping on its past glory for way too long and if Linux will not replace it any time soon, it is good to have a working alternative.

But that working alternative may not be for everybody and there is still work to be done when it comes to third parties support.

Linux isn’t perfect, but then again, what is? It’s a refreshing change, and for some it may be just about enough. I may have gone back to Windows, but now I know: there is a choice.