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Like other commenters, I also recently made the switch. Figured I would dual-boot windows but have never needed to boot it back up again. ProtonDB is a goldmin

by catears 10mo ago

Like other commenters, I also recently made the switch. Figured I would dual-boot windows but have never needed to boot it back up again. ProtonDB is a goldmine when a game doesn't work. Oh, and switching from Nvidia GPU to AMD GPU seems to have worked great to get games to "just work".

agentifysh 10mo ago
one limitation for Bazzite for instance would be some titles that require anti-cheating won't work but just like OP, only use case I have for windows is gaming and running some banking app which won't work on non-Windows device love to see more and more users realize they can game just fine on linux
- drnick1 10mo ago
  It's time to stop buying such games and send game studios a signal that we won't tolerate rootkits and/or closed platforms. Anti-cheats should run server-side, or better yet, servers should be community-operated. I would probably bought BF6, but since I exclusively use Arch, EA lost a sale -- too bad for them there are thousands of other games that work flawlessly on Linux.
  - fleroviumna 10mo ago
    [dead]
  - rft 10mo ago
    I want to echo a previous comment of mine on this topic: With the rise of mainstream-compatible, as in a standard gamer can get them running and use them with a similar frustration level as Win11, Linux first systems like steam deck, steam machine and even steam frame, there is a real, even if currently low, pressure for big publisher to support Linux/SteamOS. I somewhat hope/fear there will be a blessed SteamOS version that supports anticheats enough for publishers like EA, Epic and Riot to accept the risk.
  - pdimitar 10mo ago
    It has been time for long time and I support your stance but the big publishers only speak money. I gather they still have enough customers for their mainstream AAA titles. But I would like to think that Valve it indirectly putting pressure on them. I too am not far from removing Windows and making the full jump to Linux for my gaming needs.
  - antonyh 10mo ago
    Rumour has it that after the Crowdstrike fiasco future versions of Windows won't allow kernel level modules. I can only hope this is true if it kills off the main reason titles don't work on Linux as a side effect. I'd have bought BF6, some version of EAFC, and more.
    - Rohansi 10mo ago
      It's not going to happen. If anything they would just add functionality so things like Crowdstrike don't need to run in ring-0 but they won't remove the access.
    - samtheDamned 10mo ago
      Unfortunately the rumors were misinformed. Microsoft's official response states that while they will be moving towards allowing more security functions to be run outside of the kernel, "It remains imperative that kernel access remains an option for use by cybersecurity products to allow continued innovation and the ability to detect and block future cyberthreats" [1]. 1: https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2024/09/12/taking-steps-that-drive-resiliency-and-security-for-windows-customers/ https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2024/09/12/takin...
      - DanielHB 10mo ago
        Or like the EU won't change their stance on the matter...
  - rollcat 10mo ago
    > Anti-cheats should run server-side [...]. This. It should actually be easier to catch offenders - you're leaning on hundreds of years of applied statistics, rather than racing versus sneakier exploits. > [...] or better yet, servers should be community-operated. I'm conflicted about this one. I've wanted to host a game server at home since 2003, but couldn't get a public, static IP. The landscape hasn't changed much, perhaps even for the worse: a Quake 3 dedicated server could be run from a mid-range laptop while playing the game; Minecraft and Factorio (both great games with fantastic communities), by that measure, have unreasonable hardware requirements. So, you pay a host. OTOH there's many ways for a studio to build and operate an ethical live service. Check out Warframe: it's 100% F2P, the main source of revenue is cosmetics, and it's easy for people to gift stuff (whales spill their pockets reinforcing community goodwill, rather than gambling). It's best when a game offers both, e.g. Brood War. StarCraft II isn't "simply" dying; lack of LAN play actively hinders on-site, professional tournaments. And we can do nothing about it.
    - MrDrMcCoy 10mo ago
      There's lots of neat tricks for DHT peer discovery and NAT hole punching these days. Wouldn't be hard to make a local game sever manager that lets you share join information to your friends and have it automatically resolve all the networking needed with no VPN, static IP, or DNS required.
      - rollcat 10mo ago
        I normally recommend Tailscale, and that's a great starting point, for games that do not support any of the neat tricks natively. The problem: it's more difficult to build a community around that. You're introducing a point of friction, and a lot of newcomers will bounce. It's difficult enough to guide a non-technical friend, and Tailscale is top among the absolute easiest solutions.
    - Rohansi 10mo ago
      How would a server-side anti-cheat work? You wouldn't be able to detect ESP or other information leaks. Best you can do is see how good they are vs. everyone else but how do you know if someone is cheating or just really good? Most cheaters are not blatantly cheating so it is hard to know for sure. Even something like aimbotting is almost always adjustable in cheat software to have varying levels of accuracy.
  - not_a9 10mo ago
    (I had to make a HN account to reply to this, but…) If only Riot, Epic, BE, whoever else knew about this wondrous approach! That way they wouldn’t have to reverse half the Windows kernel to figure out ways to stop & detect hacks. Valve (mostly) does serverside analytics for CS2 and the success of their approach can be measured by one of FaceIT’s benefits being “we have a working anticheat”. On a sidenote, I highly recommend this presentation on anticheat stuff: https://game-research.github.io/presentations/2025-08-06-bhusa-watching-the-watchers.pdf https://game-research.github.io/presentations/2025-08-06-bhu...
    - Hikikomori 10mo ago
      Always fun to read the "why don't they just..." Comments like it's an easily solved problem.

by catears 10mo ago

agentifysh 10mo ago

one limitation for Bazzite for instance would be some titles that require anti-cheating won't work but just like OP, only use case I have for windows is gaming and running some banking app which won't work on non-Windows device love to see more and more users realize they can game just fine on linux

drnick1 10mo ago
It's time to stop buying such games and send game studios a signal that we won't tolerate rootkits and/or closed platforms. Anti-cheats should run server-side, or better yet, servers should be community-operated. I would probably bought BF6, but since I exclusively use Arch, EA lost a sale -- too bad for them there are thousands of other games that work flawlessly on Linux.
- fleroviumna 10mo ago
  [dead]
- rft 10mo ago
  I want to echo a previous comment of mine on this topic: With the rise of mainstream-compatible, as in a standard gamer can get them running and use them with a similar frustration level as Win11, Linux first systems like steam deck, steam machine and even steam frame, there is a real, even if currently low, pressure for big publisher to support Linux/SteamOS. I somewhat hope/fear there will be a blessed SteamOS version that supports anticheats enough for publishers like EA, Epic and Riot to accept the risk.
- pdimitar 10mo ago
  It has been time for long time and I support your stance but the big publishers only speak money. I gather they still have enough customers for their mainstream AAA titles. But I would like to think that Valve it indirectly putting pressure on them. I too am not far from removing Windows and making the full jump to Linux for my gaming needs.
- antonyh 10mo ago
  Rumour has it that after the Crowdstrike fiasco future versions of Windows won't allow kernel level modules. I can only hope this is true if it kills off the main reason titles don't work on Linux as a side effect. I'd have bought BF6, some version of EAFC, and more.
  - Rohansi 10mo ago
    It's not going to happen. If anything they would just add functionality so things like Crowdstrike don't need to run in ring-0 but they won't remove the access.
  - samtheDamned 10mo ago
    Unfortunately the rumors were misinformed. Microsoft's official response states that while they will be moving towards allowing more security functions to be run outside of the kernel, "It remains imperative that kernel access remains an option for use by cybersecurity products to allow continued innovation and the ability to detect and block future cyberthreats" [1]. 1: https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2024/09/12/taking-steps-that-drive-resiliency-and-security-for-windows-customers/ https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2024/09/12/takin...
    - DanielHB 10mo ago
      Or like the EU won't change their stance on the matter...
- rollcat 10mo ago
  > Anti-cheats should run server-side [...]. This. It should actually be easier to catch offenders - you're leaning on hundreds of years of applied statistics, rather than racing versus sneakier exploits. > [...] or better yet, servers should be community-operated. I'm conflicted about this one. I've wanted to host a game server at home since 2003, but couldn't get a public, static IP. The landscape hasn't changed much, perhaps even for the worse: a Quake 3 dedicated server could be run from a mid-range laptop while playing the game; Minecraft and Factorio (both great games with fantastic communities), by that measure, have unreasonable hardware requirements. So, you pay a host. OTOH there's many ways for a studio to build and operate an ethical live service. Check out Warframe: it's 100% F2P, the main source of revenue is cosmetics, and it's easy for people to gift stuff (whales spill their pockets reinforcing community goodwill, rather than gambling). It's best when a game offers both, e.g. Brood War. StarCraft II isn't "simply" dying; lack of LAN play actively hinders on-site, professional tournaments. And we can do nothing about it.
  - MrDrMcCoy 10mo ago
    There's lots of neat tricks for DHT peer discovery and NAT hole punching these days. Wouldn't be hard to make a local game sever manager that lets you share join information to your friends and have it automatically resolve all the networking needed with no VPN, static IP, or DNS required.
    - rollcat 10mo ago
      I normally recommend Tailscale, and that's a great starting point, for games that do not support any of the neat tricks natively. The problem: it's more difficult to build a community around that. You're introducing a point of friction, and a lot of newcomers will bounce. It's difficult enough to guide a non-technical friend, and Tailscale is top among the absolute easiest solutions.
  - Rohansi 10mo ago
    How would a server-side anti-cheat work? You wouldn't be able to detect ESP or other information leaks. Best you can do is see how good they are vs. everyone else but how do you know if someone is cheating or just really good? Most cheaters are not blatantly cheating so it is hard to know for sure. Even something like aimbotting is almost always adjustable in cheat software to have varying levels of accuracy.
- not_a9 10mo ago
  (I had to make a HN account to reply to this, but…) If only Riot, Epic, BE, whoever else knew about this wondrous approach! That way they wouldn’t have to reverse half the Windows kernel to figure out ways to stop & detect hacks. Valve (mostly) does serverside analytics for CS2 and the success of their approach can be measured by one of FaceIT’s benefits being “we have a working anticheat”. On a sidenote, I highly recommend this presentation on anticheat stuff: https://game-research.github.io/presentations/2025-08-06-bhusa-watching-the-watchers.pdf https://game-research.github.io/presentations/2025-08-06-bhu...
  - Hikikomori 10mo ago
    Always fun to read the "why don't they just..." Comments like it's an easily solved problem.