WEBVTT 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:06.000 there are a plethora of reasons to transition your daily driver gaming rig 00:00:03.919 --> 00:00:10.120 over to Linux you could be sticking it to the Man or wanting to support the 00:00:08.320 --> 00:00:14.160 open source Community maybe you daily drive Linux for work already and all 00:00:12.160 --> 00:00:18.320 your games are natively supported anyway or maybe you just want a new and 00:00:15.679 --> 00:00:23.480 challenging hobby but if what you want is a simple painless gaming experience 00:00:21.160 --> 00:00:29.320 then let this be a cautionary Tale one of Trials tribulations and of course 00:00:26.960 --> 00:00:33.120 sponsors thanks to AO for sponsoring this video Caro is a digital eim 00:00:31.439 --> 00:00:37.960 Marketplace that allows you to directly download a flexible data plan for one of 00:00:35.399 --> 00:00:42.640 over 190 countries without ever having to leave your living room try your first 00:00:39.600 --> 00:00:42.640 e at the link down 00:00:49.719 --> 00:00:55.719 below for most of our one month challenge Luke and I avoided 00:00:53.719 --> 00:01:00.280 specifically seeking out titles that would either validate the Linux gaming 00:00:57.640 --> 00:01:04.640 experience or intentionally make it look bad we just focused on playing the games 00:01:02.519 --> 00:01:08.680 that we would normally want to play or at least we tried to because not all the 00:01:07.000 --> 00:01:12.439 games that we wanted to play actually worked the very first day I installed 00:01:10.840 --> 00:01:17.200 Linux I also tried to play the battlefield 2042 beta the previous day 00:01:15.400 --> 00:01:20.960 still on Windows i' owned some noobs with my buddy Joe and we wanted to play 00:01:19.119 --> 00:01:25.640 again the next night but that wasn't going to happen due to this challenge it 00:01:23.320 --> 00:01:30.479 was reassuring I guess that even more advanced Linux users were also unable to 00:01:27.960 --> 00:01:34.479 play but that didn't actually remedy the fact that I couldn't play games with my 00:01:32.320 --> 00:01:38.200 friends it's funny because I assumed that this challenge would be more 00:01:35.920 --> 00:01:42.079 painful for me than it would be for Luke I mean after all he has years of Linux 00:01:40.479 --> 00:01:47.960 experience while I came in with basically none but here's the thing I 00:01:45.079 --> 00:01:52.320 game mostly by myself as a way to relax or to hang out with my kids and I am 00:01:50.079 --> 00:01:57.079 extremely flexible about what game I'll play if something doesn't work screw it 00:01:55.079 --> 00:02:02.840 I'll just play something else Luke on the other hand whose Social Circle is 00:01:59.280 --> 00:02:05.320 deeply immersed in gaming culture has so 00:02:02.840 --> 00:02:09.520 much more on the line if he can't solve a problem yeah like I literally had a 00:02:07.640 --> 00:02:14.280 friend ask hey dude when are you going to be back obviously I had never 00:02:11.680 --> 00:02:18.040 actually left but I was a lot more difficult to include as a lot of 00:02:15.680 --> 00:02:22.840 competitive games that have anti-che just don't work or it took me so long to 00:02:20.920 --> 00:02:26.519 get a lot of games to a satisfactory level that by the time I was ready 00:02:24.879 --> 00:02:30.319 everyone else was just done gaming for the night and as a lot of my friends 00:02:28.440 --> 00:02:35.319 like to just try random games out for fun this actually happened a lot our 00:02:33.560 --> 00:02:38.840 goal is not to spread fud about the state of Linux gaming though so it's 00:02:36.840 --> 00:02:45.640 time to get specific about some of our less good experiences first up is steam 00:02:42.640 --> 00:02:48.080 or rather not steam valve's goal of 00:02:45.640 --> 00:02:53.720 reaching 100% compatibility with the entire steam game library is admirable 00:02:50.720 --> 00:02:55.879 actually incredible as noted by this 00:02:53.720 --> 00:03:00.480 here Reddit post the steam game library is chock full of amazing gaming 00:02:58.000 --> 00:03:04.400 experiences from AAA Studios and Indie developers 00:03:01.480 --> 00:03:08.599 alike but it's also not the Silver Bullet that it would have been 10 or 00:03:06.239 --> 00:03:14.200 even 5 years ago when nearly every game worth playing was available on Steam 00:03:11.640 --> 00:03:18.599 half of twitch's top 20 games at least at the time of filming this are not on 00:03:16.159 --> 00:03:24.519 Steam and I know being a popular game to stream doesn't necessarily mean it's 00:03:21.360 --> 00:03:26.959 popular with random Gamers out there but 00:03:24.519 --> 00:03:33.120 these are all very big name games and being on Steam isn't an automatic win e 00:03:29.959 --> 00:03:36.720 look at Apex Legends and New World both 00:03:33.120 --> 00:03:39.519 massive games both listed as borked on 00:03:36.720 --> 00:03:43.239 proton DB native Linux games are obviously going to be your best bet want 00:03:41.560 --> 00:03:50.000 to try one of my personal favorites crosscode click install click play and 00:03:47.439 --> 00:03:54.360 as simple as that I mean I was amazed at how painlessly my Xbox One controller 00:03:51.760 --> 00:03:57.720 worked though I should note that I stuck with a wired connection rather than 00:03:56.159 --> 00:04:02.959 trying to tackle getting the unofficial X driver working Val meanwhile ran 00:04:00.640 --> 00:04:08.000 amazingly and immediately demonstrating how even smaller developers can make it 00:04:05.480 --> 00:04:13.599 work if they've got the will in addition to that while not necessarily native I 00:04:10.319 --> 00:04:16.199 played Legion td2 TowerFall Ascension 00:04:13.599 --> 00:04:21.919 faster than light slay the SP Path of Exile and rust and they all worked 00:04:19.199 --> 00:04:26.639 perfectly with zero actual effort and interestingly enough Dota 2 and csgo 00:04:24.320 --> 00:04:31.160 both had completely gamebreaking problems that weren't isolated to my 00:04:28.800 --> 00:04:35.680 system during the challenge they seem to be solved now but it goes to show that 00:04:33.720 --> 00:04:40.360 just like with Windows because a piece of software was made for it doesn't mean 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:46.080 it's actually going to be perfect I didn't have any issues running csgo even 00:04:42.600 --> 00:04:47.600 got me some kills boys but I did notice 00:04:46.080 --> 00:04:52.120 significantly more stutters than I'm used to seeing on this class of Hardware 00:04:49.759 --> 00:04:56.320 that could be an NVIDIA driver issue or it could be something else entirely but 00:04:54.240 --> 00:04:59.840 for me it worked well enough that I didn't feel like digging any further 00:04:57.840 --> 00:05:04.479 into that rabbit hole not when I could be digging for a sweet hoodie like this 00:05:01.680 --> 00:05:09.960 one on LTT Store.com instead the next tier is Windows native games that valve 00:05:07.160 --> 00:05:14.199 officially lists as Linux capable via steam playay but before we go any 00:05:11.919 --> 00:05:17.960 further I just want to say massive respect to the incredible teams who have 00:05:16.160 --> 00:05:24.520 worked tirelessly to make running Windows games on Linux possible valve's 00:05:21.360 --> 00:05:26.919 proton compatibility layer is amazing 00:05:24.520 --> 00:05:31.880 it's forked from wine which has been multiple decades in the making with 00:05:29.400 --> 00:05:37.479 about half of its source code written by volunteers that's freaking wild and of 00:05:35.319 --> 00:05:41.720 course honorable mentions all around for the dedicated communities that maintain 00:05:39.199 --> 00:05:45.759 tools like lutrus which automates hacky workarounds for newbies and proton DB 00:05:44.280 --> 00:05:49.759 which serves as both a troubleshooting resource and a reference for which games 00:05:48.160 --> 00:05:55.400 work so you won't have to waste your money on a bad experience with all of 00:05:52.280 --> 00:05:58.520 that said in spite of all of that work 00:05:55.400 --> 00:06:00.120 we're honestly just not there yet and 00:05:58.520 --> 00:06:05.479 we're mere months from from the launch of the steam deck when 100% 00:06:02.240 --> 00:06:07.400 compatibility is supposedly coming which 00:06:05.479 --> 00:06:13.319 as of writing this just got pushed back by 2 months to February also Doom 00:06:10.800 --> 00:06:18.199 maternal reported great performance on my system over 200 frames per second 00:06:15.680 --> 00:06:22.840 using the included tool I'm kind of reminded of the issues that we used to 00:06:20.039 --> 00:06:27.880 see in Old SLI configurations where the actual perceived animation smoothness is 00:06:26.080 --> 00:06:32.599 substantially less than what the Benchmark seems to suggest it should be 00:06:30.639 --> 00:06:37.360 again I thought maybe this is an issue with my proprietary NVIDIA driver maybe 00:06:34.440 --> 00:06:42.560 it's at a date but Manjaro begged to differ apparently I am up to date so 00:06:40.400 --> 00:06:47.000 your mileage may vary another problem that's been a thorn in the side of the 00:06:43.680 --> 00:06:49.960 Linux Community for years is anti-che 00:06:47.000 --> 00:06:54.759 now the game launches and seems to run totally fine but while theoretically 00:06:52.599 --> 00:06:59.560 enabling battle eye anti-che in rainbow six Siege is as simple as Ubisoft 00:06:57.639 --> 00:07:04.599 reaching out doing a little bit of figuring and off we go cuz battle ey has 00:07:01.759 --> 00:07:11.039 supposedly supported Linux for ages Ubisoft hasn't done that yet why well 00:07:09.160 --> 00:07:16.919 because natively supporting Linux is seen by some developers as a somewhat 00:07:13.639 --> 00:07:18.960 brutal experience Ben GIS has a rather 00:07:16.919 --> 00:07:24.800 enlightening Thread about this on Twitter he goes on to explain that while 00:07:21.160 --> 00:07:26.479 Linux Gamers were a very vocal part of 00:07:24.800 --> 00:07:33.919 their pre-launch Community they accounted for less than 0.1% % of sales 00:07:31.160 --> 00:07:38.840 yet they generated more than 20% of autor reported crashes and support 00:07:36.160 --> 00:07:45.080 tickets he also stated that near the end of his time there nearly 100% of tickets 00:07:41.759 --> 00:07:46.319 were still Linux related despite Linux 00:07:45.080 --> 00:07:51.400 receiving the majority of the engineering effort meaning the company 00:07:48.560 --> 00:07:56.960 likely spent hundreds of thousands of dollars supporting a community that made 00:07:53.520 --> 00:07:59.560 them a few hundred in sales revenue and 00:07:56.960 --> 00:08:03.800 this isn't the only version of this story and every time problems like these 00:08:01.840 --> 00:08:08.360 happen it's just more ammo for developers that would rather spend zero 00:08:06.159 --> 00:08:14.479 time working on Linux versions of their products I believe that is why over 65% 00:08:12.120 --> 00:08:19.080 of reported anti-che enabled games have not confirmed Linux compatibility 00:08:16.720 --> 00:08:24.360 despite many of the anti-che developers getting on board and as much as everyone 00:08:21.560 --> 00:08:28.840 already knows it it Bears repeating the fragmentation problem continues to be 00:08:26.840 --> 00:08:34.000 desktop Linux's greatest obstacle to widespread ad option Take It Takes Two 00:08:31.840 --> 00:08:38.120 For example this is a gold rated Windows native origin game that I got running 00:08:36.320 --> 00:08:42.399 effortlessly though I did buy it through Steam and I did launch it through Steam 00:08:40.599 --> 00:08:46.519 at least it was effortless until I wanted to have two controllers running 00:08:44.279 --> 00:08:50.320 at the same time kind of a requirement for this particular game if I want to 00:08:48.080 --> 00:08:54.440 play it with the wife that sent me on a quest to proton DB to see if anyone else 00:08:52.480 --> 00:09:00.040 had had the same problem and no not really everyone else's 00:08:57.360 --> 00:09:03.640 problems are basically random so guess we're not playing that game for now one 00:09:02.040 --> 00:09:08.240 of my other favorite games Supreme Commander forged Alliance was as simple 00:09:05.760 --> 00:09:14.079 to run as clicking install and enabling a couple of launch Flags awesome but if 00:09:11.240 --> 00:09:18.680 you want to play multiplayer ohoo boy here's the story when gas powered 00:09:16.920 --> 00:09:22.079 games went under a small community arranged to preserve multiplayer support 00:09:20.640 --> 00:09:26.360 for the game by building their own launcher it is an amazing example of the 00:09:24.600 --> 00:09:30.680 way that the PC gaming Community can come together to preserve experiences 00:09:28.519 --> 00:09:35.160 that would otherwise be completely lost due to corporate butth H holdery 00:09:32.760 --> 00:09:38.880 unfortunately every guide I could find to get the forged Alliance forever 00:09:36.640 --> 00:09:42.720 launcher working on Linux was either hopelessly out of date or not applicable 00:09:41.240 --> 00:09:48.079 to my particular drro I don't blame the devs really 00:09:45.800 --> 00:09:52.600 nothing but love for you guys but Linux Gamers and more broadly the Linux 00:09:50.120 --> 00:09:57.399 Community needs to understand that until the burden of supporting Linux is 00:09:54.320 --> 00:09:59.640 reduced significantly this is always 00:09:57.399 --> 00:10:03.480 going to be a problem we actually live streamed trying to work through the 00:10:01.240 --> 00:10:06.920 forge Alliance issues on Floatplane subscribe by the way there were more 00:10:05.079 --> 00:10:13.200 than a few comments in the chat criticizing us for choosing to play that 00:10:09.880 --> 00:10:15.640 particular game because it's old it's 00:10:13.200 --> 00:10:20.880 just some crappy Java game it's it's obscure or because it's not fair to 00:10:18.240 --> 00:10:25.760 Linux or whatever but the bottom line is that none of that matters what matters 00:10:23.040 --> 00:10:31.920 is that we like it and we wanted to play it but instead of doing that we played 00:10:28.399 --> 00:10:33.240 terminal command simulator and honestly 00:10:31.920 --> 00:10:37.160 I've gone through enough of that over the last month that it has sucked a lot 00:10:35.120 --> 00:10:42.399 of the enjoyment out of using my computer like I have a pretty busy life 00:10:39.920 --> 00:10:48.240 and when I manag to salvage an hour to relax and play video games that is what 00:10:45.920 --> 00:10:53.279 I want to do and it's really opened my eyes to why so many people choose to 00:10:50.480 --> 00:10:58.120 play on Console instead of on PC like this has got to be how a not super 00:10:55.360 --> 00:11:02.240 computer savvy user feels about updating a driver or fixing a firewall setting 00:11:00.440 --> 00:11:06.600 every time they just want to play a bloody game to be clear I would never 00:11:04.720 --> 00:11:11.839 say that just because some old game doesn't run it means that Linux sucks in 00:11:09.480 --> 00:11:16.399 fact I've permanently switched my laptop over to Linux because there are a lot of 00:11:13.680 --> 00:11:20.920 things it just does really well even for someone more on the noob side of things 00:11:18.040 --> 00:11:26.200 like me what it does mean is that gaming on Linux can kind of suck it's not that 00:11:24.240 --> 00:11:32.240 I don't enjoy tinkering with PCS as a hobby I mean man the rush when 1800 00:11:30.160 --> 00:11:35.680 launched after spending a bunch of time fighting with it it was phenomenal I 00:11:34.399 --> 00:11:42.200 felt like the king but then the next 45 minutes of 00:11:39.800 --> 00:11:46.800 okay why isn't multiplayer connecting completely destroyed that Vibe you know 00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:51.399 is it because Luke installed the game through the script on the lutrus page 00:11:48.560 --> 00:11:54.760 and then I lutrus Ubisoft connect and installed the game through that 00:11:52.680 --> 00:11:59.480 resulting in a version mismatch is it because of some kind of mangaro firewall 00:11:57.320 --> 00:12:04.240 nonsense the answer ended up being being that multiplayer used to work which 00:12:01.959 --> 00:12:11.279 helped ano 1800 get a gold rating on proton DB but now it does not which 00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:12.839 isn't to say it won't ever work again if 00:12:11.279 --> 00:12:16.160 you're a Linux developer wizard you might be able to fix it yourself or you 00:12:14.839 --> 00:12:21.160 might end up just needing to wait for the community to patch it but anything 00:12:18.639 --> 00:12:27.920 that relies on an external service that updates independently of your computer 00:12:23.920 --> 00:12:29.760 can just unexpectedly break and that's a 00:12:27.920 --> 00:12:34.079 lot of games these days so you always need to make sure that you 00:12:31.360 --> 00:12:38.880 read especially the recent comments rather than just relying on the rating 00:12:36.199 --> 00:12:44.199 on proton DB another prime example of this is Minecraft dungeons works great 00:12:41.760 --> 00:12:48.680 apparently well as long as you happen to own it through Steam rather than through 00:12:46.160 --> 00:12:53.079 Microsoft directly with the old launcher because in that case apparently you can 00:12:51.000 --> 00:12:57.160 make it work but for most people I think it's safe to say that you're just going 00:12:54.600 --> 00:12:59.720 to have to Reby the game so I haven't been able to play that with my kids in a 00:12:58.800 --> 00:13:04.720 month that ended up being an ongoing theme of 00:13:01.959 --> 00:13:09.480 this challenge proton DB again respect for all the work that you do it can save 00:13:06.680 --> 00:13:14.760 you a lot of time but it won't just automatically fix all your problems gold 00:13:12.000 --> 00:13:19.600 to me should mean a pretty typical gamer can do it so while the rating system 00:13:17.160 --> 00:13:26.800 makes for a very impressive story on the homepage did you know fellow Gamers that 00:13:22.720 --> 00:13:29.680 78% of the top 100 games are gold or 00:13:26.800 --> 00:13:34.560 better on Linux wow the truth is a lot less Rosy and there's 00:13:32.480 --> 00:13:39.480 another big problem with proton DV it only includes Steam games and while you 00:13:37.160 --> 00:13:44.880 can use the proton compatibility layer on non- Steam games even considering 00:13:42.639 --> 00:13:51.920 tools like lutrus the compatibility picture outside of steam is not as 00:13:48.440 --> 00:13:54.519 simple as well proton DB says Linux 00:13:51.920 --> 00:13:58.720 gaming compatibility is good I mentioned escape from tarov earlier it's been 00:13:56.519 --> 00:14:04.279 broken for so long that due to battle state games adding anti-che their Linux 00:14:01.320 --> 00:14:10.680 Discord has turned into a matchmaking channel for other games so they can have 00:14:07.480 --> 00:14:13.759 some fun while they wait genin impact 00:14:10.680 --> 00:14:16.079 kind of a huge game right now no Linux 00:14:13.759 --> 00:14:21.560 compatibility and while I did manage to find a honestly really great Russian 00:14:19.160 --> 00:14:26.279 guide from penguin gang that I could probably follow it illustrates a point 00:14:24.399 --> 00:14:29.720 that I haven't really talked about much yet being on Linux can take a lot of the 00:14:28.600 --> 00:14:34.079 spont out of gaming you can't just be like oh 00:14:32.040 --> 00:14:38.959 cool that game looks neat and expect to be playing it in just a few minutes I 00:14:36.680 --> 00:14:44.720 also hope you're not necessarily a fan of playing games right on launch for of 00:14:41.360 --> 00:14:47.120 horizon 5 for example amazing straight 00:14:44.720 --> 00:14:53.440 up fantastic that people got it working within just 5 days of launch but that 00:14:49.920 --> 00:14:56.279 also means that it wasn't working for 5 00:14:53.440 --> 00:15:00.199 days after the launch and if all your friends were playing they now have sick 00:14:58.240 --> 00:15:04.639 cars and you're stuck trudging through the swamps for a barn find to be clear I 00:15:03.240 --> 00:15:09.000 don't want this to take away from some of the great experiences that I've had 00:15:06.680 --> 00:15:13.120 gaming on Linux in the last month after an extremely short setup my daughter was 00:15:11.279 --> 00:15:17.199 happily hanging out in a Discord voice Channel with her siblings playing 00:15:14.399 --> 00:15:21.240 Minecraft Java Edition and had no idea she was on a completely different 00:15:18.399 --> 00:15:25.360 platform that's freaking amazing Luke and I had some awesome Don't Starve 00:15:23.079 --> 00:15:30.160 Together sessions totally stable no crashes and more recently my son and 00:15:28.040 --> 00:15:35.160 Luke and I had a blast pin each other to walls and TowerFall using remote play 00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:37.120 together which worked great on Linux 00:15:35.160 --> 00:15:41.079 overall I'm really happy I did the challenge I learned a lot and it gave me 00:15:39.160 --> 00:15:44.880 a lot of Hope for the future and I will absolutely be trying to stick with Linux 00:15:43.120 --> 00:15:50.839 when the steam Deck shows up sometime next year but to summarize the question 00:15:48.600 --> 00:15:57.240 that we set out to answer is this the year of the Linux desktop for gamers the 00:15:54.000 --> 00:15:59.319 answer is no I'm sorry and the more 00:15:57.240 --> 00:16:04.480 Niche your use case gets you know maybe you're super into modding or the racing 00:16:02.399 --> 00:16:11.680 or flight Sim scenes or maybe you're a big VR lover the more resounding that no 00:16:08.800 --> 00:16:15.800 gets and if I'm being honest I'm in the same camp but something has given me a 00:16:14.199 --> 00:16:19.959 lot of Hope and that's how much positivity we've seen from the Linux 00:16:17.519 --> 00:16:24.120 community in spite of our concerns because even if I'm not ready to convert 00:16:21.639 --> 00:16:29.480 my gaming rig just yet it gives me hope that one day the meme will end and the 00:16:26.759 --> 00:16:33.759 year of the Linux desktop will come I'm as antimonopoly as anyone and I'd hate 00:16:31.440 --> 00:16:37.480 to see the status quo maintained forever I know what I don't hate is our sponsor 00:16:35.920 --> 00:16:41.839 thanks Squarespace for sponsoring this video we use Squarespace like no joke we 00:16:39.639 --> 00:16:46.480 use it both our Linus Medi group.com and LTX expo.com websites were built quickly 00:16:43.959 --> 00:16:50.240 using Squarespace and are easily maintained if we need to make any quick 00:16:47.920 --> 00:16:53.920 changes like say canceling our Expo for two years in a row if you haven't heard 00:16:52.240 --> 00:16:57.319 already Squarespace is an all-in-one platform that makes it simple to get 00:16:55.319 --> 00:17:01.079 your website up and running quickly if you have a home business you defin itely 00:16:59.199 --> 00:17:03.720 need one you can even sell things you can choose from tons of different 00:17:02.440 --> 00:17:07.640 templates and find the one that makes the most sense for you and then just run 00:17:05.760 --> 00:17:12.319 with it and if you trip while you're running you need help Squarespace offers 00:17:10.280 --> 00:17:16.319 webinars a full series of help guides or you can contact their 247 support team 00:17:14.600 --> 00:17:20.839 to help you build your site so go to squarespace.com 00:17:17.799 --> 00:17:22.160 and get 10% off today now that the 00:17:20.839 --> 00:17:29.080 challenge is over it's time to go back and watch the previous Parts because while the overall conclusion was no 00:17:26.799 --> 00:17:31.840 there's a lot to really like about the L experience