That’s a complicated way of saying that Microsoft recommends switching to Linux. /j
“Linux can’t run my cock and ball squeezing app!”
Actually, I been much happier not being able to play League anymore.
Yeah I realised the only games I cant play on linux are the ones that really don’t respect my privacy/time/wallet so it ended up a net benefit
Never been a better time to try dota 😈
No. I’m clean man. I can’t. Not again.
Yeah I mean how are they going to verify you paid without an associated account
A key, exactly like they did it for decades? Same way they verified you paid for that copy of Windows?
I mean… I have valid keys for various Windows versions I never paid for 🤷♂️
Don’t you need a Windows account to buy a key?
Back in the days of Dinosaurs and AOL CDs, you could just go to Best Buy and buy a CD with the Windows software and a key was printed on a scratch-off panel.
You could even just buy a key electronically from some grey market websites.
This just in, convicted monopoly Microsoft will fuck you over at every conceivable opportunity. Film at 11.
convicted monopoly
Well that’s a blast from the past. That was neat-o how Mr Boies nailed a conviction and the remedy was … An apology? Was it even that much?
Glad to see Microsoft is successfully building on that crushing no-remedy defeat by doing the same and more. #winning
Oh well. I’m just glad I can access all my files on NTFS so I don’t even have to migrate anything.
Maybe reinstall some games, and say no more to others, but that’s the way things be.
Now is the time to spread your wings and try linux as a replacement for windows!
I’ve occasionally tried using Linux in the past as my main desktop, because I think Windows as an OS is inferior, and lately because Linux’s UI actually seems superior, but I always got suckered back into Windows because I wanted to play certain games.
I tried again last month, and this time, it’s different. The games that I want to play work well enough in Linux. Some of them have native Linux builds. Others work well enough in Proton, which is Valve’s version of Wine, a Windows emulation layer that can run Windows games in Linux.
I don’t see any reason that I’d ever go back to Windows again.
What’s really wild is that not only are games good enough on Windows, but tests lately are showing a consistent trend where the two are often indistinguishable in performance, and where they’re not, Windows isn’t consistently winning.
If you’re not into the genre of competitive multiplayer games that have kernel anticheat, Windows isn’t really better for gaming anymore, outside of being more familiar for many people. Today we’ve reached the point where it’s a few fps either way, and people should use whatever they want, but if Microsoft keeps bloating Windows, it might soon be that the “Windows tax” also refers to the performance penalty you pay for using the familiar OS instead of learning something new.
People who haven’t tried Linux in a couple of years need to read this.
The amount of progress that has been made with respect to Linux gaming over the past few years has been astonishing.
Now if only big software developers understood this and released business software for Linux…
Depends on what you’re looking for, for some fields there are fantastic options already.
The others… Well considering the trajectory I’m seeing now (as a multiple decade Linux user), I think a lot more will start building for it. Maybe one flavor to start, but I do think it will be much more common.
I’m seeing it with some of my clients already.
Most of the progress in gaming has been due to Valve’s efforts with Proton. Running Windows versions of games in Proton is often better than the Linux native version.
They would need some kind of third party with some kind of financial interest in creating a similarly robust translation layer for business software. Like people dedicated to making wine really good for business applications.
We’ve got some tools, but my understanding is that the compatibility is very spotty… I can’t really conceive of something analogous to Valve, but for business apps, that would have a financial stake in greatly improving compatibility.
My understanding is that a lot of it has to do with the Steam Deck, which is Valve’s handheld gaming platform. Valve wanted it to run most of their catalog, but they also decided to use Windows emulation rather than Windows, so they forked Wine and put some money and effort into improving it.
But some games are harder to run than others.
If you use Steam, it might be as easy as installing it from Steam, because sometimes the games are multi-platform. FTL is an example of this that I currently have installed. But it seems like more and more game developers want their games to run on the Steam Deck, so they release native Linux versions. (Ironically, I think FTL doesn’t run well on the Steam Deck.)
Some games run simply by telling the Steam launcher to use Proton as a compatibility tool. So, the only hard part is choosing which version of Proton to run, which involves picking it from a list inside of Steam, which then downloads that version of Proton, and then trying the game. And if it doesn’t run well, then try a different version of Proton and iterate. IIRC Rocket League is a game like this. On my computer, it seems to run best with the latest Proton beta. For me and my 5 year old computer, it doesn’t run as perfectly as well as it did in Windows, as it can stutter a bit when there are explosions on screen, but for me, it doesn’t seem to impact my play. And it takes longer to load, but I don’t think it’s possible for an emulated game to load faster on the same hardware.
And some games require you to look up how to install them, and you end up having to install some Windows things into your Proton runtime using something called Protontricks. Skyrim is an example. It took a lot of fiddling to get it set up and the audio working correctly. But now I can’t really tell the difference between how it runs in Windows vs. Linux, except that it takes longer to load in Linux.
They also give a lot of money to Codeweavers, the developers of WINE, so that WINE can have enough developers to support it.
Yeah I’m familiar with all that… Though one correction, Proton is a “translation layer,” not an emulator. Same with wine (it’s right in the name).
My experience has been that, often, the Windows version with Proton works better than the native Linux version. And most of the time, it just works with “Proton Experimental” or the most recent GE-Proton release.
ProtonDB is a better resource than Steam’s own compatibility rating. I’ve been able to install and play several “unsupported” games on my Linux laptop (like Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition with DSFix).
The majority of games will play. It’s kind of crazy how well it works.
I think what you posted is great and should be read by people on the fence.
But conversly, I quit windows when XP came out becausei wanted to stop playing Microsoft’s games. There were enshittifying back then and it only has got worse.
I even admin Microsoft systems for a living, have access to nearly every product that make for free, and I still will never use windows at home. Even managing azure or SQL databases or having to use products that are windows only I do it through a Linux machine. Sometimes by pushing commands, sometimes with remote desktop. But I do it because Linux just works, I can count on it. Not so much windows or Microsoft.
No shade against you, but WINE stands for “WINE is not an emulator”
But what does the WINE that is represented by the W in WINE stand for? 🤔
WINE is not an emulator
For the new guys, you’ll notice a lot of this kind of thing because developers think recursion is clever.
For example, GNU stands for “GNU’s Not Unix”
No it doesn’t.
Came here to make sure someone dropped this link.
Also: Linux btw
Hmm, neat!
Huh, and I thought that was only for the os activation, but no. ESU support is right there, under the TSForge activation method.
The LSTC IoT editions also have it built right in, and come without the ancillary Windows bloatware (except Edge, which you’re stuck with) for niche applications that require running Windows-only software that can’t be avoided. Even on lower end hardware.
Its even more support than what MS is offering LMAO
At this point, I’m starting not to feel bad for people who put themselves through this shit. Using windows nowadays is like staying in an abusive relationship while you have an actual chance to get out, then complaining about it. Linux works no problem. And if a software/hardware vendor refuses to bring it to Linux, then you vote with your wallet. We need to let go of a bit of our love for “convenience” and try to be uncomfortable a tiny bit. Be a tiny bit inconvenienced.
Honestly I firmly agree with this. If it doesn’t work with wine nowadays unless it’s a big thing i just don’t involve myself with it.
And the thing of it is, back in the good old days you actually had to learn how to use your computer. This took effort, comprehension, and skill. And probably reading some manuals. Like, actual words printed on dead trees, bound up into a book. This was normal and expected, and you would build up your skillset to operate the machine you probably paid thousands of dollars for. No one had a problem with this then.
Learning to use Linux is no different, but nowadays everyone just wants everything handed to them and they’ll steadfastly refuse to put forth any effort while simultaneously failing to realize that figuring out whatever the next workaround is to get around something that Microsoft broke for them in the last update is basically exactly the same thing. Think back when you were learning to use DOS or trying to install your VESA local bus video card drivers in Windows 3.1, or desperately fiddling around with EMM386 in your config.sys file to try to get enough conventional memory freed up at startup to run Doom. If you had the amount of online resources we have now to just get the answer and not have to call tech support (and probably pay for it), or paw through a manual, or just be fucked and have to figure out by trial and error on your own, we would have all been stoked.
Entitlement breeds complacency, and complacency leads to the Dark Side. If you go out of your way to teach yourself to be helpless, you will be helpless.
Back then you owned your computer. By and large outside of some specific special purpose fuckery with licensing dongles you physically possessed the software you ran. Like, on a disk. You controlled what you ran, not some outside source. With all of the commercial operating systems (this includes OSX and iOS, Android, and Windows all to various degrees) this is now actively being taken away from you. The only way to claim it back is to run one of the open source platforms.
the main difference is that Microsoft builds features quickly and for profit. that means the focus isn’t always on what the user wants, so they make tradeoffs that are good enough to not disturb the user base. recently with the AI craze basically showing how little they really care for the user.
Linux on the other hand is FOSS, anyone who wants a feature can build it. this is slower to deliver because the profit incentive (if there even is one) isn’t as big but that also means there don’t have to be compromises to delivered features.
looking at both these operating models i would rather be in the group building the future for users rather than shareholders. if it means waiting a few months for a few things to work as smoothly as I want I’m ok with that because it only keeps getting better and it’s literally free.
Coincidentally I no longer support windows machines in my home.
Just finished building a new PC last night, 64GB RAM, 8GB vRAM, 2TB m.2, 8x8TB HDD, and windows will never goddamn touch it. It feels weird, but so far so good.
8x8TB HDD
64 terabytes of HDD storage?! What in the RAID will you do with all of that? And more importantly, how much did it cost?
Jellyfin. The HDDs were only ~$110 each. Seagate 5400s but w/e it’s mass storage. No raid, drives will just be filled, cloned, and the clone dropped into a second system, also with no windows 🤬
I don’t believe you! (that it is coincidential)
:)
shakes fist
Family members have PCs that can’t support Windows 11 (not that I’d want them to get it anyway) and I’m not yet in the position to migrate them to Linux.
This type of behaviour makes me glad I’m most of the way to ditching MS entirely on my own systems.
Don’t worry, you can only get it for a single year. Next year it’s new or Linux.
I’m most of the way to ditching MS entirely on my own systems.
You can do it, Aussie. Bite his freaking head off.
I’ve switched a few of my family members to Linux Mint, they like it
Oh good, M$ won’t try to break my machine anymore? Sweet, thanks for giving me a reason to use my local account only.
My wife has finally agreed to let me install Linux on her laptop after all the shit MS is trying to pull.
This kinda stuff just further cements her decision tbh
hatred against Microsoft aside, this change doesn’t surprise me. With forcing an account, it allows them to tie your support subscription directly to an account instead of having it be a product key, which is annoying for both the user and the agent in trying to validate whether or not it’s in support or not.
Like, I hate the mentality of needing to use Microsoft services to use a Microsoft system, but this is one of their decisions that I can somewhat understand, it makes it far easier for subscription based setups.
The article explicitly pointed out this extended security patching does not cover support
It’s easy to agree with Microsoft when you don’t bother reading the article and just make up a reason to support their decision
There are a few ways of doing that without harvesting PII . This is just naked disdain for people not hooking up for oneChive overages.
It’s a different system if I understand the article correctly. It looks like its just a Microsoft account not a one drive sub. I’m expecting they are just going to only allow 10 computers per account and then when it hits max it stops getting support on new systems (since updates are involved I doubt they will let you remove devices like with the current activation system). Now I do expect that the payment is the same system, and considering their dark tactics at trying to get you to subscribe and update, I do assume this is going to make it easier to accidentally spend money or subscribe to other services though.
Why does anyone use windows?
I still need to use it for university. We often need to use very specific programs for homework and I don’t know if I can always find an alternative on linux. Even if, I’d have to go through the hastle of converting to the requested file formats. And it’s not guaranteed that I will always find a solution for every course I’ll take. Unfortunately education still expects you to work with Windows and programs that only work on Windows.
It’s stupid, honestly. I was trying to play Fallout New Vegas for the fifth time, and starting the game I realized the main radio station of the game, which repeats forever, was mute. For my weird taste, this was a dealbreaker, as IDK how they do it, but their playlists have this quality to immerse me in the game no matter how many times I listen to them. Tried every fix I could find to sort this problem with no success. So, back to Windows 10, and it works. At this point of time, I don’t play New Vegas, but there are so many GB to download, partitions to extend, etc. I guess in December I will try to go back to Linux.
A lot of software still requires Windows.
Games are a big one for sure, but there is a lot of productivity and creative software that does not run on Linux.
Games are a big one for sure
Unless we’re talking about the handful of kernel-level anti-cheat games where the devs have refused to allow Linux support through Proton, nearly every game you own will work. Most of them without any tinkering whatsoever.
This is a myth and has been for several years. The only games that do not work with linux are ones that have intentionally artificially disallowed the use of linux using kernel level anticheat (rootkit). Many of these games worked on linux until adding no-linux policies to their anticheat.
There is no technical incompatibility, only artificial policy choices that game companies have made
EDIT: you can downvote me, but I am still correct.
I have been trying to get the sims to work on my wife’s Linux laptop. I can either get it to run at 3-4fps, or I can get it to run without the ability to save anything.
I have Steam deck and with every game I have tried on it so far working, I thought it would be the same with a laptop. Boy was I wrong.
What distro of Linux did you install on the laptop? I’ve had no luck getting wine to work on Fedora, but my desktop is running Bazzite which is based on the steam deck OS and I’m games run great (sometimes with tweaking required).
Mint Cinnamon
Not sure which Sims you’re referring to, but it looks like it should work: https://www.protondb.com/search?q=the+Sims+
It looks like The Sims 4 is the only one that might need some tinkering. Stupid EA installers…
Though the only entry for the first Sims game that appears in the results is the “Legacy Collection,” so if you’re referring to like the original CD-ROM or something, it might be different.
Edit: just noticed that Sims 3 doesn’t appear to have any entries on ProtonDB so I don’t know… If any of them don’t work is most likely because of EA bullshit
Sims 4, and I have tried every version of Proton, I have tried proton ge or whatever it is, I have tried every suggestion in the sims 4 protondb entry.
I have tried the suggestions in my thread about it. (I think there was one I still need to try, actually)
I have the fitgirl repack, I have tried via steam, I have tried the .exe from EA.
Bummer, sorry to hear that.
@theunknownmuncher @TheFeatureCreature
Ok let’s give you some more software which still don’t work with linux
- recordbox
- serato
- traktor
- engine djWhile recordbox 6 still worked in a kvm environment … recordbox 7 crashes even in this environment.
You can to a certain degree avoid maybe serato or traktor and use “engine dj in a kvm” to prepare denon stuff but you always need recordbox for preparing usb sticks too as a dj.Again, further proving my point. Rekordbox was arbitrarily designed to detect if it is being run with WINE to prevent use with linux. There is no technical incompatibility, only a policy choice, and you can get rekordbox to run with linux if you jump through hoops to defeat the WINE detection.
I never gave a reason why a game would/wouldn’t run on Linux. I just said that games are a reason some people continue to use Windows.
It’s a very small subset of games and most are live service microtransaction garbage not worth playing anyway. Many are spyware and viruses disguised as games, eg Valorant
The quality of those games is irrelevant. The user asked why people still use Windows and I gave a few examples. Simple as that.
You are arguing for the sake of it.
No, they’re saying you are making a mountain of molehill and using it as justification. You are saying you are technically correct, the best kind of correct.
Now you two feel free to proceed, I have my popcorn.
The user asked why people still use Windows and I gave a few examples.
You gave examples, but they were incorrect and invalid examples. As I already corrected you, you’re parroting a myth because games do run on Linux. In fact, games run better and faster on linux than windows
I just wanted to chime in that there’s far more reasons that your software doesn’t work on Linux than just the developer saying no.
Basically, if your game or software has to interface with anything at the driver level, such as a keyboard or a headset configuration software, or anything that needs to access complete system access such as kernel level access or being able to see processes outside of the wine environment. It’s going to be incompatible. This is by design for system security and is unlikely to change on official releases any time soon.
Additionally, if the game requires any type of integration into basically anything Microsoft, so be it the Microsoft account services, the authentication token services, multiplayer services, applications on the MS store etc, it’s going to be a no go as they have yet to make a decent translation layer for those systems. Being said with the push for demand of Game Pass on PC, there are people working on those projects, but I haven’t personally seen anything that had decent progress.
I have to hard disagree with the statement that it’s a myth. Yes, many games will work with minor tinkering. However, We are still a long way from having something that is just a click play and it works style system and it’s not usually from developer choices (outside of choosing not to make a Linux distributable)
Being said, it has gone a long way since I started using Linux back with Mint Maya. ProtonDB is an excellent resource to find known workarounds when it breaks, But you definitely should not go into any Linux system expecting it to “just work™”
Tell me you haven’t tried Proton on Linux without telling me you haven’t tried Proton on Linux.
I have multiple versions of proton installed currently. However, I’ve mostly given up on the glorious egg rolls because they seem to have caused more issues than they are worth. But if you have a specific version that you’ve found is easier to use and not as annoying, I’m up for suggestions.
Once my system loads, I’ll tell you what versions I’ve tried and which ones I’ve had issues with.
lmk
Currently I have proton GE 9-7 as my default for steam(with the hope that it works), and when that fails I swap to proton 9-0-4 or experimental, but I have GE 10-10 and 10-4 installed but they currently aren’t on any games as I haven’t got any games to seem to want to run with them.
Then on lutris main I’m using a custom runner for one of my games because it needs to get around EAC since standard support is iffy, but I default to Wine 10 for it as they state proton shouldn’t be used on non-steam. However I do have Lutris-GE-8-26 installed but it only ever worked right on one of the games.
Then for lutris on my distrobox Arch container(because FF XIV and Genshin launchers & controller support break for some reason otherwise) I use Wine-ge-8-26 which is a coinflip of if it lets me launch or crashes which makes me suspect that theres a race condition somewhere.
I haven’t had good experiences with GE which is why I was hoping you might have some recommendations on a /stable/ version if you can call GE stable lol
Tl;dr parrotted talking points completely irrelevant since 2022
Additionally, if the game requires any type of integration into basically anything Microsoft
If you want to specifically use Microsoft software then you have to use Microsoft software? Wow, gee, what a perceptive point. You got me there lmao
I’m parroting old talking points because those talking points still exist. They existed in 2022. They existed in 2012 when I started, and they still exist today August 2025.
I said I agree that wines gotten better, but I’m sick and tired of people thinking that it’s some sort of magical unicorn that can just resolve all the inner communication issues with Windows & Linux.
In the last 2 months alone I have had several games that have failed to launch completely. at least 10 games that have required me using a specific proton version. One game that required me to install a custom wine runner that’s specifically configured for the game to function, a handful of software incompatibilities, The most annoying of which being the software that is supposed to make my headset compatible with the computer, which required me due to the fact it’s not compatible with wine, to have to make my own audio profile to split the two mixes it has, and I’m currently working on a custom user interface for it to allow me to actually change the settings on the headset.
All of these examples are completely ignoring the reason that you provided of companies not wanting to support it. It’s just the support doesn’t exist in the current wine infrastructure. If we’re including the games that are using kernel level AC or disabling the usage on Linux, that list becomes bigger.
those talking points still exist. They existed in 2022. They existed in 2012 when I started, and they still exist today August 2025.
Nope!
at least 10 games that have required me using a specific proton version
So in other words, 10 games that worked on Linux…
10 games that /launched/ on linux. there is a difference. It was for sure not 10 games that ran the same as if in a windows enviroment. For example one of those games in that critera you can’t tab out of it or it hard crashes. (Safecracker if you were curious)
Another one of those games was “The Isle” which has a raving disco ball sky during the night time.
Then theres phas… which while it functions the mic support is iffy cant work in lobby and night vision video is broken
Of the popular titles, of what I tried was probably Phas, Death Stranding (random crashes when the BT’s show), Sniper Elite 3 (overall laggy), Ark SE (not surprising but it has massive pre-game queueing if the server is modded so it takes 20-30 minutes to enter a modded server), Genshin Impact (controller issue on my main OS so i need to run it on my Arch distrobox) and FF XIV which launcher crashes unless I run it in a distrobox, and has weird audio issues.
For me, Minecraft bedrock (for kids) but looks like anything MS tainted will start (or maybe already does) require windows.
Looks like I have to decide what to do soon because they’re still on W10.
it will be a slight downgrade, but they do have a Minecraft bedrock wrapper program that uses the Android version of Minecraft, so technically Pocket Edition, and that’s probably the easiest currently at getting that version of Minecraft to run on Linux.
I say this as a Linux user, Windows is still considerably easier to use and it certainly looks a lot slicker.
and it certainly looks a lot slicker.
As someone who is still required to use Windows on my work laptop, hard disagree.
I have one extremely important game that is a half life 1 mod and will NOT run on Linux.
Plus, pretty much all I do on my main desktop is play games.
Microsoft? Ew! No.
