It’s on a case-by-case basis of course so it wouldn’t be the same for everyone. But generally speaking, Linux isn’t user-friendly (though I’m not saying it isn’t at all) in the sense that everything is guaranteed to be compatible with it and work immediately, whether it be certain peripherals that require extra setup to work correctly or software that was never specifically made to work on Linux. I know that from experience, having had some head-scratcher moments when trying to run an obscure/older game or trying to get certain hardware to run on my Linux machine without it having had compatible firmware out of the box. And I wouldn’t even say that I’m all that unknowledgeable with this sort of thing.
I’m not trying to disparage Linux or anything, but it’s definitely not so black-and-white as it easily working well for everyone all the time. It’s never really accommodated for that unfortunately, especially since there’s no one universal Linux distro with all those sore points snuffed out. Until that’s the case I don’t think it would typically appeal to the average person who only games on the side.
But generally speaking, Linux isn’t user-friendly (though I’m not saying it isn’t at all) in the sense that everything is guaranteed to be compatible with it and work immediately, whether it be certain peripherals that require extra setup to work correctly or software that was never specifically made to work on Linux.
On the hardware side, you’re really just describing custom PC builds.
Pre-built Linux gaming machines exist and do solve the hardware issues.
On the software side, outside of the big asshole publishers, it’s a solved problem. Five years ago I shopped super carefully for SteamDeck compatibility. Today, OS compatibility is rarely even a consideration for me. Games just work on the SteamDeck. SteamOS has replaced Windows as the gaming default OS.
Indie devs now use game development frameworks that work perfectly on Linux, in order to get SteamDeck verified.
Even most of my “Windows Only” games just pull the correct emulators and run perfectly, automatically, when launched from Steam.
what youre saying is important and true in certain cases, yes. In mine it took me 2 months to adapt my brain and tweak linux to the point it is now working like a well oiled machine.
however my needs were very explicit being that i was building a simulation machine (not AI) i even had it planned down to hardware spec regarding cores, chips and ram for a very specific task outside average gamer use.
your average user might just need a basic game box (they could even just reuse a crap box and itll run. thats the beauty of linux. ) and throw some mint on it which does work pretty much out of the box and with steam you might need some light configuring.
EG: just editing the launch command in general tab when you right click the game:
SteamDeck=1 %command%
or install gamemode and then: gamemoderun %command%
for some games especially old ones you might need to just swap around which proton you use(in compatability menu)
most games dont need any of this as the proton GE updates to iron out all the compatibilty.
It’s on a case-by-case basis of course so it wouldn’t be the same for everyone. But generally speaking, Linux isn’t user-friendly (though I’m not saying it isn’t at all) in the sense that everything is guaranteed to be compatible with it and work immediately, whether it be certain peripherals that require extra setup to work correctly or software that was never specifically made to work on Linux. I know that from experience, having had some head-scratcher moments when trying to run an obscure/older game or trying to get certain hardware to run on my Linux machine without it having had compatible firmware out of the box. And I wouldn’t even say that I’m all that unknowledgeable with this sort of thing.
I’m not trying to disparage Linux or anything, but it’s definitely not so black-and-white as it easily working well for everyone all the time. It’s never really accommodated for that unfortunately, especially since there’s no one universal Linux distro with all those sore points snuffed out. Until that’s the case I don’t think it would typically appeal to the average person who only games on the side.
On the hardware side, you’re really just describing custom PC builds. Pre-built Linux gaming machines exist and do solve the hardware issues.
On the software side, outside of the big asshole publishers, it’s a solved problem. Five years ago I shopped super carefully for SteamDeck compatibility. Today, OS compatibility is rarely even a consideration for me. Games just work on the SteamDeck. SteamOS has replaced Windows as the gaming default OS.
Indie devs now use game development frameworks that work perfectly on Linux, in order to get SteamDeck verified.
Even most of my “Windows Only” games just pull the correct emulators and run perfectly, automatically, when launched from Steam.
Gaming on Linux is a very different world, today.
what youre saying is important and true in certain cases, yes. In mine it took me 2 months to adapt my brain and tweak linux to the point it is now working like a well oiled machine.
however my needs were very explicit being that i was building a simulation machine (not AI) i even had it planned down to hardware spec regarding cores, chips and ram for a very specific task outside average gamer use.
your average user might just need a basic game box (they could even just reuse a crap box and itll run. thats the beauty of linux. ) and throw some mint on it which does work pretty much out of the box and with steam you might need some light configuring.
EG: just editing the launch command in general tab when you right click the game:
SteamDeck=1 %command%
or install gamemode and then: gamemoderun %command%
for some games especially old ones you might need to just swap around which proton you use(in compatability menu)
most games dont need any of this as the proton GE updates to iron out all the compatibilty.