Linux has improved massively. It’s not the clunky, old-fashioned Gnome2 people still picture. Modern distros are polished, fast, and thanks to Proton and Steam Deck, even gaming is no longer a niche experiment. Yet despite all that progress, the user base isn’t really growing as fast as it should.

Part of the problem is still installation. It’s easier now, but it asks users to make choices they’ve never faced before: partitions, desktop environments, disable secure boot, drivers… But the biggest issue starts earlier.

When someone decides to try Linux, maybe after hearing “it runs games great now,” they immediately face a wall of options: Ubuntu, Mint, Pop!_OS, Nobara, Fedora, Arch… and the community’s response is always the same: “any distro is fine.”

That might sound inclusive, but in practice it’s confusing. Not all distros are equally good for gaming or for beginners. Some handle drivers and proprietary software better, others need more tweaking. A gamer just wanting to install Steam and play shouldn’t have to read ten forum threads first.

What Linux really needs is a strong, straightforward answer to the eternal question: “Which distro should I install?”

Until that exists, Linux will stay caught in its own paradox: powerful, capable, and full of potential, but too fragmented for the average gamer or casual user to take the leap.

I am currently running an HP Omen 15-EK0357ng with an rtx 2070 max q, i5 10300H and 8gb ram

I’ve been using it with Linux for years for years but recently most of my games don’t run/ crash on startup (I.E. rdr 2, gta v, just cause 3/4) some games like ready or not still work but run very badly and when trying to develop on Gondor I get terrible performance. No matter if I use arch or Ubuntu 25.x, the only distros that still work kind of fine are based on Ubuntu 22.04 (currently running on pop os 22.04) does anyone have a similiar issue or fix

let me know if you relate to this: you start up a new or older game and the launcher is tiny, meaning you need to get really fucking close to the screen to read anything. Let's say you need to use an installer for a mod or some kind of tool and you need to run it within the proton prefix: same deal. Only way to fix it is to manually set your DPI for literally every single newly generated proton prefix.

Two things: steam should allow us to set a default EPI for any new proton prefix created. I have only 1600p and 2160p displays in my house, there is no reason it should be defaulting to a DPI suited to 1080p. I almost feel like they don't mess with stuff like this because this is such a glaring issue with the end user experience for anyone who is doing anything except literally just playing the games without messing with anything. Older titles especially you need to sometimes run a patch or something. I know it's possible because my default wine prefix has a DPI set to my liking so anything I opened with the normal wine program loader loads properly with DPI that I can actually read. it's incredibly annoying to have to do this for literally every single game. Heroic and even Lutris which is from what I understand semi abandoned let you do this, there's no reason valve can't implement the same thing.

The second thing I would like which is less related to this but also seems like a very necessary feature as the ability to browse wine prefix just like again heroic and lutris. The way it works now you basically either need to go to PC gaming wiki to get the actual proton prefix ID that the folder is titled with or I recently found this out you can just go to proton tricks and it will have the name there. We should be able to write click see an option for "browse prefix" just like there's an option to browse local files. It's especially important for games that for example store their saves within the prefix or literally anything done in the actual prefix.

Sorry that I'm coming across really annoyed, that's because I am lol I feel like I'm going crazy in that I don't see how no one else has complained about this yet. if this is added or fixed anytime soon I will be incredibly fucking grateful and it will massively decrease my annoyance with steam. if anyone knows of some way to set a DPI for all prefixes steam wide let me know.

This game was released on 27th October. It sounded like my kind of thing, so I picked it up last night with a small discount from Gamesplanet.

It's a 'native' Unity3D game which is always preferred. Whilst I've only played about 30min so far, I've survived the first night and have solved the initial puzzle! Controls are the usual mouse/WASD style with the pointer changing where things can be interacted with. Supernatural mysteries are right up my street, so I will report back later when I've progressed further.

Recommended :-)

Title. Recently I've been install multiple linux distros in different machines of my end for trying to create a entire linux-only environment. I tried multiple laptop and some desktop and did some gaming to test if the driver is correctly installed or the performance is decent enough.
I've tested linux mint, arch linux, LMDE and Fedora (42). All my machines have Nvidia hardware (few RTX 4070 ti and 4080 mobile). In theory, all distros with correct installed driver (580.95.05) would be able to use Nvidia SM without any problem. However, in fedora 42, if I use the system package of steam, not only in mangohud, there will be no "double" numbers show in the steam overlay and mangohud. And the "feeling" of double the framerates also didn't exist. Luckily, I solved this issue by installing steam using flatpak, and everything turns out great.

I haven't meet any issue on other distro and I guess flatpak works because it might be a sort of packaging mechanism of the nvidia driver is different from the one in rpmfusion.
Do you guys have similar issues on fedora or what's your situation? Thanks in advance.

Am on Mint 22.2, I found some guide on arch wiki and enabled 10bpc (my monitor and pc both support it, I ran it in win 10 before I swapped). Most things seem to work fine. I could launch steam, discord, browser. From games zzz and btd6 worked but for some reason it bricks wuthering waves, elden ring and satisfactory.

Does anyone know if there's a way to fix it or at least make it so that 10bpc is on for most stuff but it reverts to 8 while playing those games.

Edit: Gunfire reborn, Honkai star rail and genshin also work. Heroes of the storm via lutris doesn't (interestingly if I launch hots directly bnet shows up, if I try launching bnet it shows up as a black box instead).

its happens when i'm looking to someone, also everyone are headless

I get first splash screen launching, then the game goes into full screen mode and I get something like this
And then a crash, really strange stuff, this is the only game on Linux Mint so far that has issues launching.

https://preview.redd.it/q38ipcdm30yf1.png?width=241&format=png&auto=webp&s=e296283dc7427f8c17a56265e352431658ede0c1

Does anyone know what is going on with the game?

I saw other people play this game on Linux Mint successfully

I’m using the Minisforum Ai X1 Pro, which has a Radeon 890M and a Ryzen 9 HX370. The Outer Worlds 2 runs smoothly out of the box, but I experienced inconsistent performance on my hardware. As a result, I ended up using XeSS 2.1 with XeSS Frame Generation and medium settings. I recorded the outdoor area instead of the intro, which is primarily indoors, because the outdoor performance is more demanding. With the settings I am using, I'm almost able to achieve 60 FPS. However, with VRR, the gameplay feels smooth.

Hello everybody,

Since 2K26 is on sale (and Proton DB doesn't have that many testimonies), does anyone have any experience with the game on any Linux distro?

My specs are more than enough for medium settings on Windows (10400f, 6700 XT, 16 Gigs of RAM), but can it run without lag - and does the EAC play nice with Linux Mint?

Thanks in advance!

Hey, guys

I am new to Linux Mint, and although I can boot into the game just fine using Proton Experimental, I have no sound. I tried editing config file to give audio a value 4, instead of 1, as Google suggested. I tried another Proton version (Hotfix) that also didn't give sound.

I disabled HDMI output, and left only my audio device as the main source of sound, but still nothing.

I get sound in other Steam games, and I am also getting sound in browser and system.

Do you know how to fix this issue?

I already deleted Proton folders, and reinstalled Proton. I also deleted setting folders for Battlefield 4 in Steam directory to make sure setting are reset to default, still no sound.

Thanks!

why does mil sim games like linux but not games like bf6 it seems like the mil sim games allaw linux no probmel but not games like bf6 both squad and arma reforger allaws linux zero problems but games like bf6 dosent. i will never run windows havent even dule bootted for years only linux. but i find it intresting why mil sim games seems to work very often. I have never encounterd cheaters in squad or arma. Mby those devs are more freindly

As the title says i want to switch. I don't like Win11 and i dont want to get a new PC or an upgrade because of requirements my PC doesn't meet. But i am lost. i saw Proton as a good alternative but i am unsure.
I just have some questions

Easy to use, i know its a new OS so it will function differently its more a "can a stupido like me use it"

Drivers where do i get drivers, do i have to update everything by myself?

Can i still play with my friends that are using windows?

Is it possible to get my GoG Games to run, i love to play old RTS like empire erath, Empires dawn of a new Age and also the old Cossacks games. Is it able to bring them to life under Protos ( its ok if its difficult or just working meh)

How do i insatll it? Simply clean my boards then install it and lets go? Or do i have to do things in preparation?

Where can i get the latest version of protos?

I initially could easily boot into Battlefield 4 on Linux Mint, but I had no audio, which I was trying to figure out

One of the "solutions" I read about was deleting settings folder for Battlefield 4 itself, that had regular profile files, I know you could delete them too, as I deleted this stuff on Windows as well. The folder held keybinds and video game settings, that automatically return once you start the game.

I verified files after, and tried to start the game, but it wouldn't boot

Now I keep verifying the game and it doesn't start, but shows all files are present

I tried to choose another Proton version, I used Experimental first, then moved to Hotfix version to see if it allows me to boot into the game, nope

You click "Start" it begins to "think" and then stop it automatically in the Steam launcher, no windows of game booting otherwise

Super confused, and I don't understand how to fix it now.

Lot of information here, so I'll try to include it all...

The laptop it's working on, with the EUI mod installed is a Lenovo Yoga 2. It has 8 gigs of RAM, a 4th gen i7, and Intel integrated graphics. Came with Windows 8.

The laptop I can't get past the intro screen on is an HP Envy 17. It has 32 gigs of RAM, a 13th gen i7, and nVidia RTX 3050. I have a mouse cursor, and it moves freely over the entire screen. Came with Windows 11 Home.

Both have a fresh Mint 22.2 installed. Both are attempting to use the Aspyr Linux version of Civ 5. On both, I told the Mint install to reclaim the entire drive, nuking anything Windows related in the process.

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What is different: 1) The working laptop installed steam via the Package Manager. The non-working laptop grabbed Steam from their wepbage as a .deb. I did it this way because the graphics are nVidia, which makes Steam require 32-bit support.

2) Because my video driver required 32-bit support, Steam had to install a bunch of more stuff to be compliant.

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What I've tried: 1) Reboot.

2) Clicking lots of places on the screen. Especially where I would anticipate the link to be if it were fullscreen and if it were letterbox, but centered. Which is USUALLY how Civ 5 presents before feeding it the correct resolution in menu.

3) I switched to all 4 drivers available to me for the graphics, including the new 380 as well as the open source, non-nVidia ones.

4) I tried editing the GraphicsSettingsDX9.ini both to force the correct resolution (ignored) and to set FSResID to 14, which is said to prevent issues when launching into fullscreen mode that could cause the mouse to not register. The setting was 1 when I first found the file and every time I close Civ 5 after I've set it to 14, it gets set to 10. I did not find any setting to alter the fullscreen/windowed settings we have access to in menu.

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What I have not tried, yet (time constraints): 1) Using the Windows version of Civ 5. The lesser laptop runs the Linux version fine and I'm told that using the Windows version on Linux would preclude me from using the mod. Unverified.

2) Using the open source video driver after a fresh Mint install to see if I can install Steam via Package Manager without having to install 32-bit support.

I work 12 hr shifts the next two days, so I thought I'd put this out there to fish for tips for my next days off. Thank you for your time and any help you can lend!

I’ve seen a comparison video of the Lenovo Legion Go S running Windows and SteamOS (which is Linux), and there was a noticeable performance difference between them. Now I’m wondering, does the same apply to desktop PC?

I have a decent setup with an RX 6600 and an i3-12100, and I’m considering switching to Linux to see if it can give me better performance in demanding games like Cyberpunk.