I was a long time Windows user, starting with XP. I only tried Linux a few years ago, and while I loved it, at the time I had to dual boot for a couple specific Windows only things (VR and flight/racing sim hardware).
A couple months ago though, I got sick of it. I figured if I really wanted to do those things, I could boot up a VM, or just force myself to be patient and wait for a proper Linux solution. So, I wiped all my drives and installed Arch. Around this time, I also got an AMD RX 7600XT, so that was a nice performance boost, plus it waranted a switch to Wayland.
Let me tell you, I have been so pleasantly surprised by basically everything I’ve tried. Cyberpunk 2077 through Heroic Launcher, for example, with 15 odd mods. Runs at a solid 80fps at 1440p on high settings, the only graphical issue I noticed was flickering volumetric clouds. This game ate my old card (the venerable GTX 1080) alive even on Windows.
Just last night, I found my joystick, an old VKB Gladiator + Kosmosima grip, plugged it in and it worked perfectly.
What has really, really impressed me though is VR. I have a Quest 2 that I used to use via Steam link to play my PC wirelessly. Obviously that isn’t an option on Linux (yet) but that’s where ALVR comes in. Sideload the client on the quest, run the streamer on the desktop, start SteamVR, and bam, it works. The first game I tried was Elite Dangerous, one of my all time favourite games and easily my favourite VR epxerience. Now, I won’t go ahead and claim it’s perfect, hence the 99% in the title. After fiddling with the settings and making sure I had hardware encoding/decoding set up right, I had very good clarity, up to 120hz refresh rate, but occasional blockiness and artifacting, especially in heavier graphical scenes, like during docking. However, out in open space, it felt just like the ED I know and love.
At this point, I’m just going to look at fiddling with some settings and hopefully smoothing out the stream, but the fact that I can play my favourite games, with my favourite hardware, with great performance and in VR, and the amount of setup is really comparable to what it is on Windows is just kind of wrinkling my brain. Plus, only a couple months ago, this wasn’t the case. Support for things that were once doomed to be dual boot material for the foreseeable future is coming along rapidly. This is a great time to be a Linux gamer.
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Yeah, a lot of expectations people have around Linux are about a decade old. I think Linux has really improved a lot in the area of gaming over the last few years even.
And as long as Linux keeps being worth supporting I think we’ll see more and more games targeted toward linux.
And as long as Linux keeps being worth supporting I think we’ll see more and more games targeted toward linux.
Valve has cemented this now, their efforts are what has made gaming on Linux viable for anyone.
I agree. The steam deck has been a godsend for Linux gaming.
the fact that I can play my favourite games, with my favourite hardware … is just kind of wrinkling my brain.
You’re finally streets ahead
I switched from Windows to Linux during the whole Vista debacle back in 2008. For basically ten years I was out of the PC gaming scene. I fucking love Proton and what its done for Linux as a gaming platform. Now I play (almost) everything on Linux, no sweat. The only things I ever need my Windows partition for anymore are things with those shitty anticheat platforms that just assume you’re a cheater if you use Linux. Cause, you know, Linux scary.
Yeah I’m right there with ya, of course it’s the users fault for choosing an alternative OS, it has nothing to do with gaming companies choosing the cheapest, least effective and most invasive client side anti cheat solutions instead of more universal server side ones. Nothing at all.
All it’s missing from me are anti-cheat games and Adobe products.
Anti-cheat: shame, but I don’t play them anyways.
Adobe products: I guess it sucks for corporate zombies, but again not giving money to adobe makes me proud.
Who said anything about giving money to Adobe? Yarg.
As a graphic designer, you don’t really have much of a choice, unless you’re independent.
As a graphic designer, you don’t really have much of a choice
I’m sorry for your suffering.
Many games with anti-cheat work, a comprehensive list can be found here: https://areweanticheatyet.com/
Anyway, I wouldn’t install a rootkit “anti-cheat” on a Windows machine under any circumstances, but that’s just me.
Windows XP and 7 got a special place on my heart, but once i get a PC, I’m moving to Linux Mint
Honestly I’d still use XP if more programs supported it. As i said to another user here, it was Windows at its peak. It created the basic layout and feature set that modern Windows still uses, but lacks all the bloat and ads.
Can’t recommend XP knowing it’s vulnerable
Fair enough. Not really speaking to its tech specs, mainly just how nice it was to use compared to modern windows
I can understand, but still, it’s not wprth it using windows XP unless you’re using a VM for playing retro games offline
Same. A friendly poster recommended Mint and I’m loving it! The fact that it automatically walks you through the dual boot set up was exactly what I wanted.
I was a long time Windows user, starting with XP.
Kind of the same here, except it ended with XP, I never switched to Vista. I started using Windows already with Windows 3.0 in 1991. I’ve been using Linux since 2005, because Ubuntu lifted the Linux experience enough to become my main OS.
Back then games were a huge problem, I’m glad to hear it works so well for you. 👍 😀
I’m glad too. Not gonna lie I still love XP, I feel like it was the peak of Windows in may ways.
If AMD wasn’t already cheering to Valve, they have to be at this point
i only switched over quite recently (a few years ago)
i swear there has been significant improvements in wifi, bluetooth, gpu support, gaming over the last 10 years that made me think it was now good enough
also there was areas where linux was outdoing windows for quite some time; system wide audio equalizer, customization generally, home services and self hosting, development tools
Linux audio is really under appreciated. I’m one of the nutjobs that still uses a PCI sound card and I’ve never had to install a third party driver. I can manually adjust the output and EQ for every port, disable or enable them on the fly, etc. The only thing I’m missing is hardware EAX support for older games but I’ve kind of accepted that’s just a dragon I’ll always be chasing.
so true and it’s not just equalizers, it’s compressors and all the other tools for solving audio problems
This somehow reminds me of my first Ubuntu installation (Dapper Drake). One of my friends gave me a PCI TV Tuner card. They couldn’t get it to work for some reason, drivers that wouldn’t install or something. I got the box and the CD 💿 (drivers for Windows) too. The card worked out-of-the-box after first boot. I only had to install some frontend from the default repo to use it for recording. Amazing times!
What EQ do you use? I’ve been using Easy Effects for a while, but have been plagued by crackling and stereo sound only playing on one ear lately.
Give alsaequal a try. I actually haven’t fiddled with it a whole lot so I can’t vouch too much but it seems worth a shot.
Noice. Still to chicken too go full into the deep end of the pool. lemmy posts have been slowing talking me into it more and more!
Just FYI, bazzite is amazing. It’s made for gaming, and it. Just. Works.
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Again I want to stres that it isn’t perfect. You’ll definitely have to play around with some settings but it is usable, at least in my case.
I have nothing to add except that ED with VR and hotas controllers is one of the best VR spaceflight experiences out there. Dogfighting with that setup is unparalleled. Being able to watch your target as you flip over them to their tail just gets my jimmies jumpin’.
My jam was always turning off flight assist and just tossing a small ship through an asteroid belt. Haven’t played much since Odyssey but I recently got the itch again
If only I could play Rust on it, it would be at 100% for me
Well… Technically you can, you just can’t play on servers with AntiCheat activated.
I am in a similar situation, I use quest 2 a lot to drive in assetto corsa. I have a Thrustmaster TS 300 PC, I don’t think there are any Linux drivers for that base.
Oversteer should be what you need. Just take note that you need an extra driver module for the T300RS.
Edit, if you meant the TS-PC you may be out of luck. It looks like support for the TS-PC has an open request in the T300RS driver but it isn’t implemented yet.
Ah! Thanks, I will check it out. TS-PC is indeed what I meant. Maybe this is a good reason to upgrade my sim setup to more open source friendly brand.
I’m in the same boat. I’m actually on the verge of going full open source and building my own direct drive with OpenFFBoard.
Nice! Is there a kit you’re buying or are you sourcing parts from Aliexpress or similar? If you’re interested there is a guy doing open source pedal sets and shifter which I’m thinking of building as next project. https://www.youtube.com/@LeboisRacing
I was considering sourcing my own parts as I haven’t come across a full kit that seemed to have everything I wanted.
Also thats super cool, although I’m currently pretty happy with the rest of my setup atm. May look into the shifter at some point tho
I also recently made the switch and was pleasantly surprised at how many games I could still play, even “Windows only” titles. Though my requirements are nowhere near yours as I don’t have VR or HOTAS.
I’m still rocking an NVIDIA 1060… What’s the Linux community consensus on NVIDIA vs AMD? Because I think it’s about time to upgrade.
AMD is generally a much better experience overall, but a handful of things are worse than NVidia (off the top of my head, Ray Tracing, AI, and Emulators. AMD cards tend to have graphical glitches in emulators even on Windows. They can be mitigated, and aren’t universal but they are an issue).
In my experience, AMD is the way to go. My old GTX 1080 was a beast and put in great work, but just had too many naggling stability issues that constantly got in the way of enjoying it. Been really happy with my AMD.
AMD being preferred was my sense of the situation so it’s good to have that confirmed. Looks like I need to get more familiar with that family of cards.
AMD’s naming scheme is honestly similar to Nvidias. They have X600, X700, etc (the “X” being the generation of card, the second digit being the model).
So for example, the current gen is the 7000 series, with the 7600 being the lowest, and roughly analogous to the 4060, and the 7900 to the 4090. There are also XT versions which is AMD’s version of the Ti line. They have more VRAM, higher clocks, overclocking, etc.
I’d look at the 6700XT, or the one I have which is the 7600XT. Both have similar specs, the 7600XT is more recent with better performance in a couple areas, but the 6700XT is tried and true, and you’ll be more likely to find a good deal on it. The 7600XT only came out a couple months ago and isn’t anywhere near as well established, but IMO it performs excellent at good temps without any tweaks. Both are great for 1080p or 1440p with modern games.
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Thanks for the info. Looks like I still need to do some more research of my own lol.
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