this post was submitted on 05 Nov 2023
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Your Windows 10 PC will soon be 'junk' - users told to resist Microsoft deadline::If you're still using Windows 10 and don't want to upgrade to Windows 11 any time soon you might want to sign a new online petition

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[–] yhvr@lemm.ee 81 points 1 year ago (5 children)

I love Linux. I have it installed on 3 machines, have been using it for over 3 years, and would install it right away if I ever got a new computer.

A couple weeks ago, I was feeling pretty exhausted and just wanted to play a game thru Proton on my laptop. I got it running, but it was unplayable because it was using my integrated GPU instead of my discrete one. I spent the night switching compositors, cables, and drivers, but none of it fixed the issue.

The next day, feeling exhausted from fruitless debugging, I tried to launch another game via Proton that I knew had worked in the past, but it crashed on launch. I spent the whole day going thru the same steps I did the day before, but also consulting ProtonDB and trying software that would force usage of the dgpu.

The next day, I installed Windows 10 to an external hard drive and spent the day debloating it. Drivers got installed automatically, I downloaded both games on Steam, and they just worked. So I guess I now dual-boot Windows just for the games that don't work thru Proton. Loading game worlds and booting up take ~75% longer, but that's to be expected because it's running on a 4 year old HDD connected over a USB cable.

As mentioned earlier, I love Linux a lot, and if all games had native binaries or Proton worked 100% I'd format that god-forsaken hard drive. But when real life has got me down, I don't need Linux to get me down further. I don't like Windows, and I feel incredibly dirty whenever I press F7 on boot to get to Windows. But when my choices are "spend 8 hours on fruitless quest to get >2fps" and "press play button", I'm going to take the path of least resistance.

[–] squaresinger@feddit.de 19 points 1 year ago

That's the thing. I love to use Linux for work, but when I don't want to tinker it sometimes sucks for gaming.

[–] Gutless2615@ttrpg.network 8 points 1 year ago

Yep. And then there’s gamepass. I vastly vastly prefer working and using Linux day to day, but games, man. Man’s gotta be able to game after a long day at work and I wasted literally a week of after work hours trying and failing to get Starfield to run on Proton.

[–] skulkingaround@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

iGPU+dGPU, esp with Nvidia is pretty bad on Linux. It's pretty flawless these days if you're using only one vendor and it isn't Nvidia.

[–] netchami@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Don't know what you are talking about. I use an Nvidia GPU with a Wayland compositor/Window manager (Hyprland to be exact) and I've never experienced any issues whatsoever.

[–] yhvr@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I have an external monitor that runs at 144Hz, but a while ago I realized because it was connected over HDMI, it was limited to 60Hz (for some weird reason). So I bought a DisplayPort cable, and after plugging it in the screen was flickering/artifacting in some weird way that I haven't seen it do on X11 or Windows with the same cable. So as a result I've had to reluctantly switched back to i3 for daily use

[–] netchami@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

Sure, use whatever works for you

[–] M500@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] yhvr@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The first game mentioned was Bille Bust Up. I liked the demo that was off of Steam (and it ran fine using the proton-call command), so I subscribed to the developer's Patreon (which gives a Steam key) and it wouldn't use my dgpu.

The second game was A Hat in Time.

[–] vividspecter@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago

Nvidia laptop by the sounds of it?

Anything with an AMD GPU is going to have a better time (or even just a dedicated Nvidia GPU in a desktop).

[–] M500@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thanks for sharing. I'm sorry to hear you had trouble. Both games are rated as gold on ProtonDB. So, I am surprised you had trouble with them.

My experience has been the opposite. Everything has worked surprisingly well. Do you by chance use an Nvidia gpu?

[–] yhvr@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago

Yep, Nvidia gpu. At the time I bought it I wasn't aware of their reputation for Linux support, and I bought my laptop from System76 (with Pop!_OS, because Nvidia drivers are more "just works" on it). I've had a fairly good experience with all of it, but the next computer I buy will definitely have an AMD GPU.

I think this is the first time I've been fully unable to get the dgpu working. Every other time it's just worked or worked with tweaking

[–] jeena@jemmy.jeena.net 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I would probably rather get a gaming console for the TV to game.

[–] M500@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] notst@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

I love my steam deck but there's enough games from my library that won't run at all or only run after some manual trickery in desktop mode.

[–] vzq@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 1 year ago

Tbf that really depends on the kind of games you like playing.