Feral Interactive one of our new favourite porting houses has asked the big question. Why do we game on Linux?
Linux gamers! Tell us: why do you game on Linux? Please spread this question hither and thither. @GameLinux @ROOTGAMERcom @gamingonlinux
— Feral Interactive (@feralgames) September 3, 2014
Feel free to twitter them, or comment here if you answer isn't a short one. I am sure they are watching.
My reasons
It's an interesting question and one that has been asked a lot by many interesting gamers across the years to the Linux community.
For me it's not about why I game on Linux, but more about why I use Linux which directly translates into gaming on it.
I love customization and having the choice to do lots or do nothing. For me it's not always about source code access (I feel that is important though!), but more about being free to do what I want with it, and never having to pay for system upgrades. I spend enough money on games and hardware without wanting to fork out x amount for the latest operating system.
With Linux I have OpenGL and can get updates for it whenever my chosen graphics vendor pushes out a driver for it, but on Windows at times you have needed to upgrade your entire operating system to get it.
On Linux if I don't like how the entire desktop works I can install another one with a few quick commands, or finding the main package in some package manager. That's an important one to note: I dislike Gnome Shell and Unity a lot, so I use Cinnamon and it works perfectly for my needs. I tried Windows 8 and the new UI was utterly a pain to work with or to find anything on (I gave it a real good go too), and I was stuck with it until I installed Linux on my laptop.
On Linux I have choices, and lots of them. I can tinker with almost anything, and if a game doesn't work you can do simple things to find out why. Running a game in the terminal for example will generally be pretty clear on what you are missing and fix it myself, and I can't say the same for broken games on Windows.
I also find Linux to perform far better at most general day to day tasks, and I come from a Windows 95/98/2000/xp/7 and recently a little of 8 background (yes I've used nearly all Windows operating systems, and a lot to).
There's also the community aspect. The amount of times of looked to find out how to do something, and someone helpful already has the answer and shared it with everyone. Linux users can be very, very helpful.
Right now Linux has also helped me fall in love with games I would never had tried if I was on Windows.
That is all off the top of my head, but that's my honest answer to it.
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As much as I hate repeating what's already been said, my reasons are the same as many people here.
The basic question: Why do I game/want-to-game on linux? Linux is my primary desktop OS. I have no desire to dual-boot, run a second computer, etc exclusively for gaming. It's a waste of money/power/etc. So, given the choice, I prefer to game on linux. More recently, with the rush of games natively running on linux (and BIG thank yous to Feral, among others for their efforts here), there has been less and less need to have that other-install.
As others have mentioned, my preference for linux is driven by a number of factors, but not the least of which are the freedom and the security. I don't mind paying for software at all, but I appreciate having the freedom to adjust things the way I'd like. I, too, have issues with Unity and choose to run Cinnamon instead, and will never use Windows 8 because I *can't* make that kind of modification.
The basic question: Why do I game/want-to-game on linux? Linux is my primary desktop OS. I have no desire to dual-boot, run a second computer, etc exclusively for gaming. It's a waste of money/power/etc. So, given the choice, I prefer to game on linux. More recently, with the rush of games natively running on linux (and BIG thank yous to Feral, among others for their efforts here), there has been less and less need to have that other-install.
As others have mentioned, my preference for linux is driven by a number of factors, but not the least of which are the freedom and the security. I don't mind paying for software at all, but I appreciate having the freedom to adjust things the way I'd like. I, too, have issues with Unity and choose to run Cinnamon instead, and will never use Windows 8 because I *can't* make that kind of modification.
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Mohandevir Sep 3, 2014
Because when I use Linux, it feels like it really is my machine.
I do whatever I want and I don't feel borders beacause MS don't want you to do this or that because they want you to buy, buy, buy...
It's all about Freedom!
I turned my Ubuntu 14.04 with Unity (desktop that I prefer) into a Steam Machine (Steam login) and a XBMC center (XBMC Desktop). Do whatever you like and don't wait for any authorization from anybody. I got complete control over MY pc. I choose what I want in it and what I don't want.
Since the realease of Steam for Linux, I turned all my pc into Linux systems. The Linux catalog totally meets my needs for gaming. I don't miss Windows at all.
Anyway, for me having to pay for an OS feels like having to buy the key that will start my car... It doesn't feel right.
I do whatever I want and I don't feel borders beacause MS don't want you to do this or that because they want you to buy, buy, buy...
It's all about Freedom!
I turned my Ubuntu 14.04 with Unity (desktop that I prefer) into a Steam Machine (Steam login) and a XBMC center (XBMC Desktop). Do whatever you like and don't wait for any authorization from anybody. I got complete control over MY pc. I choose what I want in it and what I don't want.
Since the realease of Steam for Linux, I turned all my pc into Linux systems. The Linux catalog totally meets my needs for gaming. I don't miss Windows at all.
Anyway, for me having to pay for an OS feels like having to buy the key that will start my car... It doesn't feel right.
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Reasons I use linux in general:
Reasons I use linux for gaming, specifically:
In the end, it mostly boils down to the fact that linux is far more efficient for me for software development, and since I program whenever the fancy takes me (I'm a work-from-home contractor, so I make my own hours), I don't want to split my computer between work and non-work. I have one monitor completely dedicated to emacs (which I've modded to the point where it's pretty much a full fledged IDE, minus the slow startup time) at all times, so that I can work on solving problems any time an interesting solution hits me. If I had to reboot every time I wanted to work on a problem, I'd never have gotten to the point that I'm at in my career.
- I'm cautious about software I can't read the source code for. I don't care when it's games or video players, or really anything related to entertainment and hobbies; but I really prefer to be able to read the source code for the full stack going from kernel, to GUI, to window manager, to code editor or web browser.
- It works how I want it. I love Enlightenment's interface, and how navigation works. Being able to switch focus from one monitor to another with a keybinding (I use ctrl+shift+right and ctrl+shift+left), switching window focus with mouseover (so that I can have a semi-transparent window in front of the window I'm typing in, with details on what I need to type), and multiple virtual desktops per monitor (i.e. when I switch to another virtual desktop, it only switches in the monitor I'm currently focused on) - Windows can't do the majority of that, and these are only *some* of the features I use to make software development more efficient.
- It's faster. The difference is noticeable in everything from having several hundred tabs open in firefox or chromium, to playing 1080p videos from an XFS partition, to running a compiler.
- Back when I used Windows, I attempted to do some customization - adding themes, changing the window manager, etc. I ended up getting a *lot* of bluescreens of death.
- NTFS has lost my data before (back in university, it got nice and unrecoverably corrupted just before I printed off a 10ish page paper).
Reasons I use linux for gaming, specifically:
- If I have to reboot just to play a game, I'm not going to do it. I tried, believe me. Dark Souls 2 doesn't really work too well with Wine, and that is my fourth favorite game/series, right after Vagrant Story, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, and the Legacy of Kain games. So I grabbed a copy of Windows, installed it, and played Dark Souls 2 for about 30 hours. That's *nothing* compared to the amount of time I put in to Demon's Souls; but I just got sick of rebooting. I really want to play it more, but with all the linux games showing up these days, I end up choosing to play a linux-native game, rather than rebooting.
- I've mentioned that it's faster, right?
- It's faster.
- Software RAID on linux is faster than any cheap hardware RAID out there (including nearly every RAID chip embedded on gaming motherboards).
- Linux has *much* better multithreading support. We've been working with multiple processors for decades.
- Put simply, there are many reasons that linux runs almost all of the world's supercomputers.
- I bought and installed a custom liquid cooling system so I could get my FX-8350 to run at a little over 5 GHz. I don't want to negate all of that by running an OS that uses up tons of CPU time and RAM all on its own, without any other programs running.
In the end, it mostly boils down to the fact that linux is far more efficient for me for software development, and since I program whenever the fancy takes me (I'm a work-from-home contractor, so I make my own hours), I don't want to split my computer between work and non-work. I have one monitor completely dedicated to emacs (which I've modded to the point where it's pretty much a full fledged IDE, minus the slow startup time) at all times, so that I can work on solving problems any time an interesting solution hits me. If I had to reboot every time I wanted to work on a problem, I'd never have gotten to the point that I'm at in my career.
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Being a long time Linux user (and I mean long) I want my gaming happening there too.
I really look forward to the Steam (roller) machine getting up to speed. That would hopefully increase the size of the eco-system to bring more big titles, not that I'm complaining how things are currently progressing but I think Linux has some ways to go before critical mass happens.
I really look forward to the Steam (roller) machine getting up to speed. That would hopefully increase the size of the eco-system to bring more big titles, not that I'm complaining how things are currently progressing but I think Linux has some ways to go before critical mass happens.
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Linux is like grilling a burger... You can season it just the way you like it, put your favorite cheese on it or have no cheese, add your favorite condiments, and at the end you have a burger you love more than any other burger.
Microsoft's Windows (any version) is like a burger from a fast food joint... You have to pay more for what you get, you get what they make you, you don't always get the condiments you like, the maker doesn't really care about the burger... only that it sells, and at the end of the day everyone it trying to make you eat this burger.
That is why I choose Linux over Windows and would like to fully replace Windows with Linux for all gaming instead of just most gaming.
Microsoft's Windows (any version) is like a burger from a fast food joint... You have to pay more for what you get, you get what they make you, you don't always get the condiments you like, the maker doesn't really care about the burger... only that it sells, and at the end of the day everyone it trying to make you eat this burger.
That is why I choose Linux over Windows and would like to fully replace Windows with Linux for all gaming instead of just most gaming.
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Linux is really fast, lightweight and reliable, even with the heaviest desktops like KDE. Thus it is free (as in beer), which is important to me in order to avoid PRISM-crap. (though the problem is that the NSA seems to have introducted flaws in protocols directly) On my 5 years-old box it still runs well while Windows 8.1 (on dual boot) is damn slow.
And yes, I definitely prefer playing on my favourite OS, instead of having to reboot.
And yes, I definitely prefer playing on my favourite OS, instead of having to reboot.
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Proprietary operating systems like Windows and Mac are so painful for me to use, that I would not be using computers much if something like Linux had not come along. When I go against my normal policies and try to help someone get something interesting done on Windows or Mac, I normally end up getting frustrated and giving up. Basically, I hate "black boxes" that you have spend a ton of time reverse-engineering in order to understand! An open system like Linux is comparatively so inviting for someone who wants to learn, experiment, and customize.
I always spend a bit of extra money buying computers that have Linux pre-installed, so that my money is going to support people in our Free Software community instead of any money going to the control freaks at Microsoft or Apple. There is no extra copy of windows lying around, so dual-booting for some super-special windows-only game is not even an option.
I always spend a bit of extra money buying computers that have Linux pre-installed, so that my money is going to support people in our Free Software community instead of any money going to the control freaks at Microsoft or Apple. There is no extra copy of windows lying around, so dual-booting for some super-special windows-only game is not even an option.
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Linux is...
1. REAL freedom. You can change, share, improve, contribute, build your own, ...
2. Free. You don't need to pay for it.
3. Leader in server market.
4. Leader in virtualisation (VMware, Xen, KVM, ...). MS Hyper-V is a bad joke compared to them.
5. rock solid.
6. user friendly. In normal circumstances there is no need to install a driver (gaming excluded).
7. easy. Be open minded and you will realize it.
8. doing the job. Yes, forget MS Office, Adobe, ... there are plenty apps doing the same job and better.
9. everywhere when it comes to security, availability, failover, business critical systems, ...
10. my favourite. I use it over 20 years now at home and job.
11. under YOUR control and not the other way round.
12. fast.
13. slim.
14. up-to-date.
15. ...
1. REAL freedom. You can change, share, improve, contribute, build your own, ...
2. Free. You don't need to pay for it.
3. Leader in server market.
4. Leader in virtualisation (VMware, Xen, KVM, ...). MS Hyper-V is a bad joke compared to them.
5. rock solid.
6. user friendly. In normal circumstances there is no need to install a driver (gaming excluded).
7. easy. Be open minded and you will realize it.
8. doing the job. Yes, forget MS Office, Adobe, ... there are plenty apps doing the same job and better.
9. everywhere when it comes to security, availability, failover, business critical systems, ...
10. my favourite. I use it over 20 years now at home and job.
11. under YOUR control and not the other way round.
12. fast.
13. slim.
14. up-to-date.
15. ...
1 Likes, Who?
I love the customization and automation offered by linux. The control one have over linux and great application base can not be found anywhere else. Linux is my first OS choice by FAR. So yes, I play on linux because i am not really keen on other os'es. Rebooting is tiresome and right now breaks my hearth -- to turn off my bellowed system and turn on some s*** :>. On the other hand for me playing in VM is just ridiculous.
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"Why I game on Linux" is, to me, like asking why I chose Linux to begin with. Why it is my OS of choice both in private and at work.
For me it's the freedom. The freedom to config your system to look and behave how you like, the openness, the wonderfully complex and organic nature of something as decentralized and in many ways chaotic as the Linux platform. Oh man, it's such a gorgeous beast.
I also love the professionalism at the core. The enterprise solutions. The way Linux defines and shapes the entire backbone of the IT industry. The many great companies that base their products and services on Linux.
And of course, the Linux community. There's rotten eggs here too, by all means, but overall I just feel that the Linux community is quite a few notches more intelligent than the rest. In all humbleness. :)
And finally, GAMING on Linux is awesome simply because I use Linux at work and at home, and having to reboot into that fugly Windows partition to play a game has never appealed to me ever, and even less now.
It's just so god damn awesome to see it finally happen, after all these years. I still have to pinch my arm on a regular basis.
And hey FERAL: You guys ROCK! Your Xcom port stands out as quite possibly the best port to Linux yet. Cheers!
For me it's the freedom. The freedom to config your system to look and behave how you like, the openness, the wonderfully complex and organic nature of something as decentralized and in many ways chaotic as the Linux platform. Oh man, it's such a gorgeous beast.
I also love the professionalism at the core. The enterprise solutions. The way Linux defines and shapes the entire backbone of the IT industry. The many great companies that base their products and services on Linux.
And of course, the Linux community. There's rotten eggs here too, by all means, but overall I just feel that the Linux community is quite a few notches more intelligent than the rest. In all humbleness. :)
And finally, GAMING on Linux is awesome simply because I use Linux at work and at home, and having to reboot into that fugly Windows partition to play a game has never appealed to me ever, and even less now.
It's just so god damn awesome to see it finally happen, after all these years. I still have to pinch my arm on a regular basis.
And hey FERAL: You guys ROCK! Your Xcom port stands out as quite possibly the best port to Linux yet. Cheers!
1 Likes, Who?
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