Doom (2016) could have been on Linux, id Software made a Linux version sound easy to do

Hi Liam,

Have you tried contacting John Carmack or anyone from id Software and ask why they are so anti Linux? Doom runs great on WINE and has performance parity with Windows when using Vulkan.

Linux gaming has improved a lot since Feb 2013.

Carmack left id a long time ago, and that's pretty much when they stopped caring about Linux. Id is now owned by publisher Zenimax which has shown absolutely zero interest in Linux, so don't get your hopes up. Even if id wanted to bring games to Linux, Zenimax probably wouldn't allow it.


Last edited by Brisse on 24 March 2018 at 2:29 pm UTC

ffs put Skyrim on linux too, Bethesda plz...

I had it gifted as refused to buy it but would purchase it for my daughter.

Hi Liam,

Have you tried contacting John Carmack or anyone from id Software and ask why they are so anti Linux? Doom runs great on WINE and has performance parity with Windows when using Vulkan.

Linux gaming has improved a lot since Feb 2013.

Carmack left id a long time ago, and that's pretty much when they stopped caring about Linux. Id is now owned by publisher Zenimax which has shown absolutely zero interest in Linux, so don't get your hopes up. Even if id wanted to bring games to Linux, Zenimax probably wouldn't allow it.

ZeniMax is all about taking a successful game of theirs and re-releasing it again and again (look at how many editions of Skyrim there are). They could do that with doing Ports too. Not sure how Valve would like that though :P

ZeniMax is all about taking a successful game of theirs and re-releasing it again and again (look at how many editions of Skyrim there are). They could do that with doing Ports too. Not sure how Valve would like that though :P

The problem for us is that they only go where the short term money is (just like Bethesda, EA, Activision, Ubisoft etc.), which is why they are currently porting games like Skyrim to the Nintento Switch which has been very successful. Games sell really well for the Switch right now, but like most consoles it will probably become obsolete within the next decade. I think those investing in Linux like Valve, Feral, Square Enix, Aspyr, VP etc. are in it for the long run. Linux as a platform will never go obsolete like a console will, and it's a good insurance policy in case M$ decides to do something foolish with Windows like locking out traditional apps in favor of UWP and Windows Store.

I bought this several months ago because it was on sale for an amazing price and because Bethesda and id were adamant about not bringing it to Linux - my first non-Linux game purchase in several years - and it runs incredibly well in Wine, but I would still love a native Linux build.

"So we did Linux dedicated servers for Doom 2016 and a few of us who are Linux heads in the studio decided, let's take it the full way. All we had to do was change the surface that we are creating for the Linux version and it just ran, out of the box and performance was equivalent...."

Words like that are the ones who make me open my veins.
If is that easy... why don't you do it??!?!?!?!?!


Last edited by tony1ab on 24 March 2018 at 11:46 pm UTC

I already bought it because it runs meanwhile perfectly under Wine. It's a pity it will never be officially released for Linux, because of Bethesdas NIH-Syndrom and Denuvo.

It's really sad to ear they have it, but they didn't release it because of some obscure decisions made by their (misinformed ?) management.
What a shame really... :(


Last edited by Spyker on 24 March 2018 at 5:07 pm UTC

I absolutely would buy Doom 2016 for Linux! :o

I already have no respect for id since they removed support from Quake Live. So I'm not surprised in the slightest that they wouldn't put in even the tiniest bit of effort toward a release on GNU/Linux.
They're definitely one company that I'll always have a sour taste in my mouth toward, almost no matter what they do at this point.


Last edited by ison111 on 24 March 2018 at 6:17 pm UTC

I see this as a good thing. First, if you want to play Doom on Linux. it runs great on Wine, for the exact same reasons the ID team got it running easily on Linux.

Second, this give a slap in the face of a small but vocal subset of the Linux community, made up of people who believe Linux ports are only a matter of engines, middleware, DirectX vs OpenGL, etc. There's nothing wrong with those Linux users, except they have to stop being so naive, hence this is why the ID move is badly needed for those users to wake up.

Steam on Linux has been around for a while now, people should start to understand that Linux ports don't get done because they are easy to make, because the game is using SDL or Vulkan or whatever other library native to Linux. Linux ports happen because business managers sign contracts to get the port done. That's it. Software developers do not make business decisions, releasing a Linux version of a game is a business decision, not a technical one.

I see this as a good thing. First, if you want to play Doom on Linux. it runs great on Wine, for the exact same reasons the ID team got it running easily on Linux.

I disagree, because Wine gaming doesn't in any way support Linux gaming.

Second, this give a slap in the face of a small but vocal subset of the Linux community, made up of people who believe Linux ports are only a matter of engines, middleware, DirectX vs OpenGL, etc. There's nothing wrong with those Linux users, except they have to stop being so naive, hence this is why the ID move is badly needed for those users to wake up.

Steam on Linux has been around for a while now, people should start to understand that Linux ports don't get done because they are easy to make, because the game is using SDL or Vulkan or whatever other library native to Linux. Linux ports happen because business managers sign contracts to get the port done. That's it. Software developers do not make business decisions, releasing a Linux version of a game is a business decision, not a technical one.

This however I do agree with, I've said so many times simply using Vulkan won't mean more Linux ports and I've had maaaany heated disagreements with me over it.

I see this as a good thing. First, if you want to play Doom on Linux. it runs great on Wine, for the exact same reasons the ID team got it running easily on Linux.

I disagree, because Wine gaming doesn't in any way support Linux gaming.

Second, this give a slap in the face of a small but vocal subset of the Linux community, made up of people who believe Linux ports are only a matter of engines, middleware, DirectX vs OpenGL, etc. There's nothing wrong with those Linux users, except they have to stop being so naive, hence this is why the ID move is badly needed for those users to wake up.

Steam on Linux has been around for a while now, people should start to understand that Linux ports don't get done because they are easy to make, because the game is using SDL or Vulkan or whatever other library native to Linux. Linux ports happen because business managers sign contracts to get the port done. That's it. Software developers do not make business decisions, releasing a Linux version of a game is a business decision, not a technical one.

This however I do agree with, I've said so many times simply using Vulkan won't mean more Linux ports and I've had maaaany heated disagreements with me over it.

He is the Lutris maintainer so it is very normal to see him advocating for Wine.


Last edited by Leopard on 24 March 2018 at 6:38 pm UTC

Day-1 purchase for me the moment that happens.

Until then...No Tux No Bucks.

I can understand iD don't want the burden of supporting a Linux version, but why don't they give this job to Feral Interactive then? It's their job, both iD, Feral and the Linux gamers will be happy about that! It's an f'ing win-win situation.

Just do it already!


Last edited by Creak on 24 March 2018 at 7:23 pm UTC

I do believe that being able to play Doom on Linux benefits Linux gaming overall. Making the Linux gaming library much larger by also including games that were not originally programmed to run natively will inevitably make the player base grow, thus making Linux matter more to decision makers.

The strategy of telling publishers "we're not buying your game unless there's a Linux version" doesn't really work. A lot of Linux ports we do have were made out of kindness, passion, curiosity, geekiness or a combination of those. Of course, we also do have ports that are driven by contracts with publishers but outside Feral, I can't think of anyone releasing big titles recently.

I'm not really advocating for the use of Wine, I'm advocating to use Linux as the extremely powerful OS is it, one that can run anything you throw at it. In 2018, there has been a lot of exciting news regarding DXVK, Mesa, etc but not so much regarding native games (at least we're getting a Tomb Raider soon). My hope is that, by the end of the year, Wine and DXVK will have become so good that the overall Linux user base will grow substantially, forcing publishers to pay attention to the platform.

But whether or not publishers support Linux, we can still play (almost) anything we want, because Linux (with the overall Open Source world) can do pretty much anything.
I'm honestly more concerned by Epic Games actively avoiding fully getting behind Linux than by ID Software having an unreleased Linux version of DOOM, I finished DOOM already, on Linux, at 200fps, using Vulkan. I loved it.


Last edited by strycore on 24 March 2018 at 11:09 pm UTC

Come on people... We talking about Bethesda or ZeniMax or whatever here people. Do not give any hope. Probably PS4, XB1 and Switch crossplay are more important to them than Linux.

For me this is one of many examples of contributing "middle finger" to free software. But don't worry, they can choose either:

- keep going war on piracy with dying Denuvo and CPU-killing anti tampering virtualization which piss everyone off and encourage more gamers to finding "unofficial" copies (a.k.a losing customers) or;

- embrace Linux gaming as new market that piracy is rare for many obvious reasons, willing to help contributing to solving bugs and problems and also successfully convert former pirate to support devs/studios (eg. Me).

No love lost.

let me just start cooking this conspiracy bacon
it's because big publishers want to help microsoft create a pc gaming monopoly

Why the eff would they do that? You know that M$ is also a game publisher, right? That means they are competition. Also, M$ has enjoyed PC-gaming monopoly for decades.


Last edited by Brisse on 24 March 2018 at 7:44 pm UTC

let me just start cooking this conspiracy bacon
it's because big publishers want to help microsoft create a pc gaming monopoly

No , they don't want that. But they don't want to move on to more secure solutions either because of this MS threat.

Because it didn't happen yet.

A wise man once said this:

"Installing Linux is sort of the equivalent of moving to Canada when one doesn’t like US political trends.

Nope, we’ve got to fight for the freedoms we have today, where we have them today."

Tim Sweeney-2018

Let's share some Ninja plays Fortnite videos qq