No Man's Sky runs very nicely on Linux with Steam Play, huge online feature update and VR support coming

Note: if Liam implemented a filtering system, I would definitely skip articles with "retro" or "pixel art"...

Haha, now that's one filter I'd use too! I'd rather 100 emulator/Proton posts than a single pixel art article :) :P To each their own...

It reminds me of a trend in auto fandom online. There's a car aftermarket trade show called SEMA and many of the vehicles displayed run towards the, ah, garish. Each year, all the major car blogs, websites, etc dutifully cover the many SEMA intros, and for a solid 4-6 days we're all inundated by photo after photo and article after article about these garish SEMA creations. It's soul killing. I'd estimate a solid 60% of car readers just check-out for that SEMA week and come back later, and there's always a big argument on site forums about whether these sites should cover SEMA at all, with passionate pro and con debaters every year...

I guess Proton is our SEMA (or maybe it's pixel art)...

Ay more car people :3

But in terms of should this be covered, I think its a waste of time to even argue about it. I think most of us are pretty opinionated and I've seen the same arguments from the same people for forever. I dont think many of us are even open for changing our minds on the matter so lets just let liam cover what he wants and if you dont like it then maybe this isnt the right news site for you.

If we let the purists have their way, Linux would have no GUI. Nobody is forcing you to play Windows games on Linux. I believe in the utilitarian approach - if it works then it's good. Liam should probably add some filter on the home page, so the "no tux, no bucks crowd" can only read about native games and then all will be happy. For too long the Linux community has been held back by having to cater to OS hardliners and their politics. The more Linux can do - the better.

OK, I have no problem with the article, but this is just nonsense. It's intentional nonsense actually--the writer is clearly trying to conflate two groups (people who like command lines and FLOSS people) in order to smear one of them. So, what Aristotle would call false rhetoric, a sophist trick, and what moderns would call dishonest bullshit.
In any case the truth is pretty much the opposite--had there been some way to just emulate the Windows desktop, and the anti-purists had their way, Linux would have no GUI of its own. And then every time Windows changed its GUI, the Linux one would have broken. And then Windows would have regularly made little changes to its GUI that were just enough to fuck us over. It would have been oh so pragmatic.

There is actual practicality in the world, but when people parade their practicality or pragmatism as against ideology or politics, they are generally being neither practical nor pragmatic. Nearly everything that is practically good about Linux is a result of the politics behind Linux--Free, open source, indeed copylefted software and its philosophy. If it were not for that, Linux would phone home, and/or it would be a walled garden, and/or it would get warped to work with only the maker's hardware, and/or it would spy on you, and/or it would come with masses of preinstalled spyware, nagware and general annoyingware, et cetera et cetera. It wouldn't be adaptable or fixable or have spawned the Beowulf cluster or run on Raspberri Pis. Proprietary Linux would not be Linux and would not be nearly as practically, pragmatically useful. That's why all the proprietary Unixes died.

It is foolish and impractical to forget the practical importance of the politics underlying Linux. That's how you lose what we have. So-called pragmatists of this sort are not being pragmatic, just too mentally lazy to think about the implications of their stance, so they go with what's easiest today.

"Mentally lazy"? Fancy way of calling me stupid. And you even used bold text! Hope you didn't hyperventilate too much.

If we let the purists have their way, Linux would have no GUI. Nobody is forcing you to play Windows games on Linux. I believe in the utilitarian approach - if it works then it's good. Liam should probably add some filter on the home page, so the "no tux, no bucks crowd" can only read about native games and then all will be happy. For too long the Linux community has been held back by having to cater to OS hardliners and their politics. The more Linux can do - the better.

OK, I have no problem with the article, but this is just nonsense. It's intentional nonsense actually--the writer is clearly trying to conflate two groups (people who like command lines and FLOSS people) in order to smear one of them. So, what Aristotle would call false rhetoric, a sophist trick, and what moderns would call dishonest bullshit.
In any case the truth is pretty much the opposite--had there been some way to just emulate the Windows desktop, and the anti-purists had their way, Linux would have no GUI of its own. And then every time Windows changed its GUI, the Linux one would have broken. And then Windows would have regularly made little changes to its GUI that were just enough to fuck us over. It would have been oh so pragmatic.

There is actual practicality in the world, but when people parade their practicality or pragmatism as against ideology or politics, they are generally being neither practical nor pragmatic. Nearly everything that is practically good about Linux is a result of the politics behind Linux--Free, open source, indeed copylefted software and its philosophy. If it were not for that, Linux would phone home, and/or it would be a walled garden, and/or it would get warped to work with only the maker's hardware, and/or it would spy on you, and/or it would come with masses of preinstalled spyware, nagware and general annoyingware, et cetera et cetera. It wouldn't be adaptable or fixable or have spawned the Beowulf cluster or run on Raspberri Pis. Proprietary Linux would not be Linux and would not be nearly as practically, pragmatically useful. That's why all the proprietary Unixes died.

It is foolish and impractical to forget the practical importance of the politics underlying Linux. That's how you lose what we have. So-called pragmatists of this sort are not being pragmatic, just too mentally lazy to think about the implications of their stance, so they go with what's easiest today.

"Mentally lazy"? Fancy way of calling me stupid. And you even used bold text! Hope you didn't hyperventilate too much.

There's a difference. Mentally lazy means you could think, but you choose not to bother. It's a moral, not an intellectual failing. Which apparently holds true again in your reply.

Some people seem to think by sniffing their own farts and acting all high and mighty by not buying anything that isn't native linux will somehow change the situation for linux gamers...I'm here to tell you, IT WON'T

Until Linux gets a PLAYER BASE of %5-10, the majority of developers will not care. So I say just play what you want, how you want, regardless of native support. If anything that will get us to that %5-10 faster and only THEN will developers start releasing more natives.

Essentially when it comes to Linux, the chicken(player) comes first. Then eventually developers (egg) will come later. No amount of soap box fart sniffing will change that!


Last edited by TheRiddick on 27 Mar 2019 at 12:51 am UTC

I just purchased this game because of this article.

I purchased this game because the article tells me:

• It's good


• It runs on Linux

How it runs on Linux doesn't matter one iota, as long as it runs. Yes I will still always prefer an actual native port, but for (many varied) reasons that isn't always possible.

I'm glad this was posted because my Windows gaming buddy just talked about No Man's Sky a couple of days ago and mentioned how much it has changed, and that it was fun now. He also said that there was decent cooperative play as well. That made me think, "Huh, I wonder if that runs in Wine or Proton... probably not." And I never checked. It's nice to hear that it does indeed work in Proton. I am still preferring GoG + Wine for the very few Windows titles I play, but it's nice to know there's an easy Steam option.

Will I pick it up? Well, probably not soon. My buddy and I are already trying to complete Dungeons 3 and Torchlight II before we get Division 2 on PS4. After that, perhaps.

Be warned that for co-op you need to be on the same platform, where GOG and Steam are a different platform.
I hope they change this with the announced online variant.

There's a difference. Mentally lazy means you could think, but you choose not to bother. It's a moral, not an intellectual failing. Which apparently holds true again in your reply.

Somebody get the fire extinguisher - I've been torched by all these sick burns *sarcasm*. I'd rather I end this before it gets personal and Liam has to intervene. Good day to you.

Some people seem to think by sniffing their own farts and acting all high and mighty by not buying anything that isn't native linux will somehow change the situation for linux gamers...I'm here to tell you, IT WON'T

Until Linux gets a PLAYER BASE of %5-10, the majority of developers will not care. So I say just play what you want, how you want, regardless of native support. If anything that will get us to that %5-10 faster and only THEN will developers start releasing more natives.

Essentially when it comes to Linux, the chicken(player) comes first. Then eventually developers (egg) will come later. No amount of soap box fart sniffing will change that!

You have a smidgen of the truth here but you are making false deductions from it.
Yes, Linux needs a player base of 5-10% to get the majority of developers to care about developing for it. Yes, that means Proton is very important. Ideally, Proton should develop quickly and robustly to the point where most games Just Work on Linux, so that it is easy and painless for Windows (and Mac) users to switch over.

So it's reasonable that those switchers, if they start to materialize, should use Proton.

But that does not mean that it's tactically ideal for people who already use Linux and care about it to use Proton. All else being equal, a native game is better than a Proton game; we're trying to get to a place where all new games are made natively for Linux. To get there, people releasing native games have to find some advantage in doing so. Currently, the impact of existing Linux gamers wanting native games is not huge, but it is there--we do after all see a fair number of games released for Linux at the moment. If there were no Linux gamers buying native games, there would be no native games.

If everyone currently on Linux stopped preferring native games and just played Proton stuff, that wouldn't drive any increase in Linux desktop use--these are people who already use Linux. But it would remove any incentive to release native games.

Now it's a marginal effect, and of course it's quite important that Proton sales do count as Linux sales. I don't think it's terrible for people to use Proton, and at some point I will probably find a reason to myself. Maybe when I get a better computer. And it's good that some existing Linux people use Proton if only to get it properly tested and help drive improvement. But there's no reason to make stupid fart jokes about people who don't want to use it; no, their position is not irrelevant, you're just making a category error in imagining that existing users using Proton more will somehow drive new user adoption. The ideal for the future of Linux gaming is probably a strong but not absolute preference for native games, so there's still a reason for native releases but people are helping Proton improve.

I love posts about SteamPlay!
Because there was no single title over 6 months released on Linux I had interest.

I also think that googles Stadia will be successfull - they have the money, the resources and manpower. Valve will get hard times soon.

Should google be successful NO one will need a gaming rig anymore... you simply buy a cool and big TV and their "Stadia" client comes preinstalled!!!
This is the future and as long as I KNOW that all this runs on Linux (and Debian) makes me feel happy/comfortable.

These are my 5 cents.

I would never give up my compute power. IMO that's just maddness.

I understand the importance of Steam Play and Proton, but is this really Linux gaming newsworthy? I personally don't think so, but I'd like to hear other options.

Well the website is called GamingOnLinux, not NativeGamingOnLinux. So yeah, it's newsworthy. In addition, most people just want to play games on Linux, regardless of being native or not.

Only covering native titles would be very... narrow, and simply not enough. Steam Play is here to stay and it is only getting bigger. It won't be too long until the bulk of the Linux gaming will be done through Steam Play.

Simply not enough? I don't think this site covered non-native games before proton. They covered wine releases but I don't ever recall seeing an article regarding a game on wine.

In my opinion voting for Linux with your wallet through proton is kinda like sending mixed messages. "I'm here give me games" but also "I'll take non-native games so don't bother porting."

It's voting against Linux support, really, because you're showing them that you're on Linux but will pay them regardless for a Windows game and regardless of the fact they aren't supporting Linux, like you said.

That thought completely ignores the fact that you only pay for the game if it works on Linux.
Nobody would pay for a Windows-only game planning to play it via Steam Play if it doesn't run via Proton. Or they do, notice that it won't run and refund - no money lost in that case.
Either way will show both Valve and the developer that their game is being used (or at least tried) on Linux. Which is an infinite amount more than what would have happened without Wine (or rather Proton), in which case the dev never would have known Linux even existed.

It also ignores that the ONLY way for Linux market share growth (within gaming) is supporting as many titles as possible. And for a user thinking about using Linux for a change, and most already using Linux, it doesn't matter in the end HOW that happens (which is why services like Stadia are an interesting take as well).
Natively, this will simply never happen. There will be the odd natively developed game, as it has always been, and that's cool, but that has never lifted the Linux percentage by any significant amount.

In the end, all that matters is that you get to play the game. Convenience wins, usually.

I'm certain we'll see (hopefully before 2030 in Valve time...) some statistics by Valve showing what effect Steam Play had.
I do not see a single possible negative outcome of it. Even if it resulted in fewer native games, the number would be offset incredibly by the amount supported via Steam Play. The whitelisted games alone would probably already have that effect.

Paying for Proton games directly hurts you by not giving you support like normal gamers get, and it sends the exact wrong message and discourages future Linux support because you're decreasing the number of gamers willing to pay for Linux support by paying for Windows support instead.

That is incredibly theoretical to the point of irrelevance.
What support are you talking about? The vast majority of bugs are game logic related or appear on other platforms as well. The other kind of bugs will give the ProtonDB rating a lower score so only very few people are going to "fall for it" anyway.

You don't see reduced native games as a problem? Really? So you don't care if Linux just becomes a kerenel for Win32? I guess the upside is it's FOSS Win32? You still need the MS DX runtime and MS VC++ redist which are proprietary and developed by, you know, MS. I think proton is a good market share driver, I really do, but I also think it's dangerous if it starts lowering native releases because I don't want to depend on Win32/Wine for my games.

In my opinion voting for Linux with your wallet through proton is kinda like sending mixed messages. "I'm here give me games" but also "I'll take non-native games so don't bother porting."

It's voting against Linux support, really, because you're showing them that you're on Linux but will pay them regardless for a Windows game and regardless of the fact they aren't supporting Linux, like you said.

That thought completely ignores the fact that you only pay for the game if it works on Linux.
Nobody would pay for a Windows-only game planning to play it via Steam Play if it doesn't run via Proton. Or they do, notice that it won't run and refund - no money lost in that case.
Either way will show both Valve and the developer that their game is being used (or at least tried) on Linux. Which is an infinite amount more than what would have happened without Wine (or rather Proton), in which case the dev never would have known Linux even existed.

It also ignores that the ONLY way for Linux market share growth (within gaming) is supporting as many titles as possible. And for a user thinking about using Linux for a change, and most already using Linux, it doesn't matter in the end HOW that happens (which is why services like Stadia are an interesting take as well).
Natively, this will simply never happen. There will be the odd natively developed game, as it has always been, and that's cool, but that has never lifted the Linux percentage by any significant amount.

In the end, all that matters is that you get to play the game. Convenience wins, usually.

I'm certain we'll see (hopefully before 2030 in Valve time...) some statistics by Valve showing what effect Steam Play had.
I do not see a single possible negative outcome of it. Even if it resulted in fewer native games, the number would be offset incredibly by the amount supported via Steam Play. The whitelisted games alone would probably already have that effect.

Paying for Proton games directly hurts you by not giving you support like normal gamers get, and it sends the exact wrong message and discourages future Linux support because you're decreasing the number of gamers willing to pay for Linux support by paying for Windows support instead.

That is incredibly theoretical to the point of irrelevance.
What support are you talking about? The vast majority of bugs are game logic related or appear on other platforms as well. The other kind of bugs will give the ProtonDB rating a lower score so only very few people are going to "fall for it" anyway.

You don't see reduced native games as a problem? Really? So you don't care if Linux just becomes a kerenel for Win32? I guess the upside is it's FOSS Win32? You still need the MS DX runtime and MS VC++ redist which are proprietary and developed by, you know, MS. I think proton is a good market share driver, I really do, but I also think it's dangerous if it starts lowering native releases because I don't want to depend on Win32/Wine for my games.

Seriously where does this attitude come from? This attitude you have and plenty of others, is as if we had a huge amount of support before Steam Play and the fact is we really didn't and still don't.

Aspyr practically stopped, Virtual Programming don't do much either and when they do it's pretty poor, Feral gradually slowed down too and...you can see where I am going right? I really don't see this magical land where Linux ever had a lot of support to begin with. We struggle to even get a lot of good indies to support us and when they do, the answer 99% of the time is that it wasn't actually worth it.

I think people seriously need a reality check on all this.

Native is good, Steam Play is good. Let people enjoy gaming on Linux. That's what we stand for and will continue to do so.

In my opinion voting for Linux with your wallet through proton is kinda like sending mixed messages. "I'm here give me games" but also "I'll take non-native games so don't bother porting."

It's voting against Linux support, really, because you're showing them that you're on Linux but will pay them regardless for a Windows game and regardless of the fact they aren't supporting Linux, like you said.

That thought completely ignores the fact that you only pay for the game if it works on Linux.
Nobody would pay for a Windows-only game planning to play it via Steam Play if it doesn't run via Proton. Or they do, notice that it won't run and refund - no money lost in that case.
Either way will show both Valve and the developer that their game is being used (or at least tried) on Linux. Which is an infinite amount more than what would have happened without Wine (or rather Proton), in which case the dev never would have known Linux even existed.

It also ignores that the ONLY way for Linux market share growth (within gaming) is supporting as many titles as possible. And for a user thinking about using Linux for a change, and most already using Linux, it doesn't matter in the end HOW that happens (which is why services like Stadia are an interesting take as well).
Natively, this will simply never happen. There will be the odd natively developed game, as it has always been, and that's cool, but that has never lifted the Linux percentage by any significant amount.

In the end, all that matters is that you get to play the game. Convenience wins, usually.

I'm certain we'll see (hopefully before 2030 in Valve time...) some statistics by Valve showing what effect Steam Play had.
I do not see a single possible negative outcome of it. Even if it resulted in fewer native games, the number would be offset incredibly by the amount supported via Steam Play. The whitelisted games alone would probably already have that effect.

Paying for Proton games directly hurts you by not giving you support like normal gamers get, and it sends the exact wrong message and discourages future Linux support because you're decreasing the number of gamers willing to pay for Linux support by paying for Windows support instead.

That is incredibly theoretical to the point of irrelevance.
What support are you talking about? The vast majority of bugs are game logic related or appear on other platforms as well. The other kind of bugs will give the ProtonDB rating a lower score so only very few people are going to "fall for it" anyway.

You don't see reduced native games as a problem? Really? So you don't care if Linux just becomes a kerenel for Win32? I guess the upside is it's FOSS Win32? You still need the MS DX runtime and MS VC++ redist which are proprietary and developed by, you know, MS. I think proton is a good market share driver, I really do, but I also think it's dangerous if it starts lowering native releases because I don't want to depend on Win32/Wine for my games.

Seriously where does this attitude come from? This attitude you have and plenty of others, is as if we had a huge amount of support before Steam Play and the fact is we really didn't and still don't.

Aspyr practically stopped, Virtual Programming don't do much either and when they do it's pretty poor, Feral gradually slowed down too and...you can see where I am going right? I really don't see this magical land where Linux ever had a lot of support to begin with. We struggle to even get a lot of good indies to support us and when they do, the answer 99% of the time is that it wasn't actually worth it.

I think people seriously need a reality check on all this.

Native is good, Steam Play is good. Let people enjoy gaming on Linux. That's what we stand for and will continue to do so.

The attitude? It's because I don't want to game in a Windows emulator on Linux...that's what wine is. It doesn't emulate hardware but it's a windows emulator. I came to Linux to get away from windows and Wine is just FOSS windows without the kernel.

In my opinion voting for Linux with your wallet through proton is kinda like sending mixed messages. "I'm here give me games" but also "I'll take non-native games so don't bother porting."

It's voting against Linux support, really, because you're showing them that you're on Linux but will pay them regardless for a Windows game and regardless of the fact they aren't supporting Linux, like you said.

That thought completely ignores the fact that you only pay for the game if it works on Linux.
Nobody would pay for a Windows-only game planning to play it via Steam Play if it doesn't run via Proton. Or they do, notice that it won't run and refund - no money lost in that case.
Either way will show both Valve and the developer that their game is being used (or at least tried) on Linux. Which is an infinite amount more than what would have happened without Wine (or rather Proton), in which case the dev never would have known Linux even existed.

It also ignores that the ONLY way for Linux market share growth (within gaming) is supporting as many titles as possible. And for a user thinking about using Linux for a change, and most already using Linux, it doesn't matter in the end HOW that happens (which is why services like Stadia are an interesting take as well).
Natively, this will simply never happen. There will be the odd natively developed game, as it has always been, and that's cool, but that has never lifted the Linux percentage by any significant amount.

In the end, all that matters is that you get to play the game. Convenience wins, usually.

I'm certain we'll see (hopefully before 2030 in Valve time...) some statistics by Valve showing what effect Steam Play had.
I do not see a single possible negative outcome of it. Even if it resulted in fewer native games, the number would be offset incredibly by the amount supported via Steam Play. The whitelisted games alone would probably already have that effect.

Paying for Proton games directly hurts you by not giving you support like normal gamers get, and it sends the exact wrong message and discourages future Linux support because you're decreasing the number of gamers willing to pay for Linux support by paying for Windows support instead.

That is incredibly theoretical to the point of irrelevance.
What support are you talking about? The vast majority of bugs are game logic related or appear on other platforms as well. The other kind of bugs will give the ProtonDB rating a lower score so only very few people are going to "fall for it" anyway.

You don't see reduced native games as a problem? Really? So you don't care if Linux just becomes a kerenel for Win32? I guess the upside is it's FOSS Win32? You still need the MS DX runtime and MS VC++ redist which are proprietary and developed by, you know, MS. I think proton is a good market share driver, I really do, but I also think it's dangerous if it starts lowering native releases because I don't want to depend on Win32/Wine for my games.

Seriously where does this attitude come from? This attitude you have and plenty of others, is as if we had a huge amount of support before Steam Play and the fact is we really didn't and still don't.

Aspyr practically stopped, Virtual Programming don't do much either and when they do it's pretty poor, Feral gradually slowed down too and...you can see where I am going right? I really don't see this magical land where Linux ever had a lot of support to begin with. We struggle to even get a lot of good indies to support us and when they do, the answer 99% of the time is that it wasn't actually worth it.

I think people seriously need a reality check on all this.

Native is good, Steam Play is good. Let people enjoy gaming on Linux. That's what we stand for and will continue to do so.

One other thing I want to be clear about. These are my personal feelings and stance however like I said I think proton is a good market share driver. These are my beliefs but I still tell my Windows friends to switch, I use proton as a selling point, if they ask about a game I'll look it up on proton db for them. Proton is better than windows in every way and I will gladly use it as a market share driver. I just personally have mixed feelings about it. I personally think it's a double edged sword however I'm not willing to cut off my nose to spite my face. I'm just stating my issues with it. Yes complaining about it and then recommending it is hypocritical but I guess that just shows the state of Linux gaming. I want it to be better than it is :/. I also wish there were more FOSS games but there aren't.


Last edited by Scoopta on 27 Mar 2019 at 6:03 pm UTC

Yes complaining about it and then recommending it is hypocritical but I guess that just shows the state of Linux gaming.

I think you made my whole point for me there ;)

Yes complaining about it and then recommending it is hypocritical but I guess that just shows the state of Linux gaming.

I think you made my whole point for me there ;)

Lol I'm sure I did.

Just to put things into perspective, for people worried we're suddenly going to be covering 100% Steam Play stuff.

Only 10 articles about it this entire month against about 173 in total, not exactly a dramatic shift.

In my opinion voting for Linux with your wallet through proton is kinda like sending mixed messages. "I'm here give me games" but also "I'll take non-native games so don't bother porting."

It's voting against Linux support, really, because you're showing them that you're on Linux but will pay them regardless for a Windows game and regardless of the fact they aren't supporting Linux, like you said.

That thought completely ignores the fact that you only pay for the game if it works on Linux.
Nobody would pay for a Windows-only game planning to play it via Steam Play if it doesn't run via Proton. Or they do, notice that it won't run and refund - no money lost in that case.
Either way will show both Valve and the developer that their game is being used (or at least tried) on Linux. Which is an infinite amount more than what would have happened without Wine (or rather Proton), in which case the dev never would have known Linux even existed.

It also ignores that the ONLY way for Linux market share growth (within gaming) is supporting as many titles as possible. And for a user thinking about using Linux for a change, and most already using Linux, it doesn't matter in the end HOW that happens (which is why services like Stadia are an interesting take as well).
Natively, this will simply never happen. There will be the odd natively developed game, as it has always been, and that's cool, but that has never lifted the Linux percentage by any significant amount.

In the end, all that matters is that you get to play the game. Convenience wins, usually.

I'm certain we'll see (hopefully before 2030 in Valve time...) some statistics by Valve showing what effect Steam Play had.
I do not see a single possible negative outcome of it. Even if it resulted in fewer native games, the number would be offset incredibly by the amount supported via Steam Play. The whitelisted games alone would probably already have that effect.

Paying for Proton games directly hurts you by not giving you support like normal gamers get, and it sends the exact wrong message and discourages future Linux support because you're decreasing the number of gamers willing to pay for Linux support by paying for Windows support instead.

That is incredibly theoretical to the point of irrelevance.
What support are you talking about? The vast majority of bugs are game logic related or appear on other platforms as well. The other kind of bugs will give the ProtonDB rating a lower score so only very few people are going to "fall for it" anyway.

You don't see reduced native games as a problem? Really? So you don't care if Linux just becomes a kerenel for Win32? I guess the upside is it's FOSS Win32? You still need the MS DX runtime and MS VC++ redist which are proprietary and developed by, you know, MS. I think proton is a good market share driver, I really do, but I also think it's dangerous if it starts lowering native releases because I don't want to depend on Win32/Wine for my games.

Seriously where does this attitude come from? This attitude you have and plenty of others, is as if we had a huge amount of support before Steam Play and the fact is we really didn't and still don't.

Aspyr practically stopped, Virtual Programming don't do much either and when they do it's pretty poor, Feral gradually slowed down too and...you can see where I am going right? I really don't see this magical land where Linux ever had a lot of support to begin with. We struggle to even get a lot of good indies to support us and when they do, the answer 99% of the time is that it wasn't actually worth it.

I think people seriously need a reality check on all this.

Native is good, Steam Play is good. Let people enjoy gaming on Linux. That's what we stand for and will continue to do so.

Ultimately I've been thinking something is going to have to happen on the hardware end. Things like Proton, and streaming things like Stadia making the OS irrelevant, and good desktops, and a solid non-game software ecosystem, and good device support, are all lowering the barriers to adoption. But in the end, the barrier can be really low and nobody will bother as long as Windows comes preloaded on everything. What those low barriers to adoption do mean is that if someone decides to market desktoppish (or console-ish eg Steam Machine) hardware of some sort with Linux on it, people who buy the stuff won't have regrets, and so Linux itself won't be a barrier to sales.


Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 27 Mar 2019 at 7:09 pm UTC

There is ONE thing to remind yourselves about Stadia. That's a service and the game itself may/may not be an exclusive...but Google is sure as HELL not going to want or try to run Windows on their Stadia server farms. They're going to want Linux systems there...and there is a drive for that sort of thing that will drive those solutions, Proton or Direct Native (My title is going to be just that...) will be coming forth as a result of this.