NVIDIA GeForce NOW adds Chromebook support, so you can run it on Linux too

actually steam will count the sale as an linux sale, if you play it on proton

Means nothing. British people have a proverb starting with "If it flies like a duck…" :)
All most developers care about is whether a user purchases their product or not. And in Proton's case, a user purchases their Windows product, so it is for all intents and purposes (s)he is a Windows user. How (s)he will play the game afterwards is of no importance. Yes, some developers are willing to "support" Proton™. While others are more than happy to mock "Linux gamers" on Twitter or in interviews. As I've said, it all comes down to the person responsible. What would happen it Proton™ did not exist? Maybe that kind developer that "supports" it would make a native version instead? Who knows?

wrong, you DO pay another licence.
it may be cheaper because nvidia buy in a lot with a bunch of licences, but you're still paying.
nvidia cant make unlimited copies of an software and distribute it just because you're streaming it from an vm running in their servers, instead of using it yourself.

Hm… This has some weight. Now, this is a valid point. Sort of "Windows tax" included into GFN subscription fee.
Yes, in this case, unless you opt for free trial, you support Windows to a small degree. But again, this also goes for pre-installed Windows on notebooks. I'd say, a minor evil for a Greater Good.

they ARE payig microsoft for each user, either an rent of an windows licence or an entire licence, but they are.

Exactly the point. MS is getting paid, it's not even a question. Also, I'd expect it's not a regular Windows license fee, but some server type one which would be higher.


Last edited by Shmerl on 18 August 2020 at 8:54 pm UTC

Works like a charm!

why are they doing this? just make it available in browser for everyone and dump the client

why are they doing this? just make it available in browser for everyone and dump the client

Small steps, small steps.
It was stated in the article that getting everything to work in a browser is the plan. nVivida probably wants to localize and eliminate problems in a more controlled environment before broadening the support.

Maybe that kind developer that "supports" it would make a native version instead? Who knows?

well, we got less native AAA games after valve anounced proton, but on the other hand, we can play more stuff thanks to proton.

i dont know if the developers were going to drop support for linux anyway or proton was the issue.

. But again, this also goes for pre-installed Windows on notebooks.

yes, but we were comparing proton to gfn, not proton to oem windows...

i dont know if the developers were going to drop support for linux anyway or proton was the issue.

Agreed, guessing "What Have been if…" is a mug's game.

yes, but we were comparing proton to gfn, not proton to oem windows...

Correct. And that is a downside.
On the plus side, though, GFN provides support for some games that are not (and will likely never be) available trough Proton™, like Fortnite® and all "anticheat" games.
So, overall GFN is net-positive for Linux.


Last edited by Alm888 on 18 August 2020 at 9:41 pm UTC

i dont know if the developers were going to drop support for linux anyway or proton was the issue.

Agreed, guessing "What Have been if…" is a mug's game.

yes, but we were comparing proton to gfn, not proton to oem windows...

Correct. And that is a downside.
On the plus side, though, GFN provides support for some games that are not (and will likely never be) available trough Proton™, like Fortnite® and all "anticheat" games.
So, overall GFN is net-positive for Linux.

cloud gaming in general has some issues like:
being an perfect DRM (if the game is cloud exclusive)
killing video game preservation (if the game is exclusive to the cloud and the game/service is discontinued)

those are serious issues, but on the flip side, we can find the perfect anti cheat system, without putting backdoors in the players machines.

actually steam will count the sale as an linux sale, if you play it on proton

Means nothing. British people have a proverb starting with "If it flies like a duck…" :)
All most developers care about is whether a user purchases their product or not. And in Proton's case, a user purchases their Windows product, so it is for all intents and purposes (s)he is a Windows user. How (s)he will play the game afterwards is of no importance. Yes, some developers are willing to "support" Proton™. While others are more than happy to mock "Linux gamers" on Twitter or in interviews. As I've said, it all comes down to the person responsible. What would happen it Proton™ did not exist? Maybe that kind developer that "supports" it would make a native version instead? Who knows?

Then it is the developers fault for wrongly evaluating market data. Right now, it doesn't matter to the devs because it is such a small percentage that it doesn't make sense financially to care about the 0.05% market which plays their game using Proton. But imagine if it was something like 20%. Would the developer take this into consideration when developing their new game? Dumb developer won't. Smart developer surely will. They would make sure their next game works on Proton as well. Or they might even decide to develop a Linux native version because of this data.

Of course, that is hypothetical scenario, which is far from the current situation. But that doesn't make me responsible for a developer wrongly evaluating me as Windows user, just because I play their game using a compatibility layer, when they clearly have access to this data.

I like to think of GeForce NOW as a tool to play games that currently don't run in Proton / Wine, especially due to Anti-Cheat. Otherwise, use native ports and Wine/Proton whenever you can.

Here is a list of games to consider. There are a few "Native Linux" games that work well and are listed. Those and can be ignored and played bare-metal.

The GFN in Wine on Lutris has also had big improvement in bandwidth utilization and steam sync is fixed.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Hj0n6WiYMbXOq6TlFRmxvcDque5SZN7CDKyZ-pm7gRk/edit#gid=0

If anything is missing on the list, please help us get it added.


Last edited by Xaero_Vincent on 19 August 2020 at 2:17 am UTC

I like to think of GeForce NOW as a tool to play games that currently don't run in Proton / Wine, especially due to Anti-Cheat. Otherwise, use native ports and Wine/Proton whenever you can.

Well, if you think one step further, why they work through it, it's because they run on Windows.

Proton™

This is really obnoxious.

cloud gaming in general has some issues like:
being an perfect DRM (if the game is cloud exclusive)
killing video game preservation (if the game is exclusive to the cloud and the game/service is discontinued)

those are serious issues, but on the flip side, we can find the perfect anti cheat system, without putting backdoors in the players machines.

That is a particular case of a greater problem: server-side dependency.
What if a game is a native Linux one (like "War Thunder"), but is solely multiplayer with server-based infrastructure? If the servers get offline, that's it.
Or if a game uses Valves' servers for match-making. If those go puff, that's it (number two).
In order to circumvent this problem, we need to own games in full, including network infrastructure.
Streaming gaming is just one small step to the logical conclusion: games as a service. Some say we are already there.
I loathe DRM, so I personally will not use Steam (till it drops its DRM client and server-shackles, which probably will never happen)., but it is a general consensus, that the ability to play has a priority.
So, gaming first, ideological preferences second. If you need Proton™ to play a game, so be it. If you need Stadia™, so be it. If you need GeForce Now, so be it. If you need PlayStation 5, so be it.
But if one insists on ideological part of things, then I do not understand this faint-heartedness, bashing one thing (GeForce Now), but totally tolerating the other (Steam). It is either/or in my opinion.
At least, GeForce Now™ is better than Stadia™: it relies on ones' owned games on other stores and provides just streaming service, not "games as a service".

…a developer wrongly evaluating me as Windows user…

Oh, come on! They are not wrong. In a financial way of thinking, at least. They are making Windows™ games and you are purchasing their Windows™ games. And everyone is happy. They will not lose you as a customer if they target only Windows™ in their future products. In this light, technical details are of no importance. Let Valve figure them out.

Oh, come on! They are not wrong. In a financial way of thinking, at least. They are making Windows™ games and you are purchasing their Windows™ games. And everyone is happy. They will not lose you as a customer if they target only Windows™ in their future products. In this light, technical details are of no importance. Let Valve figure them out.

Yes they will, if their new game doesn't work through Proton. Or at the very least, I will not buy the game on day 1, but wait until it works in Proton and buy it on sale. Either way, they are losing money on me due to only targeting Windows. Proving they are wrong in financial way of thinking.

Does not seem to work on my Fedora 32 machine running Chromium with Chrome OS user agent. I get a "0xC0F2220E" error every time I try to launch some game. Maybe I am missing some codecs?

Same on Debian sid. I assume we need Chrome, or Vivaldi (as mentioned by Massinissa).

You own games you purchase via stadia.

You *own* the games as much on Stadia as you do on Steam - in fact the licenses are similar across Steam / PlayStation / Xbox etcetera. People in the Linux community seem to be confused about what "owning" a game means... users are licensing games... big difference. The fact that you can't store every game that you license locally on Stadia is a different issue - but then I don't store every game I license via Steam or any other platform locally either. TO do so would be a tad... anal.


Last edited by Grazen on 19 August 2020 at 4:44 pm UTC

But then I don't store every game I license via Steam or any other platform locally either.

No one stops you from buying games in DRM-free stores, and making local backups. That's a normal practice for many GOG users.

You own games you purchase via stadia.

You *own* the games as much on Stadia as you do on Steam - in fact the licenses are similar across Steam / PlayStation / Xbox etcetera. People in the Linux community seem to be confused about what "owning" a game means... users are licensing games... big difference. The fact that you can't store every game that you license locally on Stadia is a different issue - but then I don't store every game I license via Steam or any other platform locally either. TO do so would be a tad... anal.

Your ownership of any game that you need to be connected to an Internet service to run is questionable. That includes streaming services and things like Steam DRM (some games on Steam don't use DRM, so they are different).

Also, that you are "licensing" all copyrighted material and don't "own" your copy is a legal fiction created by software publishers and audio/visual media producers. The concept is not supported by copyright law, but they are trying to get the legal system to buy into the fiction. They have succeeded to a limited extent, but every case you hear that supports the right of first sale illustrates that according to copyright law you do indeed own your copy of a copyrighted work.


Last edited by CFWhitman on 20 August 2020 at 12:00 am UTC

You *own* the games as much on Stadia as you do on Steam - in fact the licenses are similar across Steam / PlayStation / Xbox etcetera. People in the Linux community seem to be confused about what "owning" a game means... users are licensing games... big difference. The fact that you can't store every game that you license locally on Stadia is a different issue - but then I don't store every game I license via Steam or any other platform locally either. TO do so would be a tad... anal.

License or game, whatever. You can make backups of games that are DRM free on GOG and Steam. You can't do that on many other stores/platforms, so I disagree with you that you own games on Stadia as much as you do on Steam.

It seems like a smokescreen whenever someone wants to tell people that they don't own games on Steam as much as you think you do. First thing that's mentioned is "You're buying a lincense", and it's almost always brought up in context of a service or platform that isn't DRM free or threatens the freedoms a DRM lincense provides.


Last edited by Linuxwarper on 19 August 2020 at 10:45 pm UTC

Hey Nvidia, if you're reading this, could you guys please treat a Chrome on Linux user agent string as a Chromebook for the purpose of using GeForce Now? You don't even have to officially support it - just so we don't have to do silly things like setting our user agents to "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; CrOS x86_64 13099.85.0) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/84.0.4147.110 Safari/537.36" to use your service. Hell, even display a "you're not on a supported platform, continue anyway at your own risk?" message. I'd be happy with that too. Please pass this on to the GeForce Now development team. Thanks.