A look back over the most popular articles for January 2021

Here is a look back some of the most popular articles on GamingOnLinux for January 2021, an easy way to for you to keep up to date on what has happened in the past month for Linux gaming, open source and other general Linux news that we cover!

If you wish to keep track of these overview posts you can with our Overview RSS.

Here's what was popular with our readers:

• What we expect to come from Valve to help Linux gaming in 2021
  • By now you've probably heard either through us in our previous article or elsewhere that Valve are cooking something up to help Linux gaming even further. We have an idea on what one part of it is.
• Is opening up your source code worth it? Terry Cavanagh thinks it was for VVVVVV
  • A lot of game developer still worry about being more open with their code but it seems Terry Cavanagh (VVVVVV, Super Hexagon, Dicey Dungeons) believes it was worth it.
• Proton Experimental gets Microsoft Flight Simulator VR working on Linux
  • A fresh update to Proton Experimental has gone live, the special version of the Proton compatibility layer where all the latest features appear first. Seems like quite a big one, especially if you have a VR kit.
• Heroic Games Launcher is a new unofficial Epic Games Store for Linux
  • No Epic Games Store support on Linux? Well, one developer is helping to break down that barrier with the newly released Heroic Games Launcher.
• Steamworks gets Denuvo Anti-Cheat, here's what Irdeto say about Linux support
  • Irdeto, the company behind Denuvo and the newer Denuvo Anti-Cheat have announced that developers on Steam can now get direct anti-cheat integration through Steamworks. Here's what they said about working with Linux.
• The Linux distribution I was most thankful for in 2020 - EndeavourOS
  • How do you know when someone uses Arch Linux? They will tell you. Welcome to an article telling you about how I use Arch Linux, well sort of anyway.
• Valve have multiple games in development they will announce says Gabe Newell
  • Gabe Newell of Valve Software (Steam) recently spoke to 1 NEWS in New Zealand about everything that has been going on and teased a few fun details.
• Impressive racing game DRAG gets a big driving-physics update
  • DRAG is easily one of the most impressive Early Access games from 2020 and they ended 2020 in style with a big upgrade to the game and it's looking great.
• Here's a few of the Linux games we're excited to see through 2021
  • Looking forward to 2021 for gaming on Linux? We are and there's plenty of sweet indie games coming to get interested in and follow along.
• FNA dev and porter Ethan Lee stops future macOS ports, Linux to be their focus
  • Ethan Lee, the developer responsible for the XNA reimplementation FNA along with around 50 game ports to Linux and macOS has announced the sunsetting of future macOS ports with a big update to a bunch of existing games.
• Getting Linux running properly on Apple M1 Silicon has begun with Asahi Linux
  • Asahi Linux is the name of a new project aiming to get Linux properly supported and working on Apple Silicon, the new ARM based chips designed by Apple like the Apple M1 found in their latest hardware.
• Proton 5.13-5 is now up bringing in some of the experimental changes
  • The Proton compatibility layer for running Windows games on Steam for Linux has levelled up some more with the latest Proton 5.13-5 now available to everyone.
• NVIDIA 460.32.03 released - their first stable driver with official Vulkan Ray Tracing
  • Now that The Khronos Group has released the official Vulkan Ray Tracing API, which NVIDIA got in early it's all a bit more official with the NVIDIA 460.32.03 stable driver release.
• Looks like we may see Steam properly on Chrome OS by the end of 2021
  • In a move that might help boost Linux gaming numbers, it seems Google are still moving forward with their plan to get Steam running properly native on Chrome OS during 2021.
• Valve and others fined by the European Commission for 'geo-blocking'
  • The European Commission just announced that they've now issued formal fines against Valve, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Focus Home, Koch Media and ZeniMax for breaching their antitrust rules. Update: added statement from Valve.
• Simple GOG client for Linux 'Minigalaxy' has a small update out
  • While GOG continue dragging their feet on supporting Linux with GOG Galaxy, you can use the useful Minigalaxy client which is free and open source.
• NVIDIA getting geared up to support hardware accelerated XWayland
  • Looks like 2021 really could properly be the year of Wayland on the Linux desktop. For plenty it already is but NVIDIA have been a sore spot and it looks like they're moving forward now too.
• Fully playable Caesar 3 open source game engine Julius has a new release
  • Another brilliant open source game engine, Julius is a fully playable replacement for the original 1998 release of the city-builder Caesar 3.
• KDE will hopefully have a 'Production-ready' Wayland session for Plasma in 2021
  • A KDE developer who regularly blogs about all the work going into the KDE ecosystem through the likes of the Plasma desktop environment and the various applications, has given an overview of what they expect to see through 2021.
• Tencent now own majority stake in Don't Starve and Oxygen Not Included creator Klei
  • More game industry news coming at you following the Team17 buying up Golf With Your Friends and YoYo Games being acquired by Opera we now have Klei Entertainment agreeing for Tencent to take a majority stake in them.
• Linux Mint 20.1 released, will be supported until 2025
  • Linux Mint 20.1 has now been officially released, and this is an LTS version which means it will be supported for quite some time until 2025. Plenty of time to get comfy with Linux.
• Wine compatibility layer version 6.0 released
  • Wine, the compatibility layer designed to run Windows games and applications on other systems has a big 6.0 release now officially available with thousands of improvements.
• Bytten Studio say not to sleep on Linux in their postmortem for Lenna's Inception
  • Lenna's Inception is a top-down Zelda-like action-adventure game with a world that is glitching, with a style that can switch between 8-bit and 32-bit pixel art styles.
• Lutris game manager starts off 2021 with a sweet small update
  • Lutris, the free and open source all-in-one solution to keep your games from different sources together on Linux has a fresh release out to begin 2021.
• The free Settlers II like strategy game Widelands plans a 1.0 release in 2021
  • Free, open source and actually really good - Widelands was originally inspired by The Settlers II and they've confirmed their plans for a big release this year.
• Epic Games has acquired RAD Game Tools so they now own Bink video and more
  • Epic Games latest acquisition is RAD Game Tools, one a great many game developers will be familiar with.

We published a total of 151 articles last month! You can see who contributed articles on this page.

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What was your favourite Linux and Gaming news through January 2021?