That's it, I'm done, finished. It's "mission complete" now is it not? 2022 is officially the Year of Linux Gaming. Yup, that's something I am now proclaiming and I'm also putting a flag down into February 25 (the Steam Deck release date) as Linux Gaming Day every year.
While the long-running joke of "Year of the Linux Desktop" might take forever to actually be a thing, Linux Gaming is now a lot more mainstream. Thanks largely to Valve of course bringing over Steam to Linux, and eventually producing the Steam Deck — putting the power of Linux and open source literally into peoples' hands.
Of course that's not to say it's all Valve. There's a massively long list of open source contributors who have helped to make this happen. From drivers to desktop environment upgrades there's so many different people, companies and organisations to thank. We wouldn't see the Steam Deck without open source and without the Vulkan API. I've said for years that we needed "hardware, hardware, hardware" with more vendors to properly jump in. It's not enough to have good marketing, or a good desktop, people needed a reason to use it to actually sway them over and clearly the Steam Deck is doing wonders.
If you follow the Steam Deck Reddit, you'll see a lot of people trying out (and actually enjoying) the KDE Plasma desktop mode on the Steam Deck too. Plenty of the fixes coming into KDE Plasma are as a result of people trying it out too, and finding issues, which then benefits all users. You only have to look at the regular This Week in KDE blog posts from developer Nate Graham to see how much effort goes into it.
The community building up around it is quite fantastic too, we've already seen a Plugin Loader come along which will be fun to see progress. We've seen multiple emulation tools appear like EmuDeck and RetroDECK, masses of developers moving to improve their games to add in gamepad support and better text sizing and the list goes on.
There's been times recently it felt like I woke up in a different world, when sites like PC Gamer told people to stick with SteamOS and not Windows and even LinusTT thought SteamOS did better overall. Never did I ever expect things like that to happen. Heck, even Jeff Grubb from Venture Beat said this in a recent Twitter post:
Steam Deck makes me want to puke from thinking about how stifled everything is by walled gardens. The community has already made Steam Deck so much better, and it all works together because it's open source. A better world isn't just possible; it exists.
Steam Deck, Linux and open source are finally starting to get through the cracks — it's incredible. After writing about it for so long, this really does feel like the "what a time to be alive" clip that came from The Simpsons and is now a fun meme for this sort of thing.
Heck, you even have Microsoft of all companies jumping in to repeatedly talk about their games on this Linux handheld, and even doing a guide to get Xbox Cloud Gaming to work. It might not be Game Pass on Steam (yet?), but who had any of that on their bingo card? I sure didn't.
More companies are even now looking to go with Linux like OneXPlayer because it's showing its worth, something sadly GPD don't see.
Even Epic Games are doing a little like making sure Easy Anti-Cheat can work easily on Linux, and getting Unreal Engine into a better state for Linux with Unreal Engine 5.
Obviously, this is heavily focused on the Steam Deck, but you need to remember that apart from the Steam Client, practically all of SteamOS is open source software and all improvements go on to benefit Linux Gaming everywhere. I think we're finally starting to hit that turning point for Linux Gaming as a whole thanks to this. Absolutely tons of people are now learning more about it, enjoying it and sticking with it — exactly what we want to see.
Now if you'll excuse me I'm off to go sit on my sofa and load up a AAA game on a Linux handheld.
While you're here go follow me on YouTube and Twitch.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Erm, NO and NO! And never will be !!!!
In truth I don't want it to be either, Let the idiots stay on winXX and let those that actually have brain cells between their ears come to use Linux
Last edited by pete910 on 16 Apr 2022 at 8:08 pm UTC
In truth I don't want it to be either, Let the idiots stay on winXX and let those that actually have brain cells between their ears come to use Linux
Last edited by pete910 on 16 Apr 2022 at 8:08 pm UTC
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The work Valve is doing for the Linux gaming ecosystem is undeniable, but they're acting as a for-profit corporation, and I'm afraid sooner or later their interests might start to deviate from this community. What happens then?
DeckOS or OpenDeck? Calling dibs on those names btw. We just need to move faster than what they can change mind.
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StalePopcorn 16 Apr 2022
Ironically(?), Inside Mac Games (IMG) forums has a popular "Mac Gaming is Dead" thread.
Last edited by StalePopcorn on 16 Apr 2022 at 7:13 pm UTC
Last edited by StalePopcorn on 16 Apr 2022 at 7:13 pm UTC
1 Likes, Who?
I've been dabbling with Linux since the nineties. I have attempted to daily drive Linux on multiple occasions. Even as a casual gamer with kids, the hassle with gaming has always pushed me back towards Windows. This was even though I could find an acceptable alternative to every other application I use.
Steam Deck gave me hope that enough development time is going towards compatibility and I gave daily driving Linux another shot.
I've been using Arch for a few months and my 17 y/o son has been daily driving Mint for a few months more.
Most of the games that I play work, the ones that don't immediately work eventually do. After, dare I say it, a fun fight with the command line and internet articles?
It's great that my son is on another more full featured out of the box distro too. Sometimes something I am doing does not work on Arch but is working just fine on his system. It allows me to know that what I am trying to do definitely does work on Linux and I just have to find out why it is not working in my particular environment.
I think that 2022 might just be the year of gaming on Linux. I am operating just fine. Sure, there are frustrations occasionally and I am still waiting for the Division 2 to work but nothing has come up so far to make me rage quit back to Windows. :P
Steam Deck gave me hope that enough development time is going towards compatibility and I gave daily driving Linux another shot.
I've been using Arch for a few months and my 17 y/o son has been daily driving Mint for a few months more.
Most of the games that I play work, the ones that don't immediately work eventually do. After, dare I say it, a fun fight with the command line and internet articles?
It's great that my son is on another more full featured out of the box distro too. Sometimes something I am doing does not work on Arch but is working just fine on his system. It allows me to know that what I am trying to do definitely does work on Linux and I just have to find out why it is not working in my particular environment.
I think that 2022 might just be the year of gaming on Linux. I am operating just fine. Sure, there are frustrations occasionally and I am still waiting for the Division 2 to work but nothing has come up so far to make me rage quit back to Windows. :P
2 Likes, Who?
It is of course too early to declare so - remember the momentum around the Steam Machine/SteamOS back in the days, that died out pretty damn fast. But I do hear you, the potential is most definitely there. If this won't do it then what will, really.
For me though, the massive milestone on the timeline will forever be when the Steam client arrived for Linux. That was *the* snowball for all the rest to follow.
Last edited by Beamboom on 16 Apr 2022 at 4:18 pm UTC
For me though, the massive milestone on the timeline will forever be when the Steam client arrived for Linux. That was *the* snowball for all the rest to follow.
Last edited by Beamboom on 16 Apr 2022 at 4:18 pm UTC
1 Likes, Who?
mr-victory 16 Apr 2022
On that time linux was gaining new games but now we are approaching %100 coverage. (at least on Steam) Slowly and steadily. I don't know the atmosphere of the time of Steam machines though. How does it compare with today?
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There was no momentem for Steam machines. They were dead in the water the moment they were announced.
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slaapliedje 16 Apr 2022
I've come to the conclusion the reasons that it isn't 'Year of Linux on Desktop' is mostly because of Microsoft and their methods of locking down people to needing Windows. Much like back in the day, what the corporate space uses, is what people end up mostly being stuck using at home. If we can get more penetration into the corporate workspace, then maybe one day we'll have the 'year of linux on the desktop'.
Really looking forward to getting my Deck, maybe they'll let me throw my money at them next week....
As someone who is a Linux nerd for over 20 years by now and can decide weather to use Linux or Windows at work, I can tell you it's not that easy. The fact that Linux can be restricted a lot means corporate admins will do that. Also, corporate workstations are using up to 10 years old distributions. It's a nightmare. No one I work with chooses Linux at home because of our experience at work, rather contrary. People take those restricted environments as "That's linux. Reliable but missing features and comfort. It's fpr Servers and CAD." as granted.
Ultimately that's another reason why flatpak etc. are so important. When distributions with flatpak make it to these spaces, it will extend usability a LOT. Yet there will still be other hefty restrictions making everyone mad.
Ha, just because people are doing it wrong and not updating for 10 years, doesn't mean what I said is was incorrect. Just sounds like your corporate environment could do with a bump to something at least only 5 years old :P
1 Likes, Who?
I feel GNU/Linux has really earned this and in my view GNU/Linux has come a long way since Valve got here, for those oldies like me who remember GNU/Linux of the early 2000s before valve came long (and maybe older.. if so, respect!) and have been using GNU/Linux since then and all I can say is GNU/Linux has grown tremendously both in terms of usability and acceptance by the public.
Do you remember when the public used to think we were geeks/nerds? Or that GNU/Linux is obscure and difficult? Or that it can't play games? it's just for servers? These are things people used to say, but they simply don't anymore.
I mean sure, we still get the odd numpty who thinks those things but mostly their just misinformed, where as years gone by it was honestly mostly true (it used to be a nerd/geek thing tbh).
I mean, it's not just in the area of games that GNU/Linux has grown. Let's look at the desktop environments, notably KDE 5.24 - honestly just look at the functionality it has now.. and it's not even a buggy mess! It mostly works perfectly. (If you remember when KDE 4 was released.. you'll understand what I mean)
It retains the ability to highly tune the environment to how you like it, while also being able to be just left as a default for those who like defaults. Yet highly stable too!
Then there's the backend, we had iptables - and sure enough it was "simple" enough. Once you spent months studying the documentation (assuming you didn't just cheat and use something like Shorewall, which admittedly I did on servers for years despite that I RTFM and understood iptables well).
But now we have firewall-cmd that's included across multiple distros by default - that's good from a sysadmin point of view, it means being familiar with a tool regardless of the distro you are using. But of course, it's not mandatory and of course you can drop back to simple iptables if you wish, for example to still run Shorewall on some systems. But firewall-cmd is so simple and easy to use, realistically there's no reason to not use it.
Then there's systemd, this one is controversial. It's a bit like marmite, you either love it or hate it. I admit when it was first announced I had that kneejerk reaction and hated it too. Then I had no choice but to work with it (RHEL, Fedora) and honestly once you figure it out it's crazy simple to use and has some neat tricks up its sleeve.
I mean, some that even apply to gaming. Don't want that wine game (or any app tbh) to access the net? Systemd will fix that without needing to mess about with user groups or firewalls:
Done, no more net for that wine instance. (Yes, this requests password, but the game itself will run as the user that executed it, ofc you want to replace "wine ping duckduckgo.com" with your game launch command.)
It's the simple things like this that I like about systemd, then there's the simplicity of units.
Now, hardware.. oh hardware. Honestly, in this day and age it's quite difficult to find a piece of hardware that doesn't work out the box with GNU/Linux, pretty much most things will work straight away! ( Except nvidia ;) )
This is a huge step away from older GNU/Linux, where the answer to your question of "How do I make wifi work?" was "Don't bother, go get an ethernet cable!"
And look at ATI/AMD now! I remember a time when it was the general advice: Whatever you do.. don't get an ATI card if you want to play wine games! Get a nvidia card, sure you'll need to install the nvidia drivers from their binary file (anyone remember that old blue nvidia TUI install screen?) but it's the only way you're going to get any 3D performance.
But now.. the whole thing is flipped on its head, generally now the advice is to go get that ATI/AMD card, and avoid nvidia if you can.
Other usable things like suspend to ram, suspend to disk - these things used to notoriously hit-and-miss as to whether it worked on your hardware. In my case it wasn't until the mid 2010s that I actually got it working.
And since then? Once again mostly works on any hardware! Albeit I did get a kernel panic during a suspend to ram attempt the other day, I got to see the classic flashing CAPS/NUMLOCK LEDs.. oh I missed seeing that, it has been years xD.
But still, far better state than it was before.
Of course, if we have to talk about games (it is a game website after all).. yup gaming is a lot simpler now too! I was using wine long before valve came along and games that worked were often slow. We had to manually choose our overrides and setup our prefixes manually (some people didn't even use separate prefixes back then, imagine that), later PlayOnLinux helped with this somewhat, but it was still very much hit and miss.
Then valve blasted proton at us and boom.. wine has never been easier.
.. and this is getting all too long... tbh.. I could talk all day about the things that have changed. But if I'll say one thing, GNU/Linux is much more mature now and ready for the general public than it ever was before.
Sure, it has changed. But in my view, it's worth it.
Overall big +1 for GNU/Linux from me.
Oh.. but there is one huge negative too!
I spend too much money on games now!
Last edited by BlackBloodRum on 16 Apr 2022 at 11:20 pm UTC
Do you remember when the public used to think we were geeks/nerds? Or that GNU/Linux is obscure and difficult? Or that it can't play games? it's just for servers? These are things people used to say, but they simply don't anymore.
I mean sure, we still get the odd numpty who thinks those things but mostly their just misinformed, where as years gone by it was honestly mostly true (it used to be a nerd/geek thing tbh).
I mean, it's not just in the area of games that GNU/Linux has grown. Let's look at the desktop environments, notably KDE 5.24 - honestly just look at the functionality it has now.. and it's not even a buggy mess! It mostly works perfectly. (If you remember when KDE 4 was released.. you'll understand what I mean)
It retains the ability to highly tune the environment to how you like it, while also being able to be just left as a default for those who like defaults. Yet highly stable too!
Then there's the backend, we had iptables - and sure enough it was "simple" enough. Once you spent months studying the documentation (assuming you didn't just cheat and use something like Shorewall, which admittedly I did on servers for years despite that I RTFM and understood iptables well).
But now we have firewall-cmd that's included across multiple distros by default - that's good from a sysadmin point of view, it means being familiar with a tool regardless of the distro you are using. But of course, it's not mandatory and of course you can drop back to simple iptables if you wish, for example to still run Shorewall on some systems. But firewall-cmd is so simple and easy to use, realistically there's no reason to not use it.
Then there's systemd, this one is controversial. It's a bit like marmite, you either love it or hate it. I admit when it was first announced I had that kneejerk reaction and hated it too. Then I had no choice but to work with it (RHEL, Fedora) and honestly once you figure it out it's crazy simple to use and has some neat tricks up its sleeve.
I mean, some that even apply to gaming. Don't want that wine game (or any app tbh) to access the net? Systemd will fix that without needing to mess about with user groups or firewalls:
systemd-run --scope -p IPAddressDeny=any wine ping duckduckgo.com Done, no more net for that wine instance. (Yes, this requests password, but the game itself will run as the user that executed it, ofc you want to replace "wine ping duckduckgo.com" with your game launch command.)
It's the simple things like this that I like about systemd, then there's the simplicity of units.
Now, hardware.. oh hardware. Honestly, in this day and age it's quite difficult to find a piece of hardware that doesn't work out the box with GNU/Linux, pretty much most things will work straight away! ( Except nvidia ;) )
This is a huge step away from older GNU/Linux, where the answer to your question of "How do I make wifi work?" was "Don't bother, go get an ethernet cable!"
And look at ATI/AMD now! I remember a time when it was the general advice: Whatever you do.. don't get an ATI card if you want to play wine games! Get a nvidia card, sure you'll need to install the nvidia drivers from their binary file (anyone remember that old blue nvidia TUI install screen?) but it's the only way you're going to get any 3D performance.
But now.. the whole thing is flipped on its head, generally now the advice is to go get that ATI/AMD card, and avoid nvidia if you can.
Other usable things like suspend to ram, suspend to disk - these things used to notoriously hit-and-miss as to whether it worked on your hardware. In my case it wasn't until the mid 2010s that I actually got it working.
And since then? Once again mostly works on any hardware! Albeit I did get a kernel panic during a suspend to ram attempt the other day, I got to see the classic flashing CAPS/NUMLOCK LEDs.. oh I missed seeing that, it has been years xD.
But still, far better state than it was before.
Of course, if we have to talk about games (it is a game website after all).. yup gaming is a lot simpler now too! I was using wine long before valve came along and games that worked were often slow. We had to manually choose our overrides and setup our prefixes manually (some people didn't even use separate prefixes back then, imagine that), later PlayOnLinux helped with this somewhat, but it was still very much hit and miss.
Then valve blasted proton at us and boom.. wine has never been easier.
.. and this is getting all too long... tbh.. I could talk all day about the things that have changed. But if I'll say one thing, GNU/Linux is much more mature now and ready for the general public than it ever was before.
Sure, it has changed. But in my view, it's worth it.
Overall big +1 for GNU/Linux from me.
Oh.. but there is one huge negative too!
I spend too much money on games now!
Last edited by BlackBloodRum on 16 Apr 2022 at 11:20 pm UTC
7 Likes, Who?
Erm, NO and NO! And never will be !!!!
In truth I don't want it to be either, Let the idiots stay on winXX and let those that actually have brain cells between their ears come to use Linux
Have you seen some of the software reviews on GNOME Software or KDE Discover by any chance? I don't think you have to be a computer expert to use desktop linux lol.
Honestly in my opinion, people who are interested in linux are already using it in some capacity and everyone else could care less. It doesn't help that the only 'gaming' PC you're going to find that comes with it preinstalled is the Steam Deck.
Last edited by udekmp69 on 16 Apr 2022 at 11:57 pm UTC
2 Likes, Who?
slaapliedje 17 Apr 2022
I have a quick question; I've seen people show the voice chat working on the Steam Deck... can anyone tell me if they've had any good luck on just desktop Steam on Linux? My brother and I end up always having to use Discord, because the Steam voice chat is just garbage. Not sure if it's due to being able to get better compression through discord or what, but our upstream bandwidth isn't the greatest to begin with...
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Ironically(?), Inside Mac Games (IMG) forums has a popular "Mac Gaming is Dead" thread.
Aspyr has taken that step even earlier, and has shifted towards consoles. After having bought by the Embracer group (i.e. THQ Nordic) earlier this year to develop completely new games, they cannot be expected to port games to the Mac at all.
interesting, that explain why they dont port games to linux, i always wondered what their fate is.
im happy to know they didnt went bankrupt, it would be a shame if the few companies that beted on porting games to mac/linux went bankrupt as a result of such decision, but fortunately that was not the case.
i hope we no longer need proton (except for backward comp) and feral in the future as well, but i dont hope that anything bad happens to valve nor feral once we dont need then anymore.
just that we dont get an monopoly, currently its "ok" because valve is the onlyones beting on linux anyway, and even now they dont have an monopoly realistically.
Last edited by elmapul on 17 Apr 2022 at 1:36 am UTC
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slaapliedje 17 Apr 2022
THQ Nordic on the other hand have been releasing native Linux games. So maybe that's the part of Aspyr within.Ironically(?), Inside Mac Games (IMG) forums has a popular "Mac Gaming is Dead" thread.
Aspyr has taken that step even earlier, and has shifted towards consoles. After having bought by the Embracer group (i.e. THQ Nordic) earlier this year to develop completely new games, they cannot be expected to port games to the Mac at all.
interesting, that explain why they dont port games to linux, i always wondered what their fate is.
im happy to know they didnt went bankrupt, it would be a shame if the few companies that beted on porting games to mac/linux went bankrupt as a result of such decision, but fortunately that was not the case.
i hope we no longer need proton (except for backward comp) and feral in the future as well, but i dont hope that anything bad happens to valve nor feral once we dont need then anymore.
just that we dont get an monopoly, currently its "ok" because valve is the onlyones beting on linux anyway, and even now they dont have an monopoly realistically.
1 Likes, Who?
Personally I think we're in the honeymoon stage still. We're off to a roaring good start but that momentum needs to be sustained and built upon, the next 12 or so months will be critical.
When you think of all the work that has had to happen to get to this point by the open source community it really is inspiring.
On a side note I do think this would have been a good opportunity for GOG to do some sort of client or plugin for the deck. Does anyone know if they're doing that? Seems like a big missed opportunity for them.
When you think of all the work that has had to happen to get to this point by the open source community it really is inspiring.
On a side note I do think this would have been a good opportunity for GOG to do some sort of client or plugin for the deck. Does anyone know if they're doing that? Seems like a big missed opportunity for them.
1 Likes, Who?
Erm, NO and NO! And never will be !!!!
In truth I don't want it to be either, Let the idiots stay on winXX and let those that actually have brain cells between their ears come to use Linux
Have you seen some of the software reviews on GNOME Software or KDE Discover by any chance? I don't think you have to be a computer expert to use desktop linux lol.
Honestly in my opinion, people who are interested in linux are already using it in some capacity and everyone else couldn't care less. It doesn't help that the only 'gaming' PC you're going to find that comes with it preinstalled is the Steam Deck.
Can't say I've ever read Gnome/KDE reviews, never new that was a thing to be frank.
You'd be surprised how many try it that have never used it, due in part to some folk saying it's the same as windows. In which then they give up because... Shocker, it's not the same as windows.
Calling the deck a PC is a little strong, Valve have never stated that it's a "Gaming PC" that I'm aware of.
To me it's aimed squarely at console people, but I do see what you are saying .
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On a side note I do think this would have been a good opportunity for GOG to do some sort of client or plugin for the deck. Does anyone know if they're doing that? Seems like a big missed opportunity for them.GOG tell me there's no plans.
2 Likes, Who?
Do you remember when the public used to think we were geeks/nerds? Or that GNU/Linux is obscure and difficult? Or that it can't play games? it's just for servers? These are things people used to say, but they simply don't anymore.
Well, most people I know/interact with still think the exact same way about Linux, i.e. repulsion by its highly esoteric nature mixed with a feeling of awe for those that know how to actually use the damn thing. What *has* changed is that there's more people out there who know what the heck "a Linux" is and who are curious about it. When the subject arises in a conversation and I mention I use Linux, I now get far more replies of the "oh, so you're one of them, cooool *excited panting*" variety than the "oh dear, so you're one of them huh, *rolls eyes*" variety.
We had to manually choose our overrides and setup our prefixes manually (some people didn't even use separate prefixes back then, imagine that)
Hey, what do you mean "imagine that"? Outside of Steam (which manages its prefixes automatically) I still use a single, manually configured prefix for all my games! Granted, nowadays I hardly do any post-setup because between Wine, Proton and Proton-GE most everything is already integrated by default (I just add a drive letter for quick access to the Games partition and install PhysX for compatibility with some older games) but still, "one prefix to play them all" is my mantra :D
On a side note I do think this would have been a good opportunity for GOG to do some sort of client or plugin for the deck. Does anyone know if they're doing that? Seems like a big missed opportunity for them.
Judging by their past history and also their recent deal with Epic, I'd not bet on it if I were you ;) But to be objective, I do hope I'm proven succinctly wrong by GOG and forced to eat my hat. It's just that I've almost run out of hope at this point.
1 Likes, Who?
slaapliedje 17 Apr 2022
Hey, what do you mean "imagine that"? Outside of Steam (which manages its prefixes automatically) I still use a single, manually configured prefix for all my games! Granted, nowadays I hardly do any post-setup because between Wine, Proton and Proton-GE most everything is already integrated by default (I just add a drive letter for quick access to the Games partition and install PhysX for compatibility with some older games) but still, "one prefix to play them all" is my mantra :D
I only use one prefix as well, unless there is some sort of weird requirement for a program to use. Most things I have thrown at wine lately doesn't take much more than 'wine $program.exe'.
Though now that GCA5 (GURPS Character Assistant) it once again does not work under wine... shame, as they finally got GCA4 working right!
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Hey, what do you mean "imagine that"? Outside of Steam (which manages its prefixes automatically) I still use a single, manually configured prefix for all my games! Granted, nowadays I hardly do any post-setup because between Wine, Proton and Proton-GE most everything is already integrated by default (I just add a drive letter for quick access to the Games partition and install PhysX for compatibility with some older games) but still, "one prefix to play them all" is my mantra :D
I only use one prefix as well, unless there is some sort of weird requirement for a program to use. Most things I have thrown at wine lately doesn't take much more than 'wine $program.exe'.
Yeah, it's incredible how nowadays I only get surprised and/or annoyed on the rare occasion that something doesn't work with a simple 'wine $program.exe'. Gaming on Linux has come a long way indeed!
Though now that GCA5 (GURPS Character Assistant) it once again does not work under wine... shame, as they finally got GCA4 working right!
WTF? I'm a GURPS die-hard (though admittedly I don't play all that much nowadays, nor do I lurk in the forums) and that's the first time I've heard about SJG updating GCA to a new version! Finally! Kthxbye, I'm off to try and make it work in Wine :P
EDIT: Got some errors at first but all it needed was .NET 4.6 or later (I installed the latest 4.8) to run without a hitch, at least for starting up, loading a couple of data sets and creating a character. It also runs better/faster than GCA4 and doesn't require any weird dll overrides for ancient libraries, so it's looking good in my book :)
Last edited by Nocifer on 17 Apr 2022 at 10:36 am UTC
1 Likes, Who?
Hey, what do you mean "imagine that"? Outside of Steam (which manages its prefixes automatically) I still use a single, manually configured prefix for all my games! Granted, nowadays I hardly do any post-setup because between Wine, Proton and Proton-GE most everything is already integrated by default (I just add a drive letter for quick access to the Games partition and install PhysX for compatibility with some older games) but still, "one prefix to play them all" is my mantra :D
Fair enough!
But I always go with separate prefixes, perhaps out of habit. I always think "Now what if I need to install some library (such as DX9) at some point for this app/game/utility?"
If I needed to add a library, or an app screws up - I can just clear the whole prefix and start over - leaving all other working apps/games right where they are (working).
I did it once, I had all my stuff under ~/.wine - then one day, an application needed an update - I updated it - It needed a newer version of .NET - I updated the .NET and.. booomm ~/.wine was dead, it was easier just to delete ~/.wine/ than try to remember which libraries I had already needed and set in winecfg, remove the broken bits of .NET and somehow get the thing working.
So it was 'rm -Rfv ".wine"' and then learn about prefixes more
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