While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:
Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.
This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!
You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.
This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!
You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
Login / Register
- New Steam Controller 2 and VR controller designs got leaked
- Huge new Proton 9.0-4 update for Steam Deck / Linux now in need of testing
- Mesa 24.3.0 graphics drivers for Linux released with many new features and bug fixes
- Steam Deck OLED wins Best Gaming Hardware in the Golden Joystick Awards 2024
- The latest from Prime Gaming - November 22 edition - lots for Steam Deck / Linux
- > See more over 30 days here
-
We're getting a Palworld x Terraria crossover, major Pa…
- ElectricPrism -
Steam Deck hits 17,000 games playable and verified
- silverhikari -
LIGHT OF MOTIRAM takes Horizon Zero Dawn and turns it i…
- enigmaxg2 -
LIGHT OF MOTIRAM takes Horizon Zero Dawn and turns it i…
- Jarmer -
We're getting a Palworld x Terraria crossover, major Pa…
- JustinWood - > See more comments
- Adjusted our game pages search bar
- Zlopez - Astral Ascent - is it really like Dead Cells?
- CatKiller - The Nightdive Source Port List
- Shmerl - New Desktop Screenshot Thread
- Hamish - Spare gog keys
- Pyrate - See more posts
View PC info
Back in January, I had set out to play and purchase only games whose source code has been made publicly available. Prior to this, I found a measure of peace in buying exclusively DRM-free games so this new endeavor was not such a leap further. Here are some of things I learned.
1. Free and open source does not always mean amateur production value.
A fair number of the long running free/libre game projects have received much needed face lifts which brings them largely within parity of commercial game stylization. The "home-made" feel can still be found on some courses in Super Tux Kart for example, but the recent updates easily have an air of professionalism.
Additionally, there are commercially produced games which have either gone free/libre or have always been. They, of course, had art direction behind their development
View cookie preferences.
Accept & Show Accept All & Don't show this again Direct Link
2. Free and open source can also mean amateur production value.
3. In some cases, you need to be open to getting your hands dirty.
Not every game I played was prepackaged by my distribution. Especially with commercial games, one may need to be open to building the game before running it.
4. Free-libre gaming facilitates an honest approach to the "sample first, pay later" model.
It was refreshing to be able to try a game out before handing over any change. The older gamers among us might recall the days when game demos where once distributed. A fair number beyond that admit to dishonestly acquiring games in order to try them first before committing to a purchase. While this is partly the result of the industry failing at providing demos (replaced now by herding gamers into the microtransaction model), it is also created by artificial scarcity which simply cannot be applied to free and open games.
5. Having the source to your games means you can play them almost anywhere.
Just as the malfeatures of proprietary operating systems have driven me toward free operating systems, the assault on freedom and autonomy at the hardware level has also driven me away from x86. And being able to bring my games with me, unhindered, to a freer platform enabled me to remorselessly give the proverbial finger to interests intent on designing hardware which treats it's users as enemies. Games shown here have been built and run on a POWER9 based gaming computer. All of which would have been impossible to accomplish while at the mercy of proprietary game authors.
View cookie preferences.
Accept & Show Accept All & Don't show this again Direct Link
I don't want to leave anyone with a false impression that adhering to only free-libre games is all roses and sunshine. It takes a level of discipline that may not be palatable to everyone but if you care about your freedom, privacy and security as much as you care about your gaming, I’d consider any rough edges to be a small sacrifice. For me, as long as I can bring my absolute favorites, Barony and Minetest, along with me I can live happily.
Last edited by GustyGhost on 24 December 2019 at 12:56 am UTC
View PC info
I think I mentioned my most enjoyed titles in the post. Maybe it's just because I've never played roguelikes before, but Barony has proven to hold my attention for longer than a voxel indie title ever should. I think that fresh game ideas tend to filter through the path (to money) of least resistance and so they end up on the most dominant platforms and storefronts first. Many free and open games are clones of existing ideas which have already matured.
At first, I thought racing games would be out of the question. But this ultimately led to me discovering TORQs, Trigger Rally and Stunt Rally. I have yet to try out Super Tux Kart's new multiplayer but this is because I recently played through it and just want to wait a bit before replaying it.
This year, I migrated from a Ryzen 2400GE-based system so a goal was to match those specs as closely as possible: quad core, 16GB memory, a GPU of the same family and general compute power. The framerates I get in games would not be anything impressive to most gamers but it plenty for my standards within 40-60.
View PC info
What is your stance about open source re-implementation engine?
Last edited by Cyril on 23 December 2019 at 3:02 am UTC
View PC info
View PC info
You can get at least Morrowind on GOG! But yeah it's not Free/Libre.