There's been many good suggestions here.

I'll add in catlateral damage (first person game where you're a cat and you knock things onto the floor) and cat quest 2 (streamlined action RPG) were pretty popular here too. They're both windows builds but have run well for me under proton.

Think I might report back in. Both my now 7 and 9 year old are enjoying Portal and Portal 2. I might try to find some other games like that!

Salt I must confess, we are playing it on Switch. The experience is superior to Steam using a steam link in almost every possible way. Especially when it comes to multiple accounts and ease of use.

I haven't given up on Linux gaming in the living room. It's just up against stiff competition.

Very interesting thread, I took only 2 years to notice it lol. My kid (8) started playing recently (Linux desktop and steam deck) and so far the favourites are:

Stardew Valley (local multiplayer is great)
Lego games
Cat Quest
Lara Croft GO
Feather
Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing (this is a meh for me but there is Sonic in it lol)

How do you get your kids to use Linux, especially on non Deck situations? Don't they ask for Windows because that's basically what most gamers and possibly what their friends use and also has less hassle?

Quoting: mr-victoryHow do you get your kids to use Linux, especially on non Deck situations? Don't they ask for Windows because that's basically what most gamers and possibly what their friends use and also has less hassle?

It was never an issue for me. Long before we had a Steam Deck, my kids played on my desktop computer, running Steam on Ubuntu. Steam is the same, the game controls are the same, and Proton made it so compatibility was almost never an issue (I can think of less than a handful of instances over ... five years?).

Maybe if a kid wants to play only a very specific game - does Fortnite work on Linux? I haven't got a clue - and refuses to touch others, it might be a problem, but otherwise there are so many games and they work great on Linux.

Quoting: mr-victoryHow do you get your kids to use Linux, especially on non Deck situations? Don't they ask for Windows because that's basically what most gamers and possibly what their friends use and also has less hassle?

To be honest so far Windows is the outlier. At school it's all iPads, and my kid's friends gaming seems to be mostly on phones (yuk!) or consoles... I'm quite sure some kids have never used a physical keyboard! Of course it might change in middle-high schools but so far it's a no-issue. Specifically to my kid we only have Linux machines at home and it seems to be all we need for gaming at this point.

Quoting: mr-victoryHow do you get your kids to use Linux, especially on non Deck situations? Don't they ask for Windows because that's basically what most gamers and possibly what their friends use and also has less hassle?

Windows doesn't functionally exist for children.

1) Microsoft does not target primary education, instead focusing on picking them up at University or the workplace. Google owns most of primary school education.
My friend is an English teacher at Uni. She has to teach the kids how to "save" files in Word and other basics (cause it automatic in Google classroom). The kids aren't dumb, they just have no exposure to Office/Windows. It's often enough, she has it in her curriculum for first years.

2) Consoles and tablets are superior in use and function for a lot of things. It's just easier to use a console to game than a PC, even a Windows PC. I love PC gaming, but my experience trying to get Steam into my living room vs our Nintendo Switch... The Switch is just better at it.
Even outside of gaming, my PC's don't have an email client, I use my phone (if I'm being honest, it's my primary computing device). The kids use Kindle fire for edutainment and communication.


By the same token, Linux doesn't really functionally exist for kids either; or rather exposure to Desktop PC's.... They're simply not really needed anymore.

So in one sense, it's pretty easy to get *our* children to use Linux; their exposure to Windows outside of our homes is minimal; there's no "missing out" on anything.

Quoting: denyasisEven outside of gaming, my PC's don't have an email client, I use my phone (if I'm being honest, it's my primary computing device).

Are you writing messages longer than 40 words with a mobile - or aren't you writing those in the first place? Or do you use voice recognition? What would beat a keyboard with respect to speed and accuracy while keeping basic privacy?

Last edited by Eike on 19 January 2023 at 12:55 pm UTC

Quoting: Eike

Quoting: denyasisEven outside of gaming, my PC's don't have an email client, I use my phone (if I'm being honest, it's my primary computing device).

Are you writing messages longer than 40 words with a mobile - or aren't you writing those in the first place? Or do you use voice recognition? What would beat a keyboard with respect to speed and accuracy while keeping basic privacy?

Clearly, as evidenced by my post above; written on mobile while I sit on my couch, lol. I use swipe gestures to write. The biggest issue is autocorrect. Obviously, I wouldn't recommend touch or mobile for complicated writings, but for simple communications, like this, it's fine. For school, my children were issued Chromebooks with keyboards. I know someone above mentioned using tablets (perhaps with a wireless keyboard?)
Some stuff just doesn't work well on a mobile format, but I'm surprised how little I need my desktop for day to day tasks at home (work is a different story).

Back to Linux gaming:
I *finally* got Night of the Rabbit working on my PC via Steam Link. It works only with an older Proton version. I'm hoping to try it this weekend (I've wanted to for a bit, but evening time free is pretty rare)

Quoting: denyasisClearly, as evidenced by my post above; written on mobile while I sit on my couch, lol.

Erm, yes. :D

Quoting: denyasisI use swipe gestures to write. The biggest issue is autocorrect.

I'm using swipe as well but writing a post like yours feels uncomfortable to me.

For autocorrect in the sense of "I know you typed 'vere', but I'm sure you mean 'were' and I'll just replace it for you!", this is the first I switch off when configuring a mobile. I know what I want to write, and sometimes I just want to write it differently or type a word you don't know, thank you very much. I still get results I didn't want when using swipe from the recognition algorithm, though.

Linux kids gaming: My five year old platin'ed Paw Patrol - On a Roll (with a little help in the very last level). :)

Last edited by Eike on 20 January 2023 at 9:40 am UTC