I just created an account a few moments ago to give my 2 cents. Surprisingly, I haven't come across many mentions of this point, apart from a couple of posts. I hope that the discussion is still ongoing.

In my opinion, Proton does not pose a threat to developers, Linux, or the Open Source community. While it may discourage developers from creating native Linux ports, I believe this concern is not significant. Historically, native ports have lagged behind their Windows counterparts in terms of feature parity. Even some modern Linux ports currently face issues, like Vampire Survivors, which fails to boot, or Hollow Knight and Skullgirls, which suffer from broken controller support. Keeping up with library updates on rolling release distributions, which is prevalent in most modern distros, can be challenging.

So why do I view Proton as a non-issue? Well, even native Windows games experience problems on Windows. Proton and Wine, on the other hand, provide a safe and reliable environment for both new and old games. For instance, Max Payne 1 and 2 currently have issues on Windows and require user scripts and fixes to function properly or boot at all. With Proton, all you need to do is click play. The community always steps up to the plate when it comes to supporting games because companies cannot be expected to maintain support forever. We are witnessing an increase in the number of source ports for older games, and I imagine this list will continue to expand exponentially over time, which makes Proton even less of a problem and more of a middle-man until a source port for said game comes along.

Quoting: ResshyaSo why do I view Proton as a non-issue? Well, even native Windows games experience problems on Windows. Proton and Wine, on the other hand, provide a safe and reliable environment for both new and old games. For instance, Max Payne 1 and 2 currently have issues on Windows and require user scripts and fixes to function properly or boot at all. With Proton, all you need to do is click play. The community always steps up to the plate when it comes to supporting games because companies cannot be expected to maintain support forever. We are witnessing an increase in the number of source ports for older games, and I imagine this list will continue to expand exponentially over time, which makes Proton even less of a problem and more of a middle-man until a source port for said game comes along.

Even game porter Ethan Lee made this point, on how Proton is amazing for game preservation and it is! There's no doubt lots of games that work better in Proton on Linux than on Windows. For that it's extremely valuable. Especially so because Valve can (and do) put in game-specific stuff into DXVK, Proton etc.

Quoting: Liam Dawe

Quoting: ResshyaSo why do I view Proton as a non-issue? Well, even native Windows games experience problems on Windows. Proton and Wine, on the other hand, provide a safe and reliable environment for both new and old games. For instance, Max Payne 1 and 2 currently have issues on Windows and require user scripts and fixes to function properly or boot at all. With Proton, all you need to do is click play. The community always steps up to the plate when it comes to supporting games because companies cannot be expected to maintain support forever. We are witnessing an increase in the number of source ports for older games, and I imagine this list will continue to expand exponentially over time, which makes Proton even less of a problem and more of a middle-man until a source port for said game comes along.

Even game porter Ethan Lee made this point, on how Proton is amazing for game preservation and it is! There's no doubt lots of games that work better in Proton on Linux than on Windows. For that it's extremely valuable. Especially so because Valve can (and do) put in game-specific stuff into DXVK, Proton etc.

Let's not forget that Wine itself is amazing for this. Before Proton was a thing, I was able to get the GOG version of Interstate 76 working fantastically within Wine, when you got completely wrong colors when you tried running it on Windows 7.

Quoting: slaapliedjeThe grammar of the forum is a bit weird. "gbudny replied to Proton is the only hope? plus so did 1 more people" Ha, always love programming grammar errors, where it doesn't take into account 1 = person. It's like some of the code at work where it has 1th 2th 3th 4th...

A lazy scripter like me would just drop the word people :-)

"username liked your comment on article name and so did 3 more" would suffice. Because "article name" is hypertext, it works to not put it in quotes for readability, too.

Yes well people complained before "and 3 more" or whatever was confusing, I'll never please everyone but this is entirely besides the point of the topic. There's the feedback forum for any issues :)

My opinion on this subject is that Free Software/Open Source games are the ONLY games that truly support Linux.

Reading through article comment threads and forum threads on this site, a lot of people have said proprietary Linux games WILL eventually stop working, because most distributions update, stop maintaining, or remove certain libraries that these proprietary games rely on in order to work.

Free Software/Open Source games rarely suffer from abandonment. If it becomes impossible to run a certain FOSS game, someone who has the time and motivation can get in contact with the developer (or whoever can commit to the code repository) and contribute their fixes in order to get the game working on modern Linux distributions.

Furthermore, I've seen a lot of people saying that a lot of games run better in Proton, but I have yet to see similar complaints about Free Software/Open Source games. And if the Linux version of a certain FOSS game isn't on par with the Windows version, someone with the tools and codebase knowledge can fix those performance issues on their own and contribute their fixes back to the main repository.

Quoting: Talon1024My opinion on this subject is that Free Software/Open Source games are the ONLY games that truly support Linux.

Ding... that's the crux of the matter right there. Binary software distribution does NOT play well in our environment. It's always going to be workarounds to accommodate binaries, if you can't fix and recompile.

At the end of day, we still keep playing with wine++ much, but lesser with natives. This is the way, once more how we solving a problem as industry and monopoly specific, with creating our own tools. (wine++) this is the way how OSS+Linux community works. And while we have fully working vulkan why do botter with native-openGL or native-Directx games.... lets play diablo 4 as it works while we dont have to wait proper native client for ages.
thanks to transgaming tech.

What do transgaming have to do with anything? *confused* not only are they now a real estate company, but most of what they did previously was proprietary. They're absolutely nothing to do with anything even remotely semi-modern for Linux gaming.

English isn't everyone's lot in life. I think he meant "translation tech" rather than the name of a faded company :-)

If it wasn't already the name of something (or possibly other connotations of trans), "transgaming" would be a pretty good descriptive buzzword.