If you asked me what operating system you should pick for PC gaming, I would have named Windows in a heartbeat. At the time, gaming on Linux was down to either if the developer explicitly coded a Linux-compatible version or if Wine liked it. It felt like way too much hassle to game on Linux when Windows was right there.

However, ever since Valve began working on Proton in 2018, things began to shift a little. Eventually, gaming on Linux was no longer a joke; it was a possibility, and it was still developing. Now, we're seeing CachyOS begin to catch up with the likes of Windows 11, offering people similiar, if not superior in-game experiences to Microsoft's OS. If things continue, we may see a major upset to the decade-old advice that gaming machines should run Windows.

Proton removes the need for developers to make Linux versions of their games

It was a real game-changer

The first issue Linux had with running games is that developers very rarely designed their games to work with Linux. Windows was the 'gaming OS', so it made sense that developers would sink all their attention into the Windows build and neglect the Linux one. So, if people weren't making Linux-native games, people began meeting developers in the middle and creating tools that can run Windows titles on Linux as accurately as possible.

As such, Valve, the minds behind Steam, began work on Proton. Proton is a downstream fork of Wine, and its main goal is to "translate" Windows games into something that a Linux distro can handle. That way, game developers don't need to release a Linux-native version; they just need to worry about the Windows one, and Proton can handle the rest.

Of course, taking something meant for one OS and making it work on another is never perfect; however, it does mean that Linux users can now play blockbuster games without too much issue. There's even a website called ProtonDB that lets you look up a game you want to play on Linux and see how well Proton translates it.

CachyOS is beginning to take performance wins over Windows

The stats don't lie

OPkay, so that's why Linux as a whole is getting better at gaming. But why CachyOS specifically? Well, CachyOS is designed with performance in mind. It comes with specialised schedulers such as BORE to help boost speeds and squeeze more out of your hardware, and it's all set up right out of the box.

Now, CachyOS can begin taking on Windows 11 in gaming performance. We just saw a benchmark showing off CachyOS versus Windows 11, and the former managed to either hold its ground or excel over the latter, with a handful of exceptions. It really showed just how far gaming on Linux has come, not just in terms of compatibility, but in performance

Linux isn't quite there yet, but I remain hopeful

It's just a matter of time

So, is it time to finally hand over the crown to CachyOS? Well, not quite. There are still problems with getting games that rely on specific anti-cheat systems, after all. Call of Duty titles, anything from Riot games, and Battlefield 6 cannot run on Linux because the anti-cheat engines they use haven't been adapted to the open-source operating system, so people who enjoy those titles will still find Windows the king.

However, I do believe it's a matter of when, not if, these games finally arrive on Linux. As distros like CachyOS keep posting high numbers and drawing more people over (and we're already seeing positive movements in Steam userbase so far), the demand will be enough to either encourage the devs to get the anti-cheat working on Linux, get people finding a way to make the anti-cheat working themselves, or ideally, some sort of middle-ground. But until then, Windows does win by default on some pretty huge, popular titles.

Windows' decade-old reign doesn't look so comfy anymore

While Linux isn't the de facto best choice for gamers, CachyOS is already taking on Windows and beating it at something that only it was good at for years now. That kind of upset is huge, and it's an interesting preview into what we can expect in the future. Perhaps in 10 years time, much like how Windows users derided Linux for having no games on it, gamers will scoff at the idea of running their titles on a Microsoft operating system.