Over the years, many things have been said about gaming on Linux. Some of these were true at the time, some weren't, but they've turned from objective facts to vague mythology. What is true now is that, because of Valve and the work they put into SteamOS for the Steam Deck handhelds, gaming on Linux is every bit as viable as on Windows, and in some cases, even better. The lower system load of Linux is perfect for PC gaming handhelds, and their restricted power levels, but it's also just as good for desktop users. There are one or two things still holding it back from being an equal fight between Linux and Windows, but the gap has never been closer.

6 It's hard work to get going

Gone are the days when you needed extensive technical knowledge

It's true enough that getting games running on Linux used to be a bit of an ordeal. Finding games that would run natively was tricky, translation layers like WINE were slow and inefficient, and installing essential device drivers was never fun. Thanks to efforts from many different sources, including corporations like Valve while developing SteamOS, other developers building new gaming distros like Nobara and Bazzite, and the numerous open-source contributors to the projects that make everything work, setting up a Linux computer for gaming is fairly straightforward.

It is certainly no more difficult than getting Windows to play nice with peripheral drivers, trying to get broadcasting software to work to record gameplay, or any of the other tasks that gamers do every day on Windows PCs. And those olden "golden days" of PC gaming were just as difficult. How many of you remember having to reinstall Windows 95, or 98, Vista, or Windows 7 because of a hardware change? The days of multiple Hardware Abstraction Layers are over, and many PC gamers don't remember the pain that we used to have to suffer for our hobby.

5 It only works on some hardware

Device drivers are much improved from prior decades

Linux isn't anywhere near as annoying to get hardware running nowadays. It has good-quality open-source drivers for graphics cards and varying levels of manufacturer support for GPUs if you want more features. It's not perfect, but it is getting much closer to parity with Windows, and thanks to Valve's efforts with SteamOS, both Intel and Nvidia are joining the open-source party with interest.

Getting the main components of your PC running shouldn't pose too much of a problem, and there's almost always a workaround to fix any issues that do crop up from time to time. Peripherals can be another story entirely, but most USB devices will have an open-source alternative for managing settings, and things like AIO coolers will work just fine.

4 There are no games to play

Anything on Steam is fair game these days, and most other launchers as well

Even if we stick to games that natively run on Linux, there are still tens of thousands of titles on Steam alone. If we add those games that Proton supports, the number is almost as large as the total of Windows-based games, because the number of PC games that Proton doesn't work with is very small. It's mainly Xbox Game Pass games that won't run, because there's a way to get every other game launcher to work with Linux. And you can easily run emulators for console games, bringing the total of available games to literally thousands.

​​​​​​​

3 You get poor performance

Thanks to Proton those issues are a thing of the past

In the earlier days of Linux, you couldn't expect any sort of consistent gameplay experience. WINE was the only way to try and play Windows games, and it often ran them poorly, requiring complex workarounds and setup time to eke out any sort of playable frame rate. Now we have a much better translation layer, Proton, which makes the DirectX and other API calls from Windows games readable, by translating them to Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX) code.

In some cases, the translation layer improves performance on Linux because games are complex and optimization is hard. One notable example is Elden Ring, which had stuttering performance on Windows because of texture caching, but when run on Linux, the stutter was gone. Almost every other game on Steam runs at similar or comparable performance levels as on Windows, and you might also get a few more FPS in some titles thanks to the lower background overhead of Linux.

​​​​​​​

2 It's not for multiplayer games

With some exceptions, multiplayer gaming on Linux is thriving

With a few exceptions, multiplayer games run just fine on Linux, and any Source engine games that run VAC are also Linux-native. While Valve's games are among the only ones with anti-cheat that run on Linux, many other multiplayer games don't require any sort of anti-cheat software to run, and those can be played as normal. Huge titles like World of Warcraft have guides to get you started on Linux, and you don't have to set aside your MMO hankerings just because you're not using Windows anymore.

​​​​​​​

1 Games with anti-cheat won't work

Okay, this one is still true, unfortunately, but maybe with enough gamers that will change

Gaming on Linux has never been this well-supported, and it's quickly gaining parity with Windows gaming, except for one major area: online multiplayer games that use certain anti-cheat protections to ensure everyone is playing nicely. Games like Destiny 2, Escape from Tarkov, Valorant, League of Legends, and Fortnite are all unplayable on Linux because there is no support for the anti-cheat those games need to run.

It's a shame, because Destiny 2 is one of my favorite games ever, and I rarely play the PvP parts. For me, the game is best as a co-operative MMO, and that doesn't really need anti-cheat software to work well. What's even more unfortunate is that developers that have blocked Linux access to their games have seen a reduction in cheaters. Respawn, who are responsible for Apex Legends​​​​​​, say that when they blocked Linux gamers from connecting to the servers, they got an almost immediate 33% drop in infection rate, their term for the rate of matches with a cheater present.

With the increase in Linux gamers, developers might be forced into making their anti-cheat programs work on multiple platforms. That would be good for everyone, including Windows and console gamers, increasing accessibility and reach of some of the most popular games on the planet. I just don't see it happening soon, even if Valve tries to persuade developers it's a good idea.

The old thinking about gaming on Linux just doesn't apply any more

For most of the last three decades, Windows has been the only viable option for PC gamers. That's not the case any more, with Proton making gaming on Linux viable, no matter which distro you want to run. And with customized distros like Bazzite, Nobara, and SteamOS, the experience is almost seamless, with no more issues or workarounds than some games need on Windows. It's too early to call it the era of Linux gaming, but PC gamers now have a choice.