4. Block the game from the Internet so it can’t collect data on you or go offline for a while and it may or may not still work.

#4 is the main reason I’m hesitant to install games from Steam instead of alternative versions of the game that don’t have this limitation. But then installing games on Linux often becomes a time-consuming feat of trial and error.

To add to this-

One of the biggest traps for new linux users since forever has been to jump straight into the deep end- tweaking any and every tunable- then when that inevitably all breaks, blaming Linux and moving back.

For anyone reading- You don't need Arch as your first distro, you don't want to on the bleeding edge unless you're prepared to bleed. You don't need things like Golden Eggroll Proton or any external launchers.

Just keep it simple to start- Something like Mint, SuSE or plain Fedora with Steam using the built-in Proton.

Bazzite gets... let say 'advertised' a lot and it's got a lot of good ideas - but if you're coming from Windows I think it's just too much - it's an immutable system* with containers for everything. That's an ocean away from Windows unless you were comfortable with Sandboxie beforehand (if you were, dive right in)

*\the system is read only, you cannot change anything in the default image, ie. imagine if you were never allowed to add files to c:\windows

Edit: For the newbs, an ancient meme- https://www.shlomifish.org/humour/by-others/funroll-loops/Gentoo-is-Rice.html

If you only play new popular games, and buy them on steam (and not GOG which is a platform that's far more aligned with the linux way of thinking), sure. But i've got plenty of old steam games that have issues, or require me to muck around with custom control stuff, have warnings that they might not be fully supported, ...

I love that we're all moving to linux to be free, and then be using steam iso GOG XD.

1. Launch Steam.
2. Game isn't available on Steam.
3. No 'Play' button

There are Issues.

I know, i've got steam, and lutris, and heroic. And some games work in some of these things. For some free games i only find ancient versions in these launchers, ...

All i'm saying is that it's still far away from "just working". It's made incredible leaps, but if someone reading this will think "this'll be easy", and they try to play an older or less known game, they'll quickly be disillusioned...

I keep seeing this and I keep forgetting to look into this!

I think you've gotten some good replies here.

My comment isn't meant to scare away people, but to keep our feet on the ground. Linux gaming has made amazing progress. If you play recent, mainstream games, it'll be very well documented, and most things will work, unless they're explicitly made to not work (such as certain anti cheat systems).

If you play lesser known indie games, really old games, or more specific things (not sure how good VR support is?), you'll quickly encounter issues that may or may not be well documented. Also, in another reply thread to my post, someone commented a game not working because he has multiple monitors on linux. Stuff like that is also still happening.

So it can be really decent, but know that you might encounter issues. Give it a try and see if it works for the games that are the most important for you :).

I previously played with just Steam and there's basically one setting to enable - allowing the install of non-native games - and then (for supported games) it's pretty much the same as Windows. In some cases you need to select the Proton version but generally using "latest" does the trick. There are games that require Proton-GE to work. These were essentially ones where Valve's Proton version doesn't have workarounds for various DRM etc (likely because doing so would get them in trouble). On Steam Deck this is done by pretty much going into the local Appstore in "desktop mode" to install. Other distros may vary.

For non-Steam games it's a bit more of a pain, and can vary widely by game. I've installed a ton either just by running the Windows installer from Wine or scripts provided by Lutris.

Honestly if you've got the cash and want to try things, grab a Deck and give that a shot. If it works for you, take the leap to Linux on PC. Alternatively on PC, add/resize a disk and go dual-boot. The guided installers on Ubuntu variants generally make this pretty easy.

Honestly, check https://www.protondb.com/ and look for the games you want to play, it will let you know how well they work out of the box by just installing them on steam and hitting play. The reality is that it very much depends on what games you want to play, if you like CoD and other competitive multiplayer you're unfortunately in the missing 10%, but for most cases you should be fairly well covered.

It’s very strange.

Most games will just launch, no problems. But then you’ll get one title like the above poster has, that just refuses to launch no matter what you do.

Most of the times there’s a work around on ProtonDB that will get you running in a few minutes. But sometimes it feels like, or is the case, where the developers actively prevent the game from launching on Linux.

protondb

It's just my experience when playing around with bazzite on my legion go.

But look at the other replies, there are people mentioning issues they encounter (like one guy replying a game not working because he's using multiple monitors. If that's breaking games on linux... that's a far better description of the current state than the title of this thread).

And some of the other replies here are "launch steam, press play"...

1. why are we all running to steam when we're using linux to have freedom of software? I'd expect more GOG love in a thread like this.
2. steam is indeed nice, but we also have lutris, and heroic, and i'm probably missing some other launchers here.

And i'll give you a quick example of what i encountered: i thought of giving visual pinball a go on my legion go. It's a free project, not on steam. Checked lutris, it was on there, but an ancient version, not kept up to date. But since the latest version, they have an actual linux build, gave that one a go, and had to manually tinker with it expecting a symlink for a certain dll to exist, but bazzite is fedora based, and uses a different convention for that dll than other distros, so had to manually make a symlink so the game could find it.

I'm a programmer, the above is an hour of frustration until i have solved it, i can manage. But that's an example of what i encounter. I've got some older games in my steam library that have warnings that there are controller issues with them, ...

And that is just the linux experience. Wrong distro? it might not work. Multiple screens? It might not work. The latest hardware? You'll never guess it, but it might not work. It's tuesday? It might not work.... I'm amazed with proton etc... how much progress linux gaming has made, but we have to keep our feet on the ground, and be honest with ourselves. If we act as if we're already there, while we're not. How will we actually get where we need to get if everyone acts as if it's good enough already?

I think you've gotten some good replies here.

My comment isn't meant to scare away people, but to keep our feet on the ground. Linux gaming has made amazing progress. If you play recent, mainstream games, it'll be very well documented, and most things will work, unless they're explicitly made to not work (such as certain anti cheat systems).

If you play lesser known indie games, really old games, or more specific things (not sure how good VR support is?), you'll quickly encounter issues that may or may not be well documented. Also, in another reply thread to my post, someone commented a game not working because he has multiple monitors on linux. Stuff like that is also still happening.

So it can be really decent, but know that you might encounter issues. Give it a try and see if it works for the games that are the most important for you :).