Valve's Proton 9.0 update makes more Windows games playable on Linux, including The Finals

ScottSoapbox said:

So is Proton easy to add to the Linux build of your choice yet?

I’m eyeing ditching Windows but don't have the time to become a Linux expert to do so.

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Yes, it is very easy and well integrated with mayor launchers, like steam, heroic (all gog, epic and Amazon games) and bottles (great for titles which still could be problematic.
With steam and heroic you don't even know you use proton. Just click on game, install, play. Sometimes done games are not so simple, but mostly no issues whatsoever.
Even manual installing like with bottles is quite simple. But remember there will be more tinkering than on windows.
I use Linux exclusively for last 2 years and really like it, but sometimes windows would be much more straightforward.

ScottSoapbox said:

So is Proton easy to add to the Linux build of your choice yet?

I’m eyeing ditching Windows but don't have the time to become a Linux expert to do so.

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Check out Bazzite. https://bazzite.gg/
I’m new to Linux and the additions that it has added has been a real boon to helping me get used to the new OS. It isn’t a perfect replacement for Windows, but it has been pretty great for me, so far at least.

ScottSoapbox said:

So is Proton easy to add to the Linux build of your choice yet?

I’m eyeing ditching Windows but don't have the time to become a Linux expert to do so.

Click to expand...

Yes, it's very easy if you use these big launchers like Steam and Heroic Game Launcher. Proton is installed automatically with them, and you can choose which version of Proton you would like to use, if the default version doesn't work well with your game.

I've already ditched windows .... well uh... not really ditched, but it's there in another drive (for as backup to run really problematic application or games that prove too difficult to run under WINE/Proton without workarounds), which is barely being used nowadays. My main OS is Linux now.

In fact, I find many older games run even better than in Windows itself!

It's very easy with Heroic or Lutris.

"BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM"

This pretty much says all about Linux and software for it. Same for GPU drivers. You are on your own with it and it if it works, it works. If not you are about to find out what pain means. Simple tasks are complicated by the CLI (each distro has it own way of doing stuff). For a Router, Proxy, WAF, Firewall, etc. it's just a headless heaven.
The GUI is not mature and too many versions available. No software to monitor sensors, fans and CPU/GPU parameters, at least not unified.

Games with anti-cheat do not work and if not in major store then good luck making it work.

Why emmulate when you can have native? I know windows spying on you... this is easy fixed from a Power Shell script. Pay for Windows and software? neah at long as Online KMS and others are still here.

Last time I buy Windows/Office/Games was 98SE...

takaozo said:

"BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM"

This pretty much says all about Linux and software for it. Same for GPU drivers. You are on your own with it and it if it works, it works. If not you are about to find out what pain means. Simple tasks are complicated by the CLI (each distro has it own way of doing stuff). For a Router, Proxy, WAF, Firewall, etc. it's just a headless heaven.
The GUI is not mature and too many versions available. No software to monitor sensors, fans and CPU/GPU parameters, at least not unified.

Games with anti-cheat do not work and if not in major store then good luck making it work.

Why emmulate when you can have native? I know windows spying on you... this is easy fixed from a Power Shell script. Pay for Windows and software? neah at long as Online KMS and others are still here.

Last time I buy Windows/Office/Games was 98SE...

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So to clarify, you’re bashing Linux because of its lack of warranty, while also claiming that you haven’t been paying for Windows for the last 25 years?

Also, please define “unified” for us. Windows’ Task Manager doesn’t even have a unified interface for all fans and sensors and CPU/GPU parameters — you need CPUID’s HWMonitor or a similar third party utility to see all sensors, along with a CPU utility from Intel/AMD to play with voltage, multiplier, and thermal limits and needing a graphics control center for nVidia, AMD, and Intel to accomplish the same. Guess what? Linux has various System Monitors for many desktop environments, and none are truly “unified” as well. Just like Windows.

Additionally, stripping significant components out of an operating system because its base installation is so anti-consumer makes it seem like Windows is only the default option, and not necessarily a good one.

MisterSpock said:

So to clarify, you’re bashing Linux because of its lack of warranty, while also claiming that you haven’t been paying for Windows for the last 25 years?

Also, please define “unified” for us. Windows’ Task Manager doesn’t even have a unified interface for all fans and sensors and CPU/GPU parameters — you need CPUID’s HWMonitor or a similar third party utility to see all sensors, along with a CPU utility from Intel/AMD to play with voltage, multiplier, and thermal limits and needing a graphics control center for nVidia, AMD, and Intel to accomplish the same. Guess what? Linux has various System Monitors for many desktop environments, and none are truly “unified” as well. Just like Windows.

Additionally, stripping significant components out of an operating system because its base installation is so anti-consumer makes it seem like Windows is only the default option, and not necessarily a good one.

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On Linux you have zero warranty that the software will work or not, depending on the distro you use. It's more like take it or leave it approach. At least on Windows some people pay for software (not me) and if issues they will be for sure fixed.

Yep had access to MVL, MSDN keys and also online KMS, so why bother to buy windows.

Unified as MSI Afterburner/Riva Tuner where at least you can see almost all. Not talking about tuning CPU or change case fan speed, I know another program. As for CPU parameters I prefer BIOS. What Linux has except LmSensors? I'm not aware of others.

Nothing wrong in changhing a Security policy or Task sheduler or even windows services with Power Shell or manual. AD controlled machines work like that since ages.

takaozo said:

On Linux you have zero warranty that the software will work or not, depending on the distro you use. It's more like take it or leave it approach. At least on Windows some people pay for software (not me) and if issues they will be for sure fixed.

Yep had access to MVL, MSDN keys and also online KMS, so why bother to buy windows.

Unified as MSI Afterburner/Riva Tuner where at least you can see almost all. Not talking about tuning CPU or change case fan speed, I know another program. As for CPU parameters I prefer BIOS. What Linux has except LmSensors? I'm not aware of others.

Nothing wrong in changhing a Security policy or Task sheduler or even windows services with Power Shell or manual. AD controlled machines work like that since ages.

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Nonsense. You have a lot of enterprise grade distributions with full warranty. Amazon ec2 is full Linux. SAP cloud is full Linux. SUSE, RedHat, select distro to the use you want. Unless all you want is to complain and just refuse to learn anything new.

dangh said:

Nonsense. You have a lot of enterprise grade distributions with full warranty. Amazon ec2 is full Linux. SAP cloud is full Linux. SUSE, RedHat, select distro to the use you want. Unless all you want is to complain and just refuse to learn anything new.

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Most of the Cloud is Linux, but headless and custom build on specific distro. RedHat also has great support. Been a sysadmin for 12 years I tried all Linux can offer. And also 5 years a Network Engineer. I had my time with customized Linux both appliance or VM. Now I'm too lazy to fool arround with it anymore. I leave that to other people to have fun.

I was talking about Linux with a GUI, that it's not there yet.

takaozo said:

"BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM"

This pretty much says all about Linux and software for it. Same for GPU drivers. You are on your own with it and it if it works, it works. If not you are about to find out what pain means. Simple tasks are complicated by the CLI (each distro has it own way of doing stuff). For a Router, Proxy, WAF, Firewall, etc. it's just a headless heaven.
The GUI is not mature and too many versions available. No software to monitor sensors, fans and CPU/GPU parameters, at least not unified.

Games with anti-cheat do not work and if not in major store then good luck making it work.

Why emmulate when you can have native? I know windows spying on you... this is easy fixed from a Power Shell script. Pay for Windows and software? neah at long as Online KMS and others are still here.

Last time I buy Windows/Office/Games was 98SE...

Click to expand...

You obviously have a twisted view of Linux. Nowadays, windows looks lame compared to the huge potential of Linux world. It's more polished and extremely customizable. Of course, it's not for those too lazy to maintain it or couldn't appreciate it properly.

If not for game developers targeting mainly Windows platform, many, even remotely computer-versed users would have ditched Windows.

As I have mentioned above, I still do have Windows just in case some apps or games that really need to depend on it, for example the Gold Box Companion - a utility to help play SSI's Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Gold Box games with improved experience and improved QoL elements. This app was written for Windows and needs to access the memory space which will be problematic when running under WINE. Many DirectDraw based games (yeah, older games) run better in WINE. Many don't even work properly in Windows itself. Ironic.

With time WINE and Proton seems to betting better and better, by huge leaps.

There are lots more advantages of using Linux when comparing to Windows but I won't go into detail here and don't want to keep prolonging this thread with rebuttals.

Of course, for most laymen, buying a computer from reputable sellers or companies that already come with pre-installed Windows, will leave it as just that. Buy n' Use, and no need to worry about other issues. If any problem, just call the tech support.

I thought of ignoring your post, but I don't want newcomers to Linux get wrong ideas, and get turned away.

Guess Linux is not for you.

Anyway, this thread is for helping games run in Linux, via Proton. Don't need to deviate the topic.

takaozo said:

"BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM"

This pretty much says all about Linux and software for it. Same for GPU drivers. You are on your own with it and it if it works, it works. If not you are about to find out what pain means. Simple tasks are complicated by the CLI (each distro has it own way of doing stuff). For a Router, Proxy, WAF, Firewall, etc. it's just a headless heaven.
The GUI is not mature and too many versions available. No software to monitor sensors, fans and CPU/GPU parameters, at least not unified.

Games with anti-cheat do not work and if not in major store then good luck making it work.

Why emmulate when you can have native? I know windows spying on you... this is easy fixed from a Power Shell script. Pay for Windows and software? neah at long as Online KMS and others are still here.

Last time I buy Windows/Office/Games was 98SE...

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So what? Look you are (supposed to) pay MONEY for Windows and get a crap OS that they keep making more difficult to use, constantly getting things broken due to bugs, and them dictating how you should use YOUR computer by forcing their will down your throat, to top it all off they spy on you and make you look at ads and sell your info - even after you paid for their product. So M$FT can go straight to hell as far as I'm concerned.

Yes Linux is not perfect, often it requires tweaking and work and can certainly be a pain - but at least in most cases you are not paying for it and you can get help from the community. And you talk about the GUI not being mature.... there is no specific GUI for linux, there are multiple ones out there, though often heavily integrated into the core OS by the distributor, but you can switch to different ones and you can tweak quite a bit in them (some more than others). I'm sure many would argue as to some of these GUI's being "mature", but that is a very subjective discussion.

There is still a long way to go with gaming in Linux but Valve and Proton and Wine have been coming a long way. An older game, but Battlefield 4 multiplayer online is working on the Steam Deck. That uses the old Punkbuster anti-cheat...so they are making progress.

I understand your argument for going native and not emulating, but some of us for very good reasons HATE what M$FT is doing to Windows and want nothing to do with them anymore. They are ruining Windows, it is no longer the power users power house it used to be, it is now an nasty veneer of anti-power user hate aimed at dominating the desktop computing world through continued abuse and forceful insertion.

In the end nothing is perfect, all the OS's have their advantages and disadvantages. I use all of them, and those with even moderate technical skills should too.

I decided to give another try to gaming on Linux today.... from 3 games I tried none started.
RDR2, GTA5 and Horizon Forbiden west. Both rockstar games do not install RSGL and RSSC. So crap that windows is it detects that you dont have dot.net 3.5 installed and runs the installer. Also VC redirst and all other stuff. It's not there yet like Windoze, click install, wait and play.

Wine it's still crap and cannot figure out program parameters to start it.
Yes you can ask for help in the forums but at the end of the day I don't want to follow 40 steps tutorials to make a single game run.

And also it looks like the UEFI firmware on my MSI board makes Linux not booting from USB, no matter what/how I created the USB drive. I had to put OS on a Dell and move the disk to the MSI computer.

There are tons of other stuff not 100% clear when chosing the installation disk target and I had to remove 2 M2 drives just to be sure no current bootloader will be modified.

Linux before UEFI was pretty clear where the mountpoint will be enabled and where the GRUB should be installed.

At the end of the day I put back my Windows drives, and what do you know all works without any hustle. No more questions like "xfce vs kde vs gnome" for me, Linux was born headless and should be used for servers where it's the best.

Oh wow, that's huge. I've been relying on my PSP for joining my friend group on The Finals, but always had to be support due to the latency. Being able to play locally on my Deck sounds fantastic!

takaozo said:

I decided to give another try to gaming on Linux today.... from 3 games I tried none started.
RDR2, GTA5 and Horizon Forbiden west. Both rockstar games do not install RSGL and RSSC. So crap that windows is it detects that you dont have dot.net 3.5 installed and runs the installer. Also VC redirst and all other stuff. It's not there yet like Windoze, click install, wait and play.

Wine it's still crap and cannot figure out program parameters to start it.
Yes you can ask for help in the forums but at the end of the day I don't want to follow 40 steps tutorials to make a single game run.

And also it looks like the UEFI firmware on my MSI board makes Linux not booting from USB, no matter what/how I created the USB drive. I had to put OS on a Dell and move the disk to the MSI computer.

There are tons of other stuff not 100% clear when chosing the installation disk target and I had to remove 2 M2 drives just to be sure no current bootloader will be modified.

Linux before UEFI was pretty clear where the mountpoint will be enabled and where the GRUB should be installed.

At the end of the day I put back my Windows drives, and what do you know all works without any hustle. No more questions like "xfce vs kde vs gnome" for me, Linux was born headless and should be used for servers where it's the best.

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I have RDR2 and GTA5, both run well in Steam for Linux (RDR2) and Heroic Game Launcher for GTA5. I don't have the other game. Played using Arch Linux before and now in Debian.

If you have problem running a game, try changing to another proton version. That's the first step that should be tried.

And, no, I didn't follow any 40-step tutorials to make a game work in WINE/Proton. Just installed and played. No extra parameters.

Soon we will be able to play more old Windows games on Linux than on Windows 11

I had more time to spend with Linux this week, where should I start..

Ubuntu and Mint do not let you chose where to install the bootloader. I ended with GRUB on another drive. Audigy 5 has issues when using SPDIF, clipping and other latency issues.
No system wide equalizer or parametric EQ that will not distort sound, and I tried a bunch.
Lutris in Ubuntu 24.04 can't install from store had to do it from PPA. Once installed it can't figure out what dot.net to use with Rockstar launcer and fails to install.
Lutris in Mint works better but still cant use Nvidia drivers. RDR2 finally loaded but the intro was playing in 2-3 fps and after some seconds it freeze.

Been fun but that ends my linux adventure for this year. I will give another try next year.

takaozo said:

I had more time to spend with Linux this week, where should I start..

Ubuntu and Mint do not let you chose where to install the bootloader. I ended with GRUB on another drive. Audigy 5 has issues when using SPDIF, clipping and other latency issues.
No system wide equalizer or parametric EQ that will not distort sound, and I tried a bunch.
Lutris in Ubuntu 24.04 can't install from store had to do it from PPA. Once installed it can't figure out what dot.net to use with Rockstar launcer and fails to install.
Lutris in Mint works better but still cant use Nvidia drivers. RDR2 finally loaded but the intro was playing in 2-3 fps and after some seconds it freeze.

Been fun but that ends my linux adventure for this year. I will give another try next year.

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Valid points... but its free. I still attest that M$FT is ruining Windows and has given many reasons to try stop using it, especially since generally you are to purchase the product.

As for Linux in gaming, it does still have a long way to go. However you might consider trying PopOS! which is based on Ubuntu, but has been customized some and has been known to make getting games working a smoother process. Also there is of course the Steam Deck and its customized OS, which they really have done a great job with getting Windows games to work on it.

In the end, yes it is at least at this time still way easier to get games working on Windows... but things will continue to improve for Linux, and (seemingly) get worse for Windows. We all have different priorities, skills, and patience. This is what dictates what we spend our time doing. I too use Windows for gaming, but only for some of the games that I can't get to work on Linux. The rest of the games, and for EVERYTHING else, I use Linux or MacOS.

The only thing that I actually like about Windows is File Explorer, it still is the best overall file management solution I think. MacOS Finder is trash for navigation and ease of use, and many of the Linux file managers are clunky and slow.

MakeMSGreatAgain said:

As for Linux in gaming, it does still have a long way to go. However you might consider trying PopOS! which is based on Ubuntu, but has been customized some and has been known to make getting games working a smoother process.

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I'm thinking of building a PC with parts I have arround in house. Maybe I find a cheap AMD card. I dont want to remove again two M2 SSD's because installer wont let me choose where to put the bootloader. Yes I will give PopOS a try, why not.

takaozo said:

I'm thinking of building a PC with parts I have arround in house. Maybe I find a cheap AMD card. I dont want to remove again two M2 SSD's because installer wont let me choose where to put the bootloader. Yes I will give PopOS a try, why not.

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Whataheck u talking about? Of course you can choose a bootloadeer location, it's right on the page after choosing username and password, also you can choose between GRUB and the other bootloader...

p.s. avoid ubuntu version of mint like plague, and use LMDE instead