Even without, he will always have gained something from using Linux and will take that with him where he goes from here. At some point, kids get older and as the years pass, curiosity and some more free time will bring people like him back.
I'm lucky because Linux is an integral part of my daily workflow to the point where my entire household runs it (I'm a Linux developer and my consultancy provides infrastructure management on Debian and Ubuntu server; my work machine runs an arch based distro that's home-grown to service my clients efficiently). So despite being a dad and this taking up a lot of my time, I am tinkering with Linux at work anyway and while I wait for things to compile on one machine, I am taking a little time on my gaming rig to fix something I broke the other day.
Not everyone has this luxury and I know a lot of dads I worked with who just went Windows+WSL for a while and came back to bare metal Linux when their kids got a little older.
As a fresh second time Dad: I just love that Linux doesn't force anything on me. And for the reasons you describe I simply switched to AMD and no problems this far.
Sure I can't play Kernel level antichrist but honestly my life is better without LoL
Edit: I think I made the best typo so I just leave it there :D
Yeah, I used to dual boot, but I ended up just not playing games that required Windows because it was always a bunch of updating and reboots whenever I booted to Windows. Granted if I was running Windows more, it wouldn't be as out of date, but it just wasn't worth the bother.
I am in a similar boat. I turned an old office desktop into a minecraft server with ubuntu server a few years back.
Now, I have two full blown headless servers running a bunch of stuff. One of my VMs is EndeavourOS, and I use it solely for gaming. Finally, I broke down and got an AMD GPU for it, and most of the weird issues with Wayland have disappeared. Hell, HDR even works pretty well with Gamescope nowadays.
Funny, I had the same reason to switch away from windows. I would get only an occasional chance to play video games and windows would steal it by breaking, forcing updates, third party software, etc.
Linux just boots and is ready.
Good luck.
Same. Why just last night someone wanted to game with me (me being on Linux), but they had to update Windows and Windows was forcing it on them so we waited and waited for it to finish. Then after the update, a bunch of crap was messed up. Turns out we never did get to game last night. Since after they updated and powered down, they can't boot Windows anymore. I updated last night too and everything worked just fine afterward. Reasons I left Windows in the dust years ago. Haven't had a single update problem since (unless it was me screwing with things in which case that's my own fault). Can't blame Linux for that. My level of tinkering to get games working has also been highly minimal in Linux to the point that I have to say I tinker less in Linux than I used to have to under Windows.
This. The windows experience is so vastly different from one person to another you can be lucky when nothing breaks. So many gaming sessions gone because at least one got a broken system over a forced update. I can be very luckt no never getting a broken win install
I think that's because we compare "Windows" (essentially Microsoft's distro built on Windows Kernel) to "Linux" - which refers both to Linux Kernal with GNU, but also to various different distros. Windows would be more directly comparable to something like Debian, Fedora, or Nobara, than to a kernal running as the heart of various distros. It's kind of neat that you can pick a different distro - but it's also harder to make direct comparisons. All the different distros are not created equally, and it leads to a lot of variability.
Sorry, i wasn't very specific. The update experience is different. I could be wrong there too but linux updates feel more stable than windows updates. Everytime windows told me and my friends had a win update we were ready for at least one person having to reinstall windows. And usually it wasn't only one
> Everytime windows told me and my friends had a win update we were ready for at least one person having to reinstall windows.
When was this, 1995? You have to have already had something seriously broken with your install to have update fail so badly it needed a re-installation.
Yeah now I know you're bullshitting. I had an IT consultancy and started as far back as Windows 98/2000 era so I've done thousands of machines. Other than a handful of times where there's been an update released that has broken things and has been pulled it is pretty much non-existent outside of installations where someone whose estimation of their skillset is way higher than reality has gone in "tweaking" stuff and broken something.
The 2 main reasons I switched to Linux is stability and having more usable resources. After I switched, my download speeds went from barely 1megabit on a good day to consistently around 53 megabits. WTF was windows doing with all my bandwidth? I'm guessing constantly checking for useless updates and other useless stuff.
I've never had Windows update stop me from playing. It just sits there in the background doing its thing and when I've finished there's an icon in the system tray telling me I need to restart.
What kind of potato PC are you using where you can't do other things whilst it's updating?
I wish that was my experience.
For me, Linux just keeps failing and needs serious time to fix and refix.
Windows is crap but it just works. I hate it but it is what it is.
Maybe we just run it different? Im a Linux admin by trade and have been using the os since I was 13 (actually then I used FreeBSD but whatever) and my daily driver is a dead simple Ubuntu install that I never do any weird stuff to. Everything literally just works. I remember when I was more curious about stuff, I would do non standard things to my os and it would act weird as a result. Nowadays I don't even run the latest LTS on my gaming machine - 22.04 still works perfectly fine and needs ZERO maintenance from me aside from occasionally clicking on "ok" to install the updates.
I've had a different experience. I installed Arch Linux in 2015 and looking at the Pacman log, I have installed 2325 packages and upgraded 33,924 packages since. In all this time I have never had a major problem. Sometimes with a rolling release like Arch, packages can cause apps to break in someway, but nothing that could not be resolved by downgrading the occasional package. With distros like Ubuntu, and Debian which are built for stability, there isn't much that can go wrong.
yeah my first thought reading OP was like, my Windows partition always needed some bullshit when I tried to game, but my Gentoo partition has been rock solid for years.
Two years ago I killed the Windows partition because I couldn't find any more games I like that didn't work perfectly with no tinkering required.
I know my experience isn't universal and I certainly can't recommend Gentoo to someone strapped for time, but in general Windows was always the more frustrating experience, when it comes to getting into the game with minimal bullshit stopping me.
At least, lately. I do remember the days of WineX/Cedega and having to do a lot of crap for each game to get it working. The days when ATI was a nightmare on Linux so NVidia was what Linux gamers preferred by far 🙃
Unless you like to play games with anti cheat, that shit breaks constantly (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
Otherwise i also like Linux way more, no more weird updates, i control whether I want something or not. No more ads, nagging reminders and even getting frigging candy crush and other apps installed in the background on a pro licensed machine. Like wtf.
Same, Linux boots and I get to play minecraft and I don't have time to play around with settings or tinker. If the game is bought on steam, it will play great, I'm sure the OP Of the post was just using cracked.
This is actually why I made the break from Windows two years ago. One of their "big updates" fucked something up so bad that my entire OS was literally having five-minute seizures every time I wanted to watch a video. Didn't feel like doing a clean install (yet again), so I took the plunge and haven't looked back.
My philosophy goes: If it doesn't run smoothly on Linux, then it's probably an unoptimized PoS that I don't need to give my time to anyways.
My Windows install doesn't even update unless I tell it too, I'm not sure what people are doing to experience this issue
And if I do have an update, it doesn't stop me from doing what I want to do, I have never seen a "mandatory update before you can open any app" situation
Count yourself lucky, for most people and hardware Linux needs a lot, and I mean alot of tinkering configuring etc to even get a game start. Windows just works for gaming right out of the box. Regarding to the updates (only once a month, few minutes and a reboot) vs Linux updates on an almost daily basis, with fair high percentage of "breaking" things so troubleshooting get involved before you can start playing again.
Don't get me wrong, using Linux as my daily driver for everything except gaming (dual boot Windows 11)
This surprises me to be honest. And I have no ambition to "talk you back" to the platform now.
But I rarely ever experience game updates breaking things. It does happen, yes, but I'd call that very rare. Also, if the game is not working out of the box I just drop it, never tinker anymore at all, Steam/proton works so well. And thanks to protondb.com that barely ever happens either.
However I'm on Nvidia and you indicate youre not, maybe that makes a difference... I dunno...
I can confirm Cyberpunk no longer works on my machine after a recent update. No version of Proton or launch options will make it work. I have also had games in the past just abruptly stop working. But a lot of issues do come down to Nvidia. However I still refuse to go back to Windows
Here's cp2077 running on my ubuntu nvidia rig right now. Zero issues, plays like it always have.
https://preview.redd.it/ls2t33c8ay6d1.jpeg?width=4080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b3c057f681b3217eef1344902e7b5a524e28753b
I've tried installing it on PopOS Manjaro and Mint. None made the game play, same issue, freezing on rooster logo. That's great it works for you but that isn't my experience
Go plain vanilla Ubuntu. Go for the most common desktop distro. That's how you get the most trouble free experience.
It just is. Dive deeper into the distro jungle when you're ready for it. But there's nothing you can do on Linux that you can't do on Ubuntu.
> However I'm on Nvidia and you indicate youre not, maybe that makes a difference... I dunno...
I recently tried to give AMD a change again with a 7900GRE and my experience pretty much fits OP's experience. For me everything was fine until I upgraded to Kubuntu 24.04 (from 23.10) where games refused to start (amdgpu gfx ring timeout). Fedora 40 the same. Other games hard-crashed my whole PC within 1h at random times without any log entry. Worked fine on Windows, which is funny, because I bought this card specifically for Linux gaming.
And you then look for workarounds and get told to try this and that, and change the clocks, and try this kernel parameter, or turn down your graphics settings on your powerful card, and always use the newest bleeding edge mesa-git, which can screw you at any time. It's nice that drivers are open source and work most of the time, but I really think AMD is a bit overhyped here. I had 3 AMD cards over the years and always had quite severe issues on Linux specifically with them (broken mouse pointer, broken hardware decode, gfx ring timeout). With my Nvidia cards I also got my fair share of issues, but I could resolve them by downgrading to an older driver or just ignoring the weird lag here and there when an application opens (2070s had this on 535).
Went back to Nvidia (RMA'd the AMD card for a 4070 Ti S). Install 555 because 535 is too old for that card and all problems gone. All my games work. And I can use CUDA too, which is nice to have when I need it.
> Linux a decade or two ago
He said Ubuntu. It's not that great for having the latest packages and kernel.
I would not recommend Ubuntu for gaming. For a office and browser box it is fine.
I'm on vanilla Ubuntu too, have been for years now, and experience no problems whatsoever with that. Quite the contrary. I believe it's a very good idea to run the most common desktop distros, they are more tested and QAd.
The claim that we need bleeding edge everything to get gaming going on Linux is - with all respect - nonsense.
Same goes for music production btw, the main use area for me on my Ubuntu desktop. No need for those special distros or bleeding edge repos at all, unless you have a very special, particular need (I'd honestly love to see the arguments for, really).
Maybe for nvidia. But old kernel means old AMDGPU drivers. You can PPA those into Ubuntu but it's an extra step.
Old driver and new Mesa can give you trouble.
For older games it should run fine. For newer, more demanding titles you miss out on fixes and performance increases.
Ubuntu is meant to be stable and tested like you said. And it is.
There was recently a bad driver update pushed in one of the latest kernel releases. It hit both stable and LTS kernels. I hit it on Fedora 40, and it caused the problems you describe.
For what it's worth this is the first bad driver update I've seen in 3 years of AMD on Linux. I wish AMD was more communicative about these kinds of things, because it was basically impossible to know this was the cause unless you dug through mailing lists. Distros (at least Fedora, in my case) were also slow about pulling the bugfix.
Yeah, I've read something about some bad update, but don't know anymore which kernel version was affected by it. I had the 7900GRE until June 6th, so I was if on Kernel 6.8.11 at this point. I don't know if this one already contains the fix (highlighting the communication issues). Then there was apparently also an issue with the 7900GRE clock speeds that you had to override manually (I can't find the issue entry again; the search somehow never finds it), but this I didn't want to try.
It's quite unfortunate; the hardware is good and I like that the software is open source, but in the end it has to work within the time I can RMA it without a lot of hassle.
> It's quite unfortunate; the hardware is good and I like that the software is open source, but in the end it has to work within the time I can RMA it without a lot of hassle.
Yeah this is totally understandable.
For the record the regression was introduced with 6.8.9 on May 2, and resolved with 6.8.10 on May 17. Fedora 40 still hadn't updated to .10 as of the 20th, though, when I discovered the issue. Which is about right for most major distros, they lag behind upstream by anywhere from 2-3 weeks unless they're outliers like Arch/NixOS.
All distros that are intended for regular usage should support full rollback as an install option. that's part of why i switched to atomic distros. I still haven't solved user facing programs that might upgrade their configs or data formats in incompatible ways without having a normal backup, but at least those are small so easy enough.
Absolutely agree! My kids are in grade school, but that Steam Deck is 90% of my gaming still.
My desktop is dual boot, but it's pretty much all Linux all the time. Even for the occasional gaming. I have lots of GoG games, and Heroic Launcher is pretty awesome.
I can fully relate to the intent - Though things on the dark side have changed a lot since the glory days of WinXP and Win 7. Anyway you will need to have a Windows install, when having children. A lot of toys, daycare and school assignments come with Windows tools and tinkering for those isn't fun at all. The main things to look out for:
* The "Home" Version ist basically a beta version of the OS. Use a version that is on a later update path If possible
* As seen here the updates are a nightmare - Modify to delay and have the forced updates disabled if possible. Nevertheless do them regularly
* Don't get distracted by the clickbait news, which are ingrained in the system - You may want to game and than find yourself reading about the rumored divorce of a celebrity instead
* Many libraries needed for many games are not preinstalled (NET, C+,...) Do that first
* Respectively several tools that were part of Windows are not included anymore. You find them in the Microsoft Store or better find alternatives from the beginning
* Win 10 is EOL next year - so even If Win11 is worse, use this
In the end it ist easiest If you use a debloater/ customizer after install or an updated ISO. I used the tool from Chris Titus, but only as I had the link at hand - There are others, that may be better.
Personally I dual boot, mainly use Linux and just use Win on a laptop for updating it and I would need to tinker too much in Linux. Interestingly for older games there is often less tinkering on Linux as on Win - As I mostly play those, I usually start in Linux. For my gaming needs both systems are mainly complimentary (though for flexibility, freedom, privacy etc. I prefer Linux, but it ist understandable that other people set other priorities)
Linux on the laptop.. linux on the steam deck.. linux on the servers... I feel you, you end up not having the same enery for all that rollercoaster.. you just want peace
Also if it is just a gaming rig, not so many updates or softwares that could break it. Windows just kinda works if you don't overuse it, I have also let my old gaming rig on windows, that way you can still play non compatible games on steam deck by streaming. Except kid computer on windows for compatibility with school stuff, everything else on linux or bsd.
Do whatever suits you of course. And congrats on becoming a dad!
But I have to ask. How much tinkering do you really need to do these days? Because from my experience, new(ish) releases usually just work (or they don't because of anti cheat, but that settles any tinkering too lol). And if you're (like me) into older games, emulators, modding etc. - that stuff requires tinkering on Windows too. I really don't think that once I got the hang of Linux desktop, I'd do more tinkering there than I did in Windows.
I halfway believe that posts like these are just Microsoft astroturf. "Oh dear, games are way too hard on Linux because of a bunch of outdated rhetoric about tinkering, so clearly the only choice left for me is so switch to glorious Microsoft Windows, where everything Simply Works and there are never any more problems. I made this decision entirely spontaneously. Please ignore the pattern of my weirdly-rapid blinking."
that's just wishful thinking. We have lots of bad choices. At least we're moving in a direction where the user installed programs can stay updated and you can switch between different more "stable" bases. IMO things would be a lot better if distros like ubuntu or mint were otherwise stable, but made it really easy to opt into updated kernel and mesa.
To be clear, I've used linux on the desktop exclusively since 2002, and it hasn't always been a great experience, but I'll take the occasional annoyance to keep using a Free OS instead of switching to Windows or MacOS.
It happens occasionally. Like most recently Hades 2 broke for me with their update (or something else updating), I had to go and switch it to the latest version of Proton. The problem is you don't ever know when it's going to happen, and why it happens. It just stopped running, Steam would say "Running" for a minute and then it's just go away. So you have to dig. Oh, the process is running, it's just not showing anything. Oh this, oh that. How do I check Steam logs again? I never remember. Still don't.
Then there can be some other issues. Like I'm holding back bluez on version 5.68-1 because a newer version fucked up my bluetooth stack, and now I don't even remember how so I don't want to whitelist.
Happens not just with gaming. I very heavily depend on RDP for work. This one day couple weeks back, package xfreerdp switched from version 2 to version 3, which totally absolutely fucked up everything for me. Took me a while to figure the reason out, then a while trying to make my pipeline work with version 3, then failing, holding back v2, then switching to xfreerdp2. Sometimes qemu upgrades will break my workflow and I rely heavily on that too. Python will switch a major version and all my venvs will stop working.
It's a price I'm eagerly willing to pay though because - apart from gaming - none of the things I'm actually doing are possible on Windows. Or they'd be extremely difficult and require far more code than I already have written to do it under Linux. But I also get people who don't want to go through that for things like gaming.
> Python will switch a major version and all my venvs will stop working.
Assuming you are on Ubuntu, do not install `python` or `python3`, install `python3.12`. Ubuntu has metapackages like the first two that will auto update over time to new versions. Happens to me at work with PHP for example. Fix is just dont install the metapackages (and if they are, remove them first) and install the specific version you want and update it manually when needed.
It's done this way on purpose, so for those that dont care it updates automagically and for those that dont they can stick around on the older versions as long as they want.
On Arch, officially there's only `python` with specific versions being available in AUR. I just always forget to create a venv using a dedicated version and so bin symlinks point to the default python executable.
Oof, yeah. Not much you can do on arch about this as they hate the idea of packaging in a way that benefits users. The KISS is only for them, the distributors.
When I became a dad, I got myself a Playstation Vita (it was in 2013). Now I would probably go for Steam deck too. But depends what do you like to play. I don't spend time on linux troubleshooting, because I play old games which run fine. I play only few new small indie games which give me no problems.
Interesting. I have literally not turned on my gaming laptop since I got a deck. I use an MBA for work, my phone handles my personal stuff/banking and the deck for games. It has been lovely
Soon you will notice that it's not the tinkering!
It's that you don't have *any* time to play games.
After my first child I somehow managed to at least *try* some of the newer titles. Now, after #2 spawned, I resort to that old stuff from years ago in those 20 minutes per week.
If you're experiencing issues with Mesa updates, try to readjust the Proton container version you're using.
I have Proton-GE installed alongside my main Steam stuff and most of the time, I default it to Proton-GE unless it has severe problems. However, most stuff works fine with 8.0 so it could be just that.
While good advice I don't want to have to do do this.
When I sit down to play my 30 minute interval that week I want to click play and be playing within a few second.
Usually you can get away with Proton-GE. Most of the time you can tell if a game won't work in 5 minutes.
The safest version is 8.0 in Steam. Many games work with 8.0.
Happy Father's Day, gamer dad.
You seem savvy enough that you would benefit from something like massgrave.dev. I've installed Win10 LTSC IoT on my laptop and now have largely debloated Windows supported until 2032. Fuck Win11, Win10 plays games well, and most of the beef with Windows these days is their obtrusive and invasive nature, not their platform.
This way you can have the support you need for your games with better boot times and less bullshit like Copilot getting in your way. I aim to do this on my gaming desktop ASAP, I just haven't had the patience to do the complete wipe and reinstall required.
I have a deck for that. I maintain 50k+ linux machines in the same time I have to help professionals maintain a single windows system, usually explaining to the professionals again and again what they do wrong.
If I had no time left for my personal life, I would make sure my life is void of time consumers.
No windows.
No proprietary cloud based equipment.
No linux desktop of the week.
No family asking why their windows is acting up.
Steam deck for gaming, nothing else.
No complex home automation, just bare switches or wifi enhanced switches.
So I have all the time for me and my right hand. I mean, I have no kids ;-).
I almost did all that. My desktop is the steam deck and it works wonders. When I am fed up with work, I unplug it and switch to game mode. And I never needed tinkering on my deck. My family already just buy new printers when the driver of their old printer acts up. I am not going to waste my life anymore because someone loves maintaining their desktop.
I even rejected help requests from my neighbors after the Nth sit at their laptop to look why it doesn't work. If you can't maintain your shit go browser independent cloud based.
I don't depend on proprietary cloud based systems anymore: I left my crap mastervolt inverter with the buyers of my house. Really, a cloud based solar inverter that stops working because mastervolt decided to pull the plug from the cloud "service". That inverter was more expensive than the panels attached to it. The inverter stopped inverting because it couldn't phone home.
Remove all that crap from your life.
Don't use word or anything shit for documentation. Use a wiki.
Anyway I stop ranting. Enjoy your kid.
I’m finally about a year into my journey off windows. It’s kinda wild to see someone headed there. Telemetry, copilot, recall, forced online account, hell I’ve never been ransomwared by anything. Closest I’ve come to it though is bitlocker turning itself on. I gave you a follow OP since I’m interested in your journey and your findings. Windows definitely seems to work out of the box better but Linux lately seems to have shrunk the gap there. If i have a 98% success rate on Windows i probably have at least a solid 90% on Linux. That’s all in the last year with nvidia/intel loadouts so i was expecting more headwinds. At any rate it definitely sound over my level and i trust you to know your own mind and reasoning, best of luck over there.
But make sure to shut Windows up with [Chris Titus WinUtil](https://github.com/ChrisTitusTech/winutil).
In any way, all the best to you and your newborn. :)
As the dad of a toddler, it won't matter, you won't have time to play at your desktop anyway. Cherish your steam deck, it's a game changer!
And congratulations for your baby, good luck!
Oh man, the amount of "informative" pop-ups and ads in Windows now drives me up the wall more than ever before. Not to mention how they are adding layers of difficulty to managing the system; but at least you're trying to game, not run a home office.
Good luck out there 😬👍🏼
It's so curious how so many people have vaaastly different experiences.
To me, RX7900XT on Debian Stable, I have no damn problem whatsoever :D
Everything on Steam works out of the Box, everything on Lutris works out of the box and since I discovered the WINE\_LARGE\_ADDRESS\_AWARE key for Lutris, everything off the high seas works as well on first try.
I've spent 7 hours trying to get BG3 to even start on my windows PC.
Runs with absolutely no problem on Kubuntu. Runs well enough to play it on my Steam Deck.
I hear you, though, but... Just keep in mind how truly awful and invasive Microsoft is getting with Win 11.
Did you use any sort of debloater on it? Last time I had issues with starting games on Windows was during Vista/7 times and it was only with old games before gog was introduced. BG3 and everything else launches without any issues whatsoever. I am running vanilla 11 though.
It's computers. I don't have nearly the problems you seem to have, 99 percent of the time it just works. The only issue I had with a game in the last year was when Bethesda updated fallout 4 and broke all my mods. Gaming on Linux doesn't seem to take any extra time in general though.
Anyways, it's funny to read this post just now as last night I had to help my kid because windows update broke all their games. Registry had to be messed with, drivers removed and reinstalled.
Like I said... computers.
This is "the other side is greener". I have dual boot, both on a stationary PC and a laptop. I do not remember last time I booted windows on the stationary, but in last month most of the time I have used windows on the laptop (one game ran better there).
Until yesterday. Windows started an update. The update could not be finished for some reason (there is space on the SDD). It rolled back... after the reboot steam claimed it can't find some stuff, and the sound is dead. Reinstalling the drivers and googling the entire evening did not help... And I also do not have too much time now.
In other words, do not count on a much more reliable experience.
My experience with modern day consoles is sitting down after work with 2hrs to play games, going to launch the game I want to play and getting a popup saying it's downloading a 36gb update so I won't be playing that night.
Even when I have the system set to use standby instead of power off and my console is wired to Ethernet the standby auto updates for games are very hit and miss, modern games being so big and updating so frequently really ruins the simplicity of consoles.
You can't even stick the game in and play it from the disc anymore as it has to install to your console which can take like 40 minutes on bigger games and then it has to download the latest update too.
Sometimes game updates break on your machine for whatever reason and you have to delete and redownload the game again, sometimes the console needs the OS reloaded from a USB in recovery mode as the online system update failed. I dunno, they're not as basic as they used to be.
> auto updates for games are very hit and miss
and
> sometimes game updates break on your machine for whatever reason
Interesting, I have never had either of those happen on my PS5. I don't play very often, I always keep it in standby and there's usually like 5 or 10 notifications about updates when I turn it on.
It's mostly the same for me, but I went with consoles, Xbox because of the great backward compatiblity. I can't burn 4 hours to just get an old game working any more.
But also don't work too long hours to support your family. Working until dead is pointless. My friend got first child, he was working 16 hours a day from Monday to Friday, sometimes even on weekends.
Sad to hear that, hopefully it improves in the future. And you are still part of the community anyway. Congratulations on being a new dad. Hope the best for you and your child!
I can't blame you. I'm pretty sure I'll keep dual booting until I die. I mean I bought jagged alliance 3 thinking it'll work but nope. So it's either spending hours trying to make it work (maybe) or just installing it on Windows and play. I choose the later.
Honestly that is fair.
I'm using Zorin 16 and recently flatpaks that have anything to do with gnome 40 are starting to have issues. I just tolerate them, I had worse bugs that made me sigh hard for hours.
I do not want to tweak anything game-wise, Dust Elysian tail has a bug on the deck that you need to go on game files and delete something and I can't be bothered either. So I just go and play something else that works on the deck.
I can't imagine being a parent and even playing games, much less tweaking stuff to play games.
I hope you can have fun mate.
Thanks man! So I lied a little in my post. My daughter is actually 8 months old. So I've been doing this for a bit.
And yea I just can't be bothered. Every Linux user just says "Oh you just have to edit this file or change this proton version or this or that".
Know what I do on Windows? Double click an icon. That's it. I don't have time for anything else.
Thanks man!
totally feel you. Windows, things (usually) just work, plus anticheats preventing Linux users from playing (I'm looking at you Destiny 2). You're still part of Linux gang tho, if you wanna be technical, Steam Deck runs Linux.
There's so many Linux or compatible games out there I haven't even seriously looked at a non-compatible game in years. Good luck with Windows, I have to use it for work, never again privately.
Good luck with your child!
Man, 15 years is wild. I've only been here for the last 4-5 years, I think, and even then I know how frustrating it can be for certain games.
(still waiting for more Waydroid improvements as well as the anime games platform to materialize so I can play all the gacha games I want as easily as I could on Windows)
> But I still have instances of games breaking after updates or a Mesa update or some other library. Then I would need to spend an hour troubleshooting just before I could start gaming.
> Those days are behind me. As a new Dad I am lucky to get an hour or 2 a week to game. I do not have the luxury to tinker with Linux any longer.
It's been a while since I had to troubleshoot a game.
If you get a bit of time, maybe try to explain specifically what was the problems you encountered.
Enjoy your newborn!
Good luck, it's going to be a lot at first. Things will get progressively easier as you pick up the skills for parenting. Cherish these times, they'll never happen again
I use my Linux laptop for everything but gaming and i have a windows laptop for gaming.
Most of my multiplayer games with any sort of anti cheat just breaks on Linux. I’d rather buy a new laptop than deal with that.
You will get back to Windows and remember why you left it in the first place.
Linux is not perfect at all, but it's currently the lesser evil of the three main operating systems.
I'm just curious, what distribution have you been running? I've been playing on KUbuntu for about two years now, and I've not yet had any breakage that was Linux's fault.
The only significant problem I had was Final Fantasy XIV thinking I was on a Mac (they use Wine for the Mac port) which was fixed literally the next day by the developer.
That's fair, I'm just curious though, because those seem to be oddly specific problems.
I've had some issues with sound and WiFi, myself, but those were not too bad to fix, and once fixed, everything works fine. What's odd to me is an update actually *breaking* something.
> What's odd to me is an update actually breaking something.
I've seen it with nVidia. Forget to turn on DKMS for nvidia and the kernel updates? Next boot is a black screen.
Tbh, I don't get all these "I spend 20 hours a day fixing Linux problems" posts. I haven't had any major issues using Linux across 4 fundamentally different distros over the last 8 years... There's been issues, but I've always been able to quickly fix or workaround it if it was a big enough problem that it actually damaged my experience using it. 99% of the time, it just works and I've never been able to say that about windows...
Been on Tumbleweed from the start of 2018, and the only times an update was problematic, two seconds to run `snapper list`, `snapper rollback # ; reboot` fixed it. And that was only until I'd replaced Nvidia.
Well, good luck. You'll be back eventually. It's only a matter of time before Windows pisses you off to the breaking point again and at that point, you'll likely remember exactly why you switched to Linux for gaming in the first place.
I’ve missed many a game night with the homies because I had so damned many updates waiting when I booted back to windows. Sometimes hours worth between the os, the launcher, the game.
Last time I tried I wound up just chatting while the updates ran and played TotK on my Switch while they were in Battlefield.
Don't do updates and it won't break. Sounds like you just picked a bad distro to me. As a father of 4 I purposefully do not do any updates until the weekend, but I also use a rolling distro. If you use openSUSE slowroll or something then it will be pretty solid and you can always easily roll back because its built into the package manager.
Your choice of convenience, and that is what all matters.
But at the first forced update... at the first default setting override by Microsoft for their convenience and not yours... at the first opt-in option converted to opt-this... after that banner of Game Pass in every place...
We all have a convenience choice, and I prefer to deal with little inconveniences than face any Microsoft's deal.
Yeah, same story. Too many gaming evenings became tinkering evenings, especially when I was trying to play from outside of Steam.
Pretty much always, I was losing interest in a game I was trying to launch at the very moment I finally made it run.
My daughter turned 9 months today, I know exactly what you mean by only having one to two hours to play games and ticker with Linux
Best of luck to you and congratulations on your beebee
Same boat for me last year. I dual boot so I can still work and play from my comfortable Mint desktop with what works drama-free. Separate hard drives for Mint and Win10
I have dual boot so I can play Fortnite with my kid so I get it. But man, I will tell you, I don't boot up Windows very often, so when I do, i have to put some time aside for hours of updates. (In fact I probably should do that right now.)
For the record though, I am using Ubuntu/Steam and everything usually just works for me. Of course hardware is a big factor, but other than some games (eg: Fortnaite) not working, Linux no longer requires much more tinkering for gaming than windowz does.
Honestly switching to Linux lets me play less and it doesn’t bother me that much, I do more projects.
I am trying to play after everyone goes to bed, then I am tired too. Newborn is kind of easy, eat and sleep. Just wait until they become a toddler.
I'm one of those that would rather spend lots of time tinkering and configuring my linux desktop, even if it costs me playing way less. the satisfaction alone of having a clean and stable experience at the end is so worth it.
I hear you. But I spend pretty much my whole day tinkering. I'm the sole Systems Admin for a company.
I have a Linux server running 90 containers.
I have a Home Assistant Server with a shit ton sensors and automations etc.
When I am ready to game I just want to game
Congratulations! It’s funny you’re switching to Windows for the same reason I switched to Linux, I can’t count the amount of times Windows broke / shat itself over the twenty years I used it, but I’ve been relatively problem free on the same Arch Linux install for the last nine years since, through multiple hardware upgrades, ship of Theseus style. Anyways, enjoy parenting, hope your Windows install doesn’t cause too much trouble.
I'm also a dad that has been maining Linux for a couple decades.
Happy Father's Day!
Nevermind the platform war going on in the comments, you do you. I'll send you my steam id if you want to fill out your friend list.
It's sad but understandable.
Issues like these are why I still recommend Linux Mint over Manjaro/Bazzite/Garuda etc.
Arch is nice, but if you don't have time to tinker, stick with something that updates slower and is more solid.
I had to go back to Windows for gaming for a couple of weeks. FPS in DayZ dropped down to 55-110. I solved the problem yesterday and had FPS of 75-144 in POP\_OS!
Same graphics settings on both installs (set to Extreme on 2560/1440 on 144Hz with a RTX 3090.
This is on my desktop PC. I use an older laptop, with a GTX 1650, for gaming when we are traveling. The improvements in FPS here saves me a lot of money, making the older laptop still usable :-).
I converted my gaming pc to linux when my toddler turned 2. Now, child #2 is on its way and I'm back to windows.
The first game I've installed was Fallout New Vegas and the current Win AMD drivers seem to crash the game on startup. On my Steam Deck it works flawlessly 😂
Good luck. You are using the steam deck, so you are still Part of the gang
Even without, he will always have gained something from using Linux and will take that with him where he goes from here. At some point, kids get older and as the years pass, curiosity and some more free time will bring people like him back. I'm lucky because Linux is an integral part of my daily workflow to the point where my entire household runs it (I'm a Linux developer and my consultancy provides infrastructure management on Debian and Ubuntu server; my work machine runs an arch based distro that's home-grown to service my clients efficiently). So despite being a dad and this taking up a lot of my time, I am tinkering with Linux at work anyway and while I wait for things to compile on one machine, I am taking a little time on my gaming rig to fix something I broke the other day. Not everyone has this luxury and I know a lot of dads I worked with who just went Windows+WSL for a while and came back to bare metal Linux when their kids got a little older.
As a fresh second time Dad: I just love that Linux doesn't force anything on me. And for the reasons you describe I simply switched to AMD and no problems this far. Sure I can't play Kernel level antichrist but honestly my life is better without LoL Edit: I think I made the best typo so I just leave it there :D
> Kernel level antichrist That sounds even worse than kernel level anticheat.
The power of Antichrist compels you… to install Windows.
Praise vanguard
Haha didn't realize :D
Yeah, I used to dual boot, but I ended up just not playing games that required Windows because it was always a bunch of updating and reboots whenever I booted to Windows. Granted if I was running Windows more, it wouldn't be as out of date, but it just wasn't worth the bother.
Seconded. When I switched to AMD video card, I stopped having problems with my Steam games.
I am in a similar boat. I turned an old office desktop into a minecraft server with ubuntu server a few years back. Now, I have two full blown headless servers running a bunch of stuff. One of my VMs is EndeavourOS, and I use it solely for gaming. Finally, I broke down and got an AMD GPU for it, and most of the weird issues with Wayland have disappeared. Hell, HDR even works pretty well with Gamescope nowadays.
Funny, I had the same reason to switch away from windows. I would get only an occasional chance to play video games and windows would steal it by breaking, forcing updates, third party software, etc. Linux just boots and is ready. Good luck.
Same. Why just last night someone wanted to game with me (me being on Linux), but they had to update Windows and Windows was forcing it on them so we waited and waited for it to finish. Then after the update, a bunch of crap was messed up. Turns out we never did get to game last night. Since after they updated and powered down, they can't boot Windows anymore. I updated last night too and everything worked just fine afterward. Reasons I left Windows in the dust years ago. Haven't had a single update problem since (unless it was me screwing with things in which case that's my own fault). Can't blame Linux for that. My level of tinkering to get games working has also been highly minimal in Linux to the point that I have to say I tinker less in Linux than I used to have to under Windows.
This. The windows experience is so vastly different from one person to another you can be lucky when nothing breaks. So many gaming sessions gone because at least one got a broken system over a forced update. I can be very luckt no never getting a broken win install
> The windows experience is so vastly different from one person to another you can be lucky when nothing breaks. The same applies even more to Linux.
I think that's because we compare "Windows" (essentially Microsoft's distro built on Windows Kernel) to "Linux" - which refers both to Linux Kernal with GNU, but also to various different distros. Windows would be more directly comparable to something like Debian, Fedora, or Nobara, than to a kernal running as the heart of various distros. It's kind of neat that you can pick a different distro - but it's also harder to make direct comparisons. All the different distros are not created equally, and it leads to a lot of variability.
Sorry, i wasn't very specific. The update experience is different. I could be wrong there too but linux updates feel more stable than windows updates. Everytime windows told me and my friends had a win update we were ready for at least one person having to reinstall windows. And usually it wasn't only one
> Everytime windows told me and my friends had a win update we were ready for at least one person having to reinstall windows. When was this, 1995? You have to have already had something seriously broken with your install to have update fail so badly it needed a re-installation.
Win10
Yeah now I know you're bullshitting. I had an IT consultancy and started as far back as Windows 98/2000 era so I've done thousands of machines. Other than a handful of times where there's been an update released that has broken things and has been pulled it is pretty much non-existent outside of installations where someone whose estimation of their skillset is way higher than reality has gone in "tweaking" stuff and broken something.
Anyways, here's an apparently necessary disclaimer: every story i experienced is, well obviously, my experience. Your mileage may vary
I want butt in here by saying that updates feel a lot more stable than windows, even when updating on a unstable branch in my experience.
The 2 main reasons I switched to Linux is stability and having more usable resources. After I switched, my download speeds went from barely 1megabit on a good day to consistently around 53 megabits. WTF was windows doing with all my bandwidth? I'm guessing constantly checking for useless updates and other useless stuff.
I've never had Windows update stop me from playing. It just sits there in the background doing its thing and when I've finished there's an icon in the system tray telling me I need to restart. What kind of potato PC are you using where you can't do other things whilst it's updating?
I wish that was my experience. For me, Linux just keeps failing and needs serious time to fix and refix. Windows is crap but it just works. I hate it but it is what it is.
Maybe we just run it different? Im a Linux admin by trade and have been using the os since I was 13 (actually then I used FreeBSD but whatever) and my daily driver is a dead simple Ubuntu install that I never do any weird stuff to. Everything literally just works. I remember when I was more curious about stuff, I would do non standard things to my os and it would act weird as a result. Nowadays I don't even run the latest LTS on my gaming machine - 22.04 still works perfectly fine and needs ZERO maintenance from me aside from occasionally clicking on "ok" to install the updates.
Out of curiosity, are you using nvidia? Also, what distro?
I've had a different experience. I installed Arch Linux in 2015 and looking at the Pacman log, I have installed 2325 packages and upgraded 33,924 packages since. In all this time I have never had a major problem. Sometimes with a rolling release like Arch, packages can cause apps to break in someway, but nothing that could not be resolved by downgrading the occasional package. With distros like Ubuntu, and Debian which are built for stability, there isn't much that can go wrong.
yeah my first thought reading OP was like, my Windows partition always needed some bullshit when I tried to game, but my Gentoo partition has been rock solid for years. Two years ago I killed the Windows partition because I couldn't find any more games I like that didn't work perfectly with no tinkering required. I know my experience isn't universal and I certainly can't recommend Gentoo to someone strapped for time, but in general Windows was always the more frustrating experience, when it comes to getting into the game with minimal bullshit stopping me. At least, lately. I do remember the days of WineX/Cedega and having to do a lot of crap for each game to get it working. The days when ATI was a nightmare on Linux so NVidia was what Linux gamers preferred by far 🙃
I'm still stuck on OP having a full hour per week to game.
Yep, I noticed this too. I was getting errors galore with Helldivers 2 on Win11. Moved over to Linux and suddenly my BSODs are gone.
This. When I'm gaming on a Windows box, it seems to take significantly more work.
Unless you like to play games with anti cheat, that shit breaks constantly (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻ Otherwise i also like Linux way more, no more weird updates, i control whether I want something or not. No more ads, nagging reminders and even getting frigging candy crush and other apps installed in the background on a pro licensed machine. Like wtf.
Same, Linux boots and I get to play minecraft and I don't have time to play around with settings or tinker. If the game is bought on steam, it will play great, I'm sure the OP Of the post was just using cracked.
This is actually why I made the break from Windows two years ago. One of their "big updates" fucked something up so bad that my entire OS was literally having five-minute seizures every time I wanted to watch a video. Didn't feel like doing a clean install (yet again), so I took the plunge and haven't looked back. My philosophy goes: If it doesn't run smoothly on Linux, then it's probably an unoptimized PoS that I don't need to give my time to anyways.
Yeah last time I wanted to play 2 quick rounds of R6 I had to 30 minutes for Windows to finish a fucking update
[удалено]
My Windows install doesn't even update unless I tell it too, I'm not sure what people are doing to experience this issue And if I do have an update, it doesn't stop me from doing what I want to do, I have never seen a "mandatory update before you can open any app" situation
[удалено]
Count yourself lucky, for most people and hardware Linux needs a lot, and I mean alot of tinkering configuring etc to even get a game start. Windows just works for gaming right out of the box. Regarding to the updates (only once a month, few minutes and a reboot) vs Linux updates on an almost daily basis, with fair high percentage of "breaking" things so troubleshooting get involved before you can start playing again. Don't get me wrong, using Linux as my daily driver for everything except gaming (dual boot Windows 11)
> Linux updates on an almost daily basis, Linux updates *when you want it to*.
But that's what happens when you play cracked games, tinkering is required as well as on windows.
Yep I got into Linux without a dual boot after kiddo was born.
This surprises me to be honest. And I have no ambition to "talk you back" to the platform now. But I rarely ever experience game updates breaking things. It does happen, yes, but I'd call that very rare. Also, if the game is not working out of the box I just drop it, never tinker anymore at all, Steam/proton works so well. And thanks to protondb.com that barely ever happens either. However I'm on Nvidia and you indicate youre not, maybe that makes a difference... I dunno...
I can confirm Cyberpunk no longer works on my machine after a recent update. No version of Proton or launch options will make it work. I have also had games in the past just abruptly stop working. But a lot of issues do come down to Nvidia. However I still refuse to go back to Windows
Here's cp2077 running on my ubuntu nvidia rig right now. Zero issues, plays like it always have. https://preview.redd.it/ls2t33c8ay6d1.jpeg?width=4080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b3c057f681b3217eef1344902e7b5a524e28753b
I've tried installing it on PopOS Manjaro and Mint. None made the game play, same issue, freezing on rooster logo. That's great it works for you but that isn't my experience
same
Go plain vanilla Ubuntu. Go for the most common desktop distro. That's how you get the most trouble free experience. It just is. Dive deeper into the distro jungle when you're ready for it. But there's nothing you can do on Linux that you can't do on Ubuntu.
> However I'm on Nvidia and you indicate youre not, maybe that makes a difference... I dunno... I recently tried to give AMD a change again with a 7900GRE and my experience pretty much fits OP's experience. For me everything was fine until I upgraded to Kubuntu 24.04 (from 23.10) where games refused to start (amdgpu gfx ring timeout). Fedora 40 the same. Other games hard-crashed my whole PC within 1h at random times without any log entry. Worked fine on Windows, which is funny, because I bought this card specifically for Linux gaming. And you then look for workarounds and get told to try this and that, and change the clocks, and try this kernel parameter, or turn down your graphics settings on your powerful card, and always use the newest bleeding edge mesa-git, which can screw you at any time. It's nice that drivers are open source and work most of the time, but I really think AMD is a bit overhyped here. I had 3 AMD cards over the years and always had quite severe issues on Linux specifically with them (broken mouse pointer, broken hardware decode, gfx ring timeout). With my Nvidia cards I also got my fair share of issues, but I could resolve them by downgrading to an older driver or just ignoring the weird lag here and there when an application opens (2070s had this on 535). Went back to Nvidia (RMA'd the AMD card for a 4070 Ti S). Install 555 because 535 is too old for that card and all problems gone. All my games work. And I can use CUDA too, which is nice to have when I need it.
Ugh... This sounds like Linux a decade or two ago 😳 Seems I'm better off sticking to Nvidia still, then! I was hoping we'd gotten further tbh.
On the counter side I switched from NVIDIA to AMD and have less issues and a better overall experience. YMMV.
> Linux a decade or two ago He said Ubuntu. It's not that great for having the latest packages and kernel. I would not recommend Ubuntu for gaming. For a office and browser box it is fine.
I'm on vanilla Ubuntu too, have been for years now, and experience no problems whatsoever with that. Quite the contrary. I believe it's a very good idea to run the most common desktop distros, they are more tested and QAd. The claim that we need bleeding edge everything to get gaming going on Linux is - with all respect - nonsense. Same goes for music production btw, the main use area for me on my Ubuntu desktop. No need for those special distros or bleeding edge repos at all, unless you have a very special, particular need (I'd honestly love to see the arguments for, really).
Maybe for nvidia. But old kernel means old AMDGPU drivers. You can PPA those into Ubuntu but it's an extra step. Old driver and new Mesa can give you trouble. For older games it should run fine. For newer, more demanding titles you miss out on fixes and performance increases. Ubuntu is meant to be stable and tested like you said. And it is.
There was recently a bad driver update pushed in one of the latest kernel releases. It hit both stable and LTS kernels. I hit it on Fedora 40, and it caused the problems you describe. For what it's worth this is the first bad driver update I've seen in 3 years of AMD on Linux. I wish AMD was more communicative about these kinds of things, because it was basically impossible to know this was the cause unless you dug through mailing lists. Distros (at least Fedora, in my case) were also slow about pulling the bugfix.
Yeah, I've read something about some bad update, but don't know anymore which kernel version was affected by it. I had the 7900GRE until June 6th, so I was if on Kernel 6.8.11 at this point. I don't know if this one already contains the fix (highlighting the communication issues). Then there was apparently also an issue with the 7900GRE clock speeds that you had to override manually (I can't find the issue entry again; the search somehow never finds it), but this I didn't want to try. It's quite unfortunate; the hardware is good and I like that the software is open source, but in the end it has to work within the time I can RMA it without a lot of hassle.
> It's quite unfortunate; the hardware is good and I like that the software is open source, but in the end it has to work within the time I can RMA it without a lot of hassle. Yeah this is totally understandable. For the record the regression was introduced with 6.8.9 on May 2, and resolved with 6.8.10 on May 17. Fedora 40 still hadn't updated to .10 as of the 20th, though, when I discovered the issue. Which is about right for most major distros, they lag behind upstream by anywhere from 2-3 weeks unless they're outliers like Arch/NixOS.
All distros that are intended for regular usage should support full rollback as an install option. that's part of why i switched to atomic distros. I still haven't solved user facing programs that might upgrade their configs or data formats in incompatible ways without having a normal backup, but at least those are small so easy enough.
Two words: Steam Deck It’s the best thing ever for dads.
Absolutely agree! My kids are in grade school, but that Steam Deck is 90% of my gaming still. My desktop is dual boot, but it's pretty much all Linux all the time. Even for the occasional gaming. I have lots of GoG games, and Heroic Launcher is pretty awesome.
Mentioned in my post :). But yes it'll be getting lots of use
I can fully relate to the intent - Though things on the dark side have changed a lot since the glory days of WinXP and Win 7. Anyway you will need to have a Windows install, when having children. A lot of toys, daycare and school assignments come with Windows tools and tinkering for those isn't fun at all. The main things to look out for: * The "Home" Version ist basically a beta version of the OS. Use a version that is on a later update path If possible * As seen here the updates are a nightmare - Modify to delay and have the forced updates disabled if possible. Nevertheless do them regularly * Don't get distracted by the clickbait news, which are ingrained in the system - You may want to game and than find yourself reading about the rumored divorce of a celebrity instead * Many libraries needed for many games are not preinstalled (NET, C+,...) Do that first * Respectively several tools that were part of Windows are not included anymore. You find them in the Microsoft Store or better find alternatives from the beginning * Win 10 is EOL next year - so even If Win11 is worse, use this In the end it ist easiest If you use a debloater/ customizer after install or an updated ISO. I used the tool from Chris Titus, but only as I had the link at hand - There are others, that may be better. Personally I dual boot, mainly use Linux and just use Win on a laptop for updating it and I would need to tinker too much in Linux. Interestingly for older games there is often less tinkering on Linux as on Win - As I mostly play those, I usually start in Linux. For my gaming needs both systems are mainly complimentary (though for flexibility, freedom, privacy etc. I prefer Linux, but it ist understandable that other people set other priorities)
Linux on the laptop.. linux on the steam deck.. linux on the servers... I feel you, you end up not having the same enery for all that rollercoaster.. you just want peace
Yep my NAS with 90+ containers running Linux also. When I want to game I just want to game.
I feel ya. that was what I've learnt around 6 years ago. I just want to chill not to diagnose everything I try to do with my hardware
Also if it is just a gaming rig, not so many updates or softwares that could break it. Windows just kinda works if you don't overuse it, I have also let my old gaming rig on windows, that way you can still play non compatible games on steam deck by streaming. Except kid computer on windows for compatibility with school stuff, everything else on linux or bsd.
Yep. It honestly gets extremely hard someone like me with no background of coding or cs in general.
Hey man. Gamer dad here as well. Do whatever suits you dude.
The Diablo4 dads are leaking into other subreddits...
godspeed, fellow gamer dad
Blood in blood out. You're still in the gang buddy
Do whatever suits you of course. And congrats on becoming a dad! But I have to ask. How much tinkering do you really need to do these days? Because from my experience, new(ish) releases usually just work (or they don't because of anti cheat, but that settles any tinkering too lol). And if you're (like me) into older games, emulators, modding etc. - that stuff requires tinkering on Windows too. I really don't think that once I got the hang of Linux desktop, I'd do more tinkering there than I did in Windows.
I halfway believe that posts like these are just Microsoft astroturf. "Oh dear, games are way too hard on Linux because of a bunch of outdated rhetoric about tinkering, so clearly the only choice left for me is so switch to glorious Microsoft Windows, where everything Simply Works and there are never any more problems. I made this decision entirely spontaneously. Please ignore the pattern of my weirdly-rapid blinking."
that's just wishful thinking. We have lots of bad choices. At least we're moving in a direction where the user installed programs can stay updated and you can switch between different more "stable" bases. IMO things would be a lot better if distros like ubuntu or mint were otherwise stable, but made it really easy to opt into updated kernel and mesa. To be clear, I've used linux on the desktop exclusively since 2002, and it hasn't always been a great experience, but I'll take the occasional annoyance to keep using a Free OS instead of switching to Windows or MacOS.
It happens occasionally. Like most recently Hades 2 broke for me with their update (or something else updating), I had to go and switch it to the latest version of Proton. The problem is you don't ever know when it's going to happen, and why it happens. It just stopped running, Steam would say "Running" for a minute and then it's just go away. So you have to dig. Oh, the process is running, it's just not showing anything. Oh this, oh that. How do I check Steam logs again? I never remember. Still don't. Then there can be some other issues. Like I'm holding back bluez on version 5.68-1 because a newer version fucked up my bluetooth stack, and now I don't even remember how so I don't want to whitelist. Happens not just with gaming. I very heavily depend on RDP for work. This one day couple weeks back, package xfreerdp switched from version 2 to version 3, which totally absolutely fucked up everything for me. Took me a while to figure the reason out, then a while trying to make my pipeline work with version 3, then failing, holding back v2, then switching to xfreerdp2. Sometimes qemu upgrades will break my workflow and I rely heavily on that too. Python will switch a major version and all my venvs will stop working. It's a price I'm eagerly willing to pay though because - apart from gaming - none of the things I'm actually doing are possible on Windows. Or they'd be extremely difficult and require far more code than I already have written to do it under Linux. But I also get people who don't want to go through that for things like gaming.
> Python will switch a major version and all my venvs will stop working. Assuming you are on Ubuntu, do not install `python` or `python3`, install `python3.12`. Ubuntu has metapackages like the first two that will auto update over time to new versions. Happens to me at work with PHP for example. Fix is just dont install the metapackages (and if they are, remove them first) and install the specific version you want and update it manually when needed. It's done this way on purpose, so for those that dont care it updates automagically and for those that dont they can stick around on the older versions as long as they want.
On Arch, officially there's only `python` with specific versions being available in AUR. I just always forget to create a venv using a dedicated version and so bin symlinks point to the default python executable.
Oof, yeah. Not much you can do on arch about this as they hate the idea of packaging in a way that benefits users. The KISS is only for them, the distributors.
I've put up a dual boot for this reason exactly. And congratulations. 😊
As a new dad, your StramDeck is your best friend. For more stability, maybe you'll need a more stable distro.
When I became a dad, I got myself a Playstation Vita (it was in 2013). Now I would probably go for Steam deck too. But depends what do you like to play. I don't spend time on linux troubleshooting, because I play old games which run fine. I play only few new small indie games which give me no problems.
Interesting. I have literally not turned on my gaming laptop since I got a deck. I use an MBA for work, my phone handles my personal stuff/banking and the deck for games. It has been lovely
Soon you will notice that it's not the tinkering! It's that you don't have *any* time to play games. After my first child I somehow managed to at least *try* some of the newer titles. Now, after #2 spawned, I resort to that old stuff from years ago in those 20 minutes per week.
he will return once he finds out that windows update is like every day and that windows is slower .
Sometimes you need to use low quality stuff to remind yourself yours is better.
For how can we know the good if we do not know the enshittified?
If you're experiencing issues with Mesa updates, try to readjust the Proton container version you're using. I have Proton-GE installed alongside my main Steam stuff and most of the time, I default it to Proton-GE unless it has severe problems. However, most stuff works fine with 8.0 so it could be just that.
While good advice I don't want to have to do do this. When I sit down to play my 30 minute interval that week I want to click play and be playing within a few second.
Usually you can get away with Proton-GE. Most of the time you can tell if a game won't work in 5 minutes. The safest version is 8.0 in Steam. Many games work with 8.0.
Happy Father's Day, gamer dad. You seem savvy enough that you would benefit from something like massgrave.dev. I've installed Win10 LTSC IoT on my laptop and now have largely debloated Windows supported until 2032. Fuck Win11, Win10 plays games well, and most of the beef with Windows these days is their obtrusive and invasive nature, not their platform. This way you can have the support you need for your games with better boot times and less bullshit like Copilot getting in your way. I aim to do this on my gaming desktop ASAP, I just haven't had the patience to do the complete wipe and reinstall required.
Already running something similar :). Using a playbook
Which playbook? The last time I went the ameliorated route I went too far and the playbook I chose wouldn't let me run any modern games.
I have a deck for that. I maintain 50k+ linux machines in the same time I have to help professionals maintain a single windows system, usually explaining to the professionals again and again what they do wrong. If I had no time left for my personal life, I would make sure my life is void of time consumers. No windows. No proprietary cloud based equipment. No linux desktop of the week. No family asking why their windows is acting up. Steam deck for gaming, nothing else. No complex home automation, just bare switches or wifi enhanced switches. So I have all the time for me and my right hand. I mean, I have no kids ;-). I almost did all that. My desktop is the steam deck and it works wonders. When I am fed up with work, I unplug it and switch to game mode. And I never needed tinkering on my deck. My family already just buy new printers when the driver of their old printer acts up. I am not going to waste my life anymore because someone loves maintaining their desktop. I even rejected help requests from my neighbors after the Nth sit at their laptop to look why it doesn't work. If you can't maintain your shit go browser independent cloud based. I don't depend on proprietary cloud based systems anymore: I left my crap mastervolt inverter with the buyers of my house. Really, a cloud based solar inverter that stops working because mastervolt decided to pull the plug from the cloud "service". That inverter was more expensive than the panels attached to it. The inverter stopped inverting because it couldn't phone home. Remove all that crap from your life. Don't use word or anything shit for documentation. Use a wiki. Anyway I stop ranting. Enjoy your kid.
I’m finally about a year into my journey off windows. It’s kinda wild to see someone headed there. Telemetry, copilot, recall, forced online account, hell I’ve never been ransomwared by anything. Closest I’ve come to it though is bitlocker turning itself on. I gave you a follow OP since I’m interested in your journey and your findings. Windows definitely seems to work out of the box better but Linux lately seems to have shrunk the gap there. If i have a 98% success rate on Windows i probably have at least a solid 90% on Linux. That’s all in the last year with nvidia/intel loadouts so i was expecting more headwinds. At any rate it definitely sound over my level and i trust you to know your own mind and reasoning, best of luck over there.
But make sure to shut Windows up with [Chris Titus WinUtil](https://github.com/ChrisTitusTech/winutil). In any way, all the best to you and your newborn. :)
As the dad of a toddler, it won't matter, you won't have time to play at your desktop anyway. Cherish your steam deck, it's a game changer! And congratulations for your baby, good luck!
Oh man, the amount of "informative" pop-ups and ads in Windows now drives me up the wall more than ever before. Not to mention how they are adding layers of difficulty to managing the system; but at least you're trying to game, not run a home office. Good luck out there 😬👍🏼
I switched also when I had the third kiddo, now shes almost 2 so Im back to linux :D haha
Gaming on Linux for 15 years? Was there relevant gaming before Proton?
Wacky, I haven't had any issues running any of my games in ages, and I'm on a rolling distro. Maybe your distro was part of the problem?
Everyone seems to recommend Nobara which is what I was running
It's so curious how so many people have vaaastly different experiences. To me, RX7900XT on Debian Stable, I have no damn problem whatsoever :D Everything on Steam works out of the Box, everything on Lutris works out of the box and since I discovered the WINE\_LARGE\_ADDRESS\_AWARE key for Lutris, everything off the high seas works as well on first try.
> I do not have the luxury to tinker with Linux any longer. Real price of running linux...
Bye bye
I've spent 7 hours trying to get BG3 to even start on my windows PC. Runs with absolutely no problem on Kubuntu. Runs well enough to play it on my Steam Deck. I hear you, though, but... Just keep in mind how truly awful and invasive Microsoft is getting with Win 11.
Did you use any sort of debloater on it? Last time I had issues with starting games on Windows was during Vista/7 times and it was only with old games before gog was introduced. BG3 and everything else launches without any issues whatsoever. I am running vanilla 11 though.
Nope. But, I'm about to use the ultimate debloater, and switch to Linux on that machine, probably permanently.
careful, you might end up spending that hour installing forced windows updates...
okay
Just use Debian 12 and install Proton via steam. It's easy as pie.
Add your non steam games via steam in which it will use proton.
It's computers. I don't have nearly the problems you seem to have, 99 percent of the time it just works. The only issue I had with a game in the last year was when Bethesda updated fallout 4 and broke all my mods. Gaming on Linux doesn't seem to take any extra time in general though. Anyways, it's funny to read this post just now as last night I had to help my kid because windows update broke all their games. Registry had to be messed with, drivers removed and reinstalled. Like I said... computers.
Old Dad here. Fuck you and get good. Enjoy the AI spyware.
This is "the other side is greener". I have dual boot, both on a stationary PC and a laptop. I do not remember last time I booted windows on the stationary, but in last month most of the time I have used windows on the laptop (one game ran better there). Until yesterday. Windows started an update. The update could not be finished for some reason (there is space on the SDD). It rolled back... after the reboot steam claimed it can't find some stuff, and the sound is dead. Reinstalling the drivers and googling the entire evening did not help... And I also do not have too much time now. In other words, do not count on a much more reliable experience.
If you want gaming that just works as needed, Windows is not the solution any more than Linux. Get a console instead (aside the Steam deck).
And even on console, you can have problems with updates and games not functioning. Internet has changed the console landscape a lot.
My experience with modern day consoles is sitting down after work with 2hrs to play games, going to launch the game I want to play and getting a popup saying it's downloading a 36gb update so I won't be playing that night. Even when I have the system set to use standby instead of power off and my console is wired to Ethernet the standby auto updates for games are very hit and miss, modern games being so big and updating so frequently really ruins the simplicity of consoles. You can't even stick the game in and play it from the disc anymore as it has to install to your console which can take like 40 minutes on bigger games and then it has to download the latest update too. Sometimes game updates break on your machine for whatever reason and you have to delete and redownload the game again, sometimes the console needs the OS reloaded from a USB in recovery mode as the online system update failed. I dunno, they're not as basic as they used to be.
> auto updates for games are very hit and miss and > sometimes game updates break on your machine for whatever reason Interesting, I have never had either of those happen on my PS5. I don't play very often, I always keep it in standby and there's usually like 5 or 10 notifications about updates when I turn it on.
Windows 10 or Windows 11?
It's mostly the same for me, but I went with consoles, Xbox because of the great backward compatiblity. I can't burn 4 hours to just get an old game working any more.
But also don't work too long hours to support your family. Working until dead is pointless. My friend got first child, he was working 16 hours a day from Monday to Friday, sometimes even on weekends.
Sad to hear that, hopefully it improves in the future. And you are still part of the community anyway. Congratulations on being a new dad. Hope the best for you and your child!
Thank you!
Remember to disable recall when it comes out, unless you want everything you do to basically be public
Believe me I know. I'm a Windows Sys Admin for my Day job.
I can't blame you. I'm pretty sure I'll keep dual booting until I die. I mean I bought jagged alliance 3 thinking it'll work but nope. So it's either spending hours trying to make it work (maybe) or just installing it on Windows and play. I choose the later.
Wait!? We are expected to play the games after we spent the fun hours to make it work on Linux?
As a father myself,I understand. Time is not something you have tons of when raising a child and having a family.
Honestly that is fair. I'm using Zorin 16 and recently flatpaks that have anything to do with gnome 40 are starting to have issues. I just tolerate them, I had worse bugs that made me sigh hard for hours. I do not want to tweak anything game-wise, Dust Elysian tail has a bug on the deck that you need to go on game files and delete something and I can't be bothered either. So I just go and play something else that works on the deck. I can't imagine being a parent and even playing games, much less tweaking stuff to play games. I hope you can have fun mate.
Thanks man! So I lied a little in my post. My daughter is actually 8 months old. So I've been doing this for a bit. And yea I just can't be bothered. Every Linux user just says "Oh you just have to edit this file or change this proton version or this or that". Know what I do on Windows? Double click an icon. That's it. I don't have time for anything else. Thanks man!
totally feel you. Windows, things (usually) just work, plus anticheats preventing Linux users from playing (I'm looking at you Destiny 2). You're still part of Linux gang tho, if you wanna be technical, Steam Deck runs Linux.
There's so many Linux or compatible games out there I haven't even seriously looked at a non-compatible game in years. Good luck with Windows, I have to use it for work, never again privately.
It's not really farewell if you're still using the steam deck! You're still a Linux gamer.
Fair point haha. Thank you!
Good luck with your child! Man, 15 years is wild. I've only been here for the last 4-5 years, I think, and even then I know how frustrating it can be for certain games. (still waiting for more Waydroid improvements as well as the anime games platform to materialize so I can play all the gacha games I want as easily as I could on Windows)
This post was so cute somehow. Congrats buddy! Take care of your loved ones, but remember you also have to take care of you to be strong for them.
Thank you so much! Your words mean a lot. I'm going to save this post
So glad about that! 😄
> But I still have instances of games breaking after updates or a Mesa update or some other library. Then I would need to spend an hour troubleshooting just before I could start gaming. > Those days are behind me. As a new Dad I am lucky to get an hour or 2 a week to game. I do not have the luxury to tinker with Linux any longer. It's been a while since I had to troubleshoot a game. If you get a bit of time, maybe try to explain specifically what was the problems you encountered. Enjoy your newborn!
Because we love you even for your mistakes, at least look into https://ameliorated.io/ and protect yourself from windows spying (and bloat) somewhat.
Good luck, it's going to be a lot at first. Things will get progressively easier as you pick up the skills for parenting. Cherish these times, they'll never happen again
I use my Linux laptop for everything but gaming and i have a windows laptop for gaming. Most of my multiplayer games with any sort of anti cheat just breaks on Linux. I’d rather buy a new laptop than deal with that.
if update break thing why update
Funny how i left windows for arch linux when my son was born 2 years ago
Remember to maintain your PC on. Otherwise, if you start it from time to time, you will need to update Windows and then Steam and then the game/s 😅
Enjoy walking around with your pants down when it comes to your identity. BTW. No need to announce departure. This isn't an airport.
You will get back to Windows and remember why you left it in the first place. Linux is not perfect at all, but it's currently the lesser evil of the three main operating systems.
I'm just curious, what distribution have you been running? I've been playing on KUbuntu for about two years now, and I've not yet had any breakage that was Linux's fault. The only significant problem I had was Final Fantasy XIV thinking I was on a Mac (they use Wine for the Mac port) which was fixed literally the next day by the developer.
For every distro out there you will always find someone who never had problems with it.
That's fair, I'm just curious though, because those seem to be oddly specific problems. I've had some issues with sound and WiFi, myself, but those were not too bad to fix, and once fixed, everything works fine. What's odd to me is an update actually *breaking* something.
> What's odd to me is an update actually breaking something. I've seen it with nVidia. Forget to turn on DKMS for nvidia and the kernel updates? Next boot is a black screen. Tbh, I don't get all these "I spend 20 hours a day fixing Linux problems" posts. I haven't had any major issues using Linux across 4 fundamentally different distros over the last 8 years... There's been issues, but I've always been able to quickly fix or workaround it if it was a big enough problem that it actually damaged my experience using it. 99% of the time, it just works and I've never been able to say that about windows...
Been on Tumbleweed from the start of 2018, and the only times an update was problematic, two seconds to run `snapper list`, `snapper rollback # ; reboot` fixed it. And that was only until I'd replaced Nvidia.
He'll be back...
Weak
Why do people announce this shit like anyone cares? You do you
They’re sharing their feedback with this incredibly warm, welcoming, and open minded community.
> you just lost a paying customer
I wonder how long it’ll take for you to realize that Windows isn’t actually any better in that regard :)
Have fun playing with your viruses and remember why you broke up with your ex in the first place, lol.
It always amazes me when I see posts about all the tinkering you have to do to game on Linux. Everything just works for me.
i get it but pretending there's no tinkering to get games to work on windows is insane
Well, good luck. You'll be back eventually. It's only a matter of time before Windows pisses you off to the breaking point again and at that point, you'll likely remember exactly why you switched to Linux for gaming in the first place.
Technically with a Steam Deck you could have both
I’ve missed many a game night with the homies because I had so damned many updates waiting when I booted back to windows. Sometimes hours worth between the os, the launcher, the game. Last time I tried I wound up just chatting while the updates ran and played TotK on my Switch while they were in Battlefield.
Gaming is why i use windows. everything else is either browser, or done easier in linux (or mac)
Don't do updates and it won't break. Sounds like you just picked a bad distro to me. As a father of 4 I purposefully do not do any updates until the weekend, but I also use a rolling distro. If you use openSUSE slowroll or something then it will be pretty solid and you can always easily roll back because its built into the package manager.
Your choice of convenience, and that is what all matters. But at the first forced update... at the first default setting override by Microsoft for their convenience and not yours... at the first opt-in option converted to opt-this... after that banner of Game Pass in every place... We all have a convenience choice, and I prefer to deal with little inconveniences than face any Microsoft's deal.
You'll be back
Yeah, same story. Too many gaming evenings became tinkering evenings, especially when I was trying to play from outside of Steam. Pretty much always, I was losing interest in a game I was trying to launch at the very moment I finally made it run.
Hey man, enjoy your slower computer with adware and spyware! - You do you.
Atleast get the Windows ltsc/iot version so that you won't have to deal with the bloat. Farewell Gamer Dad!
No Fortnite💀
no worry, comeback after 5years and see how it go
My daughter turned 9 months today, I know exactly what you mean by only having one to two hours to play games and ticker with Linux Best of luck to you and congratulations on your beebee
So I lied a little in my post. My daughter is actually 8 months 3 days ago. Just a post long time coming. I'm sleep deprived lol Thank you :)
Same boat for me last year. I dual boot so I can still work and play from my comfortable Mint desktop with what works drama-free. Separate hard drives for Mint and Win10
It was nice having you as part of the community, and I hope to see you around again.
Thank you!
op you could try to use Fedora Silverblue (preferably Bluefin UBlue image), and just use steam with flatpak
I have dual boot so I can play Fortnite with my kid so I get it. But man, I will tell you, I don't boot up Windows very often, so when I do, i have to put some time aside for hours of updates. (In fact I probably should do that right now.) For the record though, I am using Ubuntu/Steam and everything usually just works for me. Of course hardware is a big factor, but other than some games (eg: Fortnaite) not working, Linux no longer requires much more tinkering for gaming than windowz does.
I only have a Steam Deck. Best thing for dads. Great machine!
I've got one. It's been great!
Best of luck. Windows will likely be more trouble free, but not exempt from it. Make sure updates are done before your hour session starts.
Honestly switching to Linux lets me play less and it doesn’t bother me that much, I do more projects. I am trying to play after everyone goes to bed, then I am tired too. Newborn is kind of easy, eat and sleep. Just wait until they become a toddler.
I'm one of those that would rather spend lots of time tinkering and configuring my linux desktop, even if it costs me playing way less. the satisfaction alone of having a clean and stable experience at the end is so worth it.
I hear you. But I spend pretty much my whole day tinkering. I'm the sole Systems Admin for a company. I have a Linux server running 90 containers. I have a Home Assistant Server with a shit ton sensors and automations etc. When I am ready to game I just want to game
Congratulations! It’s funny you’re switching to Windows for the same reason I switched to Linux, I can’t count the amount of times Windows broke / shat itself over the twenty years I used it, but I’ve been relatively problem free on the same Arch Linux install for the last nine years since, through multiple hardware upgrades, ship of Theseus style. Anyways, enjoy parenting, hope your Windows install doesn’t cause too much trouble.
I'm also a dad that has been maining Linux for a couple decades. Happy Father's Day! Nevermind the platform war going on in the comments, you do you. I'll send you my steam id if you want to fill out your friend list.
It's sad but understandable. Issues like these are why I still recommend Linux Mint over Manjaro/Bazzite/Garuda etc. Arch is nice, but if you don't have time to tinker, stick with something that updates slower and is more solid.
I am a dad too and I was in this same situation. I decided to go with an immutable distro and it just fits my need of save me time and system breaks.
It's 2024 dude, it's okay to be bitechtual. Windows on your gaming PC, Linux on your laptop.
I bet you are using NVIDIA. Your problem isn't Linux, it's NVIDIA.
Nope. I have a 7900 XTX
I had to go back to Windows for gaming for a couple of weeks. FPS in DayZ dropped down to 55-110. I solved the problem yesterday and had FPS of 75-144 in POP\_OS! Same graphics settings on both installs (set to Extreme on 2560/1440 on 144Hz with a RTX 3090. This is on my desktop PC. I use an older laptop, with a GTX 1650, for gaming when we are traveling. The improvements in FPS here saves me a lot of money, making the older laptop still usable :-).
I converted my gaming pc to linux when my toddler turned 2. Now, child #2 is on its way and I'm back to windows. The first game I've installed was Fallout New Vegas and the current Win AMD drivers seem to crash the game on startup. On my Steam Deck it works flawlessly 😂