How many of your games run on Linux?

428 readers like this.
Characters from a video game

Opensource.com

Gamer? Check. Linux user? Check.

For years, one of the top excuses I heard from friends who would otherwise have switched to Linux long ago is that they just couldn't give up their Windows-only games. I can empathize. I was a dual-booter for years for exactly this reason, and it made making the switch harder for me. After all, once I'm booted into one operating system, the temptation is to stay there rather than rebooting once gameplay is over.

Today, the landscape is far different. It's much easier than it used to be for a gamer to be a Linux user, and vice versa.

Development tools like the Unity game engine have made cross-platform development easier. But advancements haven't just occurred on the proprietary side; Open source enthusiasts can be thankful for the Godot engine and other similar tools providing a cross-platform publishing experience under an open license.

We've also seen quite a change in where and how games are run. In the olden days of PC gaming, you had to write games in largely in low-level languages to ensure adequate performance. C/C++ were commonly supplemented with assembly for speed, and often written in a way that was operating system and hardware-constrained. Today, you can write games in just about any high-level language, including Java, JavaScript, and Python, and so we've seen web and mobile platforms (including Linux-based Android) explode with titles as well.

And while SteamOS didn't take off quite as quickly as it developers had hoped, the average Steam user today may find many of the games in her or his library already have Linux support, with hundreds more available for easy purchase. Open source games, too, have become easier to come by as package managers add more and more to your distribution's default repositories every day.

So we ask you: How much of your gaming today happens in Linux, and how has that changed through the years?

Want to add to the growing collection of open source and Linux-compatible games? Check out Open Jam, a 72-hour video game hackathon supported by Opensource.com.

Tags
User profile image.
Jason was an Opensource.com staff member and Red Hatter from 2013 to 2022. This profile contains his work-related articles from that time. Other contributions can be found on his personal account.

5 Comments

One game (Minecraft) comes with a Linux version, the others are playable in Wine, though performance takes a hit.

I'm not a heavy gamer, or play the most up-to-date games but I have a few I like to go between so this can get tough at times.

100%. All of my games run natively in Linux, or under WINE.

I didn't play games on a PC until Steam OS got released. I owned a Play Station and did some gaming on that, but I never bothered venturing to PC. Now I don't own a console and do all my gaming on Linux. If a game doesn't run on Linux, it's not a game I need. Unity, Unreal Engine, Steam OS, and Kickstarter have been great for Linux gaming.

100% of games. If the game does not run natively under GNU/Linux I don't play it.

I appreciated what Loki Software did many years ago. They did port some of the best games over to Linux. And now, about 20+% of my Steam Library support Linux, but this is still lower than the support I see for macOS. It is in improving, and once in a while I see a new release pop up, or an earlier purchase to start supporting Linux; mostly from Feral or Aspyr. These include tripe-A like DiRT Rally, Civilization, etc. Especially enjoyed Europa Universalis and Stellaris. The situation is getting better...

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License.