this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2026
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I was talking to a couple of people about my positive experience faming on Linux since I switched recently, and one of them seemed really interested since he hates Windows.
The other guy mentioned “But some games still don’t work. Certain multiplayer games have kernel-level anti-cheat that doesn’t work on linux.” and I saw the first guy visibly lose interest even though I would have bet money he was going to actually try linux before. So I asked him “Do you play competitive multiplayer games?” “No, not really.”
The fact that linux can’t run every game is apparently a turn-off for some people, even if they aren’t games they want to play.
The thing is that people don't want to get that new game that that seems so fun to find out that it doesn't actually work. Other games not working is seen as a sign of potential future trouble.
Yeah, it's not unreasonable, I had to bail on Forza Horizon 6 at launch, due to severe issues at launch, and the recent DOOM DLC has some visual bugs too (there's a PR in Mesa already!).
It's amazing it works this well, and the maintainers of these tools are incredible for getting fixes out so quickly when a new game launches with issues, but there are some unavoidable realities to not being the target platform.
I think the advantages are worth it, and completely deleted my Windows install earlier this year to fully commit, but it's naive to say that the experience is flawless and you won't ever have problems gaming. I can definitely be sympathetic to more casual players being put off by that.
The same people will generally accept that a ps4 game won't play on an xbox etc. So it is a bit odd.
That’s a bad analogy because 99% of the games that people play on steam machines will be Windows games, not Linux games. It’s an issue when you don’t know if a steam game will work on a steam machines, or any other PC game won’t work on your pc.
This is a genuine concern. Kernel level applications being required is not.
It is when the reason they don’t work on Linux is because it doesn’t support kernel level anti-cheat.
I mean, it's pretty easy to know. They have an icon directly next to the game that says what it works on.
You have just as much knowledge about if it'll work as you do based on hardware requirements. Which is to say "none, unless you look at the place where they tell you".
By this metric, 99% of games don't work on Linux. How is this helping?
Not sure where you're getting that. It's in excess of 25% that work specifically on the steamdeck, which is the easiest metric to see.
In any case, if the person is saying it's an issue because you don't know when buying a game, then it seems pretty relevant that you can know by simply "looking where you buy the game". If you Google it, you can find out with an even greater chance of discovering the answer is "yes".
Wow, love how when I want to play a new game I have to Google it every single time. Also the steam verification badge isn't accurate. They say Borderlands 4 can run on a steam deck while saying other working games are fully unsupported.
Last point, everybody keeps skirting around the fact that these kernel level anti-cheat games are multiplayer. People want to play with their friends, its that simple. For a lot of people it's their only point of contact with a friend. But yeah, lemme go change everything over to Linux now because 25% of steam games run on it.
You're kinda being a dick for no reason.
Someone said it's a turnoff because they have no idea. The information is as prominent as the rest of the system requirements. If you don't want to Google it, don't: you can just look at the system requirements. Other websites often have more detailed information about what system configurations a game works with. That's true for gpus through operating systems.
I didn't skirt around any point. I just didn't talk about it because that's not what I was responding to. Being upset that you might need to read information presented on the page where you buy a game is ridiculous.
I corrected the <1% number. That's not making any claims about the 25% number beyond "this is the accurate number and not the made up one".
I don't care what OS you use, games you play, who you play them with or your tolerance for 3rd party kernel modules. I think it's ridiculous to think that looking at supported configurations on the product page is "having no idea". I also think being upset at the prospect of googling a game's name is... A stretch.
Honestly, the kind of games that don't run on Linux, I usually don't want to play them anyway. Like League of Legends (shudders)
Exactly where I’m at. It’s not like we’re low on options.
I say leave those toxic users on windows. If that's the community they want to foster, be my guest. We'll be here building and providing simply because we're passionate and want to help.