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  • Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    188·
    18 days ago

    Proton is a big deal for the change. Think back 5 years ago and switching to Linux was much less approachable because you needed to be an enthusiast to get your games running. Nowadays, you just click download on the Linux Steam client and >90% of the time, it’ll just work.

    • Korhaka@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      76·
      18 days ago

      I have been on Linux for over 15 years and even I don’t want to go back to the old days of manually installing Wine and having to create different prefixes to get different games to launch without sound. or some missing textures.

      • WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        19·
        18 days ago

        not manually, yeah, but bottles and such are still really useful. it shows how much good GUI tools help with usability for everyone

        • eronth@lemmy.worldEnglish
          20·
          18 days ago

          Not just UI, but simplicity of operation. The closer to “it just works” a system/program is, the more palatable it is to adopt.

      • AnarchistArtificer@lemmy.worldEnglish
        6·
        17 days ago

        I ended up wading into the world of WINE prefixes when I tried to mod some older games. I got it working in the end, but it sure made me grateful for how easy I have it with Proton

      • Zink@programming.devEnglish
        5·
        17 days ago

        Hear, hear!

        There is nothing wrong, and in fact there is something good, with FOSS being polished and user friendly out of the box.

        Historically that has not been a priority, because FOSS has been by the computer nerds, for the computer nerds. But if that priority shifts to being a bit more “by the computer nerds, for the normies” then that is a good thing as long as the developers don’t prevent the power users from accessing any part of the system they want. Fortunately that completely against the point of the FOSS world.

        I first learned Unix in the 90s, I use my Linux desktop more than my phone, I’m an engineer on embedded systems digging through C and C++ code all day, I have terminals open all day, and… I have Linux Mint Cinnamon installed on all my machines and love it. Change My Mind, lol.

      • rottingleaf@lemmy.worldBannedEnglish
        28·
        18 days ago

        I, on the contrary, prefer it when everyone uses mainstream Wine with winetricks and prefixes so if something doesn’t work, you can at least fix it using someone’s advice posted on winehq. With Proton it seems that everyone expects stuff to either just work or doesn’t bother. The Proton advice is usually as valuable as Windows problems advice.

          • rottingleaf@lemmy.worldBannedEnglish
            1·
            17 days ago

            Like I said, similar quality to googling for Windows problems. Reports on WineHQ are sorted by Wine version, OS version, usually involve specific actions taken.

            • voodooattack@lemmy.worldEnglish
              5·
              17 days ago

              That’s exactly how protondb works. And you also get hardware and distro information.

              You can search and filter reports by all of the aforementioned criteria for any game that’s listed.

              • rottingleaf@lemmy.worldBannedEnglish
                16·
                17 days ago

                OK, it just has utterly degenerate webpage design. I thought those were voluntary additions by users telling what they use, not common format. Inconvenient.

    • gizmonicus@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      35·
      18 days ago

      100% this. I’ve been on Linux for 27 years now (ffs I’m getting old), and until proton, I just wrote off gaming as a hit or miss experience, usually not worth the trouble. Now I’ll buy Windows only games without even checking compatibility in most cases. Unless it’s a full price AAA game, I’ll risk the off chance that it doesn’t work.

      • caseyweederman@lemmy.caEnglish
        2·
        17 days ago

        Clair Obscur worked out of the box and it took a while for me to realize that I didn’t even check before buying.

    • herseycokguzelolacak@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
      10·
      17 days ago

      I think it’s less Proton, more Vulkan/DXVK. Proton is just wrapping these amazing things. Before DXVK, games in Linux used to suck big time.

    • underscores@lemmy.zipEnglish
      9·
      18 days ago

      Gaming on Mac was also more or less the same when it came to running windows games, had to use wine

      And I’m sorry y’all I know wine is awesome but using it manually is a pain in the ass and I hated it and I consider myself more of an enthusiast

        • underscores@lemmy.zipEnglish
          3·
          18 days ago

          I haven’t used Mac in years, I wonder if Wine is now a much better experience as well compared to what it used to be.

          • FarraigePlaisteaċ@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            17 days ago

            It is. But in some cases there’ll be a game or something that has requirements that are hard to wrestle with. For me it was a video game that needed specific libraries to run (possibly directX or whatever is current these days). After hours of attempts I downloaded Crossover and it worked instantly.

            Desktop applications like the Office suites typically ran well for me in WINE. although my experience with those is dated by now.

            I’m speaking from a macOS perspective but I’ve used WINE on Linux too.

    • moody@lemmings.worldEnglish
      8·
      18 days ago

      Honestly, 5 years ago Proton was already in pretty good shape. 2018 is when I switched to Linux, and already had very little trouble gaming.

    • BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      18 days ago

      If we can get close to that kind of support for productivity software, I think Linux usage would explode. One of the problems with business adoption is that specialized software almost always skips Linux. The Affinity suite, for example. I’m hoping we see some snowballing now that Linux is growing so quickly, but getting Wine/Proton working with more non-game software would also be an enormous win.

    • aliser@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      18 days ago

      now is a good time to switch. Im so glad im off windows and their bullshit. a lot of games just work, including many online games, which is super cool. often there’s no difference between launching a game on Linux vs windows.

    • Univ3rse@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
      4·
      18 days ago

      Absolutely. Linux in general has become very approachable. I recently came back to Linux after 15 years away and I have been very impressed with how well everything just works. I’ve only experienced very minor issues with peripherals that were solved with a simple Google search or update.

    • voodooattack@lemmy.worldEnglish
      611·
      18 days ago

      He single-handedly changed a lot of people’s impression of Linux with a single video, and he did it gently enough to not intimidate and scare them away like many others did. I respect that.

    • HeyJoe@lemmy.worldEnglish
      11·
      18 days ago

      Is he really the reason? I just started trying a bunch over the past month through vm’s to see which one I like the best because I want to take the leap soon. I am doing it mostly due to the video game performance and compatibility reaching high enough levels that I don’t think it will be a big issue anymore. I also listed out all my current Windows apps and looked up what the alternative is, and from what I see, there is nothing left that won’t run on Linux anymore. The next step is seeing how some compare to what I am used to.

      I can’t be the only one who is noticing its current state and just wanting to try something different. I don’t hate windows like everyone talks about it online, but I am at the point where I am noticing they are only going to get worse with privacy and continue to make awful built in features that do more to benefit themselves over you. So the 2 lines have crossed paths, and I think it’s the perfect storm for Linux soon.

      • 18107@aussie.zoneEnglish
        18·
        18 days ago

        He has a large audience and used his position to publicise it.

        There have been countless volunteers and enthusiasts who have worked hard to make Linux worth publicising.

      • Rekorse@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        31·
        18 days ago

        Keep in mind quite a lot of online games have recently banned linux players, in case there’s an important game for you like that.

        • HeyJoe@lemmy.worldEnglish
          6·
          17 days ago

          Nah, I am more of a single-player kind of person. I was barely any good in my prime 25 years ago and I have only gotten worse since so I stick to mostly RPGs or other action style games.

          • Rekorse@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            1·
            17 days ago

            I think you should be good for the most part then! I know pcvr works with linux now too but it depends what distribution you use for how difficult it is to setup.

  • dindonmasker@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    39·
    18 days ago

    Hopefully this surge in users make people want to develop for it a lot more and break more walls for others who are interested.

    • MCasq_qsaCJ_234@lemmy.zipEnglish
      81·
      18 days ago

      The bad thing is that more malware will arrive to Linux and from time to time malware that exploit undiscovered vulnerabilities.

      • SMillerNL@lemmy.worldEnglish
        16·
        18 days ago

        It was already a pretty attractive target because of servers for everything. I’m not sure reaching 5% desktop market share will really make it more attractive for malware.

        • stephen01king@lemmy.zipEnglish
          2·
          17 days ago

          It would, because desktop users are a lot easier to infect than servers. They might be a lot less valuable than servers, but at the same time, they are much less secure. I’m sure there are plenty of people who would prefer going for the easier targets if there is enough of them to make up for the smaller value.

  • Feathercrown@lemmy.worldEnglish
    321·
    18 days ago

    At some point companies will be forced to accept that they’re losing out on revenue by not releasing a linux version of their software.

    • Sestren@lemmy.worldEnglish
      13·
      18 days ago

      And the Windows version through Wine will still run better than the native… As is tradition.

      • Feathercrown@lemmy.worldEnglish
        7·
        18 days ago

        Adobe creative suite, most cad software, games (work with Proton already so little need for this), etc.

  • tehn00bi@lemmy.worldEnglish
    301·
    17 days ago

    I made the switch recently for probably the strangest reason.

    I’ve been running win 11 for over a year using a shell tool that allowed me to move my task bar to the top of the screen and some other win 10 functionality.

    However win 11 removed the ability to move the task bar and my shell program lost most of its functionality. After that I was done.

    I’ve Linux off and on since 2002ish so it’s not scary to me and I’m pretty happy with Arch and KDE right now. Still the occasional crash that appears to happen sometimes when watching YouTube.

      • enthusiasm_headquarters@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        17 days ago

        yo compiz is the shit. You can do ANYTHING with it. It took me a while to figure out because where the hell is the manual, but I have my own custom thing going on and it’s brilliant.

    • dil@lemmy.zipEnglish
      32·
      17 days ago

      idk how you stayed on windows so long, had I tried linux sooner I wouldve dumped it faster, no software support or piracy for said software if it does have support is rough tho like houdinifx is hard to pirate if not impossible, davinci is easy tho, adobe has no support (no idea if it works well with wine pirated)

  • jabjoe@feddit.ukEnglish
    27·
    17 days ago

    Wow, that’s excluding Chrome OS, which has 2.71% on it’s own. So you could say Linux is at over 7%, but glad they split it so we know.

    • Wispy2891@lemmy.worldEnglish
      12·
      17 days ago

      ChromeOS is going to the Google graveyard, to be replaced by android

      (Maybe this is a good thing as Chromebooks have an expiration date averaging 3-5 years where they stop getting Chrome updates, when if it’s android can get updates to the browser for a much longer time AND have Firefox as default)

      • jabjoe@feddit.ukEnglish
        1·
        17 days ago

        Well yes, but Android now has a Debian container option. If they expose some Wayland/X interface to it for displaying stuff on Android, for a load of stuff, maybe that is good enough for a lot of stuff?

    • Buffalox@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      17 days ago

      Linux as an OS is generally meant as Desktop Linux, and it most definitely is in this context that is about desktop marketshare, Desktop Linux is mostly following freedesktop guidelines, which has traditionally helped standards on Linux a lot to streamline developments. So for instance XFCE/Gnome/KDE desktop apps can be run in all the different desktop environments. For instance also standardizing things like how tray icons work. Freedesktop is part of X.Org Foundation, and Chrome OS does not use X.org or Free Desktop standards at all. The newer Wayland to replace X is also an X.org standard.

      So while Chrome OS is based on the Linux kernel, it is NOT a Linux OS in the original sense, a term that became popular decades before Chrome OS or Android became a thing.

      If you include Chrome OS you might as well include Android too. As it can run on for instance Raspberry Pi and other mini systems, and could be used as a desktop system.

      Chrome OS is a Linux kernel based OS, and not much more than that.
      It’s somewhat confusing in some situations that Linux as a desktop OS doesn’t have a unique name, but it wasn’t a problem originally, as what some prefer to call GNU/Linux was made 100% for desktop use originally.

      The Linux kernel is way way more widespread and successful than what we usually term Desktop Linux or GNU/Linux.

      TLDR:
      Linux OS, Desktop Linux, GNU/Linux are generally meant as the same thing.
      Chrome OS and Android do not belong in that category. They are Linux based as in the Linux kernel only, but do not follow the standards of Desktop Linux.

  • Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    27·
    17 days ago

    I’m doing my part! Switched to Linux earlier this year because Microsoft started showing ads in the start menu. I tried Nobara but ran into some glitches that I didn’t want to troubleshoot so I switched to Bazzite. So far so good.

      • Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        6·
        17 days ago

        I hadn’t seen a single ad until a few months ago. I had snagged a copy of Windows 10 Pro (and Windows 7 Pro before that) from my workplace so I imagine it was debloated to an extent.

    • Unlocking_Freedom@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      17 days ago

      sparky linux LXQt was the one i settled to in the end. Despite having a top spec laptop and desktop PC, i wanted a light weight Linux, based on Debian, with no “fluff” at all. PC boots fast, shuts down in 2 seconds, no updates, secure, every program is instant. Windoze is plain stupid now with ads.

    • brennesel@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      2·
      16 days ago

      I did the same this month. My hardware wasn’t supported by Win11, so I installed Bazzite. It works so smoothly that I’ve already installed it on another PC and will do so on every PC in my household. I’ve been able to run every single game so far, whether they were from Steam, Ubisoft Connect, GOG, Battle.net or the EA app. I had no idea we were at this point already.

      • Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        1·
        16 days ago

        Right on! I’ve had a similar gaming experience, except with VR. Can’t seem to get my headset working with Bazzite. I’ve heard that there’s some workarounds but I need to sit down and poke at it.

    • Zink@programming.devEnglish
      3·
      17 days ago

      Yeah, even from inside the US it seems more and more iffy to trust our tech giants even as a paying customer. I love reading the stories about groups and governments in Europe adopting Linux/FOSS, but I’m also surprised I don’t see it more.

      Everything in the news is so insane that I could see journalists ignoring/missing such mundane events as public sector software choices.

      • DandomRude@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        17 days ago

        Here in Germany, at least something is happening. Recently, for example, the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein decided to switch to Linux (and also LibreOffice), with the change planned for this fall.

        Overall, however, far too little is happening in our country. The vast majority of federal states and the national government continue to rely on proprietary software (mainly from US corporations, especially Microsoft).

        At the national level, this is hardly surprising, as our Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, is more of a US lobbyist than a politician: Until 2020, he was on the supervisory board of Black Rock Germany and was also a long time chairman of the “Atlantik-Brücke”, a German-American lobby organization for economic relations (so on and so forth). Unfortunately, no change of course is to be expected from him — nor from his party, the conservative CDU, that is the most popular party for some strange reason.

        In Bavaria, which is also deeply conservative, the federal state government is even considering introducing Palantir.

        I don’t understand how all this can happen when it is perfectly obvious how vulnerable all these US products are making us – vulnerable to industrial espionage and worse - especially now that the US is developing into a fascist, unjust state.

        But hey, I think we all have to remain somewhat positive despite all this. As I said, there is some movement in terms of FOSS —probably much more in other European countries than in Germany. So, slowly but steady, we’re moving forward! I really hope that’s how it is in the US as well.

        Best of luck in these harsh times!