this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2023

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Linux Gaming

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Linux vs Windows, my experience (jlai.lu)

submitted 11 months ago by nosnahc@jlai.lu to c/linux_gaming@lemmy.world

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Hi all, I bought a gaming PC with the intention of installing Linux to play recent games. I chose AMD for the GPU because I know the drivers are more optimized on Linux.

After receiving and assembling my machine, I installed Fedora without any problem. I found a lot of software on Github to replace the proprietary software for my AIO and headphones. Everything worked the first time except.... Steam! Unable to launch it, black window which restarted in a loop.

After searching on the internet, I found that it was enough to modify PrefersNonDefaultGPU on steam to solve my problem (but I understand that ordinary people do not want to bother with this kind of hack and prefer the windows experience that works out of the box).

Then I installed Cyberpunk and.... well the game runs at 120fps in ultra, what more can I say... Oh yes, the keyboard preset is in Qwerty even though I have an azerty keyboard (sorry Baguette) and in the first hour of play, I was able to notice a bug in a rather disturbing shadow/light and in the drops of water on a windshield which appeared and disappeared in a strange way.

So with my €1500 machine I got a little upset... and I wanted to install Windows out of curiosity.

Installation is...complicated! No driver for my network card, a ton of software that I don't need, in short, Windows...

I installed steam, launched Cyberpunk and... my keyboard is recognized, 120 fps too (I am offered raytracing which does not interest me and makes me lose fps but it is available) and in the first hour of play NONE bug.

So here I am, I hate Windows, but it runs my games better than Linux and I'm really lost. I've just discovered Nobara, I would have loved to try it but I'm tired of starting the first 3 hours of cyberpunk again and I'm convinced that I'll have some graphical bugs with it.

(also another problem, there are too many Linux distributions, too much choice kills choice)

TDLD: I bought an expensive computer to play under Linux, but a few bugs made me reluctantly install Windows.

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[–] Quazatron@lemmy.world 33 points 11 months ago (8 children)

The Windows experience was worse, but at least your raindrops were rendered correctly.

It feels like you used a detail that you could not resolve to go back to the cozy arms of what you are familiar with.

And that's OK. I also went back to Windows a few times until I felt at home in Linux.

Try it again sometime in the future and see if it fells more comfortable.

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[–] the_q@lemmy.world 29 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Linux isn't for everyone, but jumping in on fedora might not have been the best choice. Give Pop! OS a shot. It's a more balanced experience.

[–] jlh@lemmy.jlh.name 21 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Fedora is pretty straight forward as an os for newbies, main benefit that popos has is installing Nvidia drivers

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 4 points 11 months ago

Yup. The only issues I had going from Ubuntu to Fedora was finding drivers, and that was solved with a few minutes of searching online.

I don't use either anymore and getting NVIDIA setup hasn't been an issue. I used Arch for a few years (just install a couple packages and reboot), and I use OpenSUSE now (just install a couple packages and reboot). It's not a difficult problem to solve.

Maybe Pop!_OS would've solved the graphics switching issue and azerty keyboard thing (probably not), but the rendering thing would very likely be the same as on Fedora since it's likely related to GPU drivers and Proton, which the distro has no control over.

[–] pHr34kY@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago

Yes, do as I say! :P

[–] hperrin@lemmy.world 28 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Windows also doesn’t work out of the box like you demonstrated in your post, people are just familiar with how to get it working. Like, Linux isn’t more complicated than Windows, it’s just both complicated and unfamiliar to a lot of people.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 12 points 11 months ago

Yup. Imo, Linux has a better OOTB experience than Windows since most drivers are already part of the kernel (esp if you buy an AMD GPU). If you only need basic software (web browser, office suite, etc), you'll be good with any major Linux distro after a default install.

The complexity of Linux only really comes into play if you run into issues, like some hardware isn't properly recognized/supported (frequent on cheap laptops, esp WiFi and sound), or you need specific Windows software.

That said, if you know both systems well, I think Linux is easier. It's usually just tweaking a config file or setting up a third party repo and installing a propriety driver. And that can be nearly completely avoided by being careful when buying hardware, and knowing what to avoid takes some experience.

[–] gaiussabinus@lemmy.world 20 points 11 months ago

Dunno bro everything works for me on mint. I also have higher frame rates and better stability. Getting Stable Diffusion working on my AMD card is probably the hardest thing i have had to do. Even that is three lines in the terminal now. You may need to dick around with proton settings and read the forums to find what Cyberpunk runs on best if you want to deal with the bug.

[–] IDew@lemm.ee 13 points 11 months ago

There's also Ameliorated which helps debloat hour Windows and 9/10 times get a better experience using it. There's different playbooks which help optimise to the experience you like (eg. gaming). Could give it a try :)

[–] away2thestars@programming.dev 12 points 11 months ago (1 children)

You can always dual boot, Linux for working is amazing. And your can also install a VM but I haven't tried it for gaming

[–] nosnahc@jlai.lu 4 points 11 months ago

I don't work with this computer, my company provides us one. But thanks for the idea!

[–] GustavoM@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

it runs my games better than Linux and I’m really lost.

You already answered your own question/experience -- do some "duckduckgoing" (even if it means falling back to the basics once again, "How to run a windows game on linux") and then come back here. Because yes, GNU/Linux is 100% viable for gaming and can even run games better than on Winblows -- if you know how to setup things properly.

A word of advice however, Linux tend to be a bit "sensitive" regarding some system elements/packages -- you've got to provide all possible info to everything -- theres no "ready out of the box" in these lands.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

"duckduckgoing"

I prefer "quacking". ;)

can even run games better than on Winblows

Some games, others run worse. It's usually within 10% either way, which isn't something I'd personally pick an OS over. You can probably tune things to eek out an extra percent or two, but imo that's not worth it unless you're really into that kind of thing.

theres no "ready out of the box" in these lands

That's just not true. Most of the time, Linux works great out of the box, but there are some common areas where that's not the case:

laptops with dGPUs - Linux just doesn't handle graphics switching as well as Windows, but the solution is easy as OP found out
crappy WiFi cards - just buy Intel NICs
crappy sound cards - less of a problem these days, but sound can still be a massive pain

And that's pretty much it. If you buy quality hardware, your OOTB experience is probably going to be great! If you buy an AMD GPU, it'll be even better since you don't even need to install graphics drivers! I had zero issues on my desktop switching between distros (everything just works), and my only issue with my laptop was using very recent hardware, which was fixed with kernel updates (there was a known bug with sound over HDMI on my AMD laptop).

Imo, Linux is much more likely to "just work" than Windows, assuming you're installing the OS yourself. Every time I've installed Windows, I've had to track down a bunch of drivers, downloading Wi-Fi drivers on my Linux computer and installing them with a USB stick. That sucks.

[–] stargazingpenguin@lemmy.zip 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I prefer "quacking". ;)

I like that, I'll have to remember to use it sometime!

[–] cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I ran arch for years then Manjaro. I had zero issues running doom eternal except if I switched workspaces then back. I'd have to kill -9 the app and relaunch. Was enough to make me dual boot to beat that game. I've been running Manjaro since, because I don't have the time like I used to to fuck around with settings. I still prefer Linux overall as my daily drive though. It's not a slow, buggy, ad ridden pile of shit. Imo windows is so buggy and slow since like 8 or 10

[–] Astaroth@lemm.ee 1 points 11 months ago

Do you use workspaces on Windows?

Tbh I didn't know that's a thing

[–] dallo@lemmy.kiois.net 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

If you need any help in french even through vocal, PM me

[–] nosnahc@jlai.lu 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Merci beaucoup !

[–] dallo@lemmy.kiois.net 1 points 11 months ago

Avec plaisir :)

[–] TechNerdWizard42@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

I do doubt Windows didn't work out of the box, as with the thousands of installations I've done, I have had ZERO issues since Win7. Very few to none in Vista. The issues were prevalent in XP and before but that was the before times when the similar Linux issues were 10000x worse.

The only gripe I have is moving people to online accounts. Just run the oobe command from the installer to limit network requirements and voila, local accounts created.

All that extra bloat can be removed but who cares. The stuff that sits there barely affects anything, like you saw the frame rate is the same.

If Windows works for you, as it does for 90% of consumers, then use it. If you want to tinker forever with Linux, then do so. Some find that fun. I've moved into the "my OS is an appliance" phase of life.

[–] tmjaea@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

Maybe try another distro:

https://lemm.ee/post/16666175

[–] Two2Tango@lemmy.ca 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I decided to install LM Cinnamon as the main OS on my new PC, and I can't get GOG Cyberpunk to work for the life of me - tried Lutris where it doesn't launch at all, and Heroic where it launches but has no sound. I'm ready to give up and go back to Windows at this point.

[–] kttnpunk@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Use proton and/or a distro actually meant for gaming (Linux mint is simplified, more for beginners imo and not one I'd personally recommend). Try Pop!, Manjaro or Garuda.

[–] VerseAndVermin@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago (2 children)

As someone contemplating a move, posts like this and many others make me nervous. I have used mint a few weeks for just documents and browsing and had planned it for my main PC. Now you say it isn't meant for gaming?

Sometimes reading about Linux is a mix of you can do anything with anything but shouldn't do anything with somethings.

[–] kttnpunk@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

Linux mint specifically is great for documents and browsing but other distros are gonna have better gaming presets is all I was saying. Imo, It's a "typing laptop" OS when you probably want Pop! Instead. That or the other ones I listed have extra drivers and whatnot by default. Just trying to be helpful!

[–] Two2Tango@lemmy.ca 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I jumped right into Mint without trying other distros because I was coming from Windows, and it sounded like Mint is the least-needy next step. But my experience so far has been: If it's not easily fixed with a version upgrade/downgrade, it's not getting fixed. There are lots of forum posts to look at for guidance, but the fixes are always really specific to the OP's system and not applicable to mine. I've seen a lot of people on Lemmy using Pop!; maybe I'll try that next before giving up completely

[–] kttnpunk@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

You absolutely should, sounds perfect for your use case. It's meant for gaming PCs, and as you're starting out don't be afraid to take advantage of the several different package managers out there (I think pop has one built-in but there are others like snap). Finding and installing programs via command line isn't as hard as you might think either and is usually more secure/ideal. If you need something more cutting edge and are willing to dive into stuff like that I've had great experiences with garuda and manjaro too. There are lots of FAQ's out there, and it can be really daunting at first but I promise it'll be rewarding somehow. I personally love all the different free software repositories and having apps like fortune run when I start my machine- there's something so cozy about configuring a PC to be a little fun and reflect your own personality a bit.

[–] Two2Tango@lemmy.ca 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I switched to Pop_OS and everything had been working great;thanks for the rec 👍

[–] kttnpunk@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

Love to hear it! Hope that does what you need it to for a long time! being a commercial product (kinda, system76 mostly makes money off hardware with it iirc) there should be great support and I'm pretty sure it has its own forum too like many other distros. Good luck!

[–] VerseAndVermin@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I greatly appreciate the help. So then something like Pop caters more with drivers one may need.

I'm just tying to make sure my step into Linux is a good one. I have only used Ubuntu and Mint a bit and not what I would call extensively.

I was tempted by Arch but I don't salivate at the idea of creating my own desktop environment like others seem to. Hmm. I have my research to do as I had not looked at Pop.

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[–] Astaroth@lemm.ee 1 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Disclaimer: my experience is only with Arch Linux (daily drive for 2 years) and a little bit of Linux Mint on a relative's PC.

For me I found it more tedious to get games working through WINE on Linux Mint compared to on Arch Linux, some packages I wanted seemingly don't exist in the apt repositories (wine mono and wine gecko) and had to be manually installed.

I also had some trouble because the package names were different compared to on pacman, especially the lib32 ones, but to be fair I would probably have had the same issue on Arch if I first used Linux Mint then Arch so not having the same package names isn't inherently a fault of Linux Mint.

But it wasn't that it wasn't doable, it was just more tedious, and to be fair daily driving Arch for 2 years compared to using Linux Mint every once in a while means I'm way less familiar with Linux Mint.

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[–] oldfart@lemm.ee 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I chose a distro with Steam preinstalled, it was ualinux (not maintained any more so i'm not recommending it). If your primary use case is games I recommend a gaming specific distro, everything works out of the box.

Also, how do the French people walk in games? ZSAD?

[–] fluckx@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

French keyboard is called "azerty"

So they would move with

  Z Q S D

Not to be confused with the Belgium azerty which is 90% similar. But different enough to be annoying if you're used to one or the other.

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