Has some recent Windows vs. Linux change happened lately, I've missed?

Considering the large number of Linux support threads lately, I mean.

Honestly, I'd much prefer it if the overwhelming majority games just ran on Linux so that I wouldn't need a Windows box and the fate of most of my game collection wouldn't be tied to decisions Microsoft makes.

My understanding is that if you spend a lot of time configuring emulation layers like Wine, you can achieve it. It is just a lot of work right now and most people either don't have the technical expertise or time for it.

As you know, GOG does not provide a Linux version of its client (Galaxy). This is the prime reason in these cases, and there are many when developers simply won't bring the Linux version of their game on GOG because of the lack of achievement support. A sad but true tale. If you use Proton, which you can, even with GOG games, the overhead is really not that great. Of course there are some odd games that due to their design will have difficulties running on Linux, but that's life. A vast majority of them run without any issues.

Alternatively, there's Lutris - a lot of people seem to be getting along well with it, since it automates most of the installation and configuration.

On the Linux side, the Steam Deck has caused a lot of developers to improve compatibility / at least consider a Linux release for future games more than they previously would have done. Whilst over on the Windows side, W11 still hurts my face to look at (enough that I'd rather reinstall W7 than ever "upgrade" to that dumbed down hot mess...) and I know a few people who have switched to Linux given Microsoft's SaaS "direction" which is inevitably going to end up subscription based 2-3 Windows releases down the line.

Edit: See examples like this (especially from 9:34 onwards) to see that even small 1-2 man developers are starting to take it seriously. I'm no fan of Steam or their endless DRM / platform lock-in, but credit where it's due, they absolutely got this one right.

Helping a friend's computer, i was ready to throw their machine out the window, and it was Win8 (this was... 2015?)

Windows has shown itself to be even more draconian and wants to lock down your computer from outside sources (not windows) which will make data recovery impossible, and fixing some Windows problem also impossible. I can't tell you the number of times I couldn't get Windows to work where the best solution is injecting files from a working system into protected folders that you can't access if the Windows install is running.

I'm switching to Linux when Win 10 is officially dead, because I will not install the DRM security modules on my PC required to run Win 11, that will encrypt and then brick the data on your hard drive if you try to access the data outside THE Windows 11 environment it was created in. I've been using Linux for years, but soon it will be time to make it my primary OS. Unless ReactOS gets a huge boost in development REALLY soon.

They clearly show that they don't care about Linux by removing the "in progress" in the Linux version of GOG Galaxy so don't expect more than what we already have here. Just install Lutris or heroic game launcher and enjoy your game on Linux.

Surprisingly, not anymore. (As long as your distro of choice comes with a fairly recent...(7.0 or later) version of WINE.) See, thanks to VALVE of all companies helping contribute code to PROTON, it's a massive boon to Wine. And already, a greater majority of games were running rather smoothly, it's mostly that odd gap between 1993 and 2005 that's the problem.

Sure, some games may need some tinkering and a pox on any game that requires Internet Explorer Functions...but most will run. Well, sort of a 1-2 punch.
1) Steam Deck is a portable Linux machine that makes the prospect very attractive.
2) Windows pulled an Apple MacOS and took steps towards becoming what I disaffectionaly refer to as the Alnwick Poison Garden. It's not technically closed, but you'll be chocked to death if you stay there. (See Apple's vehement refusal of OpenGL, and their general status of being a pain to work with as they regularly pinch off old components.)

It is good to know. Honestly, I've been so busy with my career in the last decade that I've just thrown money at the problem (a dedicated Windows box acting as glorified console) as opposed to time (learning Wine or other Linux tooling to run Windows games).

Your time or your money right?

Realistically, at some point, I'll need to invest some of my time to catch up with what is out there. I'm sure the ecosystem is a lot better than it used to be. I keeps improving all the time.

If you don't have time, Lutris or heroic game launcher can do the job for you, i have never had any problem with GOG, Ubisoft and Origin games, i didn't try other launcher's games, but it will probably run as good as the ones i tried. The install process is a little bit longer than windows as it install all dependencies but at least in the end you have your game runing on your Linux.

I also try some MMORPG like Final Fantasy XIV, The elder scrolls Online and Stat Wars The Old Republic and they also run as well as in windows.

If you spent a lot of time away from tools like WINE, you will be pleasantly surprised by how effective are the current Linux tools to play Windows games ;)

I started using it with WINE 0.9.x, and it is day and night compared with its current state. Outside of DRM-ridden multiplayer-only games, nearly everything works out-of-the-box with performances going from decent to stellar.

Some people seem to think that it is mostly thanks to Valve, but they actually started working on WINE only after it became really good. I won’t deny that they put money on things improving the experience (often in ways incompatible with upstream WINE inclusion), but said experience was already very good before their interventions.

Yes and no. There was good progress before they started throwing money at the situation, but it has improved considerably – especially if you use an AMD graphics card, which I don't do.

The most problematic category of games until this month were those that used media foundations, but the last wine release makes them work out of the box.

All in all the improvements due to Vulkan (enabling dxvk/vkd3d) have been beyond what I imagined.


Edit: It's also nice to see that many developers try to improve the user experience on the steam deck which often improves the situation on the desktop as well (if you exclude the Spider-Man remaster which seems to be only usable on RADV).

May you provide more info on that about Windows 11?
I know this might be off-topic, therefore you can send a link for any article or something to me in PM if you wish.

I'm personally using Linux for 1 year and a half now, and disconnected my Windows 10 machine from the internet because I had the feeling Microsoft would start to push updates forcibly to 'convince' people to switch to 11. Well, I do not regret. Linux is the best OS for my needs. Maintaining one Win 10 just for some games that work better natively.

MicroSoft will not make Windows as closed as Apple is with MacOS.

I just spent $160 dollars (USD) on MicroSoft owned video games this past year on Steam and I am about to write ten negative reviews for all of these MicroSoft owned video games in the next six months asking MicroSoft to stop stopping support for older versions of Windows of their video games. I do not want to be pushed from Windows 7 64-bit to Windows 10 64-bit or Windows 11 64-bit. Even though I have five PC's hooked up at the moment running Windows XP, Windows Vista 64-bit, Widows 7 64-bit, Windows 8 64-bit, and Windows 10 64-bit.

I still mainly play PC versions of video games on Windows 7 64-bit.