I started using Linux Mint about 5 years ago because I'm interested in tech and wanted to mess around with it a bit. Now I'm staying on Linux Mint because I don't wanna deal with Microsoft's bullshit ever again. No more ads, forced updates, surveillance and crashes. Just a damn solid OS that does its job.
I use Linux because it’s the better platform for my workload. Knowing that I’m using and supporting FLOSS is great, but ultimately I will choose to use the best available tool for the job. For playing games Valve has made the best platform to manage my library and run it on Linux, so it is the only option for the vast majority of the games I would like to play.
I’m an OS enthusiast apparently. I somehow enjoy blowing my OS up, getting irrationally irritated at how something behaves and trying something different. I would rather walk through a pile of Arch documentation than rely on Microsoft’s word that they won’t dick over the whole damn market. My efforts yield one more count towards a market share relevant enough for developers to care about. Gaming on windows feels like I am betraying all the sass I have given MS and if I truly believe this stuff I gotta at least try to use it for what reasonably works.
Steam seems antithetical to all of these. The software in the first place became popular as a form of DRM,
It’s annoying when games require Steam in order to run, but let’s be clear: it’s not DRM.
In most of the cases I’ve seen, it’s nothing more than a library dependency, for features like Steam Input and achievements. Here’s a Steam client emulator to satisfy that dependency without Steam being present at all:
If it quacks like a duck, walks like a duck, then let’s call it a duck. Those dependencies work a lot like DRM for your typical user. And, sure, you can fix it… but you can also install a NoCD for a game with actual DRM.
Steam binds game installations to a specific account where you purchased them; and you are not supposed to run that game instal without Steam alongside it, or through another account, or no account at all, or in 2+ computers at the same time. And the way dependencies are handled is part of that.
As such, you can argue that it’s DRM done less worse than most, or that the “DRM-ness” is not its primary “goal”, but you can’t really argue that it doesn’t behave a lot like DRM would, for practical purposes, and for your typical user.
Steam binds game installations to a specific account where you purchased them;
I don’t know what you think Steam is doing in this regard, but if you have some evidence that it writes personal account data into game files to prevent their use elsewhere, then please share it. That would be newsworthy.
you can’t really argue that it doesn’t behave a lot like DRM would, for practical purposes, and for your typical user.
The only similarity to DRM is that the game expects it to be present. If that made it DRM, your graphics driver would also be DRM, as would your OS, your input devices, and your internet provider.
Obviously, these things are not the same. That’s why we have different words for them.
Please don’t be disingenuous.
Please don’t confuse people by misusing technical terms.
(Or at the very least, have the grace not to complain when someone corrects their usage. Sharing and refining knowledge is how we all learn from each other, after all.)
Linux systems are usually laid bare for people to tinker with, which for me is specially good if I see something I don't like, be it software, UI or UX.
Plus, most PC's I've seen from at least the past ~20 years can run Linux, so if I get my hands on a working PC, Linux becomes an easy choice.
Using WINE or Proton should work then you can use winetricks or protontricks to install the specific component you need if the game doesn't already install it.
I bought a new laptop, and it was lagging more than my old PC. I was enraged by this fact. My old pc had 4gb RAM, my laptop would freeze playing games like osu. Yeah, 8gb was the limit in 2016, but not like to get random freezes. I installed Ubuntu and then never went back, now using Arch. Performance. No random things going under my nose, making spikes happen. Now, it’s not about performance alone. It’s about control and privacy. I study psychology and I wish my peers realized what it means using Meta services everyday, Microsoft, etc, and how these are connected with our everyday life, decisions and lack of control, thus worth to get the psychology field to debate and put the everyday services under discussion.
Many steam games don’t even have DRM and most games only require Steam to be present and not necessarily online.
The company as a whole is very stable and doesn’t perform any overly wild anti user behaviour. And they’re big supporters and developers of Linux.
If you want to install games that are spyware that’s totally up to you. And I suppose that’s really the point.
Instead of turning into hyper capitalist assholes like every other company, steam just leaves us the fuck alone while providing great great games at great prices. Also no sexual harrassment coverups or buyouts.
Steam just leaves us the fuck alone and let’s you focus purely on the game.
Wine/Proton (Codeweavers and independent contractors). Proton is open source even if it’s mostly Steam specific.
Mesa RADV (Vulkan AMD driver)
The Linux kernel
KDE Plasma
gamescope
HDR/colour management
That’s just off the top of my head. I’ll admit that some of this work comes from 1 or 2 single paid developers that have their hands in many things, but that’s not a bad thing.
Because I prefer it in functionally every way to Windows. I prefer (when feasible) to use open source and/or FLOSS software. I am vastly more familiar with Linux than I am Windows on a technical level. I generally dislike most things about Windows.
and use Steam
It works, it’s convenient, they have a generally good track record of not screwing over users.
I prefer many of the features of Linux distros, but using a client like Steam defeats the purpose of them.
That is a pretty serious leap in logic. You’re welcome to not like Steam on a technical, moral, and/or philosophical level but at the end of the day it is a single application and saying that using Linux while also using Steam “defeats the purpose of Linux” is ridiculous. Linux is an Operating System, it is meant to assist the user in computing. If the user is using Linux to compute they are fulfilling the exact purpose of Linux, that being an open and free operating system to be used by any who desire it.
It’s easy to use. I’m a software developer. *nix is really well supported by software developers, and most programming languages support Linux first. So it’s easy to develop for.
I use Linux because all the games I want to play run just fine through proton, wine, or native builds. I used to have a dedicated windows partition, but maintaining windows got tedious. After testing that my games worked, I fully defenestrated and never went back.
Sure, steam is proprietary and has flaws, but I’d rather run a proprietary and flawed userland application than a proprietary and flawed OS.
Have used linux almost exclusivly since 1999. Simply because it is the better system.
I use steam, since games just work without fiddeling, or a very easy refund.
Because I do other things with my computer and use Linux because I like how I have it set up not because of ideological purism. I do not like how Windows and Mac work. I dread booting into Windows to play games.
The reality is that the vast vast majority of games are not FOSS. You have no idea what makes most games tick. So if you are that concerned about FOSS purity I question why you play games on any platform. Windows or otherwise.
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