2025 has most likely been the very best 12 months for Linux that I can keep in mind, a minimum of from the angle of normal PC customers. It is had tons of publicity as a viable various to Home windows, even, and maybe particularly for gaming. I switched to it myself earlier this 12 months, however I am again on Home windows and I do not suppose I will be switching again to Linux correctly any time quickly.
The Linux hype this time was precipitated by Valve’s Linux-based working system, SteamOS, opening up to be used on different handhelds than simply the Steam Deck. That had been lengthy on the playing cards, however it lastly began seeming shut at hand early on this 12 months.
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The current recognition of SteamOS particularly, although, was spurred by the Lenovo Legion Go S, which Valve and Lenovo had been collaborating on to make the primary third-party SteamOS handheld. However even earlier than the SteamOS model of the Legion Go S launched, some handheld avid gamers began manually downloading and putting in the Steam Deck’s restoration picture of SteamOS on their very own handhelds.
I attempted this out myself with the preliminary Home windows model of the Legion Go S and was very impressed. Efficiency is healthier, as is sleep/resume performance, and naturally the general full display UI is far nicer. There are downsides, similar to lack of help for some video games, however any recreation I’ve needed to play on handheld has labored simply high-quality, so I am pleased sticking with SteamOS for gaming on handheld.
Then the official SteamOS model of the Legion Go S really launched, and that is been one of the vital widespread decisions for a handheld gaming PC ever since. In fact, that is not all all the way down to SteamOS, because the system itself is fashionable, comfortable, and fairly highly effective, however the Arch-based OS does play a component.
Different handheld customers have not been content material leaving Legion Go S and Steam Deck avid gamers have all of the enjoyable, both. Even our personal {hardware} commander-in-chief Dave has tried SteamOS on a bunch of units—Ayaneo Kun, OneXPlayer OneXFly, OneXPlayer X1, OneXPlayer OneXFly F1 Professional.
Nonetheless, each time he tried it, it was a buggy expertise, if not utterly unworkable. Aside from the Framework 13 laptop computer, that’s, which he discovered runs the OS simply high-quality—higher on a laptop computer than a number of handhelds, go determine. Utilizing Bazzite, a third-party Fedora-based SteamOS-alike, can be an possibility, and that appears to be a much less buggy expertise than SteamOS for most individuals, however it’s nonetheless not excellent in all instances. The Steam Deck and Legion Go S operating SteamOS nonetheless appear to be the one handhelds that may run a SteamOS or SteamOS-like expertise fairly flawlessly.
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Regardless of this very restricted enlargement of the working system, Linux nonetheless ended up getting loads of consideration as an increasing number of individuals realised that it is a viable various to Home windows, even to be used instances similar to gaming. We had YouTube influencers speaking about it, sister publications, and even—quietly, very quietly—yours really.
My very own current foray into Linux was very short-lived, nonetheless. I’ve dipped into Linux many occasions over the course of my life, however I’ve by no means caught with it, and this time I used to be punted again over to Home windows with undue drive. You may learn the total story explaining why right here, however the long-story-short is it simply utterly broke—trackpad, Wi-Fi card, the lot—whereas I used to be working away at Gamescom, and I did not have the time or endurance to troubleshoot and repair it.
Except kernel-level anti-cheats cease getting used, there’ll probably at all times be a motive for some avid gamers to remain on Home windows
A frantic Home windows set up was my resolution, and the expertise has traumatised me sufficient that I am reluctant to provide Linux one other go, a minimum of not on a machine that I depend upon for work. I might skilled troubles that made me contemplate abandoning Linux previous to this—Nobara Linux did not appear to gel with my laptop computer’s hybrid graphics and exterior monitor—however my full catastrophe at Gamescom solidified issues.
Nonetheless, that was simply my very own expertise, and the hype was nonetheless there for Linux because the 12 months went on. Whether or not that was from influencers and publications capitalising on the hype by producing much more hype, or whether or not it was actual enthusiasm, it would not matter: it was there.
That was lastly compounded by two issues: Home windows 10 coming to its end-of-life (EOL), and Valve’s announcement of the Steam Machine. Within the former case, the kind-of-but-not-really EOL date for the earlier Microsoft working system delivered to the forefront all of the disappointing issues about Home windows 11. And within the latter case, properly, the hype speaks for itself: individuals desire a SteamOS desktop, assuming the worth is true.
It isn’t all about SteamOS, in fact. Linux normally has appeared mighty interesting; it is simply that SteamOS has proven that gaming is genuinely doable and may the truth is be higher than Home windows gaming most often.
The freight prepare that’s random AI options, with a goal market of questionable existence, has ploughed on by 2025’s Home windows 11 updates. All of the whereas giving us 1,000,000 and one issues that, I do not find out about you however I actually by no means requested for. Linux, then again, delivers the identical message it at all times has: your system, precisely as you need it, to do with as you’ll. And with Proton delivering a great gaming expertise, what’s to not love?
Thus, 2025 has most actually been fairly a 12 months for Linux. However I am nonetheless not switching.
The looming scythe of unpredictable hurdles is one motive I am not switching over
The looming scythe of unpredictable hurdles is one motive I am not switching over. There’s one more reason, although: anti-cheat software program.
It is no secret that I am a giant multiplayer gamer. The primary video games I performed have been Workforce Fortress 2, Counter-Strike Supply, and Name of Responsibility 4. Then there was Starcraft 2, World of Warcraft, Quake Stay, Overwatch, and on it went as much as in the present day, the place my mainstays are nonetheless on-line video games.
Return a decade and Linux won’t have had such an issue with on-line video games, particularly. Certain, normal recreation compatibility was far more of a difficulty again then given there was no Proton, however anti-cheats most likely would not have posed such an issue. Nonetheless, over the previous few years, an increasing number of video games have began utilizing kernel-level anti-cheats, and these are a whole no-go for Linux.
Kernel-level anti-cheats run on the deepest layer of your working system, which means they’ll forestall cheats operating at a deeper layer than most cheats function at, making them simpler. The issue with that is that it is giving the anti-cheat entry to a layer of your system that dangers opening it to some fairly unhealthy vulnerabilities if it is not finished correctly, and it simply would not sit proper with some individuals to provide software program such deep management over your system.
No matter that debate, although, we have been instructed for an extended whereas that such anti-cheats are right here to remain. And it appears like that is true, a minimum of for the foreseeable future, as a result of an increasing number of video games have began to make use of them, from Apex Legends, to Fortnite and Valorant.
Linux distros, nonetheless, do not help kernel-level anti-cheats. Linux permits customers to fiddle round with just about something they need, together with the kernel, so there’d be little level in including anti-cheat to the Linux kernel as a result of, in contrast to with the Home windows kernel, the person may be capable of patch in code that makes the anti-cheat ineffective anyway.
A correct kernel-level anti-cheat on Linux is not in precept unimaginable, however there’s little incentive for Linux devs to make it work. Plus there are different issues, similar to that anti-cheat makers do not wish to make their code open-source, and the core Linux kernel is open-source.
It is unlikely that many recreation devs will abandon kernel-level anti-cheat, both. We have seen, for example, Facepunch (of Rust fame) COO Alistair McFarlane say that “if a recreation helps Proton or Linux, they don’t seem to be critical about anti-cheat” as a result of “it is a vector for cheat builders.”
So, except kernel-level anti-cheats cease getting used, there’ll probably at all times be a motive for some avid gamers to remain on Home windows. I do not suppose this downside is confined to individuals identical to me who primarily wish to play aggressive multiplayer video games, both. That is as a result of even individuals who solely play singleplayer video games may need the choice to department out in future. Battlefield 6, for example, has a kernel-level anti-cheat, and that recreation’s been massively widespread even with individuals who won’t have usually thought of enjoying such a aggressive multiplayer recreation. It is most likely been widespread with some who do not play many different multiplayer video games in any respect.
The record of incompatible video games—which you’ll find on AreWeAntiCheatYet.com—is not large, however it’s hardly restricted to some area of interest video games. There are some massive hitters there, and there is at all times the chance that massive future video games you may wish to play will make use of a kernel-level anti-cheat, too.
This downside, in some methods, is just like the bugginess downside I spoke about earlier. Each points are ones that may intrude along with your peace of thoughts, leaving you questioning whether or not all of the video games you may wish to play will simply work. There’s a lot much less peace of thoughts with Linux in that regard than with Home windows, and I do not see that altering any time quickly.
So, for nearly as good of a 12 months as 2025 has been for Linux, I do not suppose it’ll lure an incredible many extra avid gamers in than earlier than. Not less than, not as a full platform swap. I can see some avid gamers making an attempt out dual-booting, myself included, and I can actually see some making an attempt out the upcoming Steam Machine, however not as a alternative for a Home windows desktop or laptop computer.
This might all enhance over time, in fact, and I hope it does as a result of the extent of person management you get with Linux could be very interesting. For that to occur, although, I believe there must be some various to kernel-level anti-cheats come to fruition, and the extent of out-of-the-box reliability of Linux distros, drivers, and software program, must proceed bettering. I simply do not suppose we’re anyplace close to that tipping level, but.
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