Most of the PC gaming audience is on Windows, so Windows is still the primary target being developed against. Having better Vulkan on Windows means more support for Vulkan in games in the pipeline, which means better Linux support in those games over time, which ultimately benefits Steam and their hardware.
> users are still served only by the proprietary driver [...] An open source Vulkan driver on Windows opens up a number of possibilities: a shared codebase across platforms, easier debugging and experimentation, faster turnaround on fixes, and a path for the community (e.g., game developers) to report problems or contribute improvements that benefit everyone regardless of operating system.
To me, the argument against a proprietary driver seems extremely weak if you're running Windows anyway, but I guess they see it more that if more game devs can run the RADV driver, they can get wider testing (or a simpler story for devs to test at least) and backdoor improvements into the Linux side?
I guess I dont understand the "a shared codebase across platforms, easier debugging and experimentation," comment. Shared RADV codebase? Or shared game engine code, at least the specific parts of the engine that target Vulkan x Radeon (how big is that really?). Similarly I guess "debugging" here is tracking down odd ball RADV bugs where you could then run it in windows to see if its a linux thing or a RADV thing?
> To me, the argument against a proprietary driver seems extremely weak if you're running Windows anyway, but I guess they see it more that if more game devs can run the RADV driver, they can get wider testing (or a simpler story for devs to test at least) and backdoor improvements into the Linux side?
Are you using an AMD driver?
Let me share my experience. One day, you wake up and your GPU driver is gone for no reason. I'm not even joking here—the recent driver update broke the driver for many users. Launch Battlefield 6, and your driver is... gone. A new driver update comes out... Launch Battlefield 6, hard freeze. Improvement. I'm still running an older "blessed" driver version for this reason, and I'm scared to update.
I had an rx 5700xt where one version worked on bf4 but it didn't work on doom eternal. Meanwhile the version had unusable performance when streaming my game to friends. So any time I wanted to play games with friends I had to reinstall an older version. This stayed an issue for months with no communication from AMD.
My current rx6900xt meanwhile has quite a few other stalls and crashes, and doesn't get any of the cool rocm support the 7000series gets.
So my next gpu will be an nvidia. Paying over a thousand euros for a gpu, only to get your support dropped after 2(two!) years of shoddy drivers is just unbearable.
I understood shoddy drivers in the R series, Vega(another lemon i bought) as well, AMD was flat out broke. But by now they surely have some money left over from the ryzen success to make their gpus at least stable.
Game devs testing against the same driver on both platforms would probably surface RADV issues faster than the current Linux-only audience does, and as a linux gamer I couldn't be more happier.
Lenovo has already broken rank and Windows is now a paid extra add-on, the default being a popular Linux distro pre-installed unless you wanna pay extra.
The majority of their range is now provided this way.
The reality, Linux is now good enough for students and grandpa alike, plenty of customers who now wouldn’t give a toss to pay the extra price for the Microsoft branded OS.
With Ms Office barely existing anymore the old lock-in is increasingly tenuous.
Many or most of those 95% who are just using Windows for PC games and using a web browser would be well served by either trying out or having a tech-savvy neighbor help them try out a Linux distro like Bazzite.
I used to boot into Windows regularly to play video games. I haven't booted into Windows in ages. Proton is really good, and the major web browsers work the same on -at minimum- Windows, OSX, and Linux.
Plus, it's been my experience that drivers for AMD's graphics cards just work better on Linux... especially for older games. It helps that the folks writing them aren't working for "AI"-crazy companies that have probably massively slashed the resources they're giving the driver programmers for their consumer-grade cards. (After all, why spend any money on software for video games when you can spend that money on software for "AI" stuff and get a much larger ROI?)
The problem is most people "who are just using Windows for PC games and using a web browser" are not a good fit for Linux. They don't install their OS themselves so cannot install a Linux distro. They don't do their own regular maintenance so forced updates are necessary. They expect software like Office to be available - not alternatives that work a bit differently and have buttons in unfamiliar places. Computer literacy is going down so this is only getting worse. Hardware that ships with SteamOS is the best chance to get PC gamers onto Linux. It's already being used by nearly 1% of Steam users and Steam has a lot of users.
> Plus, it's been my experience that drivers for AMD's graphics cards just work better on Linux
That's why Valve went with AMD for the Steam Deck and Machine. But it's also another blocker because 72% of Steam users have an Nvidia GPU.
> Many or most of those 95% who are just using Windows for PC games and using a web browser would be well served by either trying out or having a tech-savvy neighbor help them try out a Linux distro like Bazzite.
This is true until you consider what that exact casual market looks like. Mainstream casual PC gamers are overwhelmingly concentrated in live service multiplayer AAA games with kernel level anticheat. Fortnite, League of Legends, Valorant, Call of Duty, Apex Legends, etc.
So it's kind of a hard spot where yes, 95% of casual windows gamers would in theory be much better off on Linux but the Catch-22 is the games that market is mostly concentrated on is the single category that still does not work on Linux.
It's not like Windows is an OS they love, it's just a mandatory anti-cheat wall, but its a wall Linux can't breach yet.
So, to be clear, and to really drive this point home. Gaming on Linux is absolutely viable and practical it's just the efforts are sunken by bad developers who refuse to enable compatibility or figure out a better solution.
"games that market is mostly concentrated on is the single category that still does not work on Linux."
All of the games you described have and will work on Linux perfectly fine under proton, it is the developers CHOICE for these games not to work.
Last time I tried out linux (Earlier this year) I had to give up on it because my system would occasionally freeze to the point I needed to do a hard reset.
I thought it was a hardware issue, but it ended up being a linux amd driver issue. I haven’t had a problem since switching back to windows.
Somewhat. There's still a ~20% ish performance impact for DX12 titles on Nvidia, but on any newer/recent card it basically just brute forces it and ends up being fine unless you are an FPS chaser and have an issue with getting, say, 140 FPS instead of 168 FPS. That'll matter if you play competitive PvP games, but otherwise you probably won't notice (depending on the game)
It depends on your card I think. I can say that with a 3080 Ti and now a 5090 I have no issue playing almost all the games on steam on Fedora 44, event a lot of games not explicitly compatible. I’ve been using Linux only for probably a year now and I don’t see a good reason to go back to Windows for gaming myself.
This is a net good for Linux.
Most of the PC gaming audience is on Windows, so Windows is still the primary target being developed against. Having better Vulkan on Windows means more support for Vulkan in games in the pipeline, which means better Linux support in those games over time, which ultimately benefits Steam and their hardware.
Now it’s our turn to embrace, extend …
The developer writes here, https://www.collabora.com/news-and-blog/news-and-events/crac...
> users are still served only by the proprietary driver [...] An open source Vulkan driver on Windows opens up a number of possibilities: a shared codebase across platforms, easier debugging and experimentation, faster turnaround on fixes, and a path for the community (e.g., game developers) to report problems or contribute improvements that benefit everyone regardless of operating system.
To me, the argument against a proprietary driver seems extremely weak if you're running Windows anyway, but I guess they see it more that if more game devs can run the RADV driver, they can get wider testing (or a simpler story for devs to test at least) and backdoor improvements into the Linux side?
I guess I dont understand the "a shared codebase across platforms, easier debugging and experimentation," comment. Shared RADV codebase? Or shared game engine code, at least the specific parts of the engine that target Vulkan x Radeon (how big is that really?). Similarly I guess "debugging" here is tracking down odd ball RADV bugs where you could then run it in windows to see if its a linux thing or a RADV thing?
> To me, the argument against a proprietary driver seems extremely weak if you're running Windows anyway, but I guess they see it more that if more game devs can run the RADV driver, they can get wider testing (or a simpler story for devs to test at least) and backdoor improvements into the Linux side?
Are you using an AMD driver?
Let me share my experience. One day, you wake up and your GPU driver is gone for no reason. I'm not even joking here—the recent driver update broke the driver for many users. Launch Battlefield 6, and your driver is... gone. A new driver update comes out... Launch Battlefield 6, hard freeze. Improvement. I'm still running an older "blessed" driver version for this reason, and I'm scared to update.
I had an rx 5700xt where one version worked on bf4 but it didn't work on doom eternal. Meanwhile the version had unusable performance when streaming my game to friends. So any time I wanted to play games with friends I had to reinstall an older version. This stayed an issue for months with no communication from AMD.
My current rx6900xt meanwhile has quite a few other stalls and crashes, and doesn't get any of the cool rocm support the 7000series gets.
So my next gpu will be an nvidia. Paying over a thousand euros for a gpu, only to get your support dropped after 2(two!) years of shoddy drivers is just unbearable.
I understood shoddy drivers in the R series, Vega(another lemon i bought) as well, AMD was flat out broke. But by now they surely have some money left over from the ryzen success to make their gpus at least stable.
Game devs testing against the same driver on both platforms would probably surface RADV issues faster than the current Linux-only audience does, and as a linux gamer I couldn't be more happier.
This gives me hope that one day the Steam Controller will have a native Windows driver.
Can we please let Windows die already
First lets get Linux on computer stores so that normies actually care it exists, outside Android, ChromeOS and WebOS powered devices.
It won't die as long as it keeps coming preinstalled with new PCs, and included in their price.
Lenovo has already broken rank and Windows is now a paid extra add-on, the default being a popular Linux distro pre-installed unless you wanna pay extra.
The majority of their range is now provided this way.
The reality, Linux is now good enough for students and grandpa alike, plenty of customers who now wouldn’t give a toss to pay the extra price for the Microsoft branded OS.
With Ms Office barely existing anymore the old lock-in is increasingly tenuous.
Most gamers are still on Windows, I expect it to be the case for quite a while, even though Linux support is improving.
Bringing an open source driver to the most popular platform is a way to get more contributors interested, which in turn may help the Linux driver.
Say that to the 95% of people using Windows to play PC games.
Many or most of those 95% who are just using Windows for PC games and using a web browser would be well served by either trying out or having a tech-savvy neighbor help them try out a Linux distro like Bazzite.
I used to boot into Windows regularly to play video games. I haven't booted into Windows in ages. Proton is really good, and the major web browsers work the same on -at minimum- Windows, OSX, and Linux.
Plus, it's been my experience that drivers for AMD's graphics cards just work better on Linux... especially for older games. It helps that the folks writing them aren't working for "AI"-crazy companies that have probably massively slashed the resources they're giving the driver programmers for their consumer-grade cards. (After all, why spend any money on software for video games when you can spend that money on software for "AI" stuff and get a much larger ROI?)
The problem is most people "who are just using Windows for PC games and using a web browser" are not a good fit for Linux. They don't install their OS themselves so cannot install a Linux distro. They don't do their own regular maintenance so forced updates are necessary. They expect software like Office to be available - not alternatives that work a bit differently and have buttons in unfamiliar places. Computer literacy is going down so this is only getting worse. Hardware that ships with SteamOS is the best chance to get PC gamers onto Linux. It's already being used by nearly 1% of Steam users and Steam has a lot of users.
> Plus, it's been my experience that drivers for AMD's graphics cards just work better on Linux
That's why Valve went with AMD for the Steam Deck and Machine. But it's also another blocker because 72% of Steam users have an Nvidia GPU.
> Many or most of those 95% who are just using Windows for PC games and using a web browser would be well served by either trying out or having a tech-savvy neighbor help them try out a Linux distro like Bazzite.
This is true until you consider what that exact casual market looks like. Mainstream casual PC gamers are overwhelmingly concentrated in live service multiplayer AAA games with kernel level anticheat. Fortnite, League of Legends, Valorant, Call of Duty, Apex Legends, etc.
So it's kind of a hard spot where yes, 95% of casual windows gamers would in theory be much better off on Linux but the Catch-22 is the games that market is mostly concentrated on is the single category that still does not work on Linux.
It's not like Windows is an OS they love, it's just a mandatory anti-cheat wall, but its a wall Linux can't breach yet.
So, to be clear, and to really drive this point home. Gaming on Linux is absolutely viable and practical it's just the efforts are sunken by bad developers who refuse to enable compatibility or figure out a better solution.
"games that market is mostly concentrated on is the single category that still does not work on Linux."
All of the games you described have and will work on Linux perfectly fine under proton, it is the developers CHOICE for these games not to work.
Last time I tried out linux (Earlier this year) I had to give up on it because my system would occasionally freeze to the point I needed to do a hard reset.
I thought it was a hardware issue, but it ended up being a linux amd driver issue. I haven’t had a problem since switching back to windows.
From what I can tell, gaming with an nvidia card on Linux is still rough. Is that incorrect?
Somewhat. There's still a ~20% ish performance impact for DX12 titles on Nvidia, but on any newer/recent card it basically just brute forces it and ends up being fine unless you are an FPS chaser and have an issue with getting, say, 140 FPS instead of 168 FPS. That'll matter if you play competitive PvP games, but otherwise you probably won't notice (depending on the game)
It depends on your card I think. I can say that with a 3080 Ti and now a 5090 I have no issue playing almost all the games on steam on Fedora 44, event a lot of games not explicitly compatible. I’ve been using Linux only for probably a year now and I don’t see a good reason to go back to Windows for gaming myself.
Well millions of people are still smoking cigarettes doesn't mean that shit is good