Thanks to all of Valve's effort with Proton, Steam Deck and their funding of people working on various other bits of Linux code like GPU drivers - the Linux share on Steam as of March 2024 bounced back to a near multi-year high.
They also sell non-DRM software. And most importantly they invest the money they make from selling those games into developing Linux so it’s better for everyone, I’ll take a corporation that uses my money to make things better for myself than one that sells “only” DRM free" games (when it’s convenient, because GoG also sells DRMd games in case you didn’t knew)
I agree, I haven’t experienced the stereotypical “WiFi doesn’t work” (except for a college network), but I have had issues with screen brightness not working (though seems to be fixed in newer versions), and issues with the Nvidia graphics card that I can’t just swap out with an AMD because it’s a laptop and I don’t want to buy a whole new one.
No idea why you’re being downvoted. I wish I could daily-drive Linux on my laptop, but that would come at the cost of slashed battery life, permanently on keyboard backlight, no more fingerprint sensor, issues with speakers and so on. Even after years of honourable enthusiasts trying to reverse-engineer the Windows drivers, it’s just still not there. Laptops will take a while to follow suite, but Linux really does need to take a larger portion of the market before manufacturers start being interested in Linux support.
And before I also get downvoted, yes you can get a 10 year old ThinkPad and happily install Linux on it, but please realize that not all people want to limit themselves in their choice of hardware and it’s the software that should adapt to the hardware, not the other way around.
I switched to linux on my laptop i had to do 4 reinstall to get my nvidia gpu to work and as of late my speaker arent recognised anymore, despite reinstaling pulse and alsa. One of my informatitian friend that has a linux laptop had gpu issue too, the laptop at work need frequent overseeing by the it to work properly etc etc…
I love linux and I truly think we NEED to get our hands back on our tech, and understand better the technology we use, but yeah… If you really need your laptop to be fully operational quickly and you’re not tech savvy well think twice…
For stability? A missing feature or software you need I get, but stability? Which distro/DE are you using? Please don’t say you’re running Gentoo and some crazy TWM setup or something like that lol
Stability to me was one of the biggest reasons to use Linux - it does exactly what I expect it to do, never breaks, updates never break shit.
I’m was talking about game stability. This is a gaming related topic right? Linux is stable but games had some issues.
Truthfully nothing major that stopped me from playing but I had to mess with proton in steam from time to time. Most recently the Last of Us crashes on start, not sure why it was fine previously. Also, there were some games anti cheat did not work and I needed to play in Windows.
Also, I have consistently had issues streaming to my steam Deck. Windows isn’t perfect either but it’s more likely to work the with windows. Sure maybe it’s my Nvidia GPU, but saying switch to amd does make my setup more stable.
It’s ready for a lot more than that, can you tell me something that Linux can’t do without mentioning a third party company that refuses to support Linux?
the year of the Linux desktop is now
And all it cost was having a store sell DRM software.
To be fair, as far as DRM is concerned Steam is pretty mild and game developers gotta eat.
They also sell non-DRM software. And most importantly they invest the money they make from selling those games into developing Linux so it’s better for everyone, I’ll take a corporation that uses my money to make things better for myself than one that sells “only” DRM free" games (when it’s convenient, because GoG also sells DRMd games in case you didn’t knew)
Yeah emphasis on desktop… Laptop can be tricky
I agree, I haven’t experienced the stereotypical “WiFi doesn’t work” (except for a college network), but I have had issues with screen brightness not working (though seems to be fixed in newer versions), and issues with the Nvidia graphics card that I can’t just swap out with an AMD because it’s a laptop and I don’t want to buy a whole new one.
No idea why you’re being downvoted. I wish I could daily-drive Linux on my laptop, but that would come at the cost of slashed battery life, permanently on keyboard backlight, no more fingerprint sensor, issues with speakers and so on. Even after years of honourable enthusiasts trying to reverse-engineer the Windows drivers, it’s just still not there. Laptops will take a while to follow suite, but Linux really does need to take a larger portion of the market before manufacturers start being interested in Linux support.
And before I also get downvoted, yes you can get a 10 year old ThinkPad and happily install Linux on it, but please realize that not all people want to limit themselves in their choice of hardware and it’s the software that should adapt to the hardware, not the other way around.
Yes. Just yes ahah
I switched to linux on my laptop i had to do 4 reinstall to get my nvidia gpu to work and as of late my speaker arent recognised anymore, despite reinstaling pulse and alsa. One of my informatitian friend that has a linux laptop had gpu issue too, the laptop at work need frequent overseeing by the it to work properly etc etc…
I love linux and I truly think we NEED to get our hands back on our tech, and understand better the technology we use, but yeah… If you really need your laptop to be fully operational quickly and you’re not tech savvy well think twice…
It’s still coming, I have tried to switch using my desktop but still have. Needed to swap back to windows for stability.
That’s a very ironic sentence :)
For stability? A missing feature or software you need I get, but stability? Which distro/DE are you using? Please don’t say you’re running Gentoo and some crazy TWM setup or something like that lol
Stability to me was one of the biggest reasons to use Linux - it does exactly what I expect it to do, never breaks, updates never break shit.
I’m was talking about game stability. This is a gaming related topic right? Linux is stable but games had some issues.
Truthfully nothing major that stopped me from playing but I had to mess with proton in steam from time to time. Most recently the Last of Us crashes on start, not sure why it was fine previously. Also, there were some games anti cheat did not work and I needed to play in Windows.
Also, I have consistently had issues streaming to my steam Deck. Windows isn’t perfect either but it’s more likely to work the with windows. Sure maybe it’s my Nvidia GPU, but saying switch to amd does make my setup more stable.
Year of the Steam Deck. Linux still not ready for mainstream desktop usage :(
Only a couple more decades, we’re almost there!
Closing in!
My computer illiterate mother in law that has been using Linux for years strongly disagrees.
Sorry, Linux is ready for basic usage such as web browsing and creating a document.
It’s ready for a lot more than that, can you tell me something that Linux can’t do without mentioning a third party company that refuses to support Linux?
My computer illiterate wife’s right there with your mother-in-law.