I remember when Proton launched it was like magic playing games like Doom and Nier Automata straight from the Linux Steam client with excellent performance. I do not miss the days of having the Windows version of Steam installed separately.

  • @rodneylives
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    119 months ago

    I think this may well be the thing that, at long last, eventually leads to the end of the Windows hegemony on PC. Linux compatibility being a prerequisite for running on the default configuration of the Steam Deck. Gaming is the Microsoft OS’s last real stronghold.

    • @Coreidan
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      179 months ago

      Nah. Windows biggest customer is the corporate world. Windows is everywhere. Gaming isn’t much of a factor, especially when the majority of gamers are console players.

      • Cosmic Cleric
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        59 months ago

        Corporations want boring basic machines at low cost. It’s gaming that drove and drives new hardware development regardless of if its consoles or PC.

        • @Coreidan
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          19 months ago

          Microsoft makes their money off licenses. They don’t care about hardware, especially gaming hardware.

          MS makes their money off selling site licenses to corporations. That’s their bread and butter. Gaming will not offset this.

          • Cosmic Cleric
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            19 months ago

            Microsoft makes their money off licenses.

            Yes, but the discussion wasn’t about how Microsoft makes its money, it was about how important gaming was to promoting one OS over another, via hardware sales…

            Gaming isn’t much of a factor, especially when the majority of gamers are console players.

            And I would argue gaming is a big part of that, which is what my original reply was about.

        • zeroxxx
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          9 months ago

          False.

          Sorry but Windows does have real strong arm in the corporate world.

          First, those boomers do not want to learn Linux. It is a fact. They adopt newer Windows faster and do not even glance at anything else.

          Second, corporate networks are tied closely with AD and Microsoft’s ecosystem (Office, cloud etc). Microsoft are selling those licenses like crazy.

          Third, there is a reason why we hear rumors of Cloud Windows (365), that is for corporate uses.

          • Cosmic Cleric
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            19 months ago

            First, those boomers do not want to learn Linux. It is a fact.

            Actually they usually don’t give a flying F about the OS, they care about the apps they used to get their jobs done. They care about Outlook, Word, Excel, etc.

            Also, as someone who just finished 35 years in corporate America, I’ve done retraining of older employees at many multiple companies plenty of times, so your Ageist assumption is not correct.

            And finally, again, I was just commenting about hardware sales and how gaming drives that, and how an OS rides piggyback on top of the hardware sales.

      • @[email protected]
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        49 months ago

        I… sort of agree? But also, kids game. Which means (part of) a generation could grow up using Linux systems to game, which makes Linux more palatable to businesses looking to hire those kids. I’m not sure how big a factor that might turn out to be.

        • @tinkeringidiot
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          29 months ago

          Mine are learning more Linux than Windows. They really only use Windows for Office, and only then when Office Online absolutely won’t cut it.

          Their laptops dual-boot, but flipping over to Windows is happening so rarely these days (school changed some things around) that I may just have them on Linux going forward.

          Bonus round, it’s much easier on them for computer science classes.

        • @[email protected]
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          39 months ago

          For entirely different use cases. The corporate world loves Linux for servers, but exceedingly few will use it for workstations, and generally only for developers even then

          • @BURN
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            09 months ago

            And even then the majority of developers aren’t on Linux cause the AM and ManagedInstalls doesn’t work as well as Mac or Windows.

            The F500 I work for is almost entirely mac, with the few stragglers on windows for specific applications. Linux just doesn’t support the same kind of enterprise tools that the other 2 main OS’s do.

    • @DiagnosedADHD
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      19 months ago

      I’m still waiting for games to release on Linux with good compatibility, I hope that’s the case since the steam deck has been out for a bit. Unfortunately every Linux native game I’ve tried so far has had some issues that were resolved switching to wine