Poll—do you play on Windows, Mac or Linux?

[Brian Boru]

Saw a question from a Linux player which made me wonder are there many Mac or Linux players here.

If you play more on than one OS, please comment below about which you prefer, and why.

Remember, we're PC Gamer, so any posts about mobile will probably be deleted.

 

[Zloth]

Well, there were quite a few games played under Atari TOS, but I think you probably mean in recent years.

 

[Colif]

Owners of Chromebooks who try to play on them feel left out by this question

 

[Brian Boru]

Atari TOS

Yeah, I mean recent years. Atari, Spectrum, Commodore etc—they're computers Jim, but not PCs as we know it.

Chromebooks

Can Chrome OS play PC-Mac-Linux games, anymore than iOS or Android can? I don't think I've seen them—or Atari etc—listed in the game specs we're used to.

 

[Pifanjr]

I have played on Linux and Mac for a bit when I had no other options and I'll be happy if I never have to bother with that again.

 

[Colif]

most chrome books lack storage so its difficult for them to run anything.

I was just being silly, technically android is linux.

 

[Brian Boru]

I was just being silly

Mission accomplished, good job!

technically android is linux

Well yeah, and MacOS is Unix, and Windows used to be DOS—probably not a productive rabbit hole to explore

 

[Johnway]

unsurprisingly i play on a windows machine. I dabble in linux occasionally hoping that one day it might lead to a better IT job.

 

[randyl]

Windows is my main gaming OS (and main OS period). Most everything is targeted for Windows and the experience is essentially seamless. Additionally GamePass offers a lot of value to me personally and I love the idea of a hybrid service that offers local installs, streaming, and the ability to purchase titles I really like.

That said, I have played a lot on Linux though over the last several years. I've been using Linux since around 2003 and am very fond of the OS in general. Linux offers some great strengths and features, one of which is file system performance. Valve has dumped a lot of money, effort, and time into SteamPlay Proton, which is a custom WINE compile couple with a set of tools to help game compatibility. They offer a containerized runtime called the Steam Linux Runtime or SLR, which helps Linux native games run across various distributions. The Proton compatibility layer now allows more Windows native titles to run on Linux than ever before. It's quite amazing.

However, there are some pretty serious holes in the compatibility ecosystem. Anti-cheat is a big one. Studios targeting Windows only proprietary media formats is another. And finally, some studios and publishers are outright hostile. Those that aren't often ditch or break Linux compatibility for business reasons with little to no regard for the small but very loyal grass roots fanbase that have supported them.

 

[Brian Boru]

I've been using Linux since around 2003 and am very fond of the OS in general

I've only been exposed to the server side of Linux, which it does very well.

Have you looked into the built-in Linux within Windows 10? I know nothing about it, wondering if it helps with Linux gaming at all…

With Windows becoming a lesser part of Microsoft's revenue—currently maybe 1/6th—I won't be surprised to see them integrate Linux more into Windows and perhaps eventually settle on Winux or Lindows

 

[randyl]

Microsoft's WSL2 is pretty cool tech and I've read some developers do use it to help debug issues on their Linux ports. It isn't really built for gaming though. The way the windowing system and graphics works it doesn't lend itself well to gaming, although I think people have hacked some things together.

WSL2 runs on a virtual machine layer and, if I understand things properly, so does Windows (some or all of it) when WSL2 is enabled. The short of it is that virtualization doesn't lend itself well to gaming. It can with a lot of tinkering and effort, but out of the box it doesn't. Drivers running in most VMs don't have the same kind of hardware access that bare metal OS layers do. I have used WSL a long time ago, but mostly if I need a Linux desktop I run it in VirtualBox or Hyper-V on my local Windows desktop.

If Microsoft made a Linux based OS that ran Windows apps like native, with a quality desktop environment, I'd be very interested. I'd even be interested in a posix desktop using a Microsoft kernel with GNU Utils and driveless file system with mount points.