this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2023
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Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Linux surpasses the Mac among Steam gamers (arstechnica.com)
submitted 2 years ago by conorab@lemmy.conorab.com to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 116 points 2 years ago (1 children)

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Apple's macOS has been the second most popular operating system on the Steam game distribution platform for a long time, but that has now changed.

Linux has surpassed macOS for the number two spot, according to Steam's July user hardware survey.

Steam regularly asks its users to give an anonymized look at their hardware, and the company makes the information it gathers available each month.

The Steam Deck was first released a while ago, but it only became widely available without a waiting list last October.

It worked with game publishers to see high-profile releases like Resident Evil Village and No Man's Sky in recent months, and those games run pretty well on modern Macs—certainly better than similar titles on Intel-based Macs with integrated graphics chips.

It also announced a new gaming porting tool in an upcoming version of macOS that works in some ways like Proton, as seen on the Steam Deck.

I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] TheSaneWriter@lemmy.thesanewriter.com 16 points 2 years ago (2 children)

It's really cool they're considering a Mac version of Proton, it shows to me a more genuine attempt to improve the gaming ecosystem than I'd expect from most companies.

[–] NoStressyJessie@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Ever since Catalina and 32x support dropped it became nearly impossible to tell someone with a straight face you could game in a macOS environment. I used to love flaming pc and Xbox gamers with the knowledge that Halo was originally developed to be a Mac exclusive, and loved pointing out the long list of good ports for the Mac like Fable: the Lost Chapters, Spore, Warcraft, Call of Duty, etc.

[–] ourob@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Yeah, dropping 32-bit made me start considering leaving the platform, despite being a happy Mac gamer for over a decade. The switch to arm finally made me move to back to pc. I expect Apple will drop their x86 compatibility layer after a few years like they did after the ppc to x86 transition.

Steam and lutris has made linux a great gaming platform for me.

[–] NoStressyJessie@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 2 years ago

I liked the arm MacBooks. I used to get 17 hours off a charge with moderate use web browsing, decoding YouTube videos, and driving a 4k display.

[–] emr@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 2 years ago

Marathon was a mac exclusive. Will the new Marathon ship on mac at all?

[–] slembcke@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I went through the 68k -> PPC -> OS X -> x86 transitions, but eh... That was right about when they lost me too. I rather liked OS X, but they were trying to turn it into iOS, at the same time they were making their machines non-repairable/upgradable, and losing 32 bit was just one bit more than I could stand. It was also right around the time when Proton made Linux gaming explosively viable. I could have all the Unixy tools I wanted combined with all the improvements the DEs have made while still being able to play games. I haven't looked back yet.

[–] NoStressyJessie@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 years ago

I’m running Linux full time now, but I kinda wish I had kept that MacBook for asahi as a war driver .

[–] worfamerryman@beehaw.org 5 points 2 years ago

I don’t know if anything will come of it. The proton tool is only to let game devs run their game on Mac hardware to evaluate performance.

They are not allowed to sell games using this tech, they need to make a native port of the game.

I think the real solution would be to let them sell their games using this tool. It worked very well for linux, and apple has plenty of money to put into something like this. A lot more than valve does.

[–] fubo@lemmy.world 49 points 2 years ago (2 children)

It's not just Steam Deck. It's also Proton, which managed to do what Lutris couldn't: make Magic Arena consistently work in WINE on my Linux desktop.

[–] flashgnash@lemm.ee 17 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Proton is the reason I don't need any Windows machines anymore

[–] LuckyCharmsNSoyMilk@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I just need to suck it up and make the switch over already.

[–] flashgnash@lemm.ee 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Would recommend, I actually enjoy interacting with my computer now rather than just tolerating Windows

[–] LuckyCharmsNSoyMilk@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I have it dual booting, just need to make the switch over to primary.

[–] flashgnash@lemm.ee 1 points 2 years ago

Depending on what you do with it it's easier than you'd think (provided you have a decent knowledge of Linux)

[–] Gush@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I still can't figure out how to implement proton into my wine build

[–] phar@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Use ProtonQT-up (I think that's the name) and Lutris. Works perfectly

[–] Gush@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Nah still doesn't work, lots of errors and poor performance, but that's probably because my OS is manjaro. I'm definetly going to switch to another distro, but don't know which one

[–] noundus@lemmy.villa-straylight.social 1 points 2 years ago

Manjaro was my first distro, and I still have a soft spot for it despite its flaws, but I tend to think Garuda now does a better job filling the Manjaro niche in just about every way.

[–] yzh@lemm.ee 1 points 2 years ago

Despite what the OP of this thread said, I use proton through Lutris. I haven't used any other tool for this yet, though I hear heroic games launcher is good too.

I'm not looking at it right now, but on Lutris you can add a new game, say it should run under wine, and then pick one of the versions of wine with proton.

[–] headlesscyborg@lemmy.ml 42 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Nice but I'm surprised it took this long when Apple is doing its best to make OSX the worst possible platform for gaming.

[–] Obsession@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Because people use their computers for more than just gaming, and there are a lot of Macs out there. I have Steam installed on my MacBook, and I can't remember the last time I played a game on it.

[–] joel_feila@lemmy.world 15 points 2 years ago (3 children)

there are games for mac?!

[–] EddoWagt@feddit.nl 5 points 2 years ago

Yeah apparently, or at least mac users with steam installed

[–] ourob@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Depending on what games you played, mac was a decent alternative for gaming. Blizzard treated mac as a first class platform for many years, indie games using multi platform engines often targeted it, and porting studios like aspyr would bring over a few big titles here and there.

Linux was in a similar boat before proton really opened things up, but with even less support than mac from game devs.

[–] joel_feila@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

I wonder if steam will make a proton for mac.

[–] emr@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Ambrosia Software published a bunch of Mac games back in the day, but the app store crunched them.

[–] xthexder@l.sw0.com 3 points 2 years ago

I used to play so many of their games. The Escape Velocity series was great. And I remember one called Slithereens. Oh the nostalgia!

[–] AnonymousLlama@kbin.social 10 points 2 years ago

Love to see it. Really keen to see the type of new handhelds we're going to get in the future and how that'll impact market share

[–] yhorm@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

And I helped!