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Admittedly I have not seen how a native linux game works and that to me just makes me continue to feel like linux isn't ready? Logically I get it, a tool like

Admittedly I have not seen how a native linux game works and that to me just makes me continue to feel like linux isn't ready? Logically I get it, a tool like proton is most likely the only way that Linux (or anything not Windows) was going to be an option for gaming at all. My concern here is not in how it runs, how good proton is, or even how "easy" it is to setup. It all boils down to average users for me. I continue to find myself (and I feel like many of us do) overestimating the technical knowledge of the average consumer. I know for many years I had assumed that my generation (I am now 32) would be the generation that the average user would be able to pick up any new technology and run with it. That has been proven false to me many times now... What happens with it fails, what happens when a game was previously working but breaks in a future version of proton or worse breaks because the developer pushes an update (and maybe its an online service game so you have to update). Idk something about this entire thing has just felt wrong to me in how we are pushing Linux as a gaming platform.

smoldesu 4y ago
> What happens with it fails, what happens when a game was previously working but breaks in a future version of proton or worse breaks because the developer pushes an update (and maybe its an online service game so you have to update). All of these are good questions to have, Valve didn't directly come out and address them so it makes sense that people would feel anxious about it. Largely, Valve has solved this by running every game in a lightweight container runtime, kinda like Docker. Regardless of the distro you're running on, Valve can define a common runtime for the game and the title should boot using the defined settings. If something then breaks with that runtime, Valve can actually go through on a game-by-game (or even system-by-system) basis and fix it. This is how Elden Ring got performance patches on Linux at launch, or how titles like Rocket League became playable when their native version was not. It's a complicated technical solution to a nuanced problem, but Valve has done a bang-up job so far.
- nerdjon 4y ago
  They have done a good job, I am not denying that. But this approach is not without faults. I mean when the big winter update for Halo Infinite came out it broke Proton support. Sure they (the people working on Proton) were quick to fix it, but it did break and since it was an online game there really was nothing the user could do about it.

smoldesu 4y ago

> What happens with it fails, what happens when a game was previously working but breaks in a future version of proton or worse breaks because the developer pushes an update (and maybe its an online service game so you have to update). All of these are good questions to have, Valve didn't directly come out and address them so it makes sense that people would feel anxious about it. Largely, Valve has solved this by running every game in a lightweight container runtime, kinda like Docker. Regardless of the distro you're running on, Valve can define a common runtime for the game and the title should boot using the defined settings. If something then breaks with that runtime, Valve can actually go through on a game-by-game (or even system-by-system) basis and fix it. This is how Elden Ring got performance patches on Linux at launch, or how titles like Rocket League became playable when their native version was not. It's a complicated technical solution to a nuanced problem, but Valve has done a bang-up job so far.

nerdjon 4y ago
They have done a good job, I am not denying that. But this approach is not without faults. I mean when the big winter update for Halo Infinite came out it broke Proton support. Sure they (the people working on Proton) were quick to fix it, but it did break and since it was an online game there really was nothing the user could do about it.