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For years, Windows has been the undisputed king of PC gaming, but is its reign coming to an end? We dive into our personal experiences with Linux, the impact of Valve's Proton, and whether you should consider making the switch.
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00:00Hello, welcome to PC Gamer. I'm here with the Jacobs, Jacob and Jacob, and we're going to be
00:05chatting about Linux today because, well, this is the year of Linux, as it's always the year of
00:11Linux. But this one, maybe, probably? Well, I think you've got a lot of people looking at Linux and
00:16going, yeah, we're going to actually do it this time, for real, for real this time, including us.
00:25We are a group of people who have dabbled in Linux for a brief period of time.
00:30We've definitely looked at it. I've looked at it a bit.
00:33Yeah, I mean, this is basically, this has come around because Jacob and I have both
00:36kind of, like, switched over our main work machines over to Linux recently in the last,
00:41like, couple of months or so. Yeah, literally about two weeks.
00:44Yeah, yeah. Because it's now a viable thing. And, yeah, we just wanted to talk about it.
00:49And then we dragged Jacob in because he's got hilarious stories about Jacob.
00:52I've got it dual-booted, so I've not quite fully committed as much as you guys, which
00:56I'm a little bit glad of. And I've already got a bit of a superiority complex about that
01:01now, so I bet a few designs fully swapped over. Even though, when you think about it,
01:05I've done more work in setting up my partitions than you probably have, so.
01:11Let's not get, you know, whose Linux installs better than whose Linux installs.
01:15But, yeah, I mean, this is basically, like, three people who are sort of beginner with Linux.
01:21But let's kind of go through, I guess, why we felt like we wanted to go to Linux rather
01:26than stick with Windows, which, let's be honest, we've used for a very long time and been pretty
01:32happy with, generally.
01:33Well, the thing is, I think as a PC gamer, you are, like, almost locked into the Microsoft
01:39Windows ecosystem now. Like, since Windows 95, it's all been within the OS and that's
01:45how you game now. But things have changed, slowly but surely, when Vive, when Wine came
01:52around, and now with Valve taking that further with Proton, like, the compatibility layers
01:58are there. Gaming is now possible on Linux. And I think for me, I've always, I've kind
02:03of been dabbling with Linux over the past 20 years or so. I've always been Linux curious.
02:11But for me, as sort of like a hardware journalist, I'm always kind of messing around with sort
02:15of like the latest hardware, sort of like top-end stuff. And that's not really where Linux
02:19has always sat. That's not always been like a happy ground for Linux, working with the
02:25latest drivers and stuff for the latest features. It doesn't really, really gel with it.
02:30What do you think it was about Linux this time that made you go, okay, now's the time to
02:34jump back in and like go whole hog and go fully into it?
02:38Proton was obviously one. But I think the fact that there is much more out-of-the-box compatibility
02:45for the latest hardware. I think, weirdly, Razer's blade machines have always been like the bellwether
02:52for me. Because historically, they are the worst laptops to put Linux on. Like they've
02:57just not been good things. And I've done it with like, I've used Ubuntu, I've used Pop
03:02OS, like in the past, Catchy OS. And there's always been like certain things that don't quite
03:08work. Like sleep function has always been the thing that just like just never, never works
03:12with like certain like hardware configurations.
03:15It doesn't always work on a Windows laptop, to be honest. But this latest time, getting
03:21dedicated NVIDIA distro from Pop OS, like their version, their download. And it's worked
03:29brilliantly on this, Blade 14.
03:32And what about your experience with Linux then, Jacob?
03:34Oh, it's just been smooth sailing, completely perfect.
03:37Yeah.
03:38That's why we brought you up to talk about your smooth sailing, completely perfect Linux
03:41experience.
03:42No, my experience hasn't been great. Which is annoying, because like, I don't know, I've
03:49been into Linux off and on ever since I was like, little. Since like 11 years old, it's
03:55been like, I dip in for a bit, and then I dip out. And it's kind of what kind of
03:59what you
03:59were saying, Dave, like, there's not been the support there, really, if you're also a PC
04:04gamer, I think, specifically. Like, it's just, you know, I've been PC gaming since that age
04:08as well.
04:09It's hard to completely go over to it.
04:11Yeah, exactly.
04:12Because like, there's always that thing. Like, I mean, even now, gaming is still probably
04:17the thing that's going to keep you away from Linux. Like all of the kernel level anti-cheat
04:23stuff is a lot of mass market games. Like your Fortnite, your Valorant, like all of that
04:32stuff. Like the multiplayer games, Battlefield 6, like I think FIFA as well. Like all of
04:37those big mass market games are not going to play well with Linux, or just not at all.
04:43So I think that's a big, that's still a big barrier, no matter what Valve is doing with
04:47Proton. So I think that is still going to be an issue for PC gamers to make a complete
04:51switch over.
04:52But I think it's that Proton being great, but pretty much everything else at doing that
04:56conversion, just working out of the box, not really having to think about it. I mean,
04:59that is like a huge reason why I think Linux is even viable. I guess it's why we're seeing
05:04from PC gaming point of view, from like what, you know, we're checking PC gaming stuff all
05:09the time every day. And we're going, oh, a lot more people are going to Linux. And it
05:12is because of Proton just sort of working.
05:16It's Proton, it's handhelds as well. I think it's Proton more than SteamOS, because I think
05:22I've tried SteamOS on pretty much every single handheld that I've got my hands on. And
05:29it's very rarely worked out particularly well. Steam Deck, obviously, it's fine, native,
05:33great. The Legion Go S works brilliantly. Anything else?
05:39Because they have a version.
05:40Because they have a version.
05:41Anything else is a real struggle. Like with Iron Neo things, we've had like sound just
05:46not working.
05:47I've had that exact same thing with Iron Neo.
05:48The screen stays upside down. No matter what you do in game mode, nothing works. Screen
05:52screen is upside down. And like, that doesn't quite work. But because of Proton being baked
05:58into Linux, you've got distros like CatchyOS and Bazite, where they've got dedicated handheld
06:04game modes, where it boots up, looks like SteamOS. And you've got that very game first operating
06:12system that Windows isn't, probably is never going to be, even with the LIX.
06:17It's the streamlined handheld version of Windows specifically for handhelds.
06:21It's still not a handheld OS.
06:23I think all of this is, it kind of goes to show just how different your experience can
06:27be using Linux, like depending on what your system is, what games you're trying to play,
06:31all that kind of stuff. Because I can get a little bit frustrated seeing, almost frustrated
06:36because I really want to be able to use Linux. But just because of the sort of system that
06:42I use and the sort of games that I want to play, it's just not as viable. I've had tons
06:48of problems with, like with this laptop, with the hybrid graphics playing up. I've had problems
06:55with my monitor and my NVIDIA graphics card not giving me the right resolutions for games.
07:01And then, but more than that, it's just like the games that I want to play are like, they
07:04are the Valorants, the Apex, those sorts of games. And, you know, that's not Linux's fault.
07:10It's just the state that we're in, I guess, in terms of anti-cheat, kernel level anti-cheat
07:16and all that kind of stuff.
07:17Which I guess a lot of people would have an issue with for other reasons as well, beyond
07:20the Linux question, yeah.
07:21But it's even like, to the extent that, like, you know, I was thinking of downloading the
07:26finals recently because I used to play a bit of that. And I was just looking up its compatibility
07:31and everyone was kind of like, yeah, it's not really officially, you know, but you can
07:35maybe do it. And I was just, is it worth me? I've literally got it dual booted.
07:39I'm just going to go on Windows and install it. And so, you know, I wish that wasn't
07:43the case because, you know, like I do use it on the handheld for, you know, on the Legion
07:47OS and that's perfect because the games that I want to play on that aren't the Valorants
07:51and all that kind of stuff.
07:53So would you say dual booting then is like the perfect way to go about this? If you're
07:57a PC gamer at home, right? And you're thinking maybe I want to ditch Windows. I don't like
08:00AI features. I don't like what they're doing with the updates. Maybe I want Linux, but
08:05I don't want to make the full switch because my friends play, you know, Valorant or whatever.
08:08Do you think dual booting is the perfect solution?
08:10I would definitely recommend it. I would say make sure you do it carefully and safely.
08:14I've heard, I haven't done it this way. I've heard that doing it on a, using an actual
08:19second drive is the better way. I've just partitioned my drive and done it like that.
08:25Apparently that can mess up with Windows updates. You can just completely screw your bootloader,
08:28which isn't good, obviously. I've not had that yet, but.
08:32I mean, that's, that's the, again, that's my historical experience of like playing around
08:36with Ubuntu, putting it onto a second, second drive in my, in my Windows PC so I can boot
08:41into Windows and then boot into Ubuntu whenever I want, but it kills the bootloader. So if you
08:47want to get rid of one at any point, like you're toast, like you're stuck with those operating
08:52systems no matter what.
08:53On the NVIDIA kind of question, you've been running on NVIDIA, you know, it's not the
08:57optimal thing to run a Linux operating system on, but you've been running pretty happily
09:03on a Linux system.
09:04I went with a dedicated NVIDIA version of Pop! OS. So System76 have got a download that
09:10you can go, which has got everything baked in right from, right from the get-go. So it's,
09:14it's basically an out-of-box experience where you've just installed that distro and it's
09:19got all the drivers for your NVIDIA cards straight away. So it's been, it's been impressively
09:25seamless on this machine to the point where I haven't had any issues with the hybrid graphics
09:30stuff. This has got a HX365 in there, so AMD APU with pretty decent graphics on there, 5070
09:44GPU from NVIDIA. And like you have to reboot to get between using those things. But at
09:51the moment I've got this running completely on the integrated graphics and it's actually
09:55works a lot better with integrated graphics than Windows does. Like I'm a obsessive of
10:01football manager and that runs so much better on the Linux version than it does on the Windows
10:06version. Battery life as well has been really impressive. The thing I love the most, I spoke
10:11about the sleep thing, but being able to shut the laptop down and know I can pick it up
10:17like a couple of days later and it will have lost like maybe 5% battery. Like that sort
10:22of stuff is really powerful and it's not something that I get from most Windows laptops.
10:26I guess that's the things like we probably should talk about, the things that are actually genuinely
10:30really great about Linux. I mean, I'm running Ubuntu on here. It's so snappy. Like everything's
10:35snappy. And I know people say Windows can get really laggy. I think it, I've installed Windows
10:39on a lot of machines. Some machines, for whatever reason, the install, it goes laggy as hell and
10:44every time you open the start menu it's laggy. Whereas on Ubuntu it just seems to be like super
10:49snappy. Every single time, like you say, opening and closing, booting, everything is super
10:53quick. And I'm only, I'm basically running Linux easy mode here because I've got a framework
10:59running an AMD chip at HX370 with Ubuntu on it and everything just sort of works.
11:05I'm still waiting for that point where I hit a brick wall because that's been my, that's
11:09been my experience of Linux up to this point. I'm really surprised that I've still got it
11:13on this machine now because I have this sort of like joy parabola where I start off with
11:19Linux and I get up to this point where I'm just like, this is amazing. Look at all the
11:23things I can do. And like all the customization, I can do this and I can do this and this
11:27is really
11:27funky. And then I get to this point where something happens, where there is like essentially
11:32a game breaking bug that means that, okay, I cannot use this system anymore.
11:37Or you have to go online and get some random code off a random forum and just hope that
11:42this is not going to break your entire system or brick it or whatever. And you're just going
11:45to put something in.
11:46And that's generally right. So I get up to the top and then it just all crashes.
11:49The amount of, the amount of random lines of code that I've just pasted into my terminal
11:53without understanding what it does. It doesn't feel great for security, does it?
11:58No.
11:58It doesn't feel great.
11:59I would advise not doing that, but you've got to do what you've got to do.
12:02Yeah, you have to start somewhere you've got to learn.
12:04I'm surprised I haven't had to do that very much with this because like the things that
12:07I've wanted to do have been like pretty functional out of the box.
12:10We'll say as well what you were saying about, you know, running on lower end hardware and
12:14stuff like that. Like that was literally probably my like first experience with Linux.
12:18I don't know if you remember the E PCs, like triple E PCs. Yeah, I had one of those,
12:24I don't know, two decades ago. And it was literally like one gig of RAM, Celeron, something.
12:30It did actually have Windows on it at the time, I think, but it was just so laggy. And then
12:35over the years, I was like, I literally can't use this anymore, obviously. There's been two
12:38or three times I've like dug it out of the computer basket and put Linux on it, whether
12:43it's like, because that's another thing I like about Linux as well is you can, a lot of
12:47it's just down to the Windows, what are they called?
12:50The desktop environments. Yeah, the desktop environments. Yeah. You can just put, you know,
12:54like Lubuntu or whatever on and it's snappy.
12:58And that's the joy and the pain of Linux though. Windows, for all of its sins, you've just got
13:04Windows. Like you obviously have your Windows Home and your Windows Pro, but like there is very little
13:10difference between them and you don't need Pro. But with Linux, I love the fact there's loads of
13:14customization, but there are a million distros out there and you are basically generally
13:21committing to a life of distro hopping because you're just going to jump between a bunch of
13:25different operating systems. You've had like two weeks of doing this. Yeah. As well. And
13:29like how many operating systems have you gone through? I've only gone through two, but that's
13:32mostly because I installed one on here, which was Linux Mint because I thought, okay, people say
13:36it's just really easy. And I was like, I know nothing. So I will go for the easy one. Turns
13:40out
13:40framework really do not like, they don't actually recommend using Linux Mint because it uses an older
13:44version. And so essentially I just put Ubuntu and I was having a full graphics driver fault where
13:50it would just completely freeze up the entire screen and it would come back eventually, but
13:54essentially the graphics driver would just completely fail. So then I installed Ubuntu and it's been
13:58basically flawless since then. So yeah. My Ubuntu is not been flawless. I'm trying to think.
14:03Yeah. Can you tell us about your story of you going to Gamescom actually with a Linux laptop?
14:09Yeah. Yeah. You were really excited for it. I don't want to say it was definitely Ubuntu.
14:13I can't remember if it was Nabarra or Ubuntu, but either way it was Linux. So whatever.
14:19There's going to be communities up in arms right now. Yeah. Yeah. I'll just, it was
14:23user error is what it was. It was also user error. The context is that this was like my first
14:30proper like event where I was out there interviewing lots of people, stuff like that. So there was a bit
14:34of, you know, it was important that I had, this was at Gamescom. It was important that
14:39I had my laptop with me and that it was working. I'd done a day, a fairly easy day. I'd
14:46uploaded
14:47stuff overnight for you guys back here. And I literally just left it uploading overnight,
14:53checked in the morning at the hotel. I was like, yeah, it's fine. It's fine. Shut it down.
14:58Literally waited for it to shut down, close the lid, put it in my bag, thought everything
15:03was good to go. Then what happened? That's the end of the story.
15:06That was the end of the story and it all went really well.
15:10No, no. And moving on.
15:12Yeah. So I got to, got to Gamescom and I had interviews, I had, you know, and I wanted
15:19to be like right in between the interviews. And so I was like, right, I'm going to get
15:23my laptop out. And I literally, I got my laptop out and I could, the first thing that I
15:28noticed, but I couldn't see the screen and I was like squinting because the brightness
15:33was really low. My function brightness up key wasn't working. So I was like, right,
15:38I need to go somewhere where I can actually see. So I went out somewhere into the shade
15:42and sat down. And the next thing I noticed was that everything was tiny.
15:48Like it, it even seemed smaller than the resolution should allow. Cause it was, so this, this is
15:53like a, it was on this laptop. This is like a, what was it? 1600 piece something? I don't
15:57know. 1400. Yeah. Yeah. 1600, 2880 by 1600. Yeah. Yeah. So I guess it probably was just
16:02that I was running stuff at like 200% or something and it had, that had gone away. So I
16:07was like
16:07squinting, trying to see stuff, couldn't turn the brightness up. So I was double squinting
16:10and then I realized the mouse wasn't working. Um, I could only navigate with the keyboard.
16:15That's all you need as a hardcore Linux people will be like, well, this is it. I was regretting
16:20not doing my lessons when I was using i3 or whatever, i3w, whatever it is. I started
16:26panicking. I was looking up, what should I do? I was trying to navigate to, through to
16:31menus. I don't have been using Linux for like a couple of weeks at this point or a week.
16:36Which was why it was a wise decision. It was not a wise decision to replace my operating system.
16:41And you were texting me throughout all of this being like, my laptop's broken. I'm panicking.
16:45Yeah. Yeah. Sent me all this way. Yeah. And I was like, you should ask somebody for
16:50a mouse. Yeah. Yeah. But so how did you fix it? Yeah. Well, I'll tell you what didn't fix it.
16:56What didn't fix it was going online, looking for people with code to put in. Um, it turns
17:01out also the wifi card wasn't detected because one thing that I thought I should try is just
17:05like updating, resetting stuff. So I was like, well, I need to connect to the internet first.
17:09And then it's like, Oh, the system literally says I've got no wifi card. And so I was like,
17:14okay. So luckily a colleague was there and had a windows USB or they let me get a windows
17:20USB often. And which is quite slim chances. Somebody's carrying around a windows. So if
17:25you ever have a problem with Linux, get a windows USB. Yeah. That's the, that's the
17:29nuclear option. Yeah. Yeah. Just reinstall windows on the show floor at gamescom. Yeah. But it was so
17:36like, what, what did you do? What? I closed the laptop. Yeah. That's the thing. We still,
17:39we still don't know. People in the comments can explain what Jacob did wrong, but that was
17:43proper, like sweaty panic, panic time, you know, great. I think, I think this is, that
17:51is also the other thing. Like windows is like for all its faults, it's boring, but it is kind
17:57of like mostly reliable. Yeah. There are bugs and stuff in it and there are weird, weird
18:01design choices, but it is functional. Like I've swapped over to Linux, not because I have
18:08a particular issue with windows. Like I don't mind windows 11. I think it's fine. Like it's
18:12not, it's not super exciting. And it just, it does its job. Like there are, there are
18:16funny issues with it, but I don't have a massive problem with it, but I'm enjoying learning
18:20a new computer. Cause I'm a nerd. Like I'm at heart, I'm a, I'm a PC gaming nerd. And
18:24I like the fact that I can play games on another device and I'm learning new things to do with
18:29it. I think that's what we have been saying. Like that's been the biggest benefit of using
18:32every day. It's not that it's massively different. I'm still in Google docs, just typing stuff
18:37out, you know, all day, every day, but realistically it's just like, Oh, I don't know
18:41how to do this thing. I don't know how to add this thing. I'm like learning about all
18:44the cool little things that Linux can do. And like, yeah, just typing stuff into the
18:48terminal and do, you know, learning new commands. Like part of that is really where like the
18:51intrigue of Linux is at the moment for me.
18:54How much should an operating system be a tool and how much should it be a skill? Because it
19:01does seem to me like whenever I boot into Linux, it's like, I'm going to, I'm going to
19:06have to be learning a skill here. It's rare that I am not going to, you know, be developing
19:11something or, you know, developing that Linux, what do you call it? The Linux bone? Developing
19:17my Linux.
19:19Right. Moving on.
19:20For me, like, I feel like that's why I really got into it or would dip in and out of
19:24it a
19:24lot more when I was younger, because I feel like I had a lot more time. Whereas now it's
19:28like, if I just want my computer to work.
19:31Yeah.
19:32Yeah. So, you know, if I have an extended break, I'm like, you know, I can, I can mess
19:36around in Linux for a day. But often if I'm like the end of a work day, got a couple
19:39hours,
19:40I want to go and play a game or whatever. I'm not necessarily looking to engage that part
19:45of my brain. That's like trying to, you know, learn, become a shell.
19:50Do you feel like, do you feel like it's Linux is getting less like that though? And that's
19:54probably where the broader appeals coming in.
19:56I think it's getting less like that, but I still have, I still had that issue. Like even with
20:01this as a functional thing, like I wanted to play Menace and it came out on early access.
20:06It's not set up for Linux. So it was working through Proton, wouldn't actually run. Like
20:12it came up, the sound came up and like, but there was no moving thing. There's a video
20:16issue in there where videos don't run. So you have to use different versions of Proton
20:20and different downloads of Proton. And then had to go through jumping, like jump through
20:24a whole bunch of different hoops to get it. And it was one of those things where I've
20:28got a couple of hours of an evening that I can play games. And I spent that entire time
20:32just trying to get it working. And so I went to bed a lot later than I meant to, because
20:36I'd just got it working. Didn't play it, just went to bed.
20:38That's such a familiar, I can't, as you were saying that, I'm like, I feel, I can viscerally
20:43feel that.
20:44I've been there, I've been there. And I think that's going to be the thing, like you're
20:47going to get that with Linux that you're not going to get with Windows. And it's kind
20:50of like, it kind of, it's not a mass market thing. It's a thing for people who want
20:56to mess around with their computers in the same way that Mac OS isn't. Mac OS is a thing
21:01that you have for a computer that you don't want to mess around with. Like, Macs are just
21:07sealed boxes, don't touch them, don't do anything. Windows is maybe a step on from that, because
21:12you've got much more opportunity for different hardware and like different design choices
21:16within that. And then Linux is like another step beyond that.
21:19But there is something supremely powerful feeling about typing one command in terminal and installing
21:23an app. And I think that's worth it for me. That and all your app updates in a single
21:28thing.
21:29You can do that in Windows.
21:29Yeah, I don't care for that.
21:30You can still do that in Windows.
21:32You can use your terminal.
21:33I suppose you could, you know, PowerShell is something I really need to dive into more
21:36in all Windows, let's be honest.
21:37You can still do that.
21:38It is really dependent on your system and the games you're playing as well. Like that experience
21:42that you described, Dave, is like, I've had that, but only because of the games I want
21:47to play and the system I'm using. Like, one of my main problems when I'm using Linux is I've got
21:53two monitors,
21:53they're both like older BenQ ones that I don't know if the system recognises everything about.
22:01To the extent that, you know, I want to play Counter-Strike 2 on a weird 4-3 stretched ratio
22:08resolution, but I want that at the max refresh rate. And Linux, for whatever reason, just doesn't
22:11think my monitor can do it, even though I log in on Windows and it can. So I literally, I've
22:15had to go
22:15on Windows, create a custom EDID file, which tells the computer what your monitor is and what it can
22:22do. And then I've had to port that back over to Linux. And when I do that, I can play
22:27at the resolution
22:28I want at 144Hz, but it then doesn't recognise G-Sync. So then I have to go into the x
22:34.org
22:35config file and change those stuff. And I don't think any of that would be an issue if I was
22:40just
22:40playing 16x9 and or if I had a more recognised monitor, you know?
22:45You're too big a dork for Linux.
22:47Basically, yeah.
22:50That's strong.
22:50If you want to commit to it and not dual boot it, just test it out, then maybe it's just
22:56something
22:56where you have to make sure you're playing games that you know are supported and you're
22:59using hardware that is not going to cause an issue. I think that could probably be like
23:04the most important advice that I would give someone switching over.
23:07But you're never going to know that your hardware is not going to cause an issue.
23:11One of the reasons that I've made this switch is just because I have an itch to upgrade. And I
23:17think
23:18more than ever, this is a way to scratch it because you can't buy a new graphics card right now
23:25because no one's making graphics cards. And if there are graphics cards, they're insanely priced.
23:29You can still buy new computers and you can still buy new laptops. But again,
23:33they're incredibly expensive. You can't buy more. Upgrading, replacing or changing your desktop
23:40system is almost impossible right now. And it's going to be like that for the next year or so.
23:45And this like it's kind of like changes as good as an upgrade. Like you're you're changing your
23:50operating system. It's going to feel fresh. It's going to feel different. And like maybe
23:54fall in love with your computer again. I don't know. It's it's like that's kind of the way that
23:58I've been the reason I've been messing around with it because like I wanted to change. And this is
24:03this is the only way I can really do that at the moment. I think that's a good thing to
24:06end on,
24:07then that's a good reason to try out Linux in 2026. Try yourself. Yeah. Aging hardware. Give it a go.
24:14But yeah, don't come to us for advice because we can't help you. Definitely not. Go find
24:19yeah, somebody else called Linux Gamer or something like that.