You would be surprised at how good is Wine at running Windows games today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhwOgTaxJTI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pr_dVP_bV14

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7ATaLC4ixE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9oXKvymIFs

https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk

Proton (Steam's custom WINE) is really really good (you can turn it on for all games). Of course it still breaks games that use excessive DRM, but I avoid those games anyway.

Ah, nice, have many games on steam so will check this out.

> Games is literally the only reason keeping me installing Windows. Hoping this changes with some viable alternative.

If you have the money and the space for a second computer, use the computer with Windows for that specialized task and use a real* computer for everything else? We've been whining about this nonsense for over two years now and I think we need to take a hint.

* that does not force you to restart at its whims

Yeah I do have a laptop for work only, however the gaming desktop is always that much more powerful and some things are tempting to do there (not to mention better display). Windows now has embedded Linux, so I can see maybe a setup that uses the same files from Windows by launching some Linux environment when I need to work. I just hope that because of this Linux/Windows integration, some of the reverse can happen and Linux can get DirectX support for current version.

I have little time to play games these days, but I do that. Have two machines, both always on, one of them a windows one for games, the other runs linux for everything else. I use a usb switch to, on-the-fly, change all the relevant devices (mouse, keyboard, headphone dac/amp, etc) and adjust the monitor input to use one or the other. It works extremely well, and takes ~1-2 seconds to switch.

The barriers to using both is really only a question of disk space. Dual booting isn't difficult (just install Windows first).

Dual booting isn't "difficult", but is frought with a lot of little issues that probably should be understood. Ex: UEFI Boot vs Legacy BIOS. Bootloaders, Grub vs Windows bootloader, etc. etc.

I prefer buying a 2nd flash drive and dual-booting across different drives entirely, so that Windows / Linux don't even share the same bootloader. Its not like $200 for another 1TB Flash drive is expensive, and apparently I need the space anyway.

proton and linux are getting better.

Are PC games that important?

It's a multi-billion dollar industry, is this a real question?

>It's a multi-billion dollar industry

It's actually a tiny industry with a revenue of Oracle.

Perhaps more significantly: there are around 1.3 billion PC gamers out of a larger 2.5 billion video gamers globally. Around 35% of Americans are PC gamers, although the largest market region is now Asia-Pacific.

Amongst people most likely to care about the concerns raised here, the proportion is likely even larger.

From my personal experience, there is a large overlap between people who like to play PC games and people who are interested in and curious about computing technology, and would otherwise be inclined to use Linux.

Although the trend appears to be changing with the likes of Proton, the lack of Linux compatibility for games keeps these people tied to Windows, and keeps them from adopting Linux.

Unfortunately, only platform for hardcore PC games that major titles support, at least first. PC has always been at the cutting edge of gaming, however for some reason still DirectX which is owned by MS, is the preferred tech for most major game companies that target PC.

For some, yes.

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