It has, but it has also faced a new issue there currently isn't a real workaround for: cheaters. Apex Legends was just announced to drop Linux support because of this and it's not the only multiplayer game not available on Linux for the same reason.
Shader Compilation on PC: About to become a bigger bottleneck?
- Thread starter Flappy Pannus
- Start date
Yes. A bunch of these high-profile MP games had Linux builds and they've all abandoned them for cheating*. The openness of Linux makes that a very difficult problem. I guess there's scope for a fixed SteamOS type Linux variety - our game runs on MacOS, Windows, and SteamOS (but no other Linux) - that locks out hacking, but being open source probably makes workarounds to that pretty easy. If Linux became a significant player in the gaming OS space, there'd be financial incentive for hackers to hack. How robust could a Linux variety be made to resist that?
* I think given hundreds of millions of players, there was still a sizeable market on Linux despite its tiny market segment worth a few million players.
Cappuccino
Newcomer
I don’t think you understand how this works lol. Most hardware manufacturers already write Linux drivers, Valve doesn’t have to do this themselves.
Not very but this was a decade ago, pre-Proton. Clearly things have changed.
It seems you haven't read my post history here. But yeah, AMD has been been inside the Linux community for quite a while. Things work different in Linux compared to Windows, if you want future proof hardware support you have to get your drivers into the official Linux since there is no stable ABI.
And Valve has invested a lot in the "Linux" eco-system from gamescope to proton to drivers.
Also, there is still independent people implementing HW support for Linux, look at the Asahi project for ARM macs and novoeu for nVidia.
Cappuccino
Newcomer
Everything you said here is my point lol, I don’t get what your original objection is. Valve doesn’t have to bring IHVs on board, they already all write Linux kernel level drivers.
Yeah Asahi is incredibly impressive.
Valve can't support every PC out there because there is a lot of HW that Linux does not support.
Cappuccino
Newcomer
Then they don’t support every PC. This isn’t a problem for every other Linux distro.
If Valve wants to do a generic distro they have to support every PC. And it is a problem for every other Linux distro, especially with new HW.
They don't really "have to". They can easily produce a distro with a specific list of supported HW. They can even make a convenient tool for people to "test" if their hardwares are compatible (or if any of them are incompatible). If it's free I don't see any problem here.
Cappuccino
Newcomer
SteamOS could feasibly support every hardware configuration supported by Arch, which is what they forked from. What’s the problem here?
RHEL has HW support. If something does not work on supported HW Red Hat will fix that. If something does not work on Arch you can make a bug report on the upstream bug tracker and hope for a fix in the future.
Cappuccino
Newcomer
RHEL is a paid for distro, you are paying for support. SteamOS won’t cost money.
Why would this exact process of logging a bug and hoping for support not work for SteamOS?
Potato Head
Newcomer
Because Joe Gamer who buys a prebuilt PC needs a console like experience of “it just works”. Having to muck around with Linux drivers and logging bugs etc. is not something they are interested in. Heck, I’m a tech enthusiast and it’s not something I’m interested in.
People expect "products" from something like Valve. Even if you don't pay for SteamOS you would be pretty pissed if it would not boot after an update (happened to me due to a bug in the AMD GPU driver a couple of years ago). I had to test patches by recompiling Linux with extra patches applied.
Also, have you ever logged a bug for a Linux distro or an upstream project?
If Valve really want to do this, I'd imagine that they'll started with hardwares they made (e.g. SteamDeck), then they work with some partners to make hardwares which are tested to guarantee compatibility. Most people buy prebuilt computers so this is really not hard to do. Then Valve should open the system a bit to allow people with existing computers to install it, but with no guarantee whatsoever. The next stage would be that once many people are starting to do this, gaming hardware vendors (such as those making mice and keyboards, etc) will start to consider making drivers so they can be compatible with this new gaming OS. The final stage would be for gamers to actually not just porting but actively developed for this new platform.
This is a huge endeavor so it's understandable that Valve is probably not that willing to go all the way. Valve does not have a huge incentive to do so either because Steam is so overwhelmy dominant. They already fended off attacks from many competitors (the biggest one is IMHO Microsoft Store), so they probably don't feel it's necessary to do something of this magnitude. After all, gaming on Windows is still satisfactory for most people. However, if more problems like this (shader stuttering) persist and Microsoft does not show the willingness to fix them, things might change.
Cappuccino
Newcomer
Nobody is expecting a 'product' they are paying nothing for.
I haven't, nor has any Linux user I've ever met. They just wait for it to be patched. I don't see how this is related lol. What hardware configurations would even be unsupported on an Arch fork?
