Support us on Patreon
PayPalIt has been 7 years since Valve revealed Proton, their compatibility layer to run Windows games on Linux systems. What an incredible time it has been.
Hard to imagine Linux gaming without Proton now isn't it? Unless games use some funky video codecs or kernel-level anti-cheat, a lot of the time they do just work with the click of a button. We went from getting a handful of indie games and some AAA scraps from porting companies, to multiple tens of thousands of games — we're spoilt for choice on what to actually play. Going by ProtonDB there's at least 15,855 games rated playable by at least two reports, and Valve's Deck Verified system shows 21,694 games rated at least playable for SteamOS / Steam Deck. Incredible numbers and that's only what have actually seen some checks.
I still vividly remember the original announcement, shaking with excitement on what it would mean for the future. It has opened up a world of possibilities, where you (for the most part) don't need to be attached to Windows to play some of the best games around.
Valve's commitment to Linux and open source is very much self-serving of course, they are a company with goals. All of this was progress towards creating their own ecosystem with the likes of the Steam Deck / SteamOS and other potential hardware to come. Linux desktop users are mostly just along for the ride and reap all the benefits.
Thanks to all the work with Proton and the Steam Deck, the Linux user share on Steam is also on the cusp of breaking through 3% which is impressive considering the massive mountain that is Windows. You don't beat or even get remotely close to such an entrenched system overnight, movement like this just takes time. Slow and steady wins the race right? Valve continue playing the long game here.
What's truly incredible about Proton though is how it gives Valve a set platform to continue building on. So when we hopefully see a Steam Deck 2, or a Steam Machine TV console, it will be plug and play with all the existing games. Linking into why I love the whole idea of Valve using Linux with Proton, SteamOS / Steam Deck over traditional consoles is just having access to all the same games - no need to buy them again.
And with more publishers like Microsoft and Sony pushing their games on Steam too, we all win.
Here's to Valve and Proton, 7 years on. Cheers!
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
See more from me
You can also find comments for this article on social media: 
Sakuretsu 2 days ago
Now I'm feeling old.
dpanter 2 days ago
tfk 2 days ago
Or writing a guide of multiple pages on how to install the AMD Catalyst drivers on Fedora.
Good times!
Sojiro84 2 days ago
I had experimented before, first with Ubuntu and Wine, running WoW at just 60 FPS (a huge downgrade compared to Windows performance), and even earlier tinkering with a Knoppix disk my dad had lying around.
Now I’m on KDE Plasma, and it’s incredible. Everything integrates so seamlessly with Wayland and HDR. My media server is still on Windows for now, since it was easier to manage folders at the time, but with Docker in my toolkit, I’ve already prepared a migration script and plan to move it over next year.
Last edited by Sojiro84 on 21 Aug 2025 at 11:56 am UTC
DarkVantage 2 days ago
Valve's commitment to Linux and open source is very much self-serving of course, they are a company with goals.
This is what keeps me up at night. I'm old enough to know all it takes is a company acquisition or change in leadership for Valve's priorities to shift and it all comes tumbling down. I hope there's enough inertia at this point that Proton and Linux gaming would survive without Valve's push. But it's much easier to imagine a scenario where Gabe is ready to retire, Microsoft's eyes light up, and the Steam Deck 3 debuts running Windows 14.
WJMazepas 2 days ago
I did discover a lot of new indie games and finally played Hitman that was on my list, but good lord we are much better now.
Now my only Linux machine is the Steam Deck, but it always surprises me how many games i can run on it without issues. Hell, lots of games that i had issues on my Windows machine played just fine on Steam Deck. I remember Deadpool, Singularity and more had issues making work fine on my Windows machine, but on Steam Deck i just install and played without any issues.
Proton did made gaming a lot better
Do it yourself manually? Sure, but to automate it and have the game install and start seamlessly felt like an impossible task, in the "not gonna happen" territory.
It was an idea frequently thrown around, "what if Valve could use Wine to do this and that" but always dismissed as too hard to pull off.
And even Linux/Wine enthusiasts agreed on this, see below one of those discussions, is quite funny now in hindsight: https://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamuniverse/discussions/1/523897653314331401/
We did wanted to see something like that to happen (the embedded video is mine [airspeedmph] BTW) but never believed that Valve is "insane" enough to try it.
And what do you know... they actually did it and now is powering the successful Steam Deck, mind blown!
And even Linux/Wine enthusiasts agreed on this, see below one of those discussions, is quite funny now in hindsight: https://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamuniverse/discussions/1/523897653314331401/
I read that thread and LOL I was on that discussion 😅.
Glad to have been completely proved wrong.
I remember trying out Proton early on with a laptop and was kind of impressed with the games I was playing but it was far from perfect since it either crashed or showed a black screen. Eventually, those same games now work perfectly on the later version of it.
Got to hand it to Valve, CodeWeavers and everyone else involved in getting Proton working as well as it does today and the amount of effort continues to pay off. Now, let's see if Proton can finally get to a point where it can handle those kernel anti-cheats and video codecs that don't play nice on it.
Comandante Ñoñardo 2 days ago
GustyGhost 16 hours ago
But even I must admit the needle has moved. The Steam usage stats for Mac and Linux have flipped in the years following.
I don't play games anymore (coincidentally, the last time I signed into Steam was also 7 years ago), but I have enjoyed watching Valve actually begin to crack the monopoly, with their Steam Decks finally seeing success where Steam Machines hadn't.
ssj17vegeta 3 hours ago
On one hand, it has definitely been a game changer for me and quite a lot of other players too. I'm no longer shy to suggest Linux for gamers, provided they manage their expectations and read ProtonDB before. I haven't booted on Windows for about a year now, and don't feel the need to. Performance is getting really good too. I'm quite happy with using Proton, either through Steam or Lutris with GE-Proton which deserves mentioning.
On the other hand, it has completely obliterated any chance we'd ever have native ports ever again, and I'm not even sure it has given Linux more visibility in the eyes of greedy companies. It might even become counter-productive the day Unity decides Linux is no longer worth the (already meager) effort, or even hamper any efforts some game devs had about learning Linux.
I can't help but get pissed off when companies drop Linux support and say "we're focusing on Proton instead", where that usually means they'll give an intern 2 hours to check the game launches on it.
It's not Proton's fault, but it paints a very grim picture of the industry as a whole : most companies are not ready to do ANY effort to support Linux, even when it comes down to clicking on a checkbox before packaging their game to enable Easy Anti Cheat for Proton.
On the other hand, it has completely obliterated any chance we'd ever have native ports ever againNo it hasn't. E.G. Hollow Knight: Silksong. People are still doing a surprising number of native versions. And I think as Godot keeps growing, that may increase. There are still reasons for developers to want to do native Linux. And as Linux market share increases, those reasons will get more compelling.
Why some games on Linux, SteamOS / Steam Deck have broken videos and what you can do
How to install Battle.net on Linux, SteamOS and Steam Deck for World of Warcraft and Starcraft