I'm always torn when the subject of WINE/Proton comes up.

On one hand, it's a good thing: many, many, many titles would not be played/playable in Linux without that framework (I'd dare say that "line of thinking"). I constantly play EVE Online, GTAV, Elite: Dangerous, Borderlands 3, and as we all know, it'd be nigh impossible to enjoy these games without a very refined compatibility layer.

On the other hand, of course having this "lazy way out" means fewer developers would care for a native port, or contract some third party (Feral, Aspyr, then-Icculus, etc.) to port their stuff over some form of linuxware. And that's not so good.

On the other (!) hand, companies investing into any form of Linux engagement can't be seen as a bad thing, from the POV of a Linux gamer like I am. Valve isn't into it for the glory, of course, or for eternal gratitude of us penguin fans - even if the fatman has my own eternal gratitude! But I'd rather see development in this field than leaving the entire ecosystem dead and gone.

I mean, Linux already completely dominates the markets for:

• embedded


• devices in general/IoT


• smartphone


• microservices


• containers/virtualization/cloud (even Azure!)


• backend server


• research/academia


• AI


• supercomputing (top500 is the best Linux ad ever)

I think it was always just matter of time before the penetration of the kernel would reach console/games/mobile world.

Considering the Android market - especially in Asia, one can speculate that there already more games played on a Linux kernel on any single day than on any other platform (PC/Win + console) combined.

But then again, the incredible progress of WINE/Proton in the very few last years is a mixed blessing, and I can't make up my mind if it's a godsend or a hidden curse.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

I've been away from my gaming rig these days, but usually my lineup is:

- EVE Online
- Grand Theft Auto Online
- Valheim
- Shakes & Fidget
- Villagers & Heroes
- Elite Dangerous

(And only Valheim is native. I used to play more native games, the Tomb Raiders, the Borderlands, ETS...)

View this comment - View article - View full comments

TLDR: Epic paid us.

View this comment - View article - View full comments