Linux Gaming with WINE

Half considering giving Linux a spin, instead of upgrading to Windows 11, partly to give myself something new to learn and keep my brain active. Apart from driver support, one thing that concerns me is the overhead from running a game through WINE or something similar. Would having a fast 8C 16T CPU, an R7 5800X, mean that overhead is not worth worrying about?

 

The gpu drivers thing very much depends on the card and what you're doing with it...

If you're gaming, amd is basically painless iirc
nvidia... not so much [but the degree of pain is card and distro dependant]

If you're doing anything compute-related [CUDA or ROCm], ime the opposite is true.

 

Thanks for your thoughts. One of these days I just need to pull my finger out and go for it. I can always go back if I don't get on with Linux.

Any thoughts on a good Linux noob distro?

 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

they all have their pros and cons, be it the underlying distro or the desktop plonked atop.

Most tutorials will probably [still] assume you're on Ubuntu or adjascent distro

Personally I tend to prefer the Fedora side of the aisle.

IIRC Manjaro is as close as you can get to SteamOS without too much nutache as they both have Arch btw underpinnings. If that was the route you were wanting to travel down

 

With that in mind, probably easiest to get started with Ubuntu then. Looks like drivers won't be a problem, including our printer, for which 64bit Linux drivers are available on Canon's website.

EDIT: Looks like drivers won't be a problem for most things. There are none for Evoluent vertical mice but, I have found a tutorial.

 

Try out a live image if you can, that way you can get to terms with it before installing... if you find yourself hating the desktop environment or something, try a different one.

 

Pop!_OS from System 76 is a good one to try, I hear people have particularly good results with gaming and that it's quite a pain-free installation process.

I think when I make the switch to Linux full-time I'm going to use Linux Mint.

 

I will take on board everything above. Whilst I have been using Windows since '3 For Workgroups', I am a Nooby McNoobface with Linux, despite thinking about it a few times before.

 

KDE is, out of the box, probably closest to windows in terms of layout.
GNOME [and the bodge job ubuntu uses], has a more mac-like dock and ubuntu also shoehorns in a macos-style global menu into the top menu bar.
Cant remember what Mint uses any more...

There are others, but Gnome and KDE are still the most prevalent options.

But this is where the live images come in... some people swear by gnome, some swear at it... likewise KDE... and the rest...

 

No worries, I’m well known for pedantry too!

 

Pedantry? On an internet tech forum? Well there’s a thing you don’t see every day… Just like sarcasm, apparently…

 

I think it was actually Windows for Workgroups 3.11, not Windows For Workgroups 3.11

 

Most tutorials will be aimed at Ubuntu and derivatives. Mind you, some tutorials may be outdated, so search for tutorials for your specific distro and version.
Pop!_OS makes it easier to install drivers, so long as your hardware is relatively new (more specifically, GPU).
To be honest, Ubuntu based distros are mostly just Ubuntu with a different desktop environment and default apps (this is an oversimplification, but not far from the truth).
Other distros (Arch&co, RedHat/Fedora&co) will have less information available and/or may/will require more faffing about.

If you're looking to use your Linux box for gaming (or your gaming box for Linux?), starting off with Steam is the easiest, then give Lutris a go when you decide to stray from Steam.

You'll find most other things, you'll have the same as what you have on windows (Spotify, Discord, Slack) or something similar that covers 90% of the windows equivalent which is 85% more than what mere mortals use these for (LibreOffice, TheGIMP, Thunderbird).

As a power user, nothing on Windows comes close, no matter what the crazed PowerShell user tells you.

 

You can even use powershell on pingu...

 

... if you hate yourself.

 

That's powershell on mac.

...or anything on mac.

MS even have their own linux distro(s)