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Today, I switched the last of my Windows machines to Linux: my gaming PC. I've been using Linux on servers for many years but was a bit apprehensive for gaming.

Turns out it just... works. Just installed steam and turned proton on, have zero performance or other issues. I'm using Ubuntu 25.04 for the 6.14 kernels NT emulation performance tweaks. Aside from there not being a catalyst driver for it and so I can't undervolt my card everything is great.

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[-] SavvyBeardedFish@reddthat.com 93 points 1 month ago

... I can't undervolt my card...

People usually use/recommend LACT for undervolting/overlocking on Linux

[-] truthfultemporarily@feddit.org 29 points 1 month ago

Cool I will try it thanks.

[-] Obnomus@lemmy.ml 2 points 4 weeks ago

LACT my beloved

[-] CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 26 points 1 month ago

Just in case you didn't know, odd numbered Ubuntu versions (in your case 25) are considered short term releases and won't be maintained beyond a year or two.

Unless you really need that version, you'll want to install 26 when it comes out next April (upgrade should be very seamless).

Even numbered versions are supported long term, often for several years.

[-] truthfultemporarily@feddit.org 14 points 1 month ago
[-] pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip 18 points 1 month ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

You made the right call, for your situation.

They're just letting you know that you will want to apply each annual upgrade when they come out, to ensure your system stays secure.

This may contrast with any Ubuntu-running friends you may have, who may not be applying updates annually.

Once you've upgraded to ~~28 (in ~ 2028)~~ 26.04, you can safely skip the next four years of upgrades, if you feel like it, because ~~28~~ it will ~~(probably)~~ be the next Long Term Support (LTS) release.

[-] foo@feddit.uk 5 points 4 weeks ago

LTS for Ubuntu are every two years; April of the even years. Next LTS will be 26.04, then 28.04 etc.

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[-] someacnt@sh.itjust.works 3 points 4 weeks ago

TIL that Ubuntu release denotes the year and month. I thought it was just quirky versioning..

[-] yoevli@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

Assuming you're playing games through Proton rather than vanilla Wine, kernels before 6.14 already have fsync which is used by Proton and effectively does the same thing as ntsync.

[-] truthfultemporarily@feddit.org 6 points 1 month ago

Good info, but I guess I just upgrade my way to 2604

[-] CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 month ago

Don't get too hung up on it. It was an fyi not a "stop what you're doing you newb!"

We need people to test the latest, bleeding edge. So you're helping with that! But since you're new to Linux I wanted to make sure you knew what you were getting yourself into.

It's not that odd numbers are less stable. It's more that they aren't supported for long term. Many of the lessons learned are pushed to the next version though so either way you're doing good.

I'm not a PC gamer so for me stamina and longevity matter more to me than bleeding edge technology.

[-] squaresinger@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

I'm running Fedora and since kernel 6.11 my laptop can't wake from sleep, so I keep the kernel back to 6.10, where everything works.

But at the same time I have quite heavy troubles with wine/proton. Probably 80% of the games I tried either don't run at all or only run at <3 FPS. And I'm talking about 10+yo games on a Nvidia 4070 Mobile.

Could it be that the issues come from Wine/Proton expecting ntsync and not having that available?

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[-] criticon@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 month ago

Can't you just upgrade to the next release? (It's been more than 10 years since I installed/used Ubuntu)

[-] CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 month ago

Unless you really need that version, you'll want to install 26 when it comes out next April (upgrade should be very seamless).

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[-] Joelk111@lemmy.world 24 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I moved to Kubuntu recently. I'm overall happier, but I've had a number of pain points.

  1. I bought DaVinci Resolve thinking they supported Linux. They do, just very poorly. Figuring out how to get that up and running was a faff. Davinci Resolve also doesn't support AAC audio on MP4 files on Linux, so I had to write a script to transcode the audio of media to WAV. It also doesn't play nice with window management. Overall, using resolve has been a huge pain.

  2. I use Insta360s software just to stitch 360 video, getting that set up with bottles wasn't the most straightforward but it works now.

  3. I still haven't figured out Fusion360, and I really don't want to spend the time learning a new software. I learned it before I'd started making an effort to only use cross-platform tools.

  4. I bought the Xbox Store version of Forza Horizon 5 so I could play it on my PC and Xbox. I no longer have the Xbox, and I'd have to re-buy it on Steam if I wanted to play it.

  5. My Index just isn't detected on Ubuntu. It was on Windows. I've tried a bunch of things, but it just doesn't show up, so I haven't been able to play VR. It might have a bad cable, but I'm not sure. Weird that it showed up before and doesn't in Kubuntu.

Linux is all about finding alternatives. There is an alternate workflow, but you might have to deal with inconveniences or put in effort to learn something new. It's been a lot of work. Also, I might need to dual boot windows to play VR stuff.

[-] vividspecter@aussie.zone 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Have a look at the Linux VR Adventures Wiki for possible VR solutions.

EDIT: And this compatibility site akin to ProtonDB I just found out about.

[-] untorquer@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

Fusion isn't going to function fully. I think the cloud integration pipeline messes with it. You're better off with OnShape.

FreeCAD is fine with addons but it's just not streamlined in my experience.

If it weren't for CAD I'd have a linux workstation.

[-] Symphonic@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

+1 for onshape. I use both fusion and onshape. I used to be a diehard fusion user but onshape has won me over.

[-] dil@lemmy.zip 1 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

davinci sucks on linux, but like the one good thing is pirating it is downloading official version and pasting two terminal commands, everything else is hard or impossible to pirate

I have trouble with caching not working, still getting slow playback, masks cause a crash/freeze, turning performance mode off helped across my system tho with crashes, haven't tested it since, I think the profile was off for my laptop or something, seems to be a common issue.

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[-] user224@lemmy.sdf.org 19 points 1 month ago

Holy hell, the Ubuntu ISO is 6.3GB now. Soon it may not even fit onto a DL DVD.

[-] cRazi_man@europe.pub 10 points 1 month ago

How many floppies is that?

[-] don@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 month ago

One, at least.

[-] flop_leash_973@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

Zip disk users rise up.

[-] Hugin@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

4,375,000,000 of the 3 1/2" disks. Sierra would be proud.

[-] Wispy2891@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Yesterday I installed cachyos and I was shocked to see that the 3gb install image was actually a net install and I couldn't install it offline. I used my phone as hotspot thinking "how much data would download it anyway, maybe it just needs internet to do geo2ip for suggesting locale" (it actually does that) but instead it downloaded another 3gb

[-] Blackmist@feddit.uk 3 points 1 month ago

Who still uses DVD to install anything?

[-] daggermoon@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Good thing there's BD-Rs

[-] towerful@programming.dev 16 points 1 month ago

Yeh, Linux doesn't have to be scary these days.

[-] CodeBlooded@programming.dev 7 points 4 weeks ago

What games are you playing and what hardware are you running?

Linux has come a long way regarding the ability to easily play games made to run on Windows. It’s never been so easy and well performing. However, in my experience, it’s not quite “just works” yet. Yes, some Windows games will “just work,” but for now that’s still the exception to the rule in my experience.

I use Arch btw, with a i9-9900 and an Nvidia RTX 2070. I still have to tweak settings, research what others are tweaking, I have a few hours of research and tinkering invested into stopping up close jitters in VR(still unresolved), my graphic settings have to be lower than normal for decent performance and I do not enjoy the same frames I’ve enjoyed on Windows with this same machine.

I could probably get some better performance squeezed out of these games, but it’s going to cost me time and tinkering.

tl;dr I don’t think we’re in “just works” territory yet, but we’re getting closer and the progress over the recent years has been amazing. I can’t wait to be rid of Windows forever.

[-] JackbyDev@programming.dev 3 points 4 weeks ago

I don’t think we’re in “just works” territory yet, but we’re getting closer

Based on the types of things you're talking about, Windows and macOS are also not "just works." I have to do stuff like that periodically for a lot of games regardless of OS.

If your primary reason for using Linux is to play all the newest games, don't use Linux. You cannot expect open source to compete with a game software monopoly. They intentionally have it this way. That being said, you can use Proton and Wine to play most games, but again, if you absolutely must play the newest releases and that's your reason for going Linux, don't main Linux.

For a few years what I did was just dual boot Mint with Win 10. I did most things on Linux as I tried to learn it, but would boot back to Win for certain work reasons or to play the newest game. Now that I don't care about new games so much, I erased my dual boot partition and am 100% Linux. I play many games on Steam, which is made on Linux, and I'm just fine.

[-] dil@lemmy.zip 1 points 4 weeks ago

Most of my games seem fine but I also havent tried vr or any flight sims since I swapped, stopped playing those a while before, most games seem fine, some need like 10 minutes for the shaders to load tho, but ive skipped that and had no issues so idk what thats about

[-] dil@lemmy.zip 1 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

Try faugus launcher maybe, the games that I had issues with (pirated, wouldnt launch) all worked instantly with that

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[-] Jayb151@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

My only hangup is installing repacks or modding games. It for sure works, but it's a bigger headache. I use mint on my daily driver laptop otherwise.

[-] the_q@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 month ago

Welcome and enjoy!

[-] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 month ago

I had the exact same experience: been doing Linux since the 90s, both for fun and professionaly - the latter mainly in pure server configurations - finaly got around to moving my home PC (which is mainly for gaming) to Linux (using Pop!OS, since I have a Nvidia graphics card and it just supports it out of the box) and it just worked.

Only problem I have with it is that on startup of X I usually get a blank screen and have to switch my monitor OFF and back ON again.

Oh, and startup times are a fraction of Windows startup times (my Windows 10 work machine literally takes longer to wake up from hybernation than my home Linux PC takes to cold boot, and they have equivalent SSDs.

I think I got more hassle with Windows than I do with Linux.

[-] eronth@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 4 weeks ago

Yeah if you have your games on Steam it seems to (mostly) just work. Other services get a bit more janky. Xbox App is, sadly, impossible as far as I can tell.

[-] Randelung@lemmy.world 2 points 4 weeks ago

I mean, Xbox is MS. I wouldn't expect them to help dig their own grave.

[-] eronth@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 4 weeks ago

Yeah, I'm not surprised by it, but it's still a bummer/roadblock.

It pleases me to read these things. I worked for M$ and coupled with more intense reasons I left Win/OSX about 10 years ago, and have never looked back. Carry the flame.

[-] MuttMutt@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Made the switch myself about a year ago. Installed 24.04 LTS and it has done very well.

My main issues have been dealing with a few things I run not playing the nicest with ubuntu or when trying to flash ESP8266 or ESP32 boards through the web browser.

Gaming wise everything I have installed via Steam works fine though sometimes needs a reboot.

Overall been happy with it and glad to get off the forced upgrade with bloatware train.

[-] Pofski@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

I personally live linix, and I am trying switching over in the house in such a way that the rest of the household can use it with as little issues as possible. That being said, I need to ask for some help with a couple of programs that are vital for us but that I am having a hard time to replace. If anybody has any suggestion for the following I would really be grateful. -fusion 360 -lychee slicer (i can install it but unable to make holes in hollowed out forms) -copy to usb for big files without the system crashing (copy stops)

  • printer keeps disappearing after some time.
  • label printer setup
[-] Attacker94@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

I would recommend making your own post to get more help. On the cad side of things the alternatives are free cad, on shape, or blender; I don't have that much experience with them, but just based on my fusion experience, I would assume they can all do the same things, just in completely different ways since fusion had it's own special way for literally everything.

[-] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 2 points 1 month ago

FreeCAD certainly looks like it does most of the CAD stuff I need but I have yet to get it to run well enough to be usable on any of the 3 systems I've tried it on (hardware that runs fusion fine). I don't know what people are doing to make it work but I can't figure it out.

[-] Vince@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

Any issues with brand new releases or has all that been figured out?

[-] truthfultemporarily@feddit.org 9 points 1 month ago

I will always have to check protondb.

https://www.protondb.com/

[-] afaix@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

Valve takes care for brand new stuff on steam usually, except for kernel anticheat stuff where they can’t fix it.

[-] vividspecter@aussie.zone 3 points 1 month ago

Usually it's fine. To be honest, most new release AAA games have problems on Windows too (and sometimes it's worse, such as the first part of the FF7 remake).

[-] Vraylle@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 4 weeks ago

I switched to Mint in January and it's been great. Most games just work straight out of Steam. I have Skyrim modded to an insane level and it can be a little finicky but works.

What really cemented it for me was when I wanted to run an old 32-bit weather software package. I decided to try adding it to Steam, and it...just worked. Like native.

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this post was submitted on 29 Jun 2025
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