In practice, though... well, let's just say that it's a beta. Quite literally, actually. And, after a week of struggling with Linux as my daily driver OS, and trying to game through Steam Play, I'm retreating back to Windows 7 for the time being.
I'll let Jason Evangelho from Forbes explain why:
While the technical possibility of playing the thousands upon thousands of Windows-only Steam games on Linux is a revolutionary leap forward, it's far from perfect. When it works it's amazing. When it doesn't it's an exercise in frustration.
I've spent the past two weeks downloading dozens of games to test, and many of the ones Valve has whitelisted do indeed perform well without any hiccups. But some, like 2016's DOOM, simply won't launch. The game works for the majority of people who've submitted their experience to the Steam Play Compatibility Reports website, but for many others, it does not.
Valve can't whitelist a game and take Steam Play out of beta (it's now available to everyone using the Steam for Linux client) until every title they've put their seal of approval on works for everyone who launches it -- provided they meet the software and hardware requirements. I think the worst possible outcome is to see reports of gamers who've wiped out their Windows partition and parked themselves gleefully in the Linux camp, only to be frustrated that the experience they expected isn't happening.Emphasis added, because that last sentence describes me perfectly.
For the record, I'm still excited about the possibilities of Steam Play. There's a very real chance that Valve can transform Steam from a Windows-dependent service into a platform in its own right, able to offer seamless access to all the games that will run on any PC, regardless of the OS they choose to run. I will be creating a Linux partition on my Windows 7 PC, and checking in on Steam Play's development over the next year.
But, for now, there's just no way around it... Steam Play simply isn't ready for prime time. Anyone saying otherwise right now, is hyping an experience that most consumers will find frustrating and disappointing, and possibly hurting their own cause in the process more than they're helping it.
That said, there are a few things that I'd like to see some of the major Linux distros doing more of:
- Recognize that most users coming to Linux will not be developers, and will be coming to Linux from Windows. Include basic and necessary functionality like Wine, MESA, Flatpak, etc. in the basic installation, since new users will absolutely be needing it, right out of the gate. Yes, someone with a bit of a coding or computer science background can probably figure out which components they need to add, and how to add them, but after a week of doing exactly that, I simply didn't have the energy to keep battling Ubuntu for basic functions which should have been built in. Experienced users can customize Linux to their hearts' content, but if you want to convert Windows 7 users to Linux, you need to ease the path.
- Software installation and management cannot require that users open up a terminal and start typing on a command line like we're back in the MS-DOS era. A modern OS must enable an average user to do everything from the GUI; only IT experts should be using a command line prompt. Yes, I can probably take a book on Linux out of the library and master the bash, but the average consumer will not do this. Ever. Either make it simple, or watch them migrate to Windows 10 in 2020.
- Valve, in particular, should be working to lure other (i.e. non-game) software developers to host their applications on Steam. Once the Proton environment is working well enough to run nearly any game in Linux, Valve should start approaching developers of other Windows applications and offer to host their software on Steam, for free. Gamers do not spend all their time gaming; they will need to have access to other kinds of software, much of which only exists for Windows (since it's been the most-used OS of the entire world for several decades now), and facilitating the experience of installing and launching it from the Steam client will provide an enormous boost to Steam's stature and reputation.
Again, I'll stress that Steam Play is a giant leap forward in establishing Linux as a viable gaming platform. In many ways, it already is one. But for gamers who want it all, Windows is still, unfortunately, the only game in town.
But not for long. Valve is working aggressively on this project, and I hope that other publishers like Blizzard, EA and Ubisoft follow in Valve's footsteps.
If you're curious about Linux, consider dual booting something like Ubuntu or Mint and give Steam a test drive there. (I have a guide for setting it all up on Ubuntu.) I guarantee you'll have fun, and eventually, you may want to start using Linux full time, not just for gaming but for reasons like these.And remember: almost everything worth doing involves some degree of risk, and one can learn more from trying and failing than from an early success. I don't regret for a minute my foray into Linux gaming, and I'll definitely be doing the dual-boot thing, which turns out to be a lot easier than I'd imagined, especially if one is coming from Windows.
I am glad to be back on Windows 7, though. Path of Exile: Delve awaits!