Whether you’re a casual or serious gamer, the right platform is important. To some, the only way to game is via console, such as the Nintendo Switch (or, if you’re lucky enough to have purchased one, the Switch 2). For others, gaming on a PC is the best route. If you fall into the latter category, most likely your OS of choice is Windows.
However, you shouldn’t shy away from Linux.
Also: The 6 Linux distros I recommend most for gaming in 2025 – including my favorite
Gaming on Linux has come a long way, and even though there are some games that are locked down by DRM (Digital Rights Management), which make them hard or impossible to play on Linux, there’s still a huge collection of games that run just fine. You can find out if a Steam game uses third-party DRM because it will be flagged for that on its official Steam page.
Those non-DRM games, however, will run well if you consider the following ways to get the most out of the experience.
1. Choose the right distribution
Your journey begins by picking the distribution that’s right for you. Not all Linux distributions are built and/or optimized for gaming, so you want to choose carefully. If you’re looking for a Linux distribution that’s best suited for the purpose of gaming, consider these:
- Pop! OS – Thanks to its incredible hardware support and the ability to choose a specific ISO for either AMD or NVIDIA GPUs
- Ubuntu – It’s easy to use, has great hardware support, and enjoys a massive community
- Manjaro Linux – You get the latest, greatest driver support and kernel
- Garuda Linux – It is purpose-built for gaming and includes everything you need out of the box
- Regatta OS – Makes gaming on Linux as easy as possible
- Drauger OS – Another distribution created specifically for gaming — just know that this distro isn’t for everyday use
- Bazzite – A custom Fedora distribution that was created both for the Steam Deck and desktops with pre-installed applications and gaming controller support
Also: This SteamOS clone is the best Linux distro for gamers
2. Install the proper drivers
The best way to go about this is to use a distribution that ships with the proper drivers pre-installed. If you go a different route, you’ll need to make sure you have the best driver for your GPU installed. Without this, your gaming experience isn going to be sub-par (at best). This can be tricky because you have to know the make and model of your GPU and then find the correct driver.
There’s also GameMode, which optimizes Linux for the purpose of gaming. Game Mode is a piece of software created by Feral Interactive. The optimizations this daemon/library includes things like a CPU governor, I/O priority, process niceness, a kernel scheduler, and more.
3. Install a gaming platform
If you’re going to game on Linux, you’re going to have to install a platform, such as Steam or Lutris. The easiest route is Steam because Valve (the creators of Steam) have gone a long way to make Linux gaming possible, via Steam Play. If there are Windows games you want to play on Linux, Steam should be considered a must.
The good news is that Steam is available in the standard repositories, so you can install it with a command like sudo apt-get install steam or sudo dnf install steam. You will then need to enable Steam Play in Steam from within Settings and then make sure to choose the latest version of Proton. There’s also Lutris, which supports several gaming platforms, such as GOG, Epic Games, Battle.net, and Humble Bundle. Finally, there’s the Heroic Games Launcher. For most users, Steam is the way to go.
4. Use Wine, Proton GE, and Vulkan
You’ll also want to install and use Wine (to be able to run Windows applications), Proton GE (a custom version of Proton that allows Windows games to run on Linux), and Vulkan (a high-performance graphics API). The installation of Wine can be done from the standard repositories (i.e. sudo apt-get install wine), Vulkan can also be installed from the standard repositories (such as with sudo apt install mesa-vulkan-drivers). As far as Proton GE, the process is a bit more involved. You need to follow these steps:
- Download the software from the official releases page
- Create a new directory with mkdir ~/.steam/steam/compatibilitytools.d
- Extract the downloaded file into the new directory with tar -xf GE-ProtonVERSION.tar.gz -C ~/.steam/steam/compatibilitytools.d/
- Restart Steam
Also: How to install Steam on Linux to start playing thousands of games
I cannot promise that your Linux gaming experience will be smooth sailing because there are so many factors involved (such as your GPU/CPU, internet connection, and more). But if you follow the suggestions above and take the time to know your hardware (so you know exactly what to install), you can start off on the right foot, and gaming will be a treat on Linux.
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Source: Robotics - zdnet.com
