Bonum Certa Men Certa

GNU/Linux Rapidly Becoming a Gaming Platform of Choice, Offering Better Performance

Chess



Summary: Not just cost but technical edge too seemingly help drive GNU/Linux as a choice for gamers and game makers

Gabe Newell from Valve believes that GNU/Linux is the future of gaming. He helped promote GNU/Linux as a platform for games in the very recent LinuxCon [1-4], almost stealing the thunder from the "Cloud Computing" hype [5] (surveillance computing).



What's really noteworthy is that over the past week there have been quite a few announcements about games that are coming to GNU/Linux, not just via Valve (“SteamOS” is in the headlines right now [6,7], along with more Steam titles [8] that make headlines [9-13]). Performance under Ubuntu 13.04 is said to be much better than under Vista 8 [14]. The same goes for OpenGL versus DirectX [15].

Some GNU/Linux are not really news [16-18], but those that newly arrive at the platform [19-24] are, 'big' titles like Doom 3 [25] matter, and various other games [26-35] help show how GNU/Linux was transformed into more of a gaming platform, with even more devices being build around it [36]. Perhaps Newell was right and GNU/Linux is the future of gaming [37]. It took a whole to see this dream materialising. A new version of Wine has come [38,39] with further improvements [40], bridging the gap for some games whose developers have not used cross-platform APIs [41], so through Wine too -- despite performance penalties -- games continue to land on GNU/Linux even if they were never build for it. ⬆

Related/contextual items from the news:



  1. Linux Is the Future… For Learning And Gaming?


    Thanks to the Raspberry Pi and gamers, Linux is all set to come out on top, says Sean Michael Kerner


  2. The State of Linux: Game On at LinuxCon


  3. Video: LinuxCon - Linux and Gaming


  4. Steam's Gabe Newell: Linux is the future of gaming; SteamBox may be announced next week
    "Linux is the future of Gaming" are the words loud and clear during the keynote by Gabe Newell, the CEO of Valve Software, at Linux Foundation's 2013 North American LinuxCon event.


  5. FOSS and Linux Fuel the Future of Gaming, Cloud Computing and the Rest of Tech
    Technology has entered a new era in which software is no longer a differentiator, but the foundation that the "big winners" are building their services on, Jim Zemlin said today in his annual State of Linux speech at LinuxCon and CloudOpen North America in New Olreans.


  6. Valve announces Linux-based “SteamOS” as basis for living room gaming
    The Linux-based living room gaming announcements Valve co-founder Gabe Newell promised last week began today with the unveiling of SteamOS, a new Linux-based operating system focused on living room gaming.


  7. Valve Has Announced The SteamOS Built On Linux


  8. New Batch Of Titles Greenlit On Steam 18th September


  9. Valve promises three announcements this week – SteamBox and more?


  10. Calm Down, Internet -- Valve Isn't Building Their Own Steam Box


  11. Valve To Reveal Linux-Powered ‘Steambox’ News Next Week
    Valve – the company behind gaming distribution behemoth Steam – are to reveal more details on their up-coming ‘Steambox’ gaming console next week.


  12. Postal 2 DLC Details Revealed
    Running With Scissors has revealed some but not all of the details of what will come with the Postal 2 (Steam, Desura) DLC!


  13. Fortix 2 is Hitting Linux
    Fortix 2 is finally hitting the Linux platform! As of September 17, 2013, Fortix 2 will be available on Steam. Now all three platforms can enjoy the classic arcade gameplay of Fortix 2. It has been a long time coming for this event, and we would like to thank the Linux community for the patience on the matter.


  14. How Does Left 4 Dead 2 Perform On Ubuntu 13.04 Compared To Windows 8?


  15. Valve: OpenGL is faster than DirectX — even on Windows
    In a scary twist that reinforces Valve’s distaste for Windows 8, it turns out that the Source engine — the 3D engine that powers Half Life 2, Left 4 Dead, and Dota 2 — runs faster on Ubuntu 12.04 and OpenGL than Windows 7 and DirectX/Direct3D.


  16. Free Turn-Based Strategy Game `Freeciv` 2.4.0 Released


  17. SUPERHOT FPS Where Time Only Moves When You Do


  18. The Fall A Dark, Story Driven Exploration In An Alien World UPDATED


  19. PixelJunk Monsters Ultimate coming to Mac and Linux on September 30th!


  20. iRacing Adds Linux to Existing MAC and PC Platforms


  21. Mac and Linux Versions of 'Rogue Legacy' Coming Soon, Says Dev


  22. Neverending Nightmares to hit PC, Mac, Linux, Ouya at same time
  23. Based on a true story
    Developed by Polypusher Studios for PC, Mac and Linux, Montague's Mount is a first person psychological rollercoaster ride through isolation, desolation and one man's tortured mind all set against the bleakness of an isolated Irish island. The player regains consciousness on a windswept beach, with no memory of the past.


  24. The Fall, Story Driven Exploration Game, Could Arrive on Linux in 2014
    The Fall is a dark, action platformer based on the unison of atmosphere, adventure and exploration.


  25. Doom 3 BFG Edition Linux Port Is Still Being Developed


  26. Lone Survivor: The Director's Cut Dated in North America
  27. Humble Indie Bundle 9 Adds New Games, Two Brand New To Linux
  28. What I'm Playing: More like, Lame Theft Auto


  29. Legend of Dungeon Released


  30. We Review Indie Game Fez on Linux – Is It Worth The Hype?
    Playing as an unidentifiable creature named Gomez, your goal is to find the missing pieces of a Hexahedron scattered across the world before it’s too late. Though the world looks 2D, FEZ has a trick up its sleeve that makes it far more unique than the platformer lets on at the start.


  31. Democracy 3 Pre-Order's Are Up With Beta Access
    Have you ever wanted to be president? or prime-minister? Convinced you could do a better job of running the country? Let's face it, you could hardly do a worse job than our current political leaders.


  32. Fields Of War Online Mech Combat Game New Release


  33. BlastEm - The Fast And Accurate Genesis Emulator
    BlastEm has the goal of being an extremely accurate Genesis emulator while still running on relatively modest hardware by using advanced techniques. Currently, there's a lot of work left to do on the accuracy front and there are a lot of optimizations I want to do, but BlastEm is still quite usable for certain purposes. Many commercial and homebrew 3 run well and the performance seems to be good on my relatively modest AMD E-350 powered laptop and Intel Atom based HTPC.


  34. ‘Legend of Dungeon’ Impressions and Gameplay Video


  35. Alien Arena: Combat Edition v7.66 Is Available Now
    Alien Arena is a is a free first-person shooter computer game similar to the Quake, Doom, and Unreal Tournament series. You can play Alien Arena online with other players or if you don’t feel skilled enough you can choose single-player matches and play against bots. The game’s content is proprietary, but its engine is open source (CRX engine). An internal server browser helps you to find other players online and there is also an IRC client for chat between players. Alien Arena is available Microsoft Windows, Linux, FreeBSD and OS X.


  36. OpenPandora - Gaming and more
    Hopefully, you remember my escapade with Pandora, which was given to me by the company's CEO for evaluation. In the first installment, we discussed mostly the look & feel and the amazing hardware of the test unit. In the second, we focused on the Xfce build and the modded Android port. So far so good, with some points for improvement.


  37. Valve CEO: Why Linux is the future of gaming
    Gabe Newell, CEO of Valve declared that proprietary software and closed platforms are gaming's past, its future is open and on Linux.


  38. Wine 1.7.2 Brings A Couple Of Changes
    The latest bi-weekly Wine development release, Wine 1.7.2, is now available.


  39. Wine 1.7.2 released
    The Wine development release 1.7.2 is now available.


  40. Wine Testing: Does The D3D Patch Boost Performance?


  41. Iracing Online Racing Game Comes To Linux In Alpha Via Wine
    An online car racing game that PC Gamer voted "Best racing game of all time" has hit Linux in the form of an alpha version that uses Wine.




Recent Techrights' Posts

Links 01/11/2026: Digital Minimalism and "Palantir Cofounder Announces Cruel Plan to Breed Thousands of Lab Monkeys for Medical Experiments"
Links for the day
Massive Cuts Inside Microsoft (the Media Does Not Talk About That)
It is in many ways like IBM a decade ago
 
Gemini Links 01/11/2026: OpenBSD, Broken MicroHDMI, Nextcloud, and More
Links for the day
IBM Vapourware on a Budget (to Grab Bailouts From US Taxpayers)
Anderon is the sort of thing that makes IBMers uncomfortable
Microsoft Accenture in Trouble, Accenture’s Debt Skyrockets
Seeing a wave of adoption of Free software in Europe, it's not exactly shocking that "consultants" from Microsoft Accenture are no longer in demand
Microsoft Says Its "Goodwill" Value Has Been Declining for Years, But It Also Claimed That Doubled in One Year
Wall Street deserves far more criticism or scepticism (at the very least)
SkyChatz: From Nothing to #2 in IRC (in Less Than a Year)
Second only to Libera.Chat
Making Up Words or Inventing a Vocabulary
Or why Large Language Models are useless
Assange on What Lula Means to Free Press
Here in the UK we've also found our 'Lulas'
GNU/Linux is No Underdog (But There Are Attempts to Put It "To Sleep")
There's a moral imperative
Intercontinental Brigading - Part XXVI - The "Law and Order" Candidate Who Crushes Both Law and Order and Even Rejects Election Outcomes (Insurrection Follows)
A world without real technical security is a world void of democracy, justice, and human rights
Links 01/11/2026: Malaysian Media Perishing, France Belatedly Identifies Social Control Media as Weaponised Yellow Press
Links for the day
Gemini Links 01/11/2026: "Trick-or-Treating seems to be dead, at least in our neighborhood"; BaseFree Numerical System and Human Emacs
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, October 31, 2026
IRC logs for Saturday, October 31, 2026
Gemini Links 31/10/2026: MangoWM, Qutebrowser and Codeberg, Plugh
Links for the day
In US Government Sites, GNU/Linux Measured at New All-Time High of 7% (or About 10% Across Desktops/Laptops Alone)
There's no doubt GNU/Linux is growing
Intel Has Just Lost in One Single Day Over 150 Billion Dollars in 'Value' (Market Cap), Intel is Also Over 50 Billion Dollars in Debt
This really says a lot about Wall Street and the slop bubble, doesn't it?
They Hate Him Because He's Effective
Effective voices invite more aggressive censorship attempts
Audience Growing in Spite of the Deluge of Webslop
We probably benefit from the rejection of LLM slop
The Munich FUD Tactics (Microsoft Modus Operandi): Microsoft-Connected Sites Claim Denmark Failed With Free Software, But That's Not What Actually Happened
With Microsoft, it almost always boils down to politics
Links 31/10/2026: John Romero Comeback After Being Shafted by Microsoft, Google Faces Criminal Probe Over Deforestation in Finland
Links for the day
Gemini Links 31/10/2026: Rambling on Self-hosting and Ad Video Screens Don’t Make Money
Links for the day
Can't Trust Big Banks, Let's Try 'Bros' Instead?
But let's blame "North Korea"
IRC's Growing Popularity in 2026
No company controls or profits from IRC, it is in the Commons
"AI" as Surrogate for Debt and Distraction From Computing (Bots Described as "Agents" and/or Any Form of "Intelligence" is More Like a Religion)
We're letting people without even college degrees game the "market" (Wall Street) by lying to it
Intercontinental Brigading - Part XXV - Election Integrity at a Time of Back Doors and Very Severe Bugs in UEFI
How dare British media comment on insurrection following a US election?
"The Judge Accepted That Mrs Schestowitz Had Been the Subject of a Vicious Campaign of Online Harassment"
That's consistent with how they men treat women
Gemini Links 31/10/2026: Hallowe'en and "Thinking About People"
Links for the day
Links 31/10/2026: The Hinge on Apple's Constantly Breaking New Foldable iPhone Was "Built With Slop", Slop Causes Cash Squeeze GAFAM
Links for the day
Amazon's Debt Skyrockets by Almost 100 Billion Dollars in 9 Months
On top of that there is additional (secret, kept stealth by accounting tricks) debt
Google Illegally Destroyed a Quarter Million Trees Without a Permit for a Hypothetical Project That Might be Cancelled, Debt Has Soared by 30 Billion Dollars in 3 Months ($10 Billions Borrowed Per Month)
Google is bleeding from slop
Slavery at Microsoft
illegal if true
Many People "Left" Red Hat This Month, Including Yesterday
We already saw this with SUSE
Gemini Links 31/10/2026: "Where I Draw the Line With" Slop Plagiarism and "Nobody Cares That You're Leaving Proton" (Over Slop)
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, October 30, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, October 30, 2026
Links 30/10/2026: "Over 41,000 DHS Employee Records Leaked Online" and Concerns Over Radicalism in France
Links for the day
Intercontinental Brigading - Part XXIV - It's an Inherently American Issue and American Elections Are at Risk From Restricted ('Secure') Boot and LLM Chatbots (Disinformation at Scale)
We'll focus a lot on US elections in the coming days
Birss Replaces Vos in UK's High Court, LLM Slop Plagiarism a Contentious Issue
Only days ago we mentioned Sir Geoffrey Vos in relation to lobbying for LLM slop
"Early Retirement" (Silent Layoffs) for Everybody Except the Executives
Some will stick around even past 70
Despite the Mass Layoffs Microsoft's Debt Soared by 5.1 Billion Dollars in Just 3 Months
This is why Microsoft asks 60,000 workers to leave
Gemini Links 30/10/2026: Solar MiniBBS, Kubernetes With FreeBSD, "Sysadmin Day"
Links for the day
Microsoft Layoffs Far Worse Than the Media Tells (Microsoft Spin Laundered as "Reporting")
Some people are made to "retire" and sign an NDA to make it seem like a happy ending and mostly consensual retreat
Links 30/10/2026: Google Crashes on Slop Disappointment and GAFAM's "Data Center Blitz Is Burning Through Cash and Scaring Wall St."
Links for the day
Fake 'Articles' in The Register MS Concerning "AI"
We don't suppose The Register MS will be around for much longer after this bubble pops
What Linus Torvalds Told Me Two Decades Ago
It seems like he was eager to distinguish himself from the "elders" of FSF [...] For anything "revolutionary" to happen in the sciences one must accept the risk of living in poverty like Tesla (the person, not the right-wing fanatics) and Torvalds isn't too old to "cause a stir"
GNU/Linux as a Free Software Platform is More GNU (and GPL) Than Linux
GNU predates Linux by nearly a decades and it was born to tackle injustices
Who Or What Are Security Professionals/Experts?
Companies like GAFAM are willing to tolerate cheaters because those companies themselves are cheats
Intercontinental Brigading - Part XXIII - What Garrett Did Puts Elections at Risk (Also in His Own Country, Where a Dictator Trusts Only Machines That 'Support' Him)
UEFI 'security' is only as trustworthy as its ferocious boosters
Gemini Links 30/10/2026: RIP Patrick Stewart and Amp Integration
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 29, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, October 29, 2026