Linux

No shame in having to switch back after giving it a try and running into a lot of issues. Having to reboot a lot is definitely unusual, there's probably something wrong with your setup, but who knows where the issue is or how long it would take you to fix. Hopefully you can give it another try in a few years and those issues have been resolved.

I've been 100% linux for my daily home computing for over a year now... With one exception... To be honest I didn't even try particularly hard to make gaming work under Linux.

Instead I have a Windows VM - setup with full passthrough access to my GPU and it's own NVME - just for Windows gaming. To my mind now it's in the same category as running console emulation.

As soon as I click shutdown in windows, it pops me straight back into my Linux desktop.

I'll be back the moment Wayland works better.

Why don't you just use X11 instead?

If you're rebooting to fix an "fps issue", you don't understand what's causing that issue. It doesn't sound like you're looking for advice, but to others scared off by this, this sounds a lot like a user who got in over their head and started mucking with things they shouldn't have.

I just did the opposite. Ditched windows which I only used for gaming. The amount of games working in Linux now is amazing, I play a lot of sims and even stuff like headtrackers and steering wheels just work. Sure it's not perfect and working for everybody but its getting really good really fast.

Games that do not work at all on Linux like Fortnite for example, I just ignore.

I recognize I’m kind of being one of those “it works on my machine!” types, but I’m rolling pop!os on a lenovo built intel/nvidia laptop and have zero issues. Am I just exceptionally lucky?

It's all good. Use what makes you happy.

I've been gaming on Linux 100% for about 3 years now. I very rarely have any issues at all. But, I'm on an all AMD system.

Based on your experience, would you mind sharing specs? My observation has been that nvidia is normally involved whenever anyone has serious issues with Linux gaming.

Which distro were you using?

Wayland is getting better every day. Check back in a year, and it’ll probably be ready for you. :)

I get it, and have switched back and forth myself a few times over the years..

I'm a Linux sysadmin who is also a PC gamer.

I run Windows for my main desktop as a gamer. Greatest choice, best compatibility, it's the primary focus for game developers, etc. I use debian on my laptops and home servers as I don't game on those and otherwise Linux is better in most other areas.

At least for me, it doesn't matter a huge amount what OS I use as a desktop provided it's stable and not annoying. Sometimes lilnux is annoying because of compatibility or bugs or specific software isn't available or work poorly, sometimes Windows is annoying because of monitoring, design choices that favour Microsoft instead of the user, changes - often hidden - to existing practices, or any of the thousand little annoyances. Neither is painless 100% of the time but they're not really so different from a day to day driver if the software you need works well on both, which for many people is basically just a web browser.

I applaud those who game under Linux, you're doing great stuff and opening the doors for everyone in the future.

Okay.

There are so many gaming options that do run well on Linux that I just don’t bother with with those that don’t. More fish in the sea…

My personal experience has been that Linux is great for general use, and quite a few verified games. But anything multiplayer with anticheat, games that are regularly updated, etc, it's a constant struggle. So I have a separate hard drive for windows on my gaming desktop and, in general, mostly use Windows on that machine (with a lot of tweaks like openshell). But all my other devices I run off Linux and it works out fine.

Check out massgrave dot dev, they have W11 IoT LTSC and activators. It's the best version of Windows! No more dealing with AI bullshit being added, nor advertisements.

I get it, the problem solving can be really frustrating when you just want to relax and play some games in your limited free time. Personally I just installed Linux on a secondary drive and switch to Windows during startup for the games that don't work well with Linux (usually multiplayer games with anti-cheat). I still use Linux as my main OS since gaming is not what I spend the majority of my time doing.

Aside from some notable examples, I've had great luck with gaming on Linux. Wayland's still rough (thanks Nvidia) but it's not that big of an issue; general usage is fine and development is fantastic.

There is only one issue when it comes to games...
I have a VR setup...

Bon jour. Come back soon.

This is one of the reasons I'm glad I don't have a strong desire to play most games. I'm able to run a couple from Steam and I've got an Xbox that I rarely play (unless I find a great game and play a bunch for a while). It's not like I'm running Linux on my daily driver cause I'm a Mac guy, but it's one less avenue for MS to pollute my life.

I guess I understand.

For myself, though, not being a big fan of FPS/RTS games, basically anything I play is fine as long as it's around 30 and most of it is 10+ years old and/or indie game... I'm pretty much in the phase when if the game does not work on my OS (which is barely the case), the game has to go.

It's rarely the case for me though, last time I really did that was like 7 years ago with Doom 3: I haven't realized that it's Windows-only so I ended up asking for money back on Steam. Nowadays, with Steam Deck & Proton it's not a problem; I actually got Doom 3 on Steam again, and I can play it just fine. (Well, "fine" with the exception that the monsters are scary so I'm scared, but the game is fine!)

I'm not posting this to feel smug, cos I'm not. It's 100% legit to want your games to look and feel awesome, you deserve that.

I'm posting it just as a flag, that for people with far less demanding taste, Linux is just fine. I can't think of a game right now that I would want to play so much that I would be willing to install Windows.

Well, Linux is like a juggernaut that's inching ever closer in all sorts of areas (while already dominating in some areas). The time frame where it makes sense for Microsoft to spend increasing amounts of resources to maintain and further develop Windows is closing, and if you look closely, they've pretty much shown that Windows is not at all priority #1 anymore since at least Nadella became CEO. We also live in a world which is increasingly becoming OS agnostic, which is bad for Windows' dominance and great for Linux, MacOS, and others (because there's less and less relevant applications specifically requiring Windows). Of course, Linux on the desktop also grows stronger and more mature year after year, which further accelerates the change.

There will also be some points in time which hugely accelerate things, like Valve going all-in on Steam Deck and Proton and to make Steam a more independent store/community platform, and also Microsoft making Windows worse and more user-hostile over time. From a business perspective, it makes sense for MS - they want to go full cloud (= full control), almost full removal of control for the user, and full ingestion of as much data from the user as they can - to sell it, utilize it for own purposes, and train AIs with it. It's what increases profits in the short-term. A lot of companies are doing that kind of stuff. MS is just one of the more ruthless ones, which, again, makes sense, because they still have a big userbase to exploit. In the long-term, they're damaging, no, DESTROYING Windows' reputation as a half-decent OS (even among Windows fans) and driving more and more users to the alternatives. It's kind of inevitable. MS' striving for profit has doomed Windows, and soon, when no single company will be able to compete with the ever evolving Linux ecosystem anymore, Windows is also doomed. It's kind of a law of nature now. It's not a question of if, just when.

(I've used both Windows and Linux extensively, Windows since MSDOS/Win3.x, Linux since 1998. About 10 years ago, I've switched exclusively to Linux and banned Windows into a VM only that gets booted less and less [I think it's been off for 2 years already]). I, for one, welcome our new old Linux overlords.

Good luck with Windows 11 as 10 is going to be EOL next year.

I personally dual boot windows and linux precisely because gaming can be frustrating on linux sometimes. I use windows exclusively for gaming and linux for everything else. I have plans to try and game on linux again sometime though. Maybe one day the experience will be good enough to ditch windows altogether. (Hopefully before the end of Windows 10 Support)

Mostly curious here, can you elaborate on the issues that are fixed with a reboot?

Is it related to poor performance or other aspects of the diaplay like VRR? Can you tell us which games this has happened with?

I’ll be back the moment Wayland works better.

You mentioned in a comment that you used Arch, Debian and EndeavourOS. Though, historically, Wayland has been adopted first on Fedora. Therefore, I wonder if underutilizing Fedora (and/or derivatives like Bazzite/Nobara) might have been the main culprit in this case.