Proton is one of the greatest pieces of software of all time: >be valve, 2018, enjoy printing money from pc games on steam >realize microsoft could easily kill you by making gaming on windows a walled garden like the app store >what to do? >the greatest heist of all time: steal every game from windows by porting them all to linux >"it can't be done!" screams anon >"it can, anon. we're going to upgrade wine. reimplement the DirectX API and translate it to Vulkan at runtime. same with .NET, everything." says gaben calmly >"but you'll never get EVERY windows game to run on linux, we can't even get EVERY windows game to run on windows for christ sake!" shouts anon again >"we don't need to. we just have to get enough, to convince everyone it's going to work."... >*cassette time skip to 2025* >proton is amazing. despite translating everything at runtime, it can run AAA games well and sometimes faster than Windows cuz Windows syscalls slow >pewdiepie switch to linux >microsoft absolutely seething >bill gates personally makes emergency call to satya nadella at 3am >"they did WHAT? how many users did we lose?" >"about 30% of gamers sir, they keep saying 'linux gaming just works now'" >valve's masterplan succeeding beyond expectations >gaben sitting in office made entirely of knives, laughing >"phase 1 complete, commence phase 2"
@zack_overflow actually most of the work needed to get Windows games running on Linux is originally from the Wine project, that is the moat, without it, Valve wouldn’t even think of doing this, it would be just too much work
@zack_overflow Even funnier when you realize Gabe worked at Microsoft for 13 years before starting Valve
@zack_overflow The insane part is that Linus said in like 2015 that Valve would solve the Linux problem*, lol. *the problem: things not being easy for consumers who don’t want to spend time tinkering.
@zack_overflow Windows syscalls are so fking slow that running Neovim in WSL is literally twice faster than using the windows binary. And of course, WSL is still an order of magnitude slower than Linux for file io
@zack_overflow Doesn't Proton interfere with anti-cheating software? I've read that some games are unplayable on Steam Deck due to that
@zack_overflow 15 years ago I installed wine in my lovely ubuntu and tried CS1.6 I never thought I could see this happening
@zack_overflow it may not be the year of the linux desktop but we are eating good
@zack_overflow If they would've just not made Windows data harvesting and ad central with compulsory non-security updates, I maybe would have felt a tiny bit bad for MS.
@zack_overflow I just checked my steam library on an AMD64 linux desktop, and it looks like about 40% of the games are available, which is impressive. Much better than ARM64 mac, with only about 10% of the games available. But many good games still Windows only.
@zack_overflow Would proton work on the same principles for windows software too? A lot of professional software is windows only, or Linux support is terrible. But it's all just processing CPU/graphics/ram fundamentally, same as games...
@zack_overflow Had no idea. Time to side-load Linux and assume my final form, finally.
@zack_overflow @yacineMTB A great example of “you don’t need anyone’s permission” at scale
@zack_overflow Wine has been around for a long time grinding at compatibility so don’t forget that’s the unsung hero
@zack_overflow I never would have known if I didn't have a steam deck but yeah...I haven't needed to switch on my windows computer for weeks and weeks.
@zack_overflow I'm guessing Phase 2 is the last phase for GabeN?
@zack_overflow Not that people use it though. Didn’t the steam only sell like 4 million?
@zack_overflow as soon as gaming is solved I'm ready to ditch windows 😀
@zack_overflow bro actually mastered the recipe for viral tweets
@zack_overflow Also game developers can simply now develop for Proton and hit all platforms. Cross platform achieved. Apple made Game Porting Toolkit which is basically Proton for Mac but they're not advertising it.
That's why I love Valve. They are focused, and they made Linux gaming work by themselves. When I switched from Windows to Linux, I thought I had to give up gaming forever because if it. But Gabe fixed it. Thank you Gabe! Incredible how powerful and innovative private companies can be when they are not pressured by investors to turn a quick buck.
@zack_overflow It’s not just proton, valve has made some serious improvements to the Linux kernel, AMD Vulkan drivers and the vulkan to D3D Linux drivers. It’s getting really good. I’d say 2 more years & most games will be par or better on Linux/Proton/SteamOS.