For a better half of a decade now, this is what I’ve been doing: I play games on a Linux Desktop (Arch btw) and I’m not looking back anymore. However, I will not say that it is necessarily “better” than Gaming on Windows. I’ve seen countless statements like that in th titles of YouTube videos and it annoys me to no end, because those videos are usually clickbait. Even though I personally don’t like Windows, I still think it is the better Operating System, if all you want to do is play games and nothing else. Now, mix in productivity, maybe development of software in particular, and things look differently already. Both Linux and Windows are what we call “General-Purpose Operating Systems”, which means they are both malleable to virtually any sort of use-case. Still, it makes sense that some Systems are better suited to some tasks than others. Here, I’d like to share some of my thoughts on Gaming on Linux, while also comparing it to Windows.

I think this goes without saying, considering the name of this website. But some folks might be interested into the why of it. Why exactly do I (and many other people at that) adore the operating system whose mascott is the cute penguin so much?

Well, here are my main two reasons.

Catering to Professionals

I say this without casting a condescending glance at people who use Windows or MacOS. But I do think that Linux caters primarily to people who are well-versed in the IT-Landscape. The way I usually describe is, that Linux doesn’t hide the actual complexity of IT before you. It confronts the user with standards, concepts and the verbosity of protocols, not a “round-about” idea of how they work. It expects the user to understand these things, unmasked by what I often feel like a GUI unnecessarily obfuscates. For someone who is either well-versed in IT or willing to read through documentation to actually understand what the computer is doing, Linux is beneficial. Further, it is simple. Now, even in the IT-Sector, I’ve been laughed at for that statement by others who claim that this wouldn’t be the case, simply because you work mostly from the CLI and have to learn so many programs to achieve basic configurations. This is true. But to be quite frank, simplicity does neither necessarily enforce nor imply an ease of use. A master of his instrument will call some pieces he plays as “simple” which, for a beginner, or someone unwilling to practice, might be tough to play. Simplicity doesn’t come from ease of use, but practice first and foremost. After practice has bred the master of the art, it depends on the tool that is used. Using multiple programs in a “Pipe” to fulfill a task might seem daunting at first, but it is actually much easier to use than having to start a GUI-Program and navigating through it’s menus, all the while not being able to alter functionality to ones own special requirements. The tool augments the skills of the master, letting him put the practice and knowledge in this case to good use.