Linux gamers on Steam finally cross over the 3% mark

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨ampersandrew@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨games@lemmy.world⁩

https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2025/11/linux-gamers-on-steam-finally-cross-over-the-3-mark/

Free Windows 10 support ended for most people this past month, and the trend line of Linux usage has been quite clear leading up to this, as people prepared for the inevitable. An increase in Linux usage is also correlated to a drop in Chinese players, which did happen this month a little bit, but Linux usage is also trending up when filtering for English only. It’s worth noting that for all the official support Macs ever saw in gaming, they never represented anything better than about 5% of the market.

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scala@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I’m kinda in the same boat. I have an old gaming laptop that just barley didn’t make the win11 arbitrary cut. Not because it was below spec, it was way above. Just because it was too “old”. I installed Bazzite. But I do have a top tier premium gaming PC I built recently that’s still on Win11 with Dualboot with Bazzite.

Bazzite is great, but it still has the failure(maybe it’s not failure to you and me, but the average gamer) is that most stuff isn’t just, download .exe, run that .exe there are loops and frameworks that need to be installed through command lines. The average user will give up there really quickly.

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- ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works ⁨23⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
  Bazzite is a vehicle for Steam. If your basis for using it isn’t ‘gaming through Steam’, you’re already intentionally venturing into un-average lands.
  
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- dogs0n@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
  Haven’t used bazzite, but there is an App Store you can get all of the apps anyone would need.
  
  No longer do we live in the days of visiting a vendors website to download their executables. They are conveniently packaged for us in the App Store (package manager).
  
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magic_lobster_party@fedia.io ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
I think it will continue to rise. People are updating their rigs all the time. Whenever they update their rig they’ll have to ask themselves whether they want to continue with Windows on their new rig, or try with something new.

Most will stay on Windows of course, but some don’t. And those who switch to Linux are likely not returning to Windows (for gaming at least).

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- damnedfurry@lemmy.world ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  
  I think it will continue to rise. People are updating their rigs all the time. Whenever they update their rig they’ll have to ask themselves whether they want to continue with Windows on their new rig, or try with something new.
  
  The vast majority of this increase is from people playing on Steam Decks, which run on Linux, not from people switching to Linux on their PCs.
  
  If it continues to rise, this is the reason. The general public is less and less into using a desktop at all as time goes on, much less running, and much less changing to, an extremely niche operating system on one.
  
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  - KeenFlame@feddit.nu ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
    Nope, handhelds can be eval in separately from operating systems
    
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  - BigPotato@lemmy.world ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Actually, the raw number percentage shows that the increase is due to Mint, Ubuntu, and Bazzite. Maybe people are installing Bazzite on their Deck but likely not the other two.
    
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  - magic_lobster_party@fedia.io ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    The portion of people playing on SteamOS is steadily decreasing, which means new Linux users are on SteamOS to a lesser extent.
    
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  - CountVon@sh.itjust.works ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    
    The vast majority of this increase is from people playing on Steam Decks
    
    I believe this is incorrect. The Steam survey break down GPUs by description and the Deck’s GPU appears in the results as “AMD Vangogh”, which only accounts for 0.39% of respondents. That implies that the vast majority of survey respondents using Linux are actually on PC, not the Deck.
    
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  - turdas@suppo.fi ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    That’s not true. You can see on Steam Hardware Survey what OS people are running, and SteamOS only makes up 27% of Linux users on Steam, so the vast majority are on regular PCs.
    
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- BreakerSwitch@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Yeah, for me personally, I’ve got one or two devices that see irregular use that are linux now, but my main rig is still windows and will continue to be so, since I have a number of friends on xbox that I can get more cross play for via gamepass But since I’m currently boycotting microsoft, and don’t know how much longer friends will stick with xbox given their general market decline, and given all the stability issues with win11 lately due to an increase of AI code usage, and all the everything… It might be a matter of time
  
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1985MustangCobra@lemmy.ca ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
shoutout to WUBI for making factorio and space age native on linux.

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- driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Silksong is also native on Linux
  
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  - webpack@ani.social ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    ngl the hk and silksong native ports were pretty crap on my machine (but proton + Windows version worked perfectly)
    
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Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
SteamOS Holo 64 bit - 27.18% (-0.47%) Arch Linux 64 bit - 10.32% (-0.66%) Linux Mint 22.2 64 bit - 6.65% (+6.65%) CachyOS 64 bit - 6.01% (+1.32%) Ubuntu Core 22 64 bit - 4.55% (+0.55%) Freedesktop SDK 25.08 (Flatpak runtime) 64 bit - 4.29% (+4.29%) Bazzite 64 bit - 4.24% (+4.24%) Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS 64 bit - 3.70% (+3.70%) Linux Mint 22.1 64 bit - 2.56% (-5.65%) EndeavourOS Linux 64 bit - 2.32% (-0.08%) Freedesktop SDK 24.08 (Flatpak runtime) 64 bit - 2.31% (-3.98%) Fedora Linux 42 (KDE Plasma Desktop Edition) 64 bit - 2.12% (+0.19%) Manjaro Linux 64 bit - 2.04% (-0.31%) Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS 64 bit - 1.93% (-0.04%) Fedora Linux 42 (Workstation Edition) 64 bit - 1.75% (-0.43%) Other - 18.04% (-4.28%)

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nasi_goreng@lemmy.zip ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
What makes the chart “only” on 3% is Chinese users. English Linux user alone has more than 6% percentage of Linux users.

We need Chinese government for their independent tech stack to include Linux further. At the moment, there are already several Chinese distro with big companies porting their basic apps to Linux (like chat app, office app, etc).

If Chinese gov force gaming company to support Linux as well, we will see a huge surge evenmore.

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- sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Here’s a graphic showing that:
  
  Image
  
  I wish there was a graphic that showed English users with SteamOS separated from non-SteamOS users, because I think if we get 5% of non-SteamOS users, we should start to see devs pay a lot more attention. We’re starting to see devs make SteamOS-specific versions (e.g. THPS 1&2 offline mode), so the next step is getting Linux-specific adjustments for more games.
  
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  - nialv7@lemmy.world ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    So 93% of the Linux users use English steam. I wonder how much of that is because Linux users just don’t bother to set system language, or maybe the language is not detected correctly.
    
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  - edgemaster72@lemmy.world ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    So uh, what happened between March and September 2021 that caused the current upward trend? Was the Windows 11 announcement that poorly received?
    
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  - richardwallass@sh.itjust.works ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Mostly on steam deck it means not that much on PC
    
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  - ampersandrew@lemmy.world ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    THPS offline mode is the same version as elsewhere, but it magically allows itself to operate offline when it thinks it’s running on a Steam Deck, which you can do with a launch parameter. Baldur’s Gate 3 actually has a native Linux version that is only officially supported for Steam Deck, and that might be closer to what you’re referring to.
    
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Bamboodpanda@lemmy.world ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I spent the last two days building a machine from old parts and installing Linux Mint. It’s my first time using Linux and I am really surprised at how lovely it is. I am still learning, but I can easily see it replacing my home gaming PC. I have yet to find something I can’t get to work.

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- MyNameIsIgglePiggle@sh.itjust.works ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Fortnite.
  
  Anything with anticheat unfortunately.
  
  But I’m happily on Linux for daily and gaming. Welcome to the club
  
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  - zalgotext@sh.itjust.works ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Plenty of anti-cheats work on Linux, and the ones that don’t are probably borderline malware anyways, so it’s really a win-win
    
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  - scutiger@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    All anticheats are not made equal, and some are functional under Linux.
    
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ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
According to statcounter, Linux desktop was over 4% marketshare in April 2025, damn that’s impressive.

We really are getting there.

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- rodneylives@lemmy.world ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  By some reports it’s over 5%, statcounter may be undercounting Linux.
  
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  - atmorous@lemmy.world ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Everybody keep growing the userbase!! We got this!
    
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- valkyre09@lemmy.world ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Back when I worked at Apple Retail we used to say, “5 down, 95 to go”. I really want SteamOS to be a runaway success
  
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  - Katana314@lemmy.world ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    I’m not so sure Valve is the right maintainer for the core desktop. The Deck works well, but mainly what Valve is maintaining is the Game Mode feature and Proton. Everything else is largely better handed off to a bigger group.
    
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Smoogs@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I ws hoping r6 could be accessible but no. Still that friggin battleeye bullshit

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TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
I wonder if Valve will ever release an official desktop version of SteamOS? I think Linux adoption would really increase fast if there was a gaming focused Linux desktop distribution with the support of an established company. But does Valve want that? A full featured operating system is a lot to maintain and provide support for.

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- magic_lobster_party@fedia.io ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Is that really needed?
  
  I think what could really drive adoption is if computers with Linux pre-installed was more easily accessible. Just boot the computer, choose which DE you want to install and then it’s done. It doesn’t need to be SteamOS. Just any good distro will do.
  
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  - damnedfurry@lemmy.world ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    
    Just boot the computer, choose which DE you want to install
    
    Yeah, that’s not at all accessible to the average consumer; they don’t know what a “DE” even is, much less why they should choose any over any other.
    
    Very, very few people want to deal with something other than a ‘just works’ situation.
    
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  - Die4Ever@retrolemmy.com ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    A brand name that people trust is a huge deal in marketing
    
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  - psx_crab@lemmy.zip ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    The issue with that is, people have no idea what these “choice” even mean. SteamOS is SteamOS, Windows 11 is Windows 11, MacOS is MacOS, but Linux is a big list. If pushing adoption is the key purpose, the manufacturer need to pick one that they believe is reliable and in active development. Just one. All these editions will very likely cause choice paralysis, which lead to people deem it as “too complicated”.
    
    Also Valve will not likely go that path again.
    
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  - ampersandrew@lemmy.world ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Who else has an incentive to do so other than Valve? Even when you buy a pre-built with Windows today, those things are subsidized by bloatware that’s already installed on the machine.
    
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  - Jankatarch@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Strong agree. Everyone agrees chromeos is not THE best OS but you won’t see a single person dualboot windows on their personal chromebook.
    
    How google fucked up gentoo I wish not to talk of.
    
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  - The_Picard_Maneuver@piefed.world ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Some companies sell Linux prebuilts, like System76, but that's pretty niche for the average person to even know to search for.
    
    Now, if stores like Best Buy had a section for Linux prebuilts, that would reach a lot of people.
    
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- chunkystyles@sopuli.xyz ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Bazzite already fills this niche. It just doesn’t have the Steam name on it.
  
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- PanaX@lemmy.world ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  I can attest that SteamOS does work on my rigs that are AMD gpu/cpu. It actually works great. I haven’t had one single issue. But I don’t do multiplayer games either.
  
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- logicbomb@lemmy.world ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  I’d guess Valve wants whatever makes more games work on Linux so that their Steam Deck works better and is more compatible.
  
  And that means the most important thing is Linux desktop adoption by game developers so they make more native games. So somewhat ironically, I don’t think SteamOS would be as high a priority as other distributions, since it focuses on players instead of developers.
  
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  - samus12345@sh.itjust.works ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Ironically, some games run better on the Steam Deck through Proton rather than the native Linux version.
    
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Deestan@lemmy.world ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I have a Windows laptop specifically for gaming, but I end up using my Linux coding laptop for games in the end.

It’s less hassle figuring out how to enable nvidia drivers on xorg in GNU linux so that I csn use Proton emulation than to deal with this weeks clusterfuck of windows update trying to make me turn on ads and spying and trick me into using a microsoft.com account to log in.

I am not joking.

The windows still has some dust on it from when I did some house renovations months ago, because I haven’t been bothered to use it.

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- PhAzE@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
  Why not installed something like cachyos which has all of that figured out for you out of the box? Nvidia drivers, steam install, Proton, etc. I was up and gaming in no time post install.
  
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- TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Having been gaming on Linux for the past 10 years and facing basically 0 issues, I can also affirmatively I don’t understand the attachment to windows. I get it if you need specifically word or excel. and I guess if you’ve got kids who want to play fortnite.
  
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  - magic_lobster_party@fedia.io ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    It’s mostly convenience. They know it works, so they keep using it.
    
    Luckily Microsoft is making it inconvenient to continue using Windows.
    
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  - sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    I just banned Fortnite in my house because I don’t like the MTX nonsense. My kids either play on Linux or our Switch.
    
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  - corbin@infosec.pub ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Because sometimes Proton doesn’t work? Like, it’s good enough for most games, but there are always edge cases and games that randomly break one day.
    
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  - Bennyboybumberchums@lemmy.world ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Because I dont like Linux. Ive tried multiple distros, and I do not like it. At all. Worse, I find that they only people who do like it are utter cunts who sniff their own farts. Reading up over the years while looking into it, theres a ungodly amount of comments from cunts shitting all over people asking simple questions. It was like a text based version of seeing kids shouting “NEWB!!!” in a COD lobby.
    
    All the issues I see people having with windows, Ive not had or Ive solved. And it was never hard, or complicated, or anything else. And whats more, no one acted like a cunt because someone had, what they considered a “dumb question”.
    
    In short, fuck linux. Fuck Windows as well, dont get me wrong. But FUCK LINUX. Windows I hate because of the company that makes it, Linux I hate because of the own fart sniffers who use it.
    
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- Bennyboybumberchums@lemmy.world ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Never had any of these problems on windows. I kinda wonder what it is that you are all doing that you having such problems?
  
  www.grc.com/incontrol.htm <<<<< stops updates, unless you decide you want them.
  
  github.com/Raphire/Win11Debloat <<<<< blocks telemetry and gets ride of all the useless dogshit.
  
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  - Deestan@lemmy.world ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    I run Windows normally.
    
    How long does your Window box function without updates? How long does it remain safe? Historically, a few months at best until they bundle telemetry in a new way. Then you need to find another rando dude’s github for workarounds.
    
    Anyway what you are describing is literally a hassle that for me is just not worth it. I can do all that and set up and update group policies for updates over and over oooooor I can literally spend less mental energy figuring out how to configure my drivers on Linux.
    
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  - PoliteDudeInTheMood@lemmy.ca ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Oh that’s handy, I set group policies on my wife’s Win10 computer, but I guess InControl automates that process. Nice.
    
    I switched to Linux last year, but the wife has no interest in any of that. So I set the group policy and haven’t seen a single thing about Windows 11 popup on her computer… yet. But I have Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC flashed to a usb stick taped to her computer in case they find a workaround for that.
    
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atmorous@lemmy.world ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
MORE!! MORE!!!

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billbasher@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Is Battefield 6 supported? That is the only thing fully getting off Windows

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- NikkiDimes@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  It’s not that it’s not supported by Linux, it’s that rhe developers of BF6 choose not to support Linux.
  
  Personally speaking, fuck EA and fuck kernel level anti cheat, good riddance.
  
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  - billbasher@lemmy.world ⁨41⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
    Yeah kernel level anti cheat sucks. But I like Battlefield. But yeah i’m with ya F Ea
    
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  - Credibly_Human@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Also fuck giving saudi arabia money.
    
    “bUt ThEy DoNt OwN tHeM yEt”
    
    The price has been settled on, so any success from here on out absolutely does directly benefit the saudis.
    
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- scala@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Technically you can with Bazzite.
  
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IndustryStandard@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Gamers be rising up

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Anarki_@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I’m doing my part!

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sabertooth36@startrek.website ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I’ve tried playing Steam games, but my hard drives are all NTFS and the Linux (Mint) partition is exFat, and it seems like they don’t play nicely together. Since i don’t want to move all my steam games to an exFat partition, I’m holding off on switching. But until I get around to overhauling my storage and go single drive, I’m gonna stick with Windows using as many FOSS apps as possible.

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- Ganbat@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  They can play nicely, it just requires some work. The NTFS-3G driver can map Windows users to Linux users and translate the permissions so that it basically Just Works™️ under both operating systems.
  
  Here’s some documentation. There are also tools you can use under both Windows and Linux to generate UserMapping files. I wish I could help more, but I did this a couple years ago and have forgotten the details since then
  
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- nialv7@lemmy.world ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Linux on exfat?! Do you mean ext4?
  
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- Zink@programming.dev ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  When I switched over my home desktop to Mint, it was a very short time before I looked at Windows and said “I’m too old for this shit.” I mean, the reason I am a Mint fan in the first place is that I am a FOSS loving nerd but with a family and pets and hobbies and a career and a middle aged energy level. The decades I’ve spent fixing Windows based PCs is enough for a lifetime, thx.
  
  I say consolidate old files you want to keep. Shuffle them between drives as necessary to be able to format everything. Go all ext4 on the drives you already have. (once you’re ready)
  
  This is the way.
  
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- anugeshtu@lemmy.world ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  I feel you. I have my old PC with quiet an “ancient” chipset. Installed an NVMe and installed Linux on it… Just to find out that my AHCI controller isn’t supported by it with all my Windows hard drives. It’s either booting that NVMe with the Linux one or booting the deprecated Windows ones from BIOS. 12-13 years of reliable hardware… :/ Hope there is a kernel patch supporting it again
  
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FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I’m one of them. Huzzah.

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RejZoR@lemmy.ml ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I have 4 computers, only gaming one is still running Windows, other 3 were moved to Linux few years ago when Microsoft started with forced online accounts bs because I couldn’t be bothered dealing with stupid bypasses. Two are running Ubuntu, one is running Fedora. Those are never going back to Windows.

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- sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Sweet. Hopefully one day your use case will be resolved so the last one can move as well.
  
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MyNameIsIgglePiggle@sh.itjust.works ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
It’s the year of the Linux hand held desktop

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sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I’m guessing that once we get to 5% excluding console-like systems like Steam Deck, we’ll see it start to explode. That didn’t happen for macOS, probably because of the cost of the hardware, whereas Linux can be installed on whatever you have.

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W3dd1e@lemmy.zip ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
The year of Linux!

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Katana314@lemmy.world ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I’m dual booting with Windows because of a project I’m finishing that would be difficult to move OS, but Cachy is now my gaming OS. It’s nice to move away from the “forced” behavior from Windows.

Tangentially, a few UI decisions felt locked-in on Ubuntu and Mint too; or at least I couldn’t find an easy way to change them. I’m still a little annoyed my scroll wheel changes form options but it’s a minor thing.

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