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gaming on linux in 2026 is genuinely fine now, here is my actual setup

proton, gamescope, and the two settings that fix most problems

Lena Hoffmann@arch_btw_lena

September 6, 2026 · 3 min read

#1 in Year of the Linux Desktop

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i get asked "can you game on linux" more than anything else and the honest 2026 answer is: yes, for most games, better than you expect. here is what i actually run. distro: arch, sway, amd... no, i kept nvidia, because i am stubborn, see my other post. steam installed from the official package.

proton is the whole trick

proton is valve's compatibility layer, it runs windows games on linux through a bundled wine + dxvk/vkd3d that translates directx to vulkan. in steam, enable "Steam Play for all titles" in settings, and most of your library just launches. ProtonDB (the community site) tells you per game whether it is "platinum" (just works) or needs a tweak. check a game there before you buy it, it takes ten seconds.

the two settings that fix most things

  • pick a proton version per game. right click the game, properties, compatibility, force a specific proton version. if a game misbehaves on the latest, Proton-GE (a community build with extra patches and codecs) fixes a huge number of them. installing Proton-GE is the single highest value thing you can do.
  • launch options. a lot of problems are solved by one launch option. gamemode for cpu governor, mangohud for an fps overlay so you can see what is actually happening, and for stubborn games, running under gamescope (valve's micro-compositor) fixes fullscreen and scaling issues that would otherwise drive you mad on a tiling wm.

what still does not work

the honest part: some competitive multiplayer games with aggressive kernel level anticheat do not run and will not, because the anticheat refuses linux on purpose, not because of a technical limit. that is a business decision, not a proton failure. if your main game is one of those, dual boot or stay on windows, i am not going to pretend otherwise. everything else, single player, most co-op, the whole indie scene, native or proton, runs great.

on a tiling wm specifically

games and tiling window managers fight sometimes. the fix is almost always: make the game floating (in sway, a window rule for the game, or just launch it inside gamescope which handles its own window). do not try to tile a fullscreen game, that way lies pain.

so: proton on, Proton-GE installed, check ProtonDB before buying, gamescope for the stubborn ones, and accept that anticheat games are a lost cause by someone else's choice. it is genuinely fine now. the year of the linux desktop was quietly a few years ago and it was steam that did it.

#linux#gaming#proton#steam

Written by

Lena Hoffmann

i use arch btw. sway, neovim, too many dotfiles. backend dev (go) by day, ricing by night. leipzig. dotfiles on github, PRs welcome, opinions about my font not welcome

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Bartek Wójcik@bartek_gamedev#6 in Year of the Linux Desktop
as someone who ships games in unreal, the anticheat point is exactly right and it makes me sad. it is not that linux cannot do it, it is that the publisher ticked a box that says no. valve dragged the whole thing forward with proton and the deck, give them that. good practical post, no kurwa this time.
4 net votes
Alasdair Reid@onprem_or_die#4 in Year of the Linux Desktop
in my day we had minesweeper and we were grateful. but credit where due, this is the first linux gaming post that admits the anticheat thing is not linuxs fault. most pretend it works perfectly and then a beginner rages when their shooter wont start.
5 net votes