SteamOS outperforms Windows on the Lenovo Legion Go S in both speed and battery life

[user556]

DirectX is a complete specialised gaming environment. It is there and optimised just for games. The argument that Windoze is only a general purpose OS doesn't hold any water at all.

 

[OortCloud]

It's pretty damning for Windows that a Linux-based OS with 'Steam Play' (basically the emulation layers from Wine and DXVK required to translate the Windows API/DirectX calls required to run games into Linux/Vulkan equivalents) can run those games quicker than the native environment...

 

[gamerk2]

A general purpose OS does worse against the handheld-optimized gaming OS, on a handheld gaming device.

What a surprise /s

My take as well. Though I suspect other factors are also in play, since those background tasks shouldn't be causing FPS hits on the order of 10+ frames.

 

[Liranan]

It's pretty damning for Windows that a Linux-based OS with 'Steam Play' (basically the emulation layers from Wine and DXVK required to translate the Windows API/DirectX calls required to run games into Linux/Vulkan equivalents) can run those games quicker than the native environment...

If EVE and a few other games I play ran well in Linux under Proton I'd dump Windows and never look back. I run Linux on my server, laptop and several VM's, I only use Windows for gaming, nothing else.

 

[yRaz]

And it's so disappointing to me when tech people who like linux are not realistic about the pitfalls of linux and can't fathom or admit that the majority of people who might use an OS wouldn't have the patience or time to get everything working (like with an OS that has a multi-billion dollar company behind it).

Seriously, linux isn't perfect. Don't act like a little bit of studying will remedy all of linux's problems for everyone...

this post right here shows me that you have little to no experience with Linux. Not every Linux distro is like Arch where you have to install everything from the command line. The vast majority of distros have auto configuration tools that run in the background and you have no idea they're even there. You install it, run an updater to install all your drivers and you're good to go.

There are distros like Mint where if you have to use the command line for something, something has gone SERIOUSLY wrong for you.

And do you know why I choose Mint as my goto? Because I don't use Linux to satisfy my own ego. I want an OS that just works and I don't want to have to think about how it works. I spend more time being angry at my Windows 11 work laptop than I do thinking about how my Mint install on my main PC works.

everyone keeps saying that the Linux users are delusional but I can tell from many of the anti-linux posts that most of those people haven't even tried it or their last attempted was 10+ years ago

 

[yRaz]

If EVE and a few other games I play ran well in Linux under Proton I'd dump Windows and never look back. I run Linux on my server, laptop and several VM's, I only use Windows for gaming, nothing else.

I've been playing EVE on Linux for years. they actually had a linux client for awhile but the offical recommendation is that EVE runs so well under proton that they suggest running EVE through steam in Linux and they discontinued their old Linux client.

 

[user556]

I've been playing EVE on Linux for years. they actually had a linux client for awhile but the offical recommendation is that EVE runs so well under proton that they suggest running EVE through steam in Linux and they discontinued their old Linux client.

That happened long before Steam. There was a thriving Eve Wine community when I gave Eve a spin in 2006. The official Eve Linux client came and went pretty quickly because it was rubbish in both game performance and graphics ability in comparison to what was already usable via Wine.

And now Steam + Proton makes it as easy as a native game.

 

[yRaz]

That happened long before Steam. There was a thriving Eve Wine community when I gave Eve a spin in 2006. The official Eve Linux client came and went pretty quickly because it was rubbish in both game performance and graphics ability in comparison to what was already usable via Wine.

And now Steam + Proton makes it as easy as a native game.

Im glad to know that. ive been playing eve since 2010, but I didn't start taking Linux seriously until 2019.

 

[m4a4]

this post right here shows me that you have little to no experience with Linux. Not every Linux distro is like Arch where you have to install everything from the command line. The vast majority of distros have auto configuration tools that run in the background and you have no idea they're even there. You install it, run an updater to install all your drivers and you're good to go.

There are distros like Mint where if you have to use the command line for something, something has gone SERIOUSLY wrong for you.

And do you know why I choose Mint as my goto? Because I don't use Linux to satisfy my own ego. I want an OS that just works and I don't want to have to think about how it works. I spend more time being angry at my Windows 11 work laptop than I do thinking about how my Mint install on my main PC works.

everyone keeps saying that the Linux users are delusional but I can tell from many of the anti-linux posts that most of those people haven't even tried it or their last attempted was 10+ years ago

I never said that every distro needs a power user to use. As someone who uses my PC to do work too, I can't trust linux to run every odd piece of software as Windows can during work hours.

And that's why I'm calling out your BS. Just stop with typical linux "it magically works if you use X distro, this time". You can't even admit that it still has some compatibility problems here. Abrasive and unrealistic in a tech forum, no less

 

[yRaz]

I never said that every distro needs a power user to use. As someone who uses my PC to do work too, I can't trust linux to run every odd piece of software as Windows can during work hours.

And that's why I'm calling out your BS. Just stop with typical linux "it magically works if you use X distro, this time". You can't even admit that it still has some compatibility problems here.

Mind citing what issues you're talking about? this whole debate would go a lot smoother if you would actually tell what you're talking about.

As far as software compatibility goes, I have no problem downloading a Crack for software I own to get it to run on Linux because 99.9% of the compatibility issues the Linux community deals with today are related to DRM, nothing inherent to how the software runs

 

[Liranan]

I've been playing EVE on Linux for years. they actually had a linux client for awhile but the offical recommendation is that EVE runs so well under proton that they suggest running EVE through steam in Linux and they discontinued their old Linux client.

I would love to know how you installed EVE because I haven't been able to install it in Proton or Lutris, the client won't start (crashes on startup without reaching the client interface).

 

[m4a4]

Mind citing what issues you're talking about? this whole debate would go a lot smoother if you would actually tell what you're talking about.

As far as software compatibility goes, I have no problem downloading a Crack for software I own to get it to run on Linux because 99.9% of the compatibility issues the Linux community deals with today are related to DRM, nothing inherent to how the software runs

Last I checked, XR development on linux wasn't very well supported. And that's something that just needs to work.

And it's not really a debate. Only 1 side is willing to admit faults on their side (despite all of the longstanding issues).

 

[user556]

I would love to know how you installed EVE because I haven't been able to install it in Proton or Lutris, the client won't start (crashes on startup without reaching the client interface).

I don't remember anything in particular from when I tested a year or two back when I got another graphics card. I'm pretty certain it just worked. Sometimes there is hints in the Proton database - https://www.protondb.com/app/8500

EDIT: Ouch, damn, I spent 852 hours in that one test out! Just reinstalling it now.

Config paste:
[HEADING=2]Operating System Version:[/HEADING]
Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS (64 bit)
Kernel Name: Linux
Kernel Version: 6.11.0-1013-lowlatency
X Server Vendor: The X.Org Foundation
X Server Release: 12101011
X Window Manager: KWin
Steam Runtime Version: steam-runtime_1.0.20250408.124523

[HEADING=2]Video Card:[/HEADING]
Driver: AMD AMD Radeon RX 6800 (radeonsi, navi21, LLVM 19.1.7, DRM 3.59, 6.11.0-1013-lowlatency)
Driver Version: 4.6 (Compatibility Profile) Mesa 25.1.1
Desktop Color Depth: 24 bits per pixel
Monitor Refresh Rate: 59 Hz
VendorID: 0x1002
DeviceID: 0x73bf
Revision Not Detected
Number of Monitors: 1
Number of Logical Video Cards: 1
Primary Display Resolution: 3840 x 2160
Desktop Resolution: 3840 x 2160
Primary Display Size: EDIT: (was listed wrong) is 43 "
Primary VRAM: 16384 MB

 

[user556]

Seems to be all working. Installed Eve and it ran first try. Started a new pilot and had a spin around one of the starter star systems. Had to sometimes wait with a frozen display while shaders/textures got loaded. I think I saw it say it was using D3D12 so that is likely a reason why. I didn't play with the settings.

 

[Burty117]

Windows "just works" in comparison to Linux. It's (still) not at a point where that all can be claimed with a straight face.

What? Non-techies (parents, girlfriends, most of my friends in general) still would never re-install Windows without help, or even transfer between two Windows based machines without someone more computer savy giving them the nod they're doing it correctly.

Windows doesn't "just work", that's just simply false, Windows is god awful today, it's the most popular simply because everything works on it, everything works on it because it's the biggest fish in the sea.

Also, have you used Linux recently? Because damn, if you find Windows "just works", you might be fairly impressed at how well Linux works.

 

[m4a4]

...simply because everything works on it, everything works on it because it's the biggest fish in the sea.

*Sigh*

 

[Burty117]

*Sigh*

So that’s your whole argument? The whole world should stick to Windows and nothing should ever change?

 

[m4a4]

So that’s your whole argument? The whole world should stick to Windows and nothing should ever change?

You contradicted yourself and you don't even see the irony.

My whole point against linux is that things don't "just work" like Windows, and you admitted it (after denying it). There's nothing wrong with that (linux doesn't have the backing for it), but you people take it not as fact but as me spitting on linux. It would be funny if it wasn't so sad seeing so many replies missing the point and being dumb about it.

But for that alone, we're done here too. Yet another missing the forest for the trees...

 

[Eldrach]

Well - Microsoft apparently needs to make a diet OS for handhelds. Exclude all the crappy background processes and I think it would be a great choice for handhelds

 

[Bamda]

"optimized"? SteamOS is just Arch, it's not some dedicated OS like the vita or 3DS.

And steamOS can still run general purpose software too. Windows has just become such a bloated mess of spy and nagware that it cant beat the speed of Linux even with native API support on its side.

You put linux on a normal gaming PC and compare the same games on that system VS windows, you will see the same thing. Windows just blows now.
This is why SteamOS is built on Arch and not Debian.

You are wrong. SteamOS is optimized. In fact, there is a recent interview with one of the developers behind Bazzite and he tells you all about the optimizations that Valve has done and he only covers a few examples.

Just more stupidity spoken by blowhart buffoons.

 

[Burty117]

You contradicted yourself and you don't even see the irony.

My whole point against linux is that things don't "just work" like Windows, and you admitted it (after denying it). There's nothing wrong with that (linux doesn't have the backing for it), but you people take it not as fact but as me spitting on linux. It would be funny if it wasn't so sad seeing so many replies missing the point and being dumb about it.

But for that alone, we're done here too. Yet another missing the forest for the trees...

Man its really hard to explain it in words, if I stick a USB stick into a computer to re-build it, Windows or Linux, Linux is actually the easier of the two, no forced Microsoft account, no having to add registry keys, no commands to skip menu's etc...

If I want to just download a basic word processor, or browser, or Discord, TeamSpeak, popular things, Linux is easier, most distro's, in-fact we'll stick with SteamOS, just has an app store type deal, search for what you're after, press install, don't even need to open the forced default browser to get most apps.

Now if I want to play video games on Steam, it's practically as easy as it is on Windows, it's games outside of Steam that needs a little work, which to be fair, it isn't a lot, add battle.net and any games installed through it, to Steam as non-steam games, pick a proton version to use, boom, they're working (as an example, I've had WoW working fine on the SteamDeck, the hardest part was getting the mods for controller support to work, which is the exact same process as the Windows version).

What I find gets a little bit more messy are older windows apps that need to run through some kind of emulation layer like WINE, sure that's absolutely more work than Windows.

For the home user, Linux is actually easier now in a lot of aspects, Honestly, if developers spent some time making sure their games or apps worked in Linux through Proton, I could see Linux getting more and more into the home user space, once enough people have moved, you might start to see native support start to rise.

For business? Microsoft's Intune, Active Directory, Group Policies etc... That's not something businesses can just replace all that easily. Windows at work might be here to stay for a while longer.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, the harder you squeeze, the more that slips through your fingers. Microsoft either backs off with all the tracking nonsense, adverts, forced browser, forced Microsoft account etc... (it's a fairly big list at this point) or they will legitimately annoy enough people to try something new, Linux might just be up for the challenge these days.

Edit: I don't take it as you "spitting" on Linux, you are essentially saying "nothing should ever change" without much to back it up. Your version of "just works" is very different to mine, you don't mind all the tracking, forced Microsoft accounts, any hardware older than 2017 can just go in the bin, you don't mind all that, to me, none of that spells "just works".

 

[yRaz]

Last I checked, XR development on linux wasn't very well supported. And that's something that just needs to work.

And it's not really a debate. Only 1 side is willing to admit faults on their side (despite all of the longstanding issues).

so I didn't understand what you were talking about when you said that and I did some research on the topic. If what you're talking about is as I understand it, this is foolish to argue about because it is a non-issue for several reasons

 

[m4a4]

so I didn't understand what you were talking about when you said that and I did some research on the topic. If what you're talking about is as I understand it, this is foolish to argue about because it is a non-issue for several reasons

Dismissed, because it doesn't fit the box you want to impose on how perfect linux must be. And that was just 1 compatibility example from me personally where it doesn't "just work" (no surprise there).
How are so many linux evangelists so detached from reality? (Rhetorical, we're done here)

 

[yRaz]

Dismissed, because it doesn't fit the box you want to impose on how perfect linux must be. And that was just 1 compatibility example from me personally where it doesn't "just work" (no surprise there).
How are so many linux evangelists so detached from reality? (Rhetorical, we're done here)

How am I linux evangelist? I literally use the distro that other linux users make fun of because it's "too easy"