Let me guess. When you read the title, what came to your mind were free games like Super Tux and Super Tux Kart that casual gamers usually play. Most of you probably are not aware that Windows is not the only OS (operating system) where you can play games from various genres such as racing, 1st person shooters, RPG, simulators, action, strategy, horror, and online multiplayer. Linux, a free OS, can be a viable alternative to Windows for gaming purposes. Both Windows and Linux has been around for more than 20 years already but Linux is still not widely used on desktop PC’s. Just ask your schoolmates, co-workers, friends or family relatives what OS they use for their desktop PC and probably almost all of them will answer Windows. There are many supposed reasons why Linux is not widely adopted on desktop PC’s but I wouldn’t discuss it here since doing so will make this article unnecessarily very long and boring for gamers. What I would be focusing on are the current state of gaming on Linux and setting up your PC for gaming on Linux.

Game Library

The image above shows some of the currently available games on Linux and it proves that you can play a lot of modern and popular games on Linux. With that, some of you may wonder why is it that almost all PC gamers are using Windows. For a brief history, Valve Corporation released Steam for Linux only last February 14, 2013 which is about 10 years behind from the Windows release. As of May 14, 2016, there are only about 2,000 Linux games on Steam while there are more than 8,000 Windows games on Steam. The reason for the huge difference in available games is that many well-known game developers don’t make games for Linux. That is why popular game franchises such as Batman: Arkham, Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, NBA 2K, Need For Speed, and Resident Evil are not available on Linux. Another issue gamers need to be aware of is the release date of the Linux version of games. Worst-case scenario example is the 2013 reboot of Tomb Raider. It was released for Windows on March 5, 2013 and it took about 3 years before it was released on Linux. Of course, things are improving as newer games have a Linux release closer to the Windows release and some even have a simultaneous release on both operating systems. For reference, I have made a list of of popular games showing the release date on Windows and on Linux.

As you can see, there are many popular games you cannot play on Linux. But don’t worry, gaming on Linux is not that bad. Here is a partial list of games currently available on Linux.

Still not happy? Here are upcoming games on Linux which are officially confirmed by their respective developers.

Image Quality and Performance

I have a good news and a bad news. The good news is that the image quality on Windows and on Linux are the same. Kindly refer to the screenshot comparisons in which maximum image quality settings were used.

Tomb Raider (2013) – Windows vs Linux

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor – Windows vs Linux

Dying Light – Windows vs Linux

Now, the not so bad news is performance on Linux is usually lower than that of Windows. The benchmarks results  of Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Tomb Raider (2013) shown below are from the built-in benchmark tool. Currently, there is no frame rate monitoring tool on Linux that is as user-friendly as FRAPS. The GPU drivers used for the benchmarks are GeForce 361.42 on Ubuntu MATE 16.04 LTS and GeForce 359.06 on Windows 10. All of the image quality settings in Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor were set to HIGH except for Mesh Quality and Texture Filtering which were set to ULTRA. In Tomb Raider (2013), all image quality settings were only set to NORMAL except for Texture Quality and Level of Detail which were set to ULTRA.

As shown in the benchmark results, the average frame rates in Windows 10 were higher by 42.8% and 74.1% in Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and in Tomb Raider (2013), respectively. In terms of gaming experience, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor was very playable and you wouldn’t notice the difference between the 2 operating systems. Tomb Raider (2013) was also playable but there are sections were the frame rate would drop to around 25-30 frames per second. Turning off TressFX did not improve the frame rate in those sections. I have also added a Unigine Heaven 4.0 benchmark because the Windows version can be run in DirectX 11 mode and in OpenGL mode. The average frame rate in Windows is only higher by 12.5% in Unigine Heaven 4.0 benchmark.

Some may say that the lower performance is probably because of OpenGL being inferior to DirectX. Performance comparison on XCOM 2 shows that it is possible to have the same performance on Windows and on Linux. (Fast forward the video to 2:22 for the side-by-side comparison)

In DOTA 2, Linux performance surpasses Windows performance (Fast forward the video to 1:11 for the side-by-side comparison).

Since I mentioned OpenGL, a graphics API that runs on Windows and on Linux, and DirectX, a graphics API that runs on Windows only, perhaps I should also inform you about Vulkan. It’s supposed to be a replacement for OpenGL and is compatible with Windows and with Linux. Doom, one of the iconic PC games, had a remake this 2016 and supports Vulkan.

Setting Up a Linux Gaming PC

Hardware
I assume you already have a gaming PC with Windows but in case you are building a new gaming PC and wants to try Linux, here are the recommended components you can start with.

CPU: Intel Core i3 6100 3.7 GHz (LGA 1151)

GPU: AMD Radeon R9 380 or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950

RAM: 8GB DDR4 2400 MHz

Storage: 1TB HDD or 500GB SSD

Power Supply: Seasonic S12II 520 watts

Installing a Linux Distribution
Linux is a free and open-source operating system. Open-source means anyone can modify it to suit different types of users. Think of distributions as versions of Linux. I don’t want to confuse you with the large number of Linux distributions, so, I highly recommend you use Ubuntu MATE for your first try of Linux. Its graphical user interface is similar to Windows which is great for first time users of Linux.

To install Ubuntu MATE, you are going to need an ISO image, a USB with at least 2GB capacity, and a software that will let you make a USB installer. There are 2 stable versions of Ubuntu MATE right now, 16.04 LTS and 15.10. I recommend you install Ubuntu MATE 16.04 LTS and you can download the ISO image here. Once you have the ISO image, you need to download Rufus so you can make a USB installer. Rufus only runs on Windows.

There are 3 options in which you can install Ubuntu MATE:

1. If you only have 1 drive, do a clean installation of Ubuntu MATE which will delete your Windows installation.

2. If you only have 1 drive, install Ubuntu MATE alongside Windows on the same drive. This is called dual-booting.

3. If you have 2 drives or more, install Ubuntu MATE on a separate drive so you don’t have to mess with the drive where your Windows installation is. Just change the drive boot priority in the BIOS if you want to switch between Windows and Linux.

Option 1 is the easiest since the majority of the installation process is automated but I don’t think many gamers would want it. The best is Option 3 if you have 2 drives or more.

After you have installed Ubuntu MATE, you need not to worry about drivers since almost all PC components will work right away without having to install drivers. However, you need to change the driver for your GPU since Linux uses an open-source driver for your GPU by default. To install a vendor-specific (AMD or NVIDIA) driver for your GPU, go to System Settings then look for Driver Manager. You would see a list of available drivers for your GPU then select the vendor-specific driver. Restart the PC once the driver installation is done.

Buying and Installing Games on Linux
Before you can play games, you must install Steam first. You can install it via Ubuntu MATE’s Welcome. To access Welcome, click on “System” in the main task bar on the desktop, then look for Welcome. In the Welcome window, click on “Software” then go to “Games” category. Scroll down until you see Steam. Click on “Install”.

Once the installation is done, run Steam to download the additional files of the program which is around 250MB in size. After that, you can now log in to your Steam account and start browsing the Steam store. The process of installing games on Linux is the same with Windows. In case there are games you want to replay on Linux, you have to re-download the game because the Steam game files on Windows cannot be recognized on Linux.

Steam is not the only game distribution service available on Linux. On August 19, 2014, GOG started supporting Linux. Games sold on GOG do not have DRM which means no online activation required and you can install the game on any PC with an unlimited number of times. While that sounds good, many Linux games are not available on GOG. As of May 14, 2016, there are only about 450 Linux games on GOG which is very small compared to the 2,000 Linux games on Steam.

Installing game pads
The instructions below are from Feral Interactive

Set up a wired Xbox 360 controller

1. To set up a wired Xbox 360 controller, simply connect it to your computer via a USB port.

Set up a wireless Xbox 360 controller

1. Plug the Wireless Gaming Receiver into a USB socket on your computer.
2. Turn on your Xbox 360 controller by pressing the Xbox button.
3. Press the button on the Wireless Gaming Receiver. The light will flash green, indicating that it’s scanning for a controller to connect to.
4. Press the connect button on the back of your Xbox 360 controller. This will pair your Xbox 360 controller with the Wireless Gaming Receiver. You only need to do this the first time you set up your controller. (Known issue: If you’re using a wireless Xbox 360 controller, the green connection LED will continue to flash even after pairing.)
5. Your computer will recognize the wireless controller and you’ll be good to go.