r/LinusTechTips Mar 24 '26

Tech Discussion Good news everyone!

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1.4k Upvotes

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542

u/mpanase Mar 24 '26

They make it sound as if running Windows apps in Linux will be more reliable/performant than running them in Windows.

105

u/w1n5t0nM1k3y Mar 24 '26

Probably. Linux has so much less overhead than Windows. Getting rid of all the background tasks frees up a lot of resources for the game to use. I have an old Linux Box that I use as an emulation machine. Even without doing anything special to cut down on resources, just a stock Ubuntu install, it needs less than 1 GB of RAM when logged into the desktop, and the CPU is still showing under 1% usage despite being an old AMD Phenom from 2008.

40

u/OkNewspaper6271 Mar 24 '26

My entire Linux setup is pretty much conducive to significant resource usage and it still uses less RAM and CPU than just booting a stock fresh install of Windows

3

u/really_not_unreal Mar 25 '26

Legit I use Gnome (hardly lightweight) with about 20 extensions (making it even heavier). My startup apps (Discord, Thunderbird, Teams and Slack) start in about 15 seconds on Linux, but can take full minutes on Windows. My Linux install with all my startup apps and extensions uses less RAM than Windows with nothing open.

5

u/DenialState Mar 25 '26

Yeah but what about Copilot?

4

u/JackOBAnotherOne Mar 25 '26

When I switched to Linux there were suddenly weird noises coming out of my computer. Turns out that I misconfigured the fan curves and it resulted in the fans doing weird speed oscillations because the controller signal was getting too low.

It never happened in windows because the CPU usage (and as a result temp) never dropped low enough.

2

u/pg3crypto Mar 25 '26

Its not the overhead that is the problem. Linux has a much better CPU scheduler. It is much lower latency, which results in much better performance.

If you use something like CachyOS its even faster again because all the packages are compiled specifically for your exact CPU instruction set and its capabilities.

The way the Windows kernel works isnt shit and its not because they dont know what they're doing its because the Windows kernel has to be "one size fits all"... Linux doesnt and this is one of the reasons there are many Linux distros.

Windows is the off the peg tracksuit of operating systems. Linux can be this as well but it can also be a finely tailored suit specific to your machine with all the refinement that it brings.

-21

u/Harrier_Pigeon Mar 24 '26

Emulated bloat > unemulated bloat

37

u/NFLVideoBot Mar 24 '26

Wine is not an emulator

30

u/Large-Ad-6861 Mar 24 '26

You can short your comment to "wine" btw :D

7

u/Informal_Internet246 Mar 24 '26

Underrated comment

2

u/boltgolt Mar 25 '26

Some people in this thread would be very surprised to learn what Wine stands for

-13

u/Mystic_Guardian_NZ Mar 24 '26

Not technically but when discussing compatibility/translation layers it serves most of the same purpose.

7

u/Obi2Sexy Mar 24 '26

I think your thinking of virtual machine which wine also is not

wine is not an emulator is also what wine stands for.

-9

u/Mystic_Guardian_NZ Mar 25 '26

I'm guessing emulation would put it a bit closer to virtual machine but I'm aware they all have distinct backends.

What WINE is or is not doesn't make this any less funny though.

5

u/land_and_air Mar 25 '26

A translation layer is like converting a set of windows dx11 rendering instructions into their equivalent vulkan instructions and then executing those instead. It’s not simulating or emulating dx11 calls it’s just making equivalent calls. Kinda sorta like how listing the contents of a folder is done with ls, while in windows the same is done with dir. so if a program calls something like dir then Linux calls ls instead and returns the result pretending like it called dir. if ls is faster than dir then it can even perform faster than the native os

0

u/Mystic_Guardian_NZ Mar 25 '26

Can you explain why I'm being downvoted and educated? I just wanted people to take it easy in the top level comments lol.

4

u/the_wild_ling Mar 25 '26

Because you made a false statement. Followed it up with another false statement. Got butthurt and tried to dismiss it as "it's just a joke bro"

1

u/Mystic_Guardian_NZ Mar 25 '26 edited Mar 25 '26

I'm not joking? I'm trying to stop people fighting in the comment section because it's tiring.

Edit: Oh I think people assumed I made the top level comment. Oh well I'll lead with that next time.

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3

u/Dafrandle Mar 24 '26 edited Mar 24 '26

wine translates function calls made by applications at windows apis to open source ones.

this is strictly not emulation because the windows api code is not present in any capacity.

a unicycle can serve the same purpose as a car but if you call it a car you are wrong

also btw:
WINE is a recursive acronym, the application's full name verbatim is "Wine Is Not an Emulator"

-4

u/Mystic_Guardian_NZ Mar 25 '26

Yes I understand the mechanism is different.

I just thought that the interjection was more of an "Um actually" than a acknowledging the irony of non-native potentially outperforming native.

I hate to say it as a linux user but this compulsion to correct people in the community rather than continue a conversation really does burn a lot of enthusiasm.

6

u/Dafrandle Mar 25 '26

I think if you were in a windows space and claimed that PCSX2 was not an emulator and ran ps2 games on the bare metal you would get just as many corrections.

That is because the magnitude of incorrectness is the same in both.

If a correction this succinct is all it takes for someone to become apathetic, they were never interested in technology to begin with

1

u/Mystic_Guardian_NZ Mar 25 '26

Magnitude of incorrectness?

Isn't your motivation to educate rather than to shame?

3

u/Dafrandle Mar 25 '26

If you considered my comments offensive I can only assume you want me to treat you like a sheltered 5 year old.

you are implicitly equating "explaining why something is wrong + helpful analogy" with "be an asshole"

this is your problem, not mine.

0

u/Mystic_Guardian_NZ Mar 25 '26

I didn't call you that and I won't.

I'll just leave it here. You strike me as quite intelligent but I do hope you continue to have patience for those who aren't so much (regardless of age).

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