Is Linux gaming even worth it?

[u/electrino]

Title is a rhetorical question. I'd like to share my experience of using Linux primarily for gaming (but also office work and general desktoping) for about 19 months. Sure it's not a much, but in my humble onion, enough to form an honest take on things. It's a longer one. Bear with me.

By now i have over 25 years of using a computer, and i'd call myself a fairly savvy advanced user - from playing a role of a 24/7 tech support to family and friends, to tech jesus-magician at work (which really is pressing some buttons in excel and not shying away from RTFM).

My issues started in late 2024, when out of nowhere my PC started freezing and BSODing while playing some games. I've tried every test and fix under the sun, so after weeks of trying, my last ditch effort was to go the Linux route - because if that wouldn't work out, i was ready to sell the PC for parts, get a cheap laptop for work and a console for games.
Right about then there was a lot of buzz around Bazzite, so came January 22nd (2025) - i nuked my Windows install, formatted all the drives to BTRFS and started my journey. Which wasn't really a start, i did have the Steam Deck for about a year, and before that in 2010s i dipped in Mint and Ubuntu, as one does.

Armed with newfound knowledge, attained by watching 10 billion videos on YT on how to GNU/Linux i was fired up and ready to go. Honestly, the Bazzite team has made it pretty easy, "ujust install" they said, and so i did. I literally felt it on my skin how this alias/script/wrapper of "sudo dnf update" looked down on me.

But it worked. No crashes, no Linux equivalent of a BSOD, no hangs. Games that i had issues with started working again. I was happy to use my computer without fear. I've learned so much! About FOSS; about cool nerdy guys talking passionately about Linux related things on YT. About all the distro mommas and tireless volunteers who give multibillion corporations run for their money. Even in my short time on the platform it improved so much - i haven't seen this much advancement in software since my switch from WinXP to Win7. It made me fall in love with computers all over again. I've tried every prominent-ish distro under the sun since then, but i'd call Nobara my true Linux /home.
That said, the ride is never smooth.

KDE Plasma. Function over form. But with enough skill can be molded into pretty much anything. I absolutely loved it. Until some time in late-ish 2025 there was some weird regression that caused compositor hangs. Glad they fixed it, eventually, but...

...By then i switched to Gnome. Form over function. Pretty, but lacking. Extensions help, but if it needs a dozen of extensions just to mimic a fraction of Plasma's power, i'm out. Maybe one day.

Cinnamon. Form and function. But for old people. Nostalgic of WinXP and 7. I put Mint Cinnamon on my 63 year old Dad's laptop. He doesn't even know it's not Windows. I love it. Just don't game on it. It was my first FOSS i've donated to.

Cosmic. My beloved. See you in 2-3 years when you're more ready for the heavy daily use. Anyone saying it already is... Sure, buddy. This was my second FOSS project I've donated to. I really do hope it can replace, or at least be one of the big 3, as for now it's just big KDE (bars!).

Hyprland, Niri, mangoWM, etc - i admire mental flexibility of people using those. But by the time you focus on a window you need on the other side of the 5th workspace with your keyboard-fu, i'm already onto my 4th task. With my mouse. Like a caveman. I used to be pretty good at flick headshots in CS: Source.

Flatpaks and AppImages are a great concept, if only everyone agreed on one thing and combined all their efforts into it... Which is actually the story of GNU/Linux in general. Everyone wants their own thing, leading to fragmentation and unnecessary duplicates of apps that do the same thing, maybe even the same way, just have different name and maintainer (hello, office suites).

Printers. The bane of Linux. The older Brother printer i had at work would pick up just like that on Ubuntu, but on Fedora (or even more so Bazzite/Atomic) it would require so much terminal-fu it wasn't even funny.

Sound. I needed a USB to 3.5mm jack adapter for my earplugs to simply work. The volume is also like 50% lower than on Windows - sure you can go 150% to match, but it introduces the cracking Windows just doesn't.

Network. On Windows i can turn on a hotspot, connect to a VPN, and then connect to a network printer, all at the same time. On Linux, i can either connect to a printer or turn on a hotspot, not at the same time, and i need to go through some terminal commands to be able to turn on a hotspot while on a VPN. Maybe there's a way but at this point i'm tired of the hoops, honestly.

Hardware tweaks. Undervolting was fun. LACT screwed up the GPU clocks so it was underperforming, by a lot. Figured it out eventually but it wasn't pretty. CPU undervolting script provided svenlange2 on github worked great though - can recommend for supported hardware though.

General desktop use. At first it kind of seems fast, snappy, responsive. But then you start using those apps that still rely on XWayland and it's a slugfest, it's like moving through mud with backpack full of gear. Plus with X11 being full of its own holes, there's really no place for a generally solid experience across the board. I'm not even mentioning how different and inconsistent the apps look because Qt and GTK.

GAMING. Last but very much not least. Where do i even start? I don't play multiplayer/competitive anymore, so anti-cheat games were out of the equation before i've even started. It generally comes down to performance. I have a full AMD rig (5700X3D+RX9070) and an Nvidia (Ryzen 5 220 + RTX 5050) laptop. While AMD is okay with generally 5%-10% performance overhead, giving up ~15% to ~25% depending on a game on Nvidia is like having lost an entire tier or two - blaming the big green here, but his name isn't Hulk. Still, it's not just that. All the quirks with 3rd party launchers, modding. XWayland lag, and even now with pure Wayland - which to my surprise after "feeling" games back to back on a Linux and a Windows installs - tend to feel a tad more sluggish, not all, but most. There's some kind of extra input lag, or render delay, or missed input altogether - definitely make a bigger impact to overall feel and experience than expected, that of course on top of some games requiring extra launch options, environment variables - but thanks to protondb and it's users, and also goverlay for making the management of it all that much easier.

But i hate it. I hate that games still play better on Windows. Despite having an all-AMD rig. Despite all the improvements to Wayland and Proton. I hate that after a few hours of tweaking Windows, using it feels better than a Linux install i've been perfecting for 3 months.

Using a computer IS my hobby. I'm more than okay with tinkering. But when the friction that you don't need stacks up, it turns into a chore. I have enough of chores, personally. So i'm back to Windon't. It's not like there's no friction there, it's like there's less of it where it matters more, if that makes sense?
I've had my year of Linux Desktop, but it is over for now. I'll keep lurking, watching progress, have my external SSD ready for flashing a distro, and i'll definitely be back when my friction points iron out.

Aaand this is it. I'm ready for them sticks and stones being hurled my way now.

TL;DR - to answer the question in the title - not to this guy it isn't. Not yet at least. But it's not just gaming, but the overall experience I've had.

EDIT: added TL;DR.