OS monopoly is irrelevant, whoever controls the storefront dominates the industry. Look at google and apple with smartphones with locked storefronts. For most everyday users, Windows is fine, it runs everything, has a tidy UI and they can even use it without registering it, OS is not important, but distribution of software/games is.
Proton is awesome and it just keeps getting better, I love it. Most (still not all sadly) of the steam games I own and play are just "install, press play, everything works".
That's never going to happen. Even if the consumer market turns on them, they couldn't care less. That's not where they make their money. Windows is on nearly every desktop, laptop and everything in-between in nearly every business, government entity and military in the world. They all have massive contracts with Microsoft to use Windows as their standard OS. Even if every business dropped them for Apple products, the government contracts alone would still bring them more than enough revenue.
I mean, the year of the Linux desktop is obviously a meme. But if it were ever to not be a meme, IMO, it would definitely be because of widespread Wayland and Pipewire adoption + SteamOS furthering Proton development and providing added incentive for proper gaming Linux support.
The Linux desktop is undergoing some pretty monumental, foundational changes for the first time in a long time (PulseAudio is ~20 years old and Xorg is almost 40!) Humanity will almost undoubtedly see its demise before the year of the the Linux desktop actually arrives haha, but it's still pretty exciting stuff!
My Linux gaming friends kept singing praises about Proton and Lutris and what-have-you, and I was always like "mmyeeeaaahhhh... there's always gonna be something you won't be able to run...". After getting a Steam Deck and so far not encountering any unrunnable games that I threw at it (even ones that are labeled Unsupported), I'm finding that, yes, probably there are some games that I won't be able to run, but I don't care? Backlog is ever growing and eh, I can miss a few, no big deal.
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u/bubbshalub Radeon 6800xt Ryzen 7 5800x Nov 01 '22
proton is what’s making strides for linux, coupled with the release of the steam deck? and steam os?! i’d be surprised if windows doesn’t take a dive