I recently spent some time with the Framework 13 laptop, evaluating it with the new Intel Core Ultra 7 processor and the AMD Ryzen 7 7480U. It felt like the perfect opportunity to test how a handful of games ran on Windows 11 and Fedora 40. I was genuinely surprised by the results!
…
The Framework 13 is perfectly capable of gaming even with its integrated graphics, provided you’re willing to compromise by lowering the resolution and quality presets for more demanding games. (It’s also a testament to how far AMD’s APUs have come in the past decade.)
Summary of results:
- Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Linux wins
- Total War: Warhammer III: Windows wins
- Cyberpunk 2077: Linux wins
- Forza Horizon 5: Windows wins
These results are an interesting slice of the Linux vs Windows gaming picture, but certainly not representative of the entire landscape. A few shorts years ago, however, I never would have dreamed I’d be writing an article where even two games on Linux are outperforming their Windows counterparts.
I think it says a lot more about how much recent versions of Windows have bogged down the whole gaming experience.
Microsoft seems to have forgotten that people want an operating system that works, not something bloated with bullshit like telemetry, advertisements, tracking cookies and artificial intelligence. The only reason they even have a market lead in the desktop space is due to marketing and monopolistic practices.
sometimes i still can’t believe i’m running every game i want on linux. like its still surprising and surreal to me.
thanks to all the contributors that made it possible for us to ditch microsoft.
Hey genuine question what does everyone use for office apps these days? I’m extremely over being charged a yearly fee to use word and excel
Libre Office
I have been a user since the 90s. Back then it was still called StarOffice.
Its feature set differs from that of MS Office, and its performance could be (a lot!) better, but I strongly prefer the LibreOffice user interface, and the features that matter to me (like CSV import) are way better in LibreOffice. However, LibreOffice does not have all the features of MS Office, and some are notably worse (for instance auto-fill in spreadsheets, where Excel is way better at guessing the next value).
Sadly it’s not only a matter of preference, because file exchange between different office suites is not flawless. MS Office and LibreOffice don’t agree 100% on how to load each other’s files…
I’ve been trying OnlyOffice recently - seems pretty nice so far.
Unpopular opinion but I just use Google Sheets instead, because most of my spreadsheet usage is due to work and my employer uses Google Workplace
Im so glad I fully switched to Linux. I was amazed how good the gaming performance have come nowadays. I tried out Ubuntu back in 2007 and have tried some other distros too during the years, but always went back to Windows because of games. Not anymore.
Oh, the article is written by Jason Evanghelo. Of course, he’s a giant Linux shill working at Forbes :D
Still great to see such press
It’s just easier to get old windows games running on Linux.
When I started using linux 15 years ago, my friend recommended to keep a windows partition for gaming. At least for me, I have deleted windows a few years ago and I’m not looking back.
My gaming PC was the last one I had running Windows. I couldn’t take it anymore and this year I switched that one too.
Now if only I could run (my perfectly legal copy of) SOLIDWORKS decently, it’d be great.
If you play DRMed AAA stuff, that’s still true unfornately (if you can’t do VM with PCIe passthrough).
Personally I just opt to not play these games. The market dicides in the end.
Sometimes i feel weird and impressed with Microsoft that allow third party to create windows emulation system that beat original windows in many ways
It is mostly a translation layer – WINE is Not an Emulator (WINE). The reason Microsoft ‘allows’ this is because they have no choice. WINE hasn’t broken any laws or violated any copyright or trademarks. Same goes for Proton with DXVK of course.
Although i never fully understand how wine works, how WINE doesn’t break any lawsuit ? It’s clearly mimicking windows itself with windows library (like VC Library, DotNet, DirectX, etc) as add-ons
Now i hope linux community can do the same with Nintendo Emulator or Sony PS emulator without triggering lawsuitIn a highly simplified way:
- Think of Windows as an electricity provider with their own specially shaped wall socket.
- Linux is also an electricity provider with a differently shaped wall socket.
- In this metaphor Wine is just some guys providing an adaptor that makes the electricity of the Linux electricity provider available in a wall socket that has the same shape as the Windows provider’s.
Wine isn’t breaking Windows copyright because it doesn’t copy any of the Windows internals: instead it provides the contact points with the right “shape” for programs which were made to work in Windows to connect to to get their needs fullfilled, and then internally Wine does its own thing which is mainly using the Linux under it to do the heavy lifting.
Mind you, this simplification seriously understates just how complicate it is to implement what was implemented in Wine because the Windows interface is a lot more that just the shape of a wall socket.
To add to your explanation
- most people have the specialized Windows plug. Microsoft has invested a lot of money in making sure people ONLY have access to the Windows plug
- Linux provides the same electricity signal that people need (maybe even better) but since people’s Windows plug don’t work on Linux’s wall socket, they get the impression that Linux doesn’t supply electricity.
- WINE is just the adaptor which people put on their Window’s plug. Now it easily fits on the Linux wall socket.
Aw, I can’t get cyberpunk to run on my mint install - it gets the logos and stops responding.
Some people read about performance, sometimes I’m just motivated knowing someone on the internet did get a game running in the first instance! :)
I will say though, Baldurs Gate 3 works perfectly, as does anything else I throw at it! :)
Cyberpunk worked out of the box for me, but senua 2 absolutely refuses to start no matter what kind of voodoo I try (“fatal error”). I seem to always be on the opposite spectrum of protondb mint users I swear.
How odd! I must admit with cyberpunk, I was reading ProtonDB and had a “that’s one fine game… why doesn’t mine look like that!” Simpsons moment. 😅
It wouldn’t run for me until I got the Steam version (in Tumbleweed). Works great now.
It would have been better if it had worked with just one copy though. At least I got it on sale.
