Yeah, they did. Probably because OpenSuSE is better known than SuSE at this point. Yet it’ll stay the base for SuSE. It makes some sense I guess - Fedora is the base for RedHat for example. It is a bit confusing and complicated for an open source project to share branding with a commercial project; probably quite restricting for OpenSuSE. But a rebrand is also messy itself.
Yes there are, but haven’t heard when they plan to make the change.
The article names the game in the headline, not clear why your post needed to try to be click bait?
It’s about OpenMW, the open source game engine to play Morrowind on.
Also separate from my long response, thanks for sharing that link. Very interesting read and the GNOME window decoration issue is rediculous.
For me, I’m sorry to say, GNOME is the epitome of asshole design. This one of many examples of its rigid design philosophy having negative consequences for users and devs. And devs are protecting GNOME from its own users bad experiences because the user blames the game for not conforming, not the DE for being rediculous.
Worth saying the 3% market share is very new, and previously the share has been way way below this. At 3% that is millions of users but even that is hard to justify a linux release; many games dont even get MacOS versions even now and it has higher desktop share.
The other problem for linux is version control - libraries are different across distros of different ages, and also constantly update. If you build software on a dependency and it changes in a few years, your game may break. As bad as windows is, when games are distributed a lot of the dependencies are distributed with the game as DLLs and installers for Microsoft tools. But for linux you previously could not guarentee the same version of the same dependency will be available on two distros still actively supported.
It can be surprisingly hard to get old Linux software to run on new Linux distros. People are not generally aware of this as generally its old windows and dos games that people try to get working (so wine or dosbox are used), not old Linux software like Open Office from 2005 or an old version of Firefox. Most linux software continually evolves or its niche and just stops working (unless youre willing to go back and compile from source, and that can get nightmarish if it doesnt compile)
Proton is part of the solution but developing “for” proton is not efficient long term. It is great for enabling windows games to work on linux, but linux native games would be more optimal. We’re just lucky we’re now in a time where there is a lot of CPU and GPU resource available to support the overhead and windows is also so bloated making linux + proton comparatively better.
I suspect Flatpak may be another part of the solution - Flatpak can essentially be a way of ensuring a game can have a fixed set of dependencies which install on any Linux and should just work. Its not that far off the windows model of packaging DLLs, but is much cleaner and contained.
Nix is another potential approach to this.
But developing for Linux wouldn’t take off until the market share is substantially higher. The SteamDeck and tge rumours Steam console may help with that, but for now I think devs relying on Proton makes sense.
I think your auto-correct has gone wrong; patients rather than patents 3 times.
Totally agree with your point though. I’d extend it to include copyright reform as well as patents; intellectual property rights are being abused globally and used as a way to abuse citizens.
Xwayland is an X11 server that runs under Wayland. It acts as a compatibility layer so that programs that are native X11 programs that don’t support Wayland can still be run. The system largely determines when to use Xwayland; it’s not generally something the user does.
Wine, and it’s derivative for gaming Proton are normally run as X11 applications. There is a Wayland driver for wine - it’s not perfect, and not widely used by default yet, but it does generally work. Still, at the moment usually wine and Proton are by default running with X11 (and so xwayland) even on Wayland.
When there are issues under Wayland it’s generally to do with Nvidia drivers rather than xwayland or x11. But the wine Wayland.drv can still give a performance boost. It can also causes its own issues so is best used on a case by case basis.
Some people do set wine or proton to use the Wayland drivers when using Wayland; for example with Steam and Proton-GE just add PROTON_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 into the games launch options and it’ll run directly under Wayland.
It may be a way for OP to switch to Wayland and see if they can get good gaming performance in wine/Proton. However it’s more likely the Nvidia drivers are the cause of the performance issues under Wayland.
So to be clear Wayland + Pantheon resolves the issue but with a performance hit in games? X11 + Pantheon has the issue but with otherwise good performance in games?
Presumably all the system packages and software is up to date. If not then do a update.
Starting with the basics, what kind of mouse and keyboard do you have? If they are wireless, how are they connecting to your device? Note some manufacturers don’t provide drivers for Linux so it’s worth seeing if your brand and device is supported (E.g. Logitech and it’s wireless dongle; you need Solaar to get basic support and switching to Bluetooth may be best if available).
If they are wired, have you tried plugging the keyboard and mouse into different ports on your PC? If they’re on the same USB Bus that could be contributing to the problem. Although that really shouldn’t be an issue at all with modern devicss, it might be enough to get round whatever the issue is if one of your devices is conflicting.
Presumably if there is a power profile in Pantheon, and if so you’ve set it to performance, not something like balanced? This ensures that everything is running at full capacity. There are rare polling issues with wine and some USB devices, and one solution is ensuring the CPU is in performance rather balanced power settings to prevent a bottleneck.
If the issue is still persisting then I would next install a different Desktop Environment to see if the issue persists. This may help check if it’s an issue with Pantheon itself. Install a lightweight desktop environment such as XFCE. Try out XFCE in both X11 and Wayland, and see if the problem persists. If it doesn’t then submit a bug report to the Pantheon makers and consider switching to another DE (such as KDE or Gnome). If not then it at least helps seemingly exclude pantheon as the cause. It can be messy installing another DE and difficult to remove cleanly so one method is create a backup of your system using Timeshift, and then restore it after trying XFCE to bring your system back to its original state.
If the issue persists you could also try switching to an older version of the Nvidia drivers or the open Noevaeu drivers. If it resolves it that helps narrow the problem although if it doesn’t resolve it you still can’t entirely exclude the graphics drivers as the cause.
I think assuming all the basics make no difference, the most telling test will be if switching from Pantheon to another DE helps - in X11 and Wayland. Pantheon is relatively niche and DEs are also important factors in themselves when it comes to performance and also bugs. If it persists beyond a DE test, then I’d be most suspicious it’s a driver issue either with the devices themselves or the graphics drivers.
Not much more I can think of beyond that at the moment sorry.
What resolution are you streaming to now? Make sure the game is being streamed at 1080p or 720p, and not aiming for the native resolution of your target device. Because if it’s trying to stream at 4k for example it’ll fail miserably.
OK first, do you need both iGPU and the Nvidia GPU to be working at the same time? Your desktop environment will expect to work with one card at a time so plugging screens into both while you’re doing setup tasks could cause problems. Linux can certainly work with 2 GPUs but I wouldn’t have both active with displays plugged in from the start when installing a fresh system.
It’s telling that you can’t even get the official Nvidia drivers working. You then “fix” things by removing the cable from the iGPU after having all these problems and installing the Nouveau drives. I think this could be the source of your problems.
I think there is a real risk your whole system is misconfigued due to both cards being “active” while you set things up.
While it’s probably fixable within Linux, personally I’d go back to basics - plug the displays only into your Nvidia card, and do a fresh install of Tumbleweed, and see where you’re at.
You could even go further and disable the iGPU in your bios and then install tumbleweed. However I would be reluctant to do that as if your Nvidia card is broken it can be difficult to undo without a working display. Alternatively you could also use the iGPU for the install (nothing plugged into the Nvidia card), do the install and then switch over and set up the Nvidia within Linux.
Regardless, I’d say trying to get DX11 working with the Nvidia now on Open drivers seems to be just pushing the problem further and further down the line. You’ll have more problems long term and never fix the root problem. The first issue is getting the official Nvidia drivers actually working, rather than working around that problem.
I have an AMD mini PC in my living room and it has changed how I game. I got it because my Deck was nice but I found I plugged it into my TV most of the time and wanted better quality graphics that would look better on my 4k screen. I now love to sit in front of the TV with a controller and play my games, mostly directly off the device.
Many people have similar experiences with devices like the Switch - if you have a couch and a big screen TV then it makes sense to dock it, and many choose to.
So I think the “steam machines” of old do have potential now. The idea 10 years ago was good but the software and the hardware wasn’t there. Now it is, and steam doesn’t have to even do much to build the things - they’re out in the wild already. They can offer something more powerful than the deck without necessarily cannabilising the market the decks have - it’s expanding to a new user group who are less interested in mobile gaming and more interested in using their big screen TV to pc game.
Plus as a console the game library is massive compared to a PlayStation or Xbox or Switch, and with an OS that allows users to do so much more with their device.
Plus what Steam offers is something Windows can’t offer on handheld and doesn’t offer on a living room TV - a great interface. Steams gamescope and big picture mode are great on a mini PC.
So I think a steam “console” is not unrealistic. They can leverage what they already have with the Steam OS and steam deck with a standard branded hardware model of mini PC from existing OEMs, and allow others to use the OS for their own machines. I suspect if they make steamOS freely available people will also be doing this themselves with their own devices.
As a place for Valve to expand into, it’s reasonably low hanging fruit and relatively low risk as they’re not having to focus on the hardware and they already have the software working.
Debian is a good stable distro but I personally wouldn’t recommend it for desktop home users. There are debian derivatives that do use it as a base and offer more up to date packages.
There are also lots of alternatives that are dedicated rolling release or more frequently updated point release distros.
I often recommend Linux Mint as a good first distro. It’s got a big user base, so lots of support online, and it’s based off Ubuntu which itself is based off Debian, so has a wide range of software already packaged for it. Once you know what you want / like from Linux you could move on or stick with Mint if you like it.
I used to use Mint but I wanted to switch to KDE. You can install KDE with Mint but things are a little janky as the core mint tools are really built for Cinnamon (and GTK). I moved to OpenSuSE Tumbleweed 2+ years ago and like it. I’ve also used Nobara on another device - it’s decent buf have moved away from it after some update issues. Regardless there is a lot of choice out there.
But I’d recommend starting with Mint as a good stable but updatable option. You can use Mint and add in cutting edge Nvidia drivers with relative ease for example.
I would not start with Arch as some others are recommending. It’s a good distro but it’s an involved manual set up and can require a lot of troubleshooting. I’d recommend picking something that is a simpler install and get used to Linux basics first before venturing into distros like Arch.
All PCs are a frankenstein mix of parts, that’s the beauty of PCs. Components can be mixed and matched and usually work together well.
So instead of a new PC think of how you can evolve your current PC. You may be able to upgrade the CPU or even better replace the motherboard and CPU but keep the case and other components for now until you can afford to make more changes. If that’s too expensive then look at upgrading other components until you can do a big shift with the motherboard and CPU. For example get an SSD if you don’t have one, maybe uograde the graphics card for a gaming boost etc.
Don’t think of a PC as being a single thing - any component can be upgraded and switched out at any time and you can gradually move to your dream PC over time in steps, which spreads the cost over time. It’s easier to find a few hundred pounds / dollars / euros every 3-6 months than it is to find £2k in one go, and you can still end up in the same place if you’re patient
The most important base components are definitely the motherboard and CPU though (it determines the ceiling of all the other components) - so make sure any changes you make fit with your long term plans for those. For example if your PC is old then start with the motherboard and CPU so you aren’t restricted in other components (E.g. RAM options are better on newer motherboards so it’s worth waiting to buy RAM if you intend to do a big motherboard upgrade).
E.g. If I were starting from a basic ATX desktop, I’d aim to get a new motherboard first and ideally a good CPU. But I might get a decent motherboard with a modern socket and a cheaper CPU if I was short on cash. Then later when I have money again I’d sell the cheaper CPU and upgrade it to something better that my new motherboard can support. I might keep my current hard drive and then when I can afford it get an m.2 to make better use of the new motherboard. RAM can be brought from the old board, and even upgraded in steps to get to an eventual goal amount. Like start with 8gb or 16gb but eventually move to 32gb or 64gb when I can afford it. I might keep my current graphics card and then upgrade that once the other components are good. I might even buy a second hand older card so I get a boost until I can afford my dream card so I at least move forward of I had a crap one now. It’d take time but I’d be moving forwards every few months getting a better and better PC without having to find a huge amount of money in one go.
Think of it like the ship.of theseus. Genuinely my current PC has evolved gradually since 2015 but I don’t think I have a single component left from that original PC apart from maybe some screws and the case. I’ve done 1 big motherboard change and 2 CPU changes since then, I’m onto my 3rd GPU and about to move to my 4th, and have replaced the RAM and then doubled it later with 2 more sticks. I’ve changed the power supply once, and lost count of how many hard drives I’ve been though - currently I have 2 m.2 cards and some SSDs of various ages.
Only caution on this is KDE has had significant improvements in each of it’s point releases. Trixie is looking to launch with KDE 6.3.5 but latest is now 6.4.
It’s always a balance between stability and latest release, but KDE has had quite rapid improvement as it’s still early in the 6 era. Having said that the it does feel like the changes now coming through are mainly polish and new features rather than fixing fundamental issues - so 6.3.5 might be a good base for Debian Trixie.
Been using KDE 6 on this device since last year without issue. The power profiles are present in the system tray and slider in the quick menu, so whatever that issue it’s been fixed. I’ve been using Nobara and OpenSuSE but maybe it’s an issue on LTS releases if they’re on a point release where this was an issue?
The power setting is a very good shout though - KDE defaulted to Balanced setting for me and I needed to change to Performance to get good gaming experiences.
As far as I’m aware they all do. It’s frustrating but I wouldn’t let it stop you buying these. Microsoft has aggressive deals with OEMs, and it’s pretty hard for manufacturers to avoid Windows due to it’s dominance. But OEMs have big discount deals on licenses so in terms of the portion of your purchase that goes to Microsoft it should be small. I look at it as cutting into the profits of the OEM because I was happy with the devices price even if it’d come with no OS.
I immediately wiped Win11 off my PC and installed Linux.
I have the same device and have had no issues with drivers or games. I also wiped Win 11 and have Linux on there.
I started with Nobara and it worked immediately and been running with that for nearly 18 months. I have recently (as in this week) switched to OpenSuSE after my Nobara install had issues, and again gaming is fine.
I’m not sure about Mint or Kubuntu but I can’t see why either would have issues. The drivers should be within the kernel; I haven’t needed separate drivers. I used KDE on both Nobara and on OpenSUSE without issue.
As you’ve experienced, I been impressed with the level the graphics can get to. Largely medium settings at 1080p for many games. I have played Cyberpunk 2077 on this on a mix of low to medium settings.
This may be too basic question but you’re not playing games at 4k are you? The desktop can be at 4k but the games need to be set to less. You should be able to play 3D games on it, and I’d expect Yakuza Zero to play fine. The device is good with a 4k desktop and 4k video, but 4k 3D games is way more of an ask and you need to bring games down to 1080 (or even 720p if you want to push up some of the other game options).
EDIT: BTW if you have a gaming desktop you can stream games to this miniPC in 4k. I switched to playing Cyperpunk via steam streaming and it looked incredible.
EDIT2: One thing that is generally important is to install gstreamer and available codecs. They categorise them as “Good”, “Bad” and “Ugly”. Often the “good” category codecs are installed but sometimes the more proprietary codes in the “ugly” category are not (they are “Ugly” due to their licenses but are still excellent quality). I don’t believe it makes a difference to gaming but I certainly noticed issues with video. OpenSuSE doesn’t install proprietary codecs by default. Nobara did (I think) but I’m not sure about Mint and Kubuntu’s approachs.
EDIT 3: Just wanted to highlight another important point mentioned elsewhere in this thread by just_another_person@lemmy.world. KDE defaults to balanced power mode for me and that certainly does impact the GPU performance. You need to change it to Performance mode in the power settings. That can either be done from the “Power and Battery” area in the task tray or in the “Power Management” section of the KDE Settings app (near the bottom of the list in the “System” group).
The cost difference may reflect the performance difference.
I’m assuming you meant the RX 9060 XT? It is significantly more powerful than the B580.
I’d say the AMD card is the better purchase - it’s more powerful and the drivers are well established with lots of support online for solving issues with specific games with Proton. Most of the time things just work but to be using a card and platform that is widely used makes life easier.
It’s great Intel are supporting Linux and there is more competition in the graphics market, but I personally wouldn’t suggest being a pioneer buying their cards. You’re already doing something a bit unusual by gaming on Linux (even if it’s growing rapidly). I wouldn’t throw a new relatively niche card into the mix for now. It’d probably be fine but I’d stump up the extra cash for a better card that might last you a few years longer for AAA games.
Yeah I wouldn’t worry about Steam, it’ll work.
The most important thing is your graphics drivers and they’re largely the same between distros. Even with non rolling distros usually there are ways to stay with the latest drivers if that’s needed.
For Minecraft, best route is Java edition. There is an official Microsoft installer for Java, and If they’re into modded Minecraft then MultiMC is a better Linux launcher than the Microsoft one as it makes modding much easier; they just need to login to their Microsoft account within it to get going.
You can get Bedrock to work if that’s essential but it is unofficial and definitely needs a special launcher and a little bit faffy to set up. But it works.
All the stuff that gaming distros offer like optimised kernels really is marginal stuff. Definitely keep it simple; it’ll make your life much easier supporting it all and it will give your friend/family member a good stable experience so they can just focus on having fun.
Would just add, while you can change the permissions on NTFS drives in Linux, I’d generally recommend using a Linux dedicated partition (Ext4 for example) for games. It’s faster and also much less likely to cause unexpected issues.