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PC Gamers Abandoning Windows 11 for Linux with Higher FPS & Fewer Interruptions (www.geeky-gadgets.com)
submitted 9 months ago by to c/pcgaming@lemmy.ca
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[–] 133 points 9 months ago (45 children)

I moved to Linux entirely because of how shit Windows is, but I do not, in general, get higher fps. It's very case-by-case, but in general, my performance seems to be ever so slightly worse.

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  • [–] 16 points 9 months ago

    In a well-optimized case, Linux will consume fewer resources and is more effective at task prioritization, so it will be better. If Windows outperforms Linux, it is due to the game optimizing around Windows. Granted, across the entire suite of games, the two tend to cancel each other out rather equally.

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  • [–] 11 points 9 months ago (5 children)

    I experience no worse fps than I would on windows. I have star citizen running better on linux then I did on the same windows machine. To each their own I guess.

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  • [–] 4 points 9 months ago (4 children)

    I just reinstalled COD WWII recently and it really does run like shit. Framerate problems that need restarts, poor performance, the sound cuts off if it's through HDMI for some reason.

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  • [–] 3 points 9 months ago (3 children)

    Did they ever fix the RCE exploit in WW2?

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  • [–] 9 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    It tends to be AMD GPUs that have the greatest differences in favour of Linux (except for ray tracing but that is improving in recent driver releases).

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  • [–] 3 points 9 months ago

    I think Intel too - in other words, the Nvidia Linux driver sucks as we've always known. And as long as they refuse to either put effort into it or let the community see and fix their code it's unlikely to change

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  • [–] 65 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (27 children)

    I probably hate Microsoft roughly as much as most people here but in a lot of ways Windows is way more polished than Linux. The second you try something "unconventional" in Linux the shit is going to hit the fan. Fractional scale DPI - half the apps crap their pants. On screen keyboard - and don't get me started with OSK over Firefox in kiosk mode (for example in touch screen settings). Also try to make a custom shortcut on your gnome desktop to run some application with some arguments without writing config files in random directories you have to Google and reloading some configs via a terminal.

    Microsoft really went downhill fast and certainly adds a lot of crap to windows lately, but sadly in the Linux world we don't have 1-3 well polished distros, we have hundreds of them. All good at one or two things, but suck at everything else. There a so many options the choice alone is probably the biggest reason everyday people will not switch to Linux if their device doesn't already come with Linux. Even people thinking about switching end up with analysis paralysis because everybody tells them stuff like, try it - if you don't like it try something else. As if they have nothing better to do than trying Linux distros all day long.

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  • [–] 47 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (12 children)

    This is exactly the type of shit I've been trying to explain to the Linux fanboys for years and all of them dismiss outright.

    Until simple shit like this is easy for the average person, Linux will never replace Windows as a default OS option for regular users. 99% of people are scared of config files and the terminal, and they're still just too commonly needed in every distro.

    A LOT of work has been done to minimize it, but there's always still basic functionality that just isn't in the GUI. That's not an issue for most of us here... But it is for most people. Fediverse users are a small minority.

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  • [–] 12 points 9 months ago

    You would have to run OpenSUSE tumbleweed to get the GUI equivalent of windows configuration.

    Yast has a GUI app for everything from Samba setup to Bootloader config.

    The trouble is: initially there is a learning curve to SUSE that is different than something like Mint

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  • [–] 4 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    they're still just too commonly needed in every distro.

    there's always still basic functionality that just isn't in the GUI.

    Can you give a concrete example?

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago (1 child)

    Some time ago I wanted to get my xbox controller to work with Linux Mint. There were no working drivers installed, the drivers from the 'app store' (whatever it's real name may be) didn't work, the drivers I installed from some github page via the command line did work.

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago

    Generally speaking, drivers like this should be included in the kernel and there should be no need to install anything. Of course, this depends on the firmware, modell of your controller and the linux kernel version, but as far as I know, most xbox controllers should work out of the box. I have never used xbox controllers, but there has been a community developed driver project for decades.

    So there was maybe a specific issue/bug, which can happen of course, but that isn't unique to linux. The difference is that in Linux, you CAN tinker if you want to (and know what you are doing). In less open systems, that's a lot harder and you have to hope and rely on the manufacturer to fix it.

    In windows, the way it works generally is that the manufacturer developes and provides the driver. In linux, there is a chicken and egg issue. A lot of manufacturers don't bother to develope drivers for linux because there aren't a lot of users and there aren't a lot of users because manufacturers don't bother providing drivers and other software. In the case of xbox, it is even more tricky since microsoft has no real interest to get their hardware working on competing operating systems.

    It has gotten a lot better in recent years, and I expect it will continue, as desktop linux slowly gains more traction, but a lot of software in general still depends on the community and third party actors.

    And I'm not sure what the better alternative would be. You can run community written shell scripts in a gui, but then you have even more people who run random software written by random people without even remotely knowing what they are doing. So in that case, a barrier (like a cli) is actually useful since it might stop people without knowhow from breaking their system or installing malware.

    The only "real" alternative for the average joe would be manufacturers supporting their own hardware.

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  • [–] 6 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

    It's funny, i use both. Work is Windows, Linux at home.

    90% of troubles literally come down to what you are used to and expect. I have had hundreds of problems assisting with company IT that I never would have had on Linux. People just ignore it or write it off as "expected", but when something they doesn't work on linux, they go crazy and say that Linux just doesn't work. Windows has just as many basic functionality things that don't work, if not more.

    Linux isn't perfect, but work is being done to fix it, where in windows, the support tells you to fuck off, try the only 2 GUI tools they have, then enter random command line commands and if that doesn't fix it, fuck off.

    Examples:

    • Searching in the start menu literally won't return the program if the program doesn't start with what you are searching instead of simply "contains" like every other search on earth

    • File search in fundamentally garbage on windows compared to Linux (both GUI). Not to mention that until last year there was no option to find where the fuck the file was in windows without ending the search and having to start the search over (hell on network shares). Luckily it has gotten better

    • One drive forcing itself as default, sync problems, losing files, etc... That often has to be fixed through powershell. Not to mention lying to you that files are synced when they are not.

    • Teams silently installing a random DLL that causes teams to bootloop endlessly, no resources online about it until last year late where you had to manually console command your way out of it via powershell

    • Microphone completely just not working at all. No possible way to re-enable it via settings, control panel, manual controls, registry, etc... It wasn't broken. Microsoft secretly disabled it in the background and you had to install the old version of the audio troubleshooter because their new one is AI slop and it would say "oh it was disabled, I will re-enable it" when literally every single other tool in windows said it was enabled and working fine. This was a problem with >10% of people. Again, the GUI wouldn't fix it until you downloaded a sketchy old version of a troubleshooter.

    • installing windows without internet working. They are making it almost impossible, actively. Literally the single most basic thing

    • Microsoft office being layered on top of each other all in one gigantic pile because one font was installed from a path that it didn't like this brought PowerPoint in my old company to a halt for days

    • Font blurring when moving windows between monitors (especially PDFs). Linux doesn't have this problem that I have seen. Windows fonts look like smeared shit after dragging them from screens of different sizes

    • If one single file has an issue in one single office project e.g. a warning dialog open or a frozen excel window, all office programs are no longer able to be closed, and often even interacted with. That is like the basic of the basic of having multiple program instances open. I have seen unorganized people with 10 excel instances open literally have to restart their computer because no office windows will respond enough to even find the problem instance

    • Update hangs and failures are a daily occurance in windows. I haven't had an update fail for years in Linux and when it did, it said "this is why" where windows just says "try again" and keeps failing. Basic basic functionality.

    • pathing are the worst thing ever in windows. You have import library after library to get windows paths to work in different codebases where in Linux it just works.

    • windows and printers... You know how everyone has problems with printers? Yeah, a lot of that is from windows shit printer drivers. With Linux, I haven't had a print job fail in years. In windows, sometimes it will serially send a PDF to the printer, corrupt itself, and balloon the 10MB PDF size to 10GB and overload the printer until you have to hard reset it.

    • windows constantly resets your printer settings in word, even after you manually set printer settings in the OS. How many times people have printed double sided because auto-switches back after you change it. That is so basic.

    • SVChost or "system interrupts" eating 60-90% CPU for minuten on end where there are no programs running, making everything work extremely slowly and lag all over the place with no way to fix it.

    • not going to sleep. Windows sleep is so damn broken ever since they fucked with sleep levels. My new work laptop will literally sleep and turn itself off after a few hours (only if it is plugged in) so I have to unplug it before leaving. My old one with the exact same power settings works fine. Not to mention with modern sleep, laptops will just turn themselves on in a backpack and overheat and dump their battery to 0 for no reason. Windows had sleep right in 7 and then decided to completely break it all and increase power consumption 100x for 1s faster wakeup times... In Linux. If you tell it to go to sleep, it goes to sleep and doesn't wake up until you wake it up.

    I could go on for an hour, literally.

    These are very basic functionality that is critically broken or hot garbage and just works on Linux. Again, there are tons of things wrong in Linux too like other users have mentioned, it comes down to the problems the individual user is used to having and living with.

    People are learning to deal with a different set of broken things and problems while not seeing the previous problems they had to deal with invisibly just work (because that is how the human brain works).

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  • [–] 11 points 9 months ago

    Yup. Hi. I'm one of those people. Everytime I've tried to use Linux in the past has come with a massive headache and constant googling to figure out the bare minimums. Windows? Literally holds your hand and just works. Any issues I've had with windows I can solve in a single google. I've got to delve into obscure forums and try to piece shit together on my own for Linux and I am not about to make my home PC a fuckin homework problem just to use.

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  • [–] 8 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    What do you use the terminal and config files for? I mainly use bazzite now but after a fresh install the most I do is login to steam and change some settings in Firefox. I copy paste my directory settings for imports on darktable to point to my nas but thats probably the most advanced thing I do

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago* (2 children)

    This is a big reason why most won’t switch. Linux can be difficult to get started with and Windows really makes things a lot easier for the average person.

    I tried to switch over to Linux this weekend, I gave up and switched back to Windows last night. I’m not completely computer illiterate, I know how to fix things enough that my colleagues often ask me (the administrative assistant) about simple stuff before going to IT.

    I really like the Linux environment and I found alternatives to my frequently used programs, but the one thing I really use my computer most is to play World of Warcraft. I spent hours trying to get it working and I couldn’t. I don’t understand the terminal stuff, GitHub is confusing, and there are so many obscure forums with info I don’t understand. With Windows, the install is incredibly simple and I had my previous setup running within 2 hours.

    I WANT to switch to Linux, but until I can run wow a lot easier, it looks like I won’t be. I’m not fully giving up on Linux, it just won’t be on my main machine.

    It’s really similar to a conversation I had with a classmate on Android vs iPhone. He just didn’t get why I have an iPhone; “Android is more open”, “you have more options”, etc. I had to explain that it just works; I get a new phone when my old one is no longer supported, then all I have to do is sign in and my phone is back to where it was. Yes, it’s a walled garden, yes there are things Apple does that I don’t like, but the phone itself is simple and easy to upgrade. It just works.

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  • [–] 6 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    WoW was one of the first things that was working on Linux with wine. It takes 2 seconds to setup bnet with something like Lutris and only requires the user to follow basic on screen prompts. No terminal, no configuration files.

    In fact, I just googled “setup wow on Linux” and the first 10 results were tutorials for installing Lutris and just letting it do it for you. Hell even my mom figured out how to do this on PopOS and she’s not that technical.

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  • [–] 5 points 9 months ago

    I feel like this is the kind of condescending comment mentioned above because you assume that I didn’t try those instructions. Maybe I’m more of an average PC user than I thought and just more experienced in Windows than my colleagues, so I know how to fix Windows specific problems 🤷‍♀️

    I don’t know what to tell you. I spent 6 hours following all of those instructions trying to get it working and it didn’t work. I reinstalled Windows, downloaded an exe, and had wow running as soon as it updated. That’s the kind of simplicity Windows provides to an average user, a quick install vs 10 different sets of instructions.

    Like I said, I’m not giving up on Linux, but my game machine is Windows for now.

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  • [–] 15 points 9 months ago

    The majority of people probably can't even get over the hump of imaging a USB drive.

    I like to think of the average person as my mom. Can my mom plug in a flash drive in a computer? Yeah. Does she know what Linux is? Nope. Can she google about Linux? Yeah. Will she get confused and inundated with the hundreds of "linux" versions? Uh yeah.

    And then if she does somehow download a .iso, she'd probably copy and paste the .iso onto the flash drive and have no idea what Rufus or Balena Etcher is.

    And to be honest, most people don't even need a computer nowadays. Their smart phones does everything. There is no need to have a computer anymore.

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  • [–] 9 points 9 months ago (7 children)

    You say Linux, but I think you're talking about Gnome specifically. I'd recommend trying KDE and seeing how it handles your problems. You can install multiple DEs and see what works best for you.

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  • [–] 14 points 9 months ago (3 children)

    I get what you are saying and maybe I'll find some time to do that, but I hope you also see the irony in an answer like that, because the typical user couldn't care less about Gnome vs KDE.

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  • [–] 6 points 9 months ago

    The typical user couldn't care less about Windows VS Linux, but it makes it difference. I don't know that it fixes the issues, but it might. It's also an option you have because you're on Linux, not Windows. You get a choice, and can figure out what works for you. It isn't ironic, because that why you choose Linux. If you don't want a choice and just want the garbage MS puts out, you don't need to make any more choices. If you want options then you need to actually make choices too (though most aren't permanent, like DEs, and you can swap between them).

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  • [–] 3 points 9 months ago*

    I was about to comment the same - shitting itself when trying to do something nonstandard is a Gnome thing, not a Linux thing :^)

    I also fully understand that new users are not aware of what the different components are and "what they do" (how they influence the UX) but they very much do make or break their "Linux experience". Personally I dislike Gnome because it exposes barely any settings, and it's "simple" to the point where it feels almost like a toy to me - kinda like macOS feels. Some people might be looking for that, and I don't judge them, but I think it's important to make an informed decision on simplicity and "guardrails" vs flexibility and customization. The same goes for immutable vs "traditional", rolling vs releases, etc.

    You don't need to care about or understand the details, but the choice that the "Linux ecosystem" offers is one of its best parts, and understanding the implications of the ones you make is very important. It also helps avoid getting frustrated in "Linux can't do this" situations by knowing that maybe it's just your environment - believe me, unless it's about running some proprietary code that the vendor is uncooperative about, "Linux" can do it. It might require some lines of code to glue together some pieces, but the "computing" things that "Linux can't do" are very close to 0.

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    Gnome works completely fine. It's probably the most bug-free DE I've ever used. And yes I use fractional scaling.

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago

    Try using the on screen keyboard with Firefox. On so many extensions the keyboard just doesn't work (concrete example: tampermonkey code editor). And it's not like it doesn't work at all - you can insert new characters but backspace and new line is broken.

    Now try OSK on Windows - never had a single issue that it doesn't work where a real keyboard would have worked.

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  • [–] -1 points 9 months ago* (4 children)

    Also try to make a custom shortcut on your gnome desktop to run some application with some arguments without writing config files in random directories you have to Google and reloading some configs via a terminal.

    Dafuck. I will have to google it in Windows too. And no, I doubt Win experience is going to be any better, unless there is a "download some .exe from random site and run it to install GUI program" shortcut, which itself is a questionable thing to do (ok-ok, Microslop taught too many people that it should be OK)

    Buut

    everyday people will not switch to Linux if their device doesn’t already come with Linux

    Been thinking/saying this all along. Terminal and different way of doing things is not an obstacle, just walk into nearest computer store and see what OS they come with. Then ask a question whether some, say, doctor is going to even ask if is the best choice for them. Lots of people have lots of more important things to do :)

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  • [–] 6 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (3 children)

    To make a shortcut on your desktop on windows. Right click element -> shortcut on desktop. To change arguments: right click shortcut -> Properties. Done. Now try to explain how gnome does it in a comment 🤣

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  • [–] -2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)
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  • [–] 5 points 9 months ago* (1 child)

    That linked thread is about keyboard shortcuts btw, not at all what this conversation is about. Which would be creating a link (called shortcut on windows) on the desktop that executes a program with some custom parameters.

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  • [–] 8 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 child)

    Yeah. Generally Indie games run better while AAA do not.

    Then again there is the whole overhead with wine and game companies benchmark windows exclusively while optimizing currently.

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  • [–] 8 points 9 months ago

    WINE has very little overhead because WINE Is Not and Emulator. It's just a translation layer. The performance difference in games will typically come from it being faster if run with Vulkan or not.

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  • [–] 4 points 9 months ago

    Gaming in particular seems to be the same, with few games having noticeable differences either way.

    Productivity wise, it's night and day. On Linux I can run simulations while doing other stuff, on windows I had to have a freshly rebooted session with nothing else opened and leave it alone for hours to, maybe, run without crashing.

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  • [–] 4 points 9 months ago

    I haven't personally compared Linux performance to WIndows in 10 years. The last vesrion of Windows I used was 8.1. The games I want to play run very well on my Ryzen 7700X, 7900GRE system running Fedora. Subnautica and Satisfactory run great. I don't care if Windows gets a few fps more, because my computer actually works and doesn't show me ads in the taksbar or sends everything I paste in a word processing document to the cloud. I get 144 FPS with raytracing in Unreal 5 games. What's your problem?

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago

    Do you have a Nvidia GPU btw?

    Linux has two major offerings for display servers: X11 and Wayland.

    X11 is old asf and uses TCP/IP to send your data from the GPU/CPU to the monitor.

    Wayland doesn't do this I don't think... But I believe it's been known to have issues with Nvidia graphics cards.

    Hope Wayland development picks up because last time I checked it still has a lot of bugs that X11 just doesn't.

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