I have been daily driving Linux for over two years now and I have switched distros many times. So, when my friend bought a new laptop, I convinced him to install Linux Mint on it. I asked him if he wanted to dual boot, he said no because it would fill up all his storage. We installed Linux Mint. The other day, he wanted to play FIFA 17 on his computer. After 5 whole hours of troubleshooting we were able to get FIFA running smoothly with some issues. Next, he wanted to play Roblox. I guided him through the process of installing Waydroid and libhoudini, only to discover that Roblox would run at 10 FPS. With Minecraft, it wasn’t any better. It took us 1 hour to get it working (not skill issue, he wanted to play cracked through Prism Launcher). Now, he wants to go back to Windows 10. I have already told him about dual boot, but he has only 256GB of storage and he wants to play a lot of games. What should I do? Install Windows to his laptop, install some other Linux distro, or try to convince him more about dual boot? Thanks in advance and sorry for the essay.
Aren’t Roblox and old Minecraft rather efficient? FIFA 17 sounds like it’s from 2017. To me it sounds like mostly old games so without the specs of the laptop which don’t sound good with 256gb of storage I can’t really judge whether 10fps in newer Minecraft versions isn’t perhaps to be expected. Minecraft has always run the best on my machine (compared to most steam games which are more finicky when it comes to drivers. Btw for me fixing drivers it’s usually just switching between the ones on flatpak and arch whenever it doesn’t work and worst case I do a downgrade until it’s fixed.)
Would it be worth testing the vanilla Minecraft launcher to see if that’s the problem, perhaps compare the launch options if it’s not possible? (I completely get not liking what Microsoft is doing with the launcher and I’m looking for an alternative at this point as well.)
It’s possible that the laptop has an old/niche graphics card with bad driver support, which will probably be worse to try to fix on windows, unless they already know how to use the manufacturers likely gui based weird custom installer already (I think that’s how Nvidia does it and of course it has ads).
Personally my experience on windows has been a nightmare with it breaking itself more often than Linux (while being used a fraction of the time or probably slightly more if I count the time spent on my old laptop which had slightly fewer issues). Luckily I don’t have to use it but I do have a windows install in dual boot which takes 3x longer to start, shows me ads, requires me to plug the mouse in after booting for it to work.
If you want to game stick up with Windows, for everything else use Linux.
I would say unless you always want to do troubleshooting for this friend just stick him with windows. At some point it is up to the individual to be able to troubleshoot these issues using the Internet as the resource, but a lot of people just don’t want to mess with that. My own time is too limited to be on call for people.
What should I do?
Install Windows on his laptop, or better yet let him do it and sit besides him for guidance, so that he can learn to reinstall in case something breaks badly.
It’s nice to showcase your favourite OS and make people curious but don’t abuse your friends with your Linux preference by forcing it onto them.
(Also, if you fix everything for them all the time, how will they learn?)
I am trying to make him learn something by explaining what the commands do. For example, I say to them “run
cd Documentswhich changes your current directory to Documents.”. But I agree with you, I will tell him a little more about dual boot, and if he doesn’t want to dual boot, I will help them install Windows.
Well you get an a for effort. But if your friend wants to play windows games it’s better for them to just have windows on the machine. I give it to you and your friend for going all out on a new laptop and putting Linux on it right away.
A more convenient way for a new user to experience Linux is to do a live usb for them. That way they can boot into Linux easily but boot into windows just by removing the usb drive.
I’m really sad to see this “If he wants to play Windows games, let him use Windows” being repeated a hundred times in these comments. Mostly because it’s an echo chamber, but also because Windows games have been better and better under Proton so 80-90% of Windows games on Steam run without a problem on Linux.
I understand your frustration but if you were in this guys shoes and this was your friend calling you all day to do troubleshooting, what would you do? Spend hours of your time helping him become a Linux addict or tell them just to put his computer back to windows and be done with it?
I’m a huge Linux fan but even my main pc and laptop are windows. I use WSL (amazing btw) on the laptop with a kali install. And I’ll use powershell (also really good) on the pc for any ssh needs for my Linux servers.
Unfortunately you chose the wrong distro - Linux Mint isn’t good for gaming - it uses an outdated kernel/drivers/other packages, which means you’ll be missing out on all the performance improvements found in the latest kernel/packages found in more up-to-date distros. Gaming on Linux is a very fast moving target, the landscape is changing at a rapid pace thanks to the development efforts of Valve and the community. So for gaming, you’d generally want to be on the latest kernel+mesa+wine stack.
Also, as you’ve experienced, on Mint you’d have to manually install things like Waydroid and other gaming software, which can be a PITA for newbies.
So instead, I’d highly recommend a gaming-oriented distro such as Nobara or Bazzite. Personally, I’m a big fan of Bazzite - it has everything you’d need for gaming out-of-the-box, and you can even get a console/Steam Deck-like experience, if you install the
-deckvariant. Also, because it’s an immutable distro with atomic updates, it has a very low chance of breaking, and in the rare ocassion that an update has some issues - you can just select the previous image from the boot menu. So this would be pretty ideal for someone who’s new to Linux, likes to game, and just wants stuff to work.In saying that, getting games to run in Linux can be tricky sometimes, depending on the game. The general rule of thumb is: try running the game using Proton-GE, and if that fails, check Proton DB for any fixes/tweaks needed for that game - with this, you would never again have to spend hours on troubleshooting, unless you’re playing some niche game that no one has tested before.
I really wish people stopped recommending mint for any purpose other than reviving a 20 Yr old laptop into a chromebook.
Mint is perfectly fine for commodity programming and basic office work, too. It’s not that great for gaming but it’s a good distro for boring stuff, even on modern hardware.
Unless your hardware demands it a distro with a modern de would be much better for those imo
Thanks I’m going to give this a try.
The problem is not that games don’t run smoothly. The problem is that games don’t run at all or require major effort to run without issues. Will installing that distro fix the complicated installation of Prism Launcher cracked? I don’t think so. But I agree with you for the fact that I chose the wrong distro. I wanted something easy for beginners.
The problem is that games don’t run at all or require major effort to run without issues.
A major cause for that is the distro - when it comes to gaming, the distro makes a huge difference. The second major cause is the flavor of Wine you chose (Proton-GE is the best, not sure what you used). The third major cause is checking whether or not the games are even compatible in the first place (via ProtonDB, Reddit etc) - you should do this BEFORE you recommend Linux to a gamer.
In saying all that, I’ve no idea about pirated stuff though, you’re on your own on that one - Valve and the Wine developers obviously don’t test against pirated copies, and you won’t get much support from the community either.
Seriously you’re recommending Reddit to a Lemmy user?
Bazzite also solves this, sometimes.
But you cant change if Roblox etc actively block Linux compatibility
Why did they even do that?
“SeCuRiTy”
Linux doesn’t have good anti cheat, barely has any players, and is a constant source of noise on tech support forums (because most games aren’t made to work, they just kind of happen to).
You can’t do the same kind of anti cheat on Linux without risking losing a court case about you not sharing your kernel driver source code. Wine is built around swapping out DLLs (which is exactly what most cheats do) and code signing is practically non-existent. There’s no way to determine if someone isn’t messing with your game on Linux, so the moment someone develops a cheat on Linux you can choose between allowing cheats or disallowing Linux. Someone could invest in Linux specific anti cheat for the sliver of market segment it makes up, but it’s just not worth it.
Unfortunately, solving anti cheat server side just isn’t feasible anymore. It used to be, but these days it’s not an option if you intend to keep the game fun and want to make money as a publisher. Single player games and local co-op are a different story, but in my experience those tend to work most of the time.
There’s no way to completely avoid cheaters and I really don’t get why there’s so many windows games that want Kernelmode access. You could still read the memory and emulate inputs based on that or draw something on the screen. It’s probably just causing the cheaters who want to download something and win to get more viruses (which most probably deserve assuming the viruses aren’t too bad), while the game company gets closer to being indistinguishable from a virus itself.
Reading memory is, if the anti chest mechanism is working, not possible without detection. That’s what the kernel mode driver is for, among other things (like detecting spoofed hardware sending fake inputs, hypervisor detection, etc.).
There’s always the analog hole (just point a camera at a screen, together with a keyboard hooked up to an arduino) but software cheats can be prevented quite effectively. There’s a reason cheaters pay three or four figures for a cheat in their “favorite” game, it’s not just good ol’ Cheat Engine trainers anymore.
In the case that mint is the problem perhaps a different distro that is still stable and has a large user base would be good as it makes it easier to get support. I think that’s also why those distros aren’t recommended to newbies. I started with Ubuntu which worked fine. I think I could’ve started with most gnome/KDE distros though if they were similarly stable (preferably more). I think having the settings available in a gui was important for my first time.
If they want to game, can’t commit to only playing steam games, and can’t learn how to use lutris, have them stay on windows. Linux will never live up to their expectations.
if hes willing try zorinos. If that does not work I know of nothing easier. It comes with play on linux pretty well configured.
There’s a drm-free version of prism launcher called PollyMC (note the two l’s)
Can we please just stick to one modded MC launcher instead of having a controversy every year
Why should I care?
And I don’t think you really understand free software by what you are saying, because you’re suggesting we should monopolize the software we use for no reason, which really goes against the whole point.
My wife and I gave a Linux computer to a friend’s kid. I think I used something called Grapejuice to install Roblox, which ran perfectly for about a year. Then it broke because they wrote a new game client or something, but the kid just said “it’s ok, I’ll play other games instead.” Best Linux gamer attitude :)
Don’t tell him to dual boot. He wants Windows don’t shove Linux down throat. Honestly he probably shouldn’t of been using to begin with. I’m not sure why you would pressure him so hard.
The problem is mate is that not all games have native Linux versions, If FIFA 17 were on steam, you could use proton on it but I believe it isn’t.
It just comes with the territory of Linux that some games are windows only and can be finicky.
Minecraft however, should run fine on potato machines and with Linux, should have a native port you can install from say Flatpak.
When moving to the penguin train, he needs to write down what software and games he wants to use, and what might be omitted due to compatibility issues.
If the man wants to use Windows, let him be, he might reconsider in future about trying Mint again or another distro like Kubuntu.
Just let him read the arch with wiki.
So why you convinced anyone to install a linux distro in the first place. But not asking him about whatever thing he will need later. Just install Windows.
His SSD might be slightly damaged (by some unnecessary writings) because of you.
You cannot kill windows and any other proprietary operating system by just switching their users to any currently “free” (as in no price to use and restrictive in modifications) linux distros. Don’t try it again. Take off the tenses.
His SSD might be slightly damaged
Holy shit where does that come from
I thought writing unnecessary thing would always “damage” any drive :)? Especially wiping.
Unnecessary writing wears out the SSD in the same way putting on your shoes wears them out.
His SSD might be slightly damaged because of you.
Wow, you are full of poop.
Because I am trying to dissuade those fanatics who consider themselves great and genuine revolutionaries. While their operating systems are totally identical to windows and aren’t free (gpl everywhere haha). You guys are even worse than fsf and richard stallman.
Better luck next time.
