Today, I switched the last of my Windows machines to Linux: my gaming PC. I’ve been using Linux on servers for many years but was a bit apprehensive for gaming.
Turns out it just… works. Just installed steam and turned proton on, have zero performance or other issues. I’m using Ubuntu 25.04 for the 6.14 kernels NT emulation performance tweaks. Aside from there not being a catalyst driver for it and so I can’t undervolt my card everything is great.
Just in case you didn’t know, odd numbered Ubuntu versions (in your case 25) are considered short term releases and won’t be maintained beyond a year or two.
Unless you really need that version, you’ll want to install 26 when it comes out next April (upgrade should be very seamless).
Even numbered versions are supported long term, often for several years.
Can’t you just upgrade to the next release? (It’s been more than 10 years since I installed/used Ubuntu)
24.04 doesn’t have 6.14: https://kernelnewbies.org/Linux_6.14#NT_synchronization_primitive_driver_for_faster_games
You made the right call, for your situation.
They’re just letting you know that you will want to apply each annual upgrade when they come out, to ensure your system stays secure.
This may contrast with any Ubuntu-running friends you may have, who may not be applying updates annually.
Once you’ve upgraded to 28 (in ~ 2028) you can safely skip the next four years of updates, if you feel like it, because 28 will (probably) be the next Long Term Support (LTS) release.
TIL that Ubuntu release denotes the year and month. I thought it was just quirky versioning…
LTS for Ubuntu are every two years; April of the even years. Next LTS will be 26.04, then 28.04 etc.
Sweet. That’s more often than I realized. Thank you.
Assuming you’re playing games through Proton rather than vanilla Wine, kernels before 6.14 already have fsync which is used by Proton and effectively does the same thing as ntsync.
Good info, but I guess I just upgrade my way to 2604
Don’t get too hung up on it. It was an fyi not a “stop what you’re doing you newb!”
We need people to test the latest, bleeding edge. So you’re helping with that! But since you’re new to Linux I wanted to make sure you knew what you were getting yourself into.
It’s not that odd numbers are less stable. It’s more that they aren’t supported for long term. Many of the lessons learned are pushed to the next version though so either way you’re doing good.
I’m not a PC gamer so for me stamina and longevity matter more to me than bleeding edge technology.