With the widespread support for Steam/Valve on this forum because of their contributions to making Linux gaming easier, I’m now confused as to why people here are using Linux in the first place.

I personally do so out of support for FOSS software, the customizability, and actual ownership of software, which I thought were most people’s primary reasons for using any Linux distro. Steam seems antithetical to all of these. The software in the first place became popular as a form of DRM, and it gets publishers to use it for the allowance of DRM on the platform. The Steam client has the absolute minimum customizability. Your account can be banned at any point and you can lose access to many of the games you have downloaded.

Whenever I game on Linux I just use folders to sort my game library and purchase any games I want to play on itch.io or GoG. On my Linux PC I stay away from clients like Steam because I want a PC that works offline, and will work if all of my accounts were banned. It’s more of a backup PC.

Since Steam has every characteristic of Windows, 0 customizability, DRM, plenty of games that are spyware, I see no reason to really not use Windows instead for the much easier time I can have playing games.

Yes, I prefer many of the features of Linux distros, but using a client like Steam defeats the purpose of them. Ridiculous storage requirements due to unoptimized dependencies, having to have a background client running for some games and wasting resources on doing so.

So, why use Linux and support Steam, or use Linux and use Steam?

  • root@aussie.zone
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    1 year ago

    I started using Linux at tge end of last year when I built myself a new gaming PC. Had enough of Windows telemetry and wanted to start taking small steps to improve my digital privacy. Ditching Windows for Linux is the easy part.

    Valve has fone wonders in making gaming on linux relatively frictionless all things considered and for that, I (and i believe a lot of people) am grateful. It gives us a choice in OS. Yes, Steam can be considered "DRM" but at least it's better than Denuvo or EAC. Steam works on Linux without having to jump through hoops.

    Also, Steam family sharing is awesome. I can let my partner / family play my games when I am working and they are not.

      • root@aussie.zone
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        1 year ago

        That's true. I guess the more accurate comprison would be Steam VS Epic games store since they are storefronts as well as drm.