Steam On Linux Use Ticked Higher In May, 25% Of Linux Gamers Are Using The Steam Deck

[Weasel]

Don't mistake emulation gaming (gaming emulation) for Linux gaming. Linux gaming does not exist.

What emulation?

Providing a separate implementation of the Windows API is emulation now? So graphics drivers are all emulation since they provide their own separate implementations of the OpenGL/Vulkan APIs?

And installing a new library is emulation too, I guess.

Linux cannot even provide a secure base platform for games to rely on. In Windows games which want to protect you from cheaters may use Secure Boot/TPM/signed Windows kernel driver to have the assurance that the system is not compromised and you're not running cheat applications. In Linux, nothing is guaranteed. Linux fully trusts custom MOK certificates, so even Secure Boot is a joke in terms of providing system integrity.

"I only play single player games and I don't care about multiplayer", yeah, right, please don't.

You can literally use test mode and install custom drivers which have full privileges. Secure Boot isn't designed to ensure your users aren't compromised, it's designed for the user to know his system isn't compromised. He can still "compromise" it himself if he really wants to.

Next you're going to say that installing custom drivers and using test mode (so they don't require signing) is too hard for cheaters, but your bullshit alternative entails them replacing a core system component which is just as much work.

Lastly, this is just you grasping for straws. On Windows, you can just replace the god damn .DLL by dropping it in the app's directory. The fact you don't know how widespread cheating this is (in MMOs using stuff like GameGuard btw) shows how much you're grasping for theoretical straws without actually knowing it in practice.

winmm.dll is a very popular DLL to replace by dropping into the game's dir, and forwarding calls to the system one (so it works the same) while injecting your own DLLs to cheat during initialization.

Of course you can do this on Linux as well using LD_PRELOAD. Not claiming you can't. The point is, Windows is not a haven for anti-cheats.

The only anti-cheats that are hard to bypass are those using periodic heartbeats to the server. They're also the most malware/rootkit worthy because they literally connect online and can likely be compromised by exploits.

And the reason they're hard to bypass has nothing to do with Windows itself, it's simply because you need to completely replicate their heartbeat in your cheat, else you get booted off, because you disable the anti-cheat. And that requires a lot of reverse engineering and constant cat-and-mouse game.

Here's another funny part: games that don't work due to anti-cheat, usually work on Linux with Proton if you bypass the anti-cheats using the aforementioned cheats like dropping the special winmm.dll into the game's dir. Not a single line of code change to Proton. Windows so good man!

[avis]

...

First, is Win32 native API to Linux? Is DirectX native API to Linux? You may build a hundred layers of excuses and tricks to claim that's not "emulation" only I don't give a damn about rich verbiage. These are completely alien APIs and they will never work as well as they work under an OS which provides them natively. It's a ton worse than what FreeBSD does. FreeBSD's Linux emulation is actually very close to running natively.

Second, Windows Test Mode is easily discoverable. Of course as a cheat author you can hide everything but the user will have to enable testsinging mode in the first place and many will not do because they will be scared. That's too close to actually running malware on your system.

Third, under Linux there's zero guarantee that anything that the game works with is real/pristine. The kernel driver, Mesa, everything can be replaced/patched however the user wants. In Windows the entire system is digitally signed starting from the bootloader. Overriding this is extremely difficult if not impossible. And let me tell you one thing: there are undetectable hardware cheats. The problem is they are all bespoke and not produced on a mass scale. I'm fine with all the 20 people in the world who have them. I'm not fine with practically any Linux user who can be a dirty cheater because there's no way to verify their system integrity.

God, the amount of weaseling out, just to misrepresent how horribly bad Linux for Windows gaming is, is just disgusting.

I'm totally fine with Wine, DXVK, proton, whatever. This is not "Linux gaming" and never will be. Maybe start with the English language and basic logic.

Let's call this DXVK/Wine gaming under Linux because outside this combo, there's nothing to speak of. Not a single native AAA title for Linux for the past five years. Or maybe there have been one or two. Well, Windows has at least five dozen of them annually.

[zexelon]

First, is Win32 native API to Linux? Is DirectX native API to Linux? You may build a hundred layers of excuses and tricks to claim that's not "emulation" only I don't give a damn about rich verbiage. These are completely alien APIs and they will never work as well as they work under an OS which provides them natively. It's a ton worse than what FreeBSD does. FreeBSD's Linux emulation is actually very close to running natively.

Second, Windows Test Mode is easily discoverable. Of course as a cheat author you can hide everything but the user will have to enable testsinging mode in the first place and many will not do because they will be scared. That's too close to actually running malware on your system.

Third, under Linux there's zero guarantee that anything that the game works with is real/pristine. The kernel driver, Mesa, everything can be replaced/patched however the user wants. In Windows the entire system is digitally signed starting from the bootloader. Overriding this is extremely difficult if not impossible. And let me tell you one thing: there are undetectable hardware cheats. The problem is they are all bespoke and not produced on a mass scale. I'm fine with all the 20 people in the world who have them. I'm not fine with practically any Linux user who can be a dirty cheater because there's no way to verify their system integrity.

God, the amount of weaseling out, just to misrepresent how horribly bad Linux for Windows gaming is, is just disgusting.

I'm totally fine with Wine, DXVK, proton, whatever. This is not "Linux gaming" and never will be. Maybe start with the English language and basic logic.

Let's call this DXVK/Wine gaming under Linux because outside this combo, there's nothing to speak of. Not a single native AAA title for Linux for the past five years. Or maybe there have been one or two. Well, Windows has at least five dozen of them annually.

I am not sure how much gaming this person actually does... cheating is all pervasive in gaming these days especially in AAA titles. A simple google search will find some really top tier "hack" developers for pretty much every top and middle tier game out there. They also have far better tech support than the actual game publishers. They are expensive as all get out ($700USD/yr on average) but they provide excellent service and support. Also they are 100% exclusive to Windows.

All of these "hacks" could doubtlessly be replicated in Linux, and maybe it would be even easier to do for the dev, but the reality is that when it comes to anti-cheat Windows is a joke. Regardless of how difficult it may be for the dev, for the end user/gamer on Windows with cash to burn and an ego to inflate it is a few minutes and absolutely trivial to cheat in a game these days.

As for AAA titles coming to Linux? Why bother?? The Linux community is often times openly hostile to game devs because they see them as a threat to FOSS. Also games are predominantly optimised for Nvidia hardware which tends to put the Linux community into writhing fits of rage.

The best thing to happen to Linux is Proton. Its largely embraced by the community, it works impressively well out of the box and is well supported.

[avis]

I am not sure how much gaming this person actually does... cheating is all pervasive in gaming these days especially in AAA titles. A simple google search will find some really top tier "hack" developers for pretty much every top and middle tier game out there. They also have far better tech support than the actual game publishers. They are expensive as all get out ($700USD/yr on average) but they provide excellent service and support. Also they are 100% exclusive to Windows.

All of these "hacks" could doubtlessly be replicated in Linux, and maybe it would be even easier to do for the dev, but the reality is that when it comes to anti-cheat Windows is a joke. Regardless of how difficult it may be for the dev, for the end user/gamer on Windows with cash to burn and an ego to inflate it is a few minutes and absolutely trivial to cheat in a game these days.

As for AAA titles coming to Linux? Why bother?? The Linux community is often times openly hostile to game devs because they see them as a threat to FOSS. Also games are predominantly optimised for Nvidia hardware which tends to put the Linux community into writhing fits of rage.

The best thing to happen to Linux is Proton. Its largely embraced by the community, it works impressively well out of the box and is well supported.

Cheats under Windows are definitely an issue but at least it's not as horrible as it can be under Linux.

You can cheat as an amateur all you want: you'll be discovered and banned, and that's happening all the time. Absolute most cheaters are banned sooner or later.

You can try to cheat "professionally" but the games, that have LAN tournaments, have very strict rules in terms of setting up your PC - cheating has not been possible for at least the past at least five years, e.g. check this Valve document how the tournament organizer (TO) must run a CSGO major: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/cou...al-rulebook.md

Players:

• Don't have Internet access (except for logging into their Steam account)
• Don't have administrator privileges
• Don't have an option of running any software outside of the Steam client and the game executable (enforced via Group Policy), so no word.exe or anything like that
• Software/drivers for their peripherals is installed by the administrator from the official website
• Of course, the OS must be using Secure Boot.

Good luck sneaking in your cheats.

It's amazing that the vast majority of people here do not game professionally, don't follow the professional gaming scene, don't know much if anything about cheat development, yet continue to opine.

[sarmad]

Don't mistake emulation gaming (gaming emulation) for Linux gaming. Linux gaming does not exist.

Linux cannot even provide a secure base platform for games to rely on. In Windows games which want to protect you from cheaters may use Secure Boot/TPM/signed Windows kernel driver to have the assurance that the system is not compromised and you're not running cheat applications. In Linux, nothing is guaranteed. Linux fully trusts custom MOK certificates, so even Secure Boot is a joke in terms of providing system integrity.

"I only play single player games and I don't care about multiplayer", yeah, right, please don't.

Well, this edge that Windows has in terms of anti cheat is only gonna last few more years. With AI we'll soon be able to cheat without touching the OS stack.

[qarium]

I'm probably misunderstanding, but does this mean that about 25% of Steam Linux users have transitioned to the Steam Deck?

i think this is a rare case of people who use the steam deck as a desktop computer

most of them will be more likly be linux developers who buy a steam deck because they want to develop for it.

means they do not switch to the steam deck as only device.

[qarium]

In my case, i only want a Valve blessed release of SteamOS.
i will take care of the hardware and yes, please keep it AMD only.

if they only do a official steamOS release this will not fix the problem because the steam controler is out of production:::

yes of course it is a good idea but they really should make a steam controller 2.0 and please also a version with USB cable and not battery bullshit.

[qarium]

I don't see the point, those things can already run Linux and Steam. No need for valve to make locked down versions

you are out of your mind because the steam deck is not locked down at all.

[qarium]

This is an absolutely terrible idea. All of these markets are already fully saturated. This would accomplish nothing except maybe put Valve out of business

its a logical fallancy that you can not be successfull in a fully saturated market.

because all te other players in this saturated market all have no appstore like steam at all.

[qarium]

... and

a Valve Steam gaming smartwatch

hell they could even sell of course a valve steam gaming smartwatch... honestly