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Microsoft Windows kernel changes don't suddenly mean big things for Linux gaming

https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2024/09/microsoft-windows-kernel-changes-dont-suddenly-mean-big-things-for-linux-gaming/

There's a lot of blog posts and news articles being written right now centred around Microsoft's plans for updates to Windows 11, and potential kernel changes, with some thinking this means big things for Linux gaming.

There's a lot of blog posts and news articles being written right now centred around Microsoft's plans for updates to Windows 11, and potential kernel changes, with some thinking this means big things for Linux gaming.

Sorry to say, but I'm here to bring a more realistic take and to help keep all your feet on the ground.

quite relevant to yesterday's discussion.

21 comments

Dark_Arc

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I have 0 interest in this guy's takes.

He pushed an awful battle royale game that just took people's money (including mine) and never actually launched.

He also once got into a ~~Twitter~~ (edit: it was actually mastodon) argument with me when he posted about an open source developer being "selfish" or something like that for telling him "if you don't like the readme, open a pull request with the changes you want made to it." Long story short, I told him it wasn't cool to make a post bullying an open source developer to donate more of their free time to something they didn't want to do, and that they have every right to tell him "go do it yourself." He blocked me.

Yeah, he runs a Linux gaming website, yeah he talks about games that run on Linux which is cool, but ... make no mistake he doesn't have some deeper journalistic insight. If Microsoft does forbid kernel level anticheat, that will indeed be a game changer.

stephen01king

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Which game is that, if you don't mind me asking?

Dark_Arc

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Crazy Justice.

I think I loaded it one time once it was "released into early access" and it was a completely empty game that was clearly unfinished then it never got updated. The developers disappeared entirely a while after that.

On top of that, it caused a bug in my steam inventory for years where there was this glitched tab or something like that until I finally found out I could have the game removed from my account and removed it.

stephen01king

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Thanks, I'll check out what they did later.

lordnikon

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it only means nothing because the person that are determined to want to Linux fail will just move the goal posts to something else. But if it means less Rootkits that pretend to be anti-cheat drm the better.

AngryCommieKender

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Re: your username.

Do you actually have photographic memory, or are you just a fan of hackers?

lordnikon

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love the movie for the absurdity of it. My memory on the other hand is less DLSR and more broken disposable camera you find at a wedding in 1999.

AngryCommieKender

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Hack the planet!

electricprism

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Sabotage

russjr08

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Not really a fan of the author's attitude at the start (I'm not quite sure how I'd describe it, but it certainly feels off...) - however I do agree with the premise. Even if Microsoft stops allowing kernel level anti-cheat to happen (and honestly I'll believe it when I see it), that doesn't mean that game developers/publishers who are hostile to Linux players are suddenly going to go "Oh! Well in that case..."

I'd be incredibly happy to be wrong in this case, but as of how the current landscape is, I just don't see it changing. They'll just find some other BS reason to exclude Linux players.

I stopped purchasing games that weren't compatible with Linux long ago, and the one holdover I had was Destiny 2 - but the game's major story has come to an end, which makes it a great time for me to drop it too.

dillekant

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It's a pretty tepid way of thinking about the issue to be honest. In a strategic sense, basically any move Microsoft is forced to make for actual (rather than apparent) security makes it harder for them to do things in a way which creates lock-in. Yes, they will use it to push for DRM, as another commenter noted, but that's another apparent security solution. In the long term, this is a positive, but it's not an immediate and direct benefit, as the blog post notes.

kugmo

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It just means that MS will start enforcing the use of Pluton as a hard requirement for Windows 12 after Windows 11 is end-of-life. You saw it happen with TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot with 11, history repeats itself.

mox

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Games requiring kernel-level anti-cheat are such a small minority of games that I struggle to think how this could mean big anything (good or bad) to Linux gaming in general.

theshatterstone54

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Unfortunately, a lot of those are super popular and there are still gamers that want to switch to Linux but can't because of those games.

narc0tic_bird

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Unfortunately, a lot of those are super popular and there are still gamers that don't want to switch to Linux ~~but can't~~ because of those games.

FTFY because of course most of these people could switch and just stop playing these couple of games, that's hardly life changing.

theshatterstone54

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And THAT is the attitude that causes Linux to still not be ready for many people.

narc0tic_bird

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Downvote all you want, but that's how it is. People prioritize certain things over others - and that's completely fine - but don't pretend like they don't have a choice. On the contrary, more people switching to a Linux distribution despite incompatible games would lead to these games more likely adopting Linux compatibility.

tabular

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To pretend they have a choice is what the "free will" assumption is all about - but everything everything else you said was logical.

Though I would disagree about how life changing it can be to stop or not play a video game. It has not been easy for my best friends to understand all the reasons why I can no longer play certain games with them or refuse to play new ones (I use Linux and won't dual boof Windows, I'd rather play open source game and use open source communication software).

narc0tic_bird

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Whether free will exists or not would add a whole new layer to this discussion that you could easily add to almost any discussion as a wildcard. If we assume that using Windows vs Linux is predetermined as opposed to being a choice, this whole comment tree doesn't make any sense. So let's not go there.

In my opinion, if quitting playing a couple of games really is life changing to you, you have deeper problems. If your so-called friends can't understand why you quit a game over something that's more important (to you), then find different people who do. That's almost as stupid as American kids excluding other kids for not using iMessage/iPhone. Doesn't mean your friends have to stop playing these games, but you can share other moments with them. Other games, conversations, other activities altogether.

tabular

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That layer shows it doesn't make sense to start on your original layer, so let's stop that common line of though too? I can't talk to everyone so this card is currently a single target, negation and destruction :)

I mostly agreed on the other paragraph. Just that friends can not understand but still be supportive, and sad you're not there for games (which are more important than the public would agree).

mdurell

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kuberoot

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2025 will truly be the year of the Linux desktop! I am so happy about this information!