In the short term the answer is a clear “yes”, as it allows players to play nearly all Windows games on Linux without modifications, and game developers to ship their games on Linux without any extra costs.
In the long term it might have a bad effect on the market, as it further helps to cement Microsoft’s control over multimedia APIs, since game developers now have little incentive now to target anything other than DirectX…
In this case it’s a bit weird though, as the game lists Linux as supported platform, but obviously just ships the Windows build with Proton instead of having a native Linux build that uses open cross-platform APIs.
In the long term it might have a bad effect on the market, as it further helps to cement Microsoft’s control over multimedia APIs, since game developers now have little incentive now to target anything other than DirectX…
However, there are others that would argue that Microsoft’s control over multimedia APIs was fully cemented since decades ago, and developers have never had much incentive to target anything other than DX since then.
Back in 2014, Valve tried to bring Linux gaming to the spotlight by offering solid and targetable APIs for developers to port their games. This approach failed hard, and most games had serious deficiencies because most publishers would rather stick a half-assed DX wrapper (like DXVK only infinitely worse) than actually do the work for a proper port.
So, with only a handful of games and what did appear was usually worse than on Windows, releases stopped coming after a year or so.
In this case it’s a bit weird though, as the game lists Linux as supported platform, but obviously just ships the Windows build with Proton instead of having a native Linux build that uses open cross-platform APIs.
It being under supported platforms might mean that the developer officially supports proton and thus Linux. Hopefully they’d provide fixes if they somehow break the game on proton (e.g. they won’t add an unnecessary launcher which breaks the game).
In the short term the answer is a clear “yes”, as it allows players to play nearly all Windows games on Linux without modifications, and game developers to ship their games on Linux without any extra costs.
It’s the dual-edged sword of making it more accessible now with a workaround, which disincentives developers from building with actual support in mind.
So Proton is allowing more people to switch to Linux for gaming, which is good! However, instead of putting pressure on developers to make Linux versions of games and software they can just use Proton, so they will continue making only Windows versions, which is bad.
Wow, now you’ve got me imagining this weird future where everyone has switched to Linux for desktop use because of how bad windows has become, but developers still make games only for windows because of Proton. 😵💫
In the long term it might have a bad effect on the market, as it further helps to cement Microsoft’s control over multimedia APIs, since game developers now have little incentive now to target anything other than DirectX…
You’re not wrong, but people have been saying this for >20 years. We’re living in that future.
I think it could be argued that Proton actually gives Linux and Valve control over directx instead of M$. Since, the only directx features and implementation that developers targeting Linux can use is the implementation from Proton. M$ has no say over what Proton users can use.
Furthermore, it reduces the barrier to entry for developers to support fully native Linux+opengl/vulkan, breaking developers out of Microsoft’walled garden.
I understand that the Linux community was worried about wine wrappers before, but I think Valve has shown everyone how good wine wrappers can be.
I wouldn’t call it WINE Wrapper. While I agree that this is the correct usage of the term, I’ve mostly seen it used online to describe tools like winelib or eON, meaning tools that allow to target Windows APIs at compile time.
Yes and No.
In the short term the answer is a clear “yes”, as it allows players to play nearly all Windows games on Linux without modifications, and game developers to ship their games on Linux without any extra costs.
In the long term it might have a bad effect on the market, as it further helps to cement Microsoft’s control over multimedia APIs, since game developers now have little incentive now to target anything other than DirectX…
In this case it’s a bit weird though, as the game lists Linux as supported platform, but obviously just ships the Windows build with Proton instead of having a native Linux build that uses open cross-platform APIs.
However, there are others that would argue that Microsoft’s control over multimedia APIs was fully cemented since decades ago, and developers have never had much incentive to target anything other than DX since then.
Back in 2014, Valve tried to bring Linux gaming to the spotlight by offering solid and targetable APIs for developers to port their games. This approach failed hard, and most games had serious deficiencies because most publishers would rather stick a half-assed DX wrapper (like DXVK only infinitely worse) than actually do the work for a proper port.
So, with only a handful of games and what did appear was usually worse than on Windows, releases stopped coming after a year or so.
This is why we have DXVK and Proton today.
It being under supported platforms might mean that the developer officially supports proton and thus Linux. Hopefully they’d provide fixes if they somehow break the game on proton (e.g. they won’t add an unnecessary launcher which breaks the game).
This is especially important for smite, because smite 1 is still incompatible on Linux due to them not enabling EAC
How does that make Proton bad?
It’s the dual-edged sword of making it more accessible now with a workaround, which disincentives developers from building with actual support in mind.
So Proton is allowing more people to switch to Linux for gaming, which is good! However, instead of putting pressure on developers to make Linux versions of games and software they can just use Proton, so they will continue making only Windows versions, which is bad.
Wow, now you’ve got me imagining this weird future where everyone has switched to Linux for desktop use because of how bad windows has become, but developers still make games only for windows because of Proton. 😵💫
When Linux has comparable market share we will have some Linux-only games and Windows runs them in WSL
I was focusing on that paragraph specifically. It’s written like accessibility is a clear bad thing. I was wondering if it was a typo.
Sorry, I was a bit confuse. I meant, in the short term Proton is definitely a good thing.
You’re not wrong, but people have been saying this for >20 years. We’re living in that future.
Very interesting thank you!
I think it could be argued that Proton actually gives Linux and Valve control over directx instead of M$. Since, the only directx features and implementation that developers targeting Linux can use is the implementation from Proton. M$ has no say over what Proton users can use.
Furthermore, it reduces the barrier to entry for developers to support fully native Linux+opengl/vulkan, breaking developers out of Microsoft’walled garden.
I understand that the Linux community was worried about wine wrappers before, but I think Valve has shown everyone how good wine wrappers can be.
I wouldn’t call it WINE Wrapper. While I agree that this is the correct usage of the term, I’ve mostly seen it used online to describe tools like winelib or eON, meaning tools that allow to target Windows APIs at compile time.