Just switched Zorin for Win11 on my kids computer (yes, it did hurt and still does 😭). His friends play Fortnite and he felt left out. Windows is the only option if he want to play?
Btw downloaded newest Microslop Windows 11, but still during installation there was a gust from the past; I had to use my other computer to download the wifi card driver, which I had to “select from disk” when installing 😂 in 2026!! (tplink ex3000). Worked flawless on Linux.
Probably just a waiting game, then. Epic is bringing their client to Linux (supposedly), but it’s unknown when.
As a second option, have you considered dual booting, with Linux as the default? Then you/he can still have the benefit of Linux most of the time with Windows as a backup for the problematic games.
They can make an Epic client without Fortnite. The problem is that anti-cheat on Linux is fundamentally incompatible with software freedom. Because anti cheat is intended to prevent you from controlling your computer.
To be clear, I believe you are talking about kernel-level anticheat?
I once read that kernel anticheat is the lazy option. Devs can supposedly combat cheating without that, but it takes effort (meaning $$$).
So Fortnite could come to Linux, but Epic would have to fundamentally change how they deal with cheating, and the CEO doesn’t seem the type to give a shit about that.
And why should they? The bottom line is the bottom line. It doesn’t make any business sense to spend money to change your anti cheat mechanism so you can capture a tiny group of users. The incentive just isn’t there
I think it’s shortsighted. The Linux gaming market is growing, and anyone with business foresight would be putting systems in place to capture that market. Apple is bound and determined not to be compatible with anyone, and Microsoft is not doing gamers any real favors lately, so it’s likely to continue to grow even further as people look for alternative(s) to both.
Epic’s anti cheat support Linux, the CEO refuses(-ed) to use it in their own games because they hate Linux.
Talking out of my ass, i think this shift is one of two things. The first would be their customers wanting to target Steam Deck having doubts of Epic’s anti cheat capacity in Linux. If they don’t support it in their own games (and Rocket League had Linux support before being bought out). The other is they want to launch their own Linux based console with their Store pre-installed. They’ve always wanted to have a store front, to the point they challenged Google and Apple for a bigger piece of the pie. Today, this last part is unlikely considering the price of components.
The issue with that setup is, if Fortnite is one of the primary things he does, he’s just going to stay on windows and never use the linux install. Nothing is more annoying than having to constantly reboot into a new OS since it requires closing everything out. It would likely end up being a Windows default and occasionally swapping to linux (more realistically just never swapping to linux)
That flow is what I do though, I have both Debian and Windows 10 installed and default to Linux, but thats also because I don’t play a game that hard requires windows to function, so my usage of the OS is strictly hardware/firmware updates and the once or twice a year that I do have a game that straight doesn’t work on linux at all.
“that setup doesn’t work - I know because it’s exactly what I do”…??
you missed the second half of the post
Even that quote is contradictory in one sentence. Bold added to clarify what I mean…
Basically “I won’t play a game that ‘hard requires windows’ unless I decide to play a game that ‘straight doesn’t work on linux’, which happens regularly enough that it is half the reason I keep a windows partition around”. Like, honestly, It’s okay. I am not trying to shame you for having a windows partition. I just find it hypocritical to say it doesn’t work and then explain how you make it work, lol.
I think we have different definitions of the word regularly. that, or you’re not understanding my post I can’t tell.
As per the quote, it happens once or twice a year. I would not classify that as regularly. And as such, since it’s not happening regularly, I am able to use the system where it defaults to Linux.
Where in contrast, if I had a program or game that I played daily with my friends(or arguably, even if it was every other day) that required Windows, I would be defaulting to Windows because having to reboot your computer in order to load completely different operating system regularly would be too much of a pain in the ass.
I say this from a realistic point of view because I’ve already done that back before proton and back before wine was even half as decent as it was now. That is how I ran my laptop, I had a Windows 7 system with Linux Mint on it as a side load. And I had to reboot into Windows any time I wanted to play a game because wine at that stage of development sucked. My intention was to switch to Linux and have Linux as a primary. But realistically, what it ended up being is, if I had a remote suspicion that I might want to play a video game that day, I would just load the Windows operating system, in order to make it so I didn’t have to restart all my programs in order to play my game.
Current day proton and wine have gotten to the point where I no longer have to worry about that because I have no Windows critical games anymore. So as such, I’m able to default to Linux because I’m not having to reboot into Windows to make it work.
Hopefully that makes it a little more clearer, I fail to see how it’s hypocritical.