Gaming on Windows vs Linux:

Windows:
After installing windows, and downloading Minecraft, I was able to run it at a solid 60fps while stretched across 3 monitors

Linux:
After installing, and spending many, many hours trying to set it up to detect more than 1 monitor, I admitted defeat and decided to play on just one. This monitor was also set at a weird resolution, which I briefly fixed, but then broke again immediately. I downloaded Minecraft and after running it, I was able to get a somewhat solid 7fps (10 if I was lucky).

On the bright side, it was able to run a terminal based game just fine on linux.

Stating the obvious: Linux requires knowledge, and the payoff is enormous. Ignoring this fact and blaming Linux for not, "just working," is trying to reinvent computing.

Join us on rutees server.

May I ask which distribution you used?
On Ubuntu 18.04-19.10 I never had problems with monitors and for Minecraft I just had to install Java 8 (instead of the default 11 or so).

Do you have an Nvidia card? If so, the low performance may come from the (default) nouveau driver, where which the nvidia provided firmware forbids switching the card to performance mode. The proprietary drivers are a lot of better in that case.
The performance differences for integrated Intel graphic units are IMHO can be neglected.

Inb4 someone uses arch, btw

@Trithon no im not gonna say it.

No

NOO!

But seriously for it just works. Installed Java 8, installed minecraft, setup monitors with arandr and I was good to go.

@fuckwit same for me, except add a `pacman -S nvidia` and "it just works"
Even with rtx shaders <3

@Trithon But I’m waiting for 1.15 Optifine shaders???

Ps use manjaro and it’ll „just work“

I think op was making a statement regarding why one platform ia the obvious choice for gaming more than any other.

I play Minecraft with 60 FPS on a six years old Linux computer (with OpenJDK 11 and Optifine), on default graphic settings (except that I switched to FullHD fullscreen).

At the end of the day, gaming on Linux will never match the quality of gaming in Windows.

This is due to multiple factors but it boils down to the fact that games are complex and need many moving parts.

Drivers for Linux are still needing to evolve, however without decent official support from manufacturers there will always be a limit to what you can achieve.

Also a note: The argument that many hours of testing and configuration for one single game is "worth it" just because you're using Linux is silly.

More often than not a person wants to play the game, not Google for hours why they can't play right know.

Linux is good as what it's good at; Game support is not one of them.

@stonestorm
s/never/not (at least for awhile)
s/them.$/them, yet.

The rest is correct. 😊

@bahua "Linux requires knowledge, and the payoff is enormous. Ignoring this fact and blaming Linux for not, "just working," is trying to reinvent computing."

Because of that attitude Linux on the desktop still sucks.

So Linux requires "knowledge", more like "endless tinkering", until multiple monitors work. Or media buttons on keyboards, or bluetooth connections to headphones.
And the payoff after all this tinkering is, your system works comparably well to other systems that required none of that tinkering. Woo-hoo.

If that floats your boat, be my guest. Just don't blame the user and call it "reinvent computing" when the competition is already there.

@VaderNT the payoff is that you have a system that does nothing behind your back... The huge amount of auto-management that windows has is also the reason why its a spaghetti mess that you need to maintain more the more you use it, on the other hand linux runs almost as well as first install even after years of usage...

If I have to trade comfort for power I will, but that's not a linux issue, that's a user issue. Linux is not bad for gaming, its bad for simple users who want things to just magically work in exchange for losing all control of their PC (which none of them care for anyway) and then its up to us to clean their mess when they call you with "my computer doesn't start"

@VaderNT

"Endless tinkering," is another way to say, "didn't read the docs and expected it to just work." Linux is not comparable to Windows, in terms of intuitivity, and if it ever becomes that, it will lose a great deal of the power, flexibility, performance, and control that make it attractive now. This isn't an attitude, it's a fact: Linux won't really work for you if you don't put in the time to learn it.

@Hazarth
"If I have to trade comfort for power I will"

And why do you believe there must be a choice? I don't. Linux (or any system) could have both, and the efforts to get there do exist.

Take Android. Easy interface, power users get root, install a terminal emulator or compile it themselves. The "power vs comfort" is a false dichotomy.

It's the same tune since the 90s. My good old IntelliMouse Explorer was treated as two-button mouse. "But the power!" What power? An operating system's purpose is to help users do what they wanna do, not be a Tamagotchi itself. Unless that is what you want - then, like I said, whatever floats your boat. This doesn't float mine.

Since then I concluded that these are mere excuses. "Plug in mouse, all buttons work" has nothing to do with "losing power" or "users want magic in exchange for control". And guess what, nowadays *it works*. But building a capable desktop operating system proves more difficult than one wants to admit. Hence the blaming.

@bahua
"Linux is not comparable to Windows, in terms of intuitivity"

And does it have to be that way, or does it just currently happen to be that way?

"if it ever becomes that, it will lose a great deal of the power, flexibility, performance, and control that make it attractive now."

Get real. We're talking about multiple monitors here, not rocket science. In the 90s it was USB mice, today it's something else. You refuse to use Linux because USB mice just work nowadays and Linux has lost all its power, flexibility, performance and control that made it attractive in the 90s, right? Right...?

This line is completely arbitrary. Yes, I fully expect to not have to "read the docs" for this.

"This isn't an attitude, it's a fact: Linux won't really work for you if you don't put in the time to learn it."

I agree with that, but object to the attitude that it has to be that way.

@bahua Having to take time to get trivial shit working just tells how immature Linux is for said trivial shit. The whole POINT of an OS is to abstract the HW and render it usable. A PC is a means, not an end.

Btw., cars were similar. The first ones took half an hour to start with various levers and crap. Total control my ass. Once tech became mature, people expected to get in, turn the key and drive to wherever they wanted to go instead of dicking around with levers and knobs and shit.

@bahua Also, choosing defaults automatically so that shit just works doesn't in any way mean to take your control away.

Means, it's not that you couldn't manually override the reasonable defaults to make shit STOP working and fuck up the system in any way you like.

@Hazarth "We have root".

Number 1 rule, nothing is secure.

@Root I respectfully disagree, with all the time the Linux community has haf, I see too much of "my way is better" and this I feel this huge segmentation of the Linux community will forever be a growing plague that stops Linux from reaching it's potential.

I admire your optimism though!

@JustThat

Of course it requires knowledge, and it is 100% without editorial to say that. Those other operating systems require knowledge too, but people are much more willing to work on building that knowledge. They are also much more forgiving, and are usable without a substantial level of mastery. That intuitiveness is a design decision on which the world has become so reliant, that when an operating system does not conform to it, people retreat, dismiss, and tell me I'm bullshit.

The hostility I've observed in Linux vs Windows threads has been overwhelmingly originated from the people who for whatever reason are unwilling to accept Linux. Especially on devrant.

Who ever said anything like, "it's too hard for you?" I agree, that would be terrible to say. I see Linux-opposed people claiming that they see a Dark Souls style attitude of, "GIT GUD," from Linux users, and I have frankly never seen it. I have seen, (and said), "it's hard to pick up," "it requires knowledge," and other statements relating to the high bar of entry Linux has. To acknowledge the high bar is not an indictment of anyone.

@bahua
Finding people who disagree on the net is easy and not very interesting. What is, is why people believe what they believe.

As thought experiment let's exaggerate the "overwhelmingly"+"hostility": Let's grant anyone arguing against Linux is a rabid hater for no good reason. It's easy to grant because it doesn't matter. There's still two open questions, with their answers what's actually interesting.

#1 is specific. To fix this monitor issue, OP needs to learn more than with Win. Do you consider this just the current state that could(should?) be improved, or do you think it ought to be this way?

#2 is very general: You said "if it [Linux] ever becomes that [comparable to Windows intuitivity-wise], it will lose a great deal of the power, flexibility, performance, and control"
Why do you believe that?

I'm sincerely interested in your stance, and not afraid of being wrong. I want to believe as many true things and as few false things as possible. Thus if I'm wrong I want to know.

@VaderNT

#1: It's an edge case, but it's simple if you're handy with some light programming/scripting, and xrandr. That said, it's not a simple config in Windows or MacOS either. It doesn't, "just work," on any OS. There are many automation tools for xrandr, and many graphical wrappers for it too(lxrandr, arandr to name a couple), and I assume the problem is being worked on, but edge cases like this will always require skill and perseverance, on any OS. When approaching this problem in linux, it would not be difficult to find helpful and relevant information within the first couple results on a basic search for it. My problem with the sentiment in the OP is what appears to be an unwillingness to expend that modest effort.

@VaderNT

#2: This was editorial on my part and I apologize for it. But it is borne of the general trend in other OSes of simplicity and a low learning curve erasing flexibility and customization, and my fear of that happening to Linux. I can't articulate exactly how that would happen, which is why I apologize for it, but I know that as long as there is a steep learning curve, the possibilities are myriad, and I'm terrified of losing that.

`amdgpu.dc=0` on your kernel line if memory serves

Did you use gentoo or something? Ubuntu should work fine out of the box. Try the more hardcore distros after you're comfortable with ubuntu. Or don't. It's not really worth it unless you're just doing it for fun imo.

Having said all that... Linux is just not for gaming. It's primarily a server operating system and also useful for developing software that will run on linux servers

@bahua
> This was editorial on my part and I apologize for it

It is I who has to apologize. I interpreted your initial comment as a position you don't hold, and I should have asked these clarifying questions right at the beginning.

I can make this short since we actually seem to be largely in agreement:
#1: I don't think OP is unwilling, the rant mentioned many hours of work. That said, you're right... e.g. macOS "just works" 9/10 times when I plug my MacBook Pro into my docking station. The 10th time it suddenly forgets which virtual desktop belongs on which monitor. :(

#2: Maybe you fear that Gnome 3's approach "our way or the highway" becomes the norm? Personally, I don't see that happening - someone's gonna fork it, like Gnome 3 to Cinnamon - but I see where you're coming from.

How do you fuck up a Minecraft installation on Linux? What the fuck?

@PrivateGER

You just need a working JRE, right?

@bahua Yes. OpenJDK works perfectly fine too.

Gaming on Windows: try to install software but you can't because space is not sufficient due to 1tb of windows updates or it just glitches out
Gaming on Linux: open emacs, mx-snake

Gaming on Windows: try to install software but you can't because space is not sufficient due to 1tb of windows updates or it just glitches out
Gaming on gnu+Linux: open emacs, mx-snake