Play video games natively on Linux Gaming Your Way

Bazzite, an immutable Linux distro adapted for gaming, lets you play your favorite video games on your PC, handheld, or home theater PC.

-  By Rubén Llorente

S team, the famous game store from Valve, released a Linuxbased handheld computer known as Steam Deck in early 2022. This milestone demonstrated that commitment to use Linux as a top-tier video-game platform wasn’t just a fad, but a means to make the industry less dependent on Microsoft and its ecosystem. Two things exist that make the Steam Deck viable as a product: an increasing catalog of Linux native games and the rise of compatibility layers capable of running Windows software on Linux.

Figure 1: Bazzite's website helps you select the right image for your needs.

Steam’s solution for running Windows games on Linux is Proton, a partially proprietary compatibility layer based on Wine. Proton was developed by Valve with the cooperation of CodeWeavers, known for their proprietary version of Wine, CrossOver. Proton was created in order to integrate with the Steam Client and let Linux gamers buy and play nonnative games. It was released in 2018, a sign that Valve had been planning to support Linux seriously for a long time.

While these developments were all carried out in order to strengthen Valve’s video gaming empire, they are portable enough to be used in different environments than the ones initially intended. In other words, you can run the Steam client on Linux distributions not associated with Steam, and you can use Proton without Steam integration on your Linux flavor of choice. Better yet, custom distributions tailored specifically to offer a commercial gaming experience are now possible.

Figure 2: When you boot up for the first time, Bazzite updates the Steam client.