I'm brand new to Linux, and I'm exploring the different flavor options. My computer is older, which is why I'm looking into Mate because it seemed like an easier build to learn and ease into, without taxing my system. I use my computer for a variety of things, and one of them is gaming. But in trying to get steam to work, it's saying that most of my games aren't compatible and thus can't be installed. A quick google search has brought up things like Wine, Proton, Lutris, Bottles, or Heroic for GOG games, but I can't find any of these in the app center and there doesn't seem to be the "software boutique" that's referenced in the guide, so I feel sort of... stuck. Sorry if this has been asked before, but where do I go from here?
Hi, @Vixrell and welcome to the Ubuntu MATE Community!
Hi Vixrell.
"Out of the box" it will look like a lot of Steam games aren't compatible; but they might be! There's a community guide with more details than what I'll put here.
Briefly; go to the Settings
menu, and select the Compatibility
tab. Check that Enable Steam Play for all other titles
is selected. You can also choose a version of Proton to run these with from the drop down menu next to Run other titles with
.
Here's a screenshot of my settings:
I'm using Proton 9.0-4; which is relatively new and also relatively stable. I haven't had any problems with games in my library.
On an older system, you might be a bit constrained for storage - so check how big each game is before you install. You can always free up space by uninstalling games that you haven't played in a while (and use Cloud Saves if you want to keep your progress).
Otherwise, Lutris would be my recommendation. To install, download the .deb
file from Releases · lutris/lutris · GitHub. This file is basically an installer; similar (but very different) to an .msi
on Windows, or a .dmg
on OS-X (depending where you come from).
A similar downside applies to Lutris as with Steam in that each game takes up quite a bit of space - because a Windows-like 'image' is created for each game.
When I can; I manually install GOG versions of games (or other DRM-free versions) to a single Windows-like 'image' using Wine; so there's less duplication of system libraries etc. But that's a story for another time!
Lastly; note that the Software Boutique has been replaced by the App Center. This was (quietly?) announced in the release of UM 24.04.
The App Center is a front-end for using "snaps"; which are a Canonical (the company behind Ubuntu)-backed effort to package applications in a more portable way. Not every application has a "snap"; so Lutris, for example, has to be obtained elsewhere. Welcome to one of the first quirks of Linux -> no one can agree on how to package things!
Thank you for the welcome and the help! I'll read through the links and try what you've suggested. I plan on getting an external hard drive to install most of my games to, so they're not chewing up space on my main hard drive. I don't know how feasible it is, but I'm gonna try it.
I use an external drive for my games as well. It works fine assuming you are not trying to run some resource intensive game. Plus they are dirt cheap these days.