The Proton Story: Gaming on Linux

I want to talk about how good gaming on Linux is, as compared to Windows. With the constant improvements in proton and other FOSS libraries and tools, this might just be the year of the Linux desktop.

There's been a >50% year on year growth in the number of people gaming on Linux, and this is only going to grow. The major boost came when Valve introduced the Steam Deck which basically revolutionized gaming on Linux. With the upcoming Steam Machine, we might just make up the majority of the market, overtaking Windows for good.

I want to talk a bout the basic technical aspects of the entire gaming pipeline on Linux, and introduce people to some of the most important FOSS tools and libraries which help us play games on Linux. Few of these are proton, dxvk, vk3d, vk3d-proton, and I'll also be talking about how Nvidia went partially open source for Linux and why it helps the community. Might also briefly touch on the work going on with Zink and Nova.

The motive is to get people at the very least aware that they can game on Linux and Windows isn't absolutely necessary anymore. If this helps even one person convert to Linux, that's a win for me.