Lenovo Legion Go S gets better frame rates running Valve's free operating system.
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Games run faster on SteamOS than Windows 11, Ars testing finds
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That was me too, until the Dune Awakening Beta. It uses Battle-Eye anticheat for the end game, and BE + Win 11 = BSOD. BE themselves says BE + Windows kernal protections dont play well.
I swapped to Mint Linux - DA run way better, most of my other games (Factory games) also great, FF14 is smoother.
Since swapping the only time i find myself needing to return to Windows for anything is to use our aged scanner. When we replace it I plan to uninstall Windows - I've yet to find anything (since Feb) that i need Windows for anymore, and everything so far has a better experience on Mint.
I know there is more advanced and powerful version of Linux out there, but I chose Mint for it's ease since the last time i touched Linux was SUSE back in 2002. So even if you have no experience, it's super easy, really nice, and SOOO much better (than Windows).
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By Anti Cheat - you specifically mean Tim Sweeny and "Easy Anti Cheat".
Because Battle Eye is WAY WAY more stable on Linux then windows - BE devs were even advising Dune Awakening Beta players to just swap because they were struggling to get BE to play nice with Win 11.
But even when it comes to EAC - it still works on on Linux as long as you're not trying to play Fortnite.
Steam Proton runs Battle Eye, and you can get EAC going as long as its not Fortnite.
BE devs even helped Valve with the BattleEye Proton Runtime update last year (Dec 24)
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Just so we're clear - I want SteamOS to flourish and am cheering for it to support more hardware...
But...
1) we're talking about OS that was tweaked for that particular hardware and purpose, eeking every bit of performance and power optimization from the device
2) on the other side Ars installed Win 11 out of the box, with ancient "Lenovo" drivers... Didn't we learn that Lenovo (or ASUS) don't MAKE drivers? Ever heard of AMD drivers? Available from their website... Never heard of "side loading" drivers onto Windows device, it's called installing a driver. Did Apple reviewer do this article?
3) same as other few articles like this one, getting to conclusions based on 4-5 games (eg https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2025/05/steamos-massively-beats-windows-on-the-legion-go-s/ as first one I've seen )
Now, this article already showed what we all knew for decades (literally):
1) Windows is bloated
2) Windows supports more hardware
3) having correct drivers matters
I'm not saying that SteamOS isn't great, it is, and I hope it gets more hardware support (without ruining the optimizations)... But if you ran Win 11 with optimized drivers, and ran debloating tool of any kind, turned off services that don't matter for a handheld - you'd get way better results. What I don't understand is why Lenovo or ASUS don't already do that, instead they add even more bloat (and RGB).
Anyway, looking forward to more tests like these, on more hardware, and more games, and using a variety of drivers, so we can see what matters the most for games we love to play. Who knows, maybe someone even does test with optimized Win 11 for s change, maybe even posts a step by step how people can do it themselves to get more FPS, etc
But...
1) we're talking about OS that was tweaked for that particular hardware and purpose, eeking every bit of performance and power optimization from the device
2) on the other side Ars installed Win 11 out of the box, with ancient "Lenovo" drivers... Didn't we learn that Lenovo (or ASUS) don't MAKE drivers? Ever heard of AMD drivers? Available from their website... Never heard of "side loading" drivers onto Windows device, it's called installing a driver. Did Apple reviewer do this article?
3) same as other few articles like this one, getting to conclusions based on 4-5 games (eg https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2025/05/steamos-massively-beats-windows-on-the-legion-go-s/ as first one I've seen )
Now, this article already showed what we all knew for decades (literally):
1) Windows is bloated
2) Windows supports more hardware
3) having correct drivers matters
I'm not saying that SteamOS isn't great, it is, and I hope it gets more hardware support (without ruining the optimizations)... But if you ran Win 11 with optimized drivers, and ran debloating tool of any kind, turned off services that don't matter for a handheld - you'd get way better results. What I don't understand is why Lenovo or ASUS don't already do that, instead they add even more bloat (and RGB).
Anyway, looking forward to more tests like these, on more hardware, and more games, and using a variety of drivers, so we can see what matters the most for games we love to play. Who knows, maybe someone even does test with optimized Win 11 for s change, maybe even posts a step by step how people can do it themselves to get more FPS, etc
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I would much rather replace Windows10 with SteamOS than Windows11. I am waiting for people smarter than myself to let me know when that is a viable option. 
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The only ones with a playable FPS is borderlands 3.
I'm not playing 30 fps in an FPS style game, did that.
is is better than windows? yeah, but overall the numbers are just poor performance.
Can you try it on something like a modern desktop machine?
I'm not playing 30 fps in an FPS style game, did that.
is is better than windows? yeah, but overall the numbers are just poor performance.
Can you try it on something like a modern desktop machine?
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Already dumped Windows and having zero issues. I don't play live service games though (barring Division 2), so don't have the DRM problems that come with them.
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Kudos to Valve for this it's great that Windows is getting such competition in the gaming sector, where a few years ago it really was untouchable.
Guess it's time to give Bazzite another go, I installed it dual boot months ago but couldn't get on with it, dunno if I'm just old or stuck in my ways but it's so much different to Windows (and Amiga OS which is what I came to Windows from). Even doing simple things like mapping a network drive is baffling.
Guess it's time to give Bazzite another go, I installed it dual boot months ago but couldn't get on with it, dunno if I'm just old or stuck in my ways but it's so much different to Windows (and Amiga OS which is what I came to Windows from). Even doing simple things like mapping a network drive is baffling.
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I'm actually really excited about moving to Bazzite or SteamOS when Windows 10 support expires.
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Same! I switched to Fedora from Win11 full-time now. No issues with the games I want to play in my Steam library. Plus, the customization on Linux is incredible.
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Check out VueScan by Hammrick for your old scanner, or when you get a new one. That is one utility I have used for years with my ancient Cannon scanner, and more recently with my new Brother one.
Has deb/rpm packages and will install great on Mint, should find your scanner as soon as you open the application and is much more full featured than any of the scanning utilities you can find in the software center.
I've run this utility on Mint, Pop, Fedora, and even Endeavor back when I thought I was a Linux master haha. Currently using it on Pop.
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You also have to pay for a Windows license when you buy a device that comes with it. If you buy a Linux/SteamOS device, you don't pay for an OS. It's free. So, given all of the bloat, the price, and the work required to de-bloat Windows, Linux is a strong option these days.
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I have been trying this for a little bit and bumped into 2 issues.
1- Thanks to the dicks at the HDMI consortium, you cannot fully utilize the HDMI 2.1 port if you have an AMD GPU.
2- No matter how hard I tried, I was not able to get Battle.Net running at all under Lutris.
Another issue, but small, streaming from Gnome (using Sunshine) to a Ngreedia Shield TV, the scaling was all wrong.
That doesnt happens on KDE.
But then KDE had some weird crashes and annoying audio bugs.
But overall, I think many of those things can and will be fixed.
1- Thanks to the dicks at the HDMI consortium, you cannot fully utilize the HDMI 2.1 port if you have an AMD GPU.
2- No matter how hard I tried, I was not able to get Battle.Net running at all under Lutris.
Another issue, but small, streaming from Gnome (using Sunshine) to a Ngreedia Shield TV, the scaling was all wrong.
That doesnt happens on KDE.
But then KDE had some weird crashes and annoying audio bugs.
But overall, I think many of those things can and will be fixed.
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Now do battery life (and include windows ignoring standby)
I wanna see 50mins windows “standby” versus steamos one month.
Fuck Microsoft
I wanna see 50mins windows “standby” versus steamos one month.
Fuck Microsoft
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Definitely, Linux is coming for Windows in the gaming sphere. But high end gaming still demands Windows for a couple reasons:
- HDR, no matter how bad on Windows, is way worse on Linux. Valve has it sort of figured out for Steam Deck but not really as well for external monitors or different GPUs. Actually, with Windows HDR Calibration available, the HDR all the time experience is pretty good on Windows
- Surround Sound and object based codecs like Dolby Atmos or DTS:X do not work on Linux, and probably never will. So if you want spatial sound you have to wait however long for an actual open source standard to make its way to Linux.
- External game stores are still a pain on steam deck. Even with Heroic launcher or other means, keeping everything working over system, game, proton updates is a huge pain.
- Driver support is still second class. Nvidia drivers are slower to release and have missing features, AMD has a totally different driver that works great but is 6 months behind.
- Peripheral support is good as long as it is detected and works through steam input. If it's not, good luck.
- Mods are possible but generally a bigger pain with Linux. You'll be diving into the emulated proton Windows filesystem, hooking up mod exes to steam as external games and attaching to the compat data, it's really bad unless the mod is just dumping files in. And DLL overrides don't really work, or do with launcher options you have to find on a forum.
- Custom software for headphones, RGB lighting, peripherals, capture devices, chat software, the whole ecosystem is Windows based and just won't work on Linux or is a huge headache. You can get along fine with some Linux tools but compatibility is low and the barrier is high.
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Doom Dark Ages runs wonderful for me on Fedora 42. I also noticed I can once again play games which don't run on modern versions of Windows.
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Carnotaurus
Seniorius Lurkius
Still sticking with Windows myself. I have plenty of devices I rely on that will not work with anything else. And that's fine with me.
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For Apple Music, you can use Cider: https://cider.sh/downloads/client.
Please note that lossless audio and spatial things are not supported, but from my perspective, the UI is way better.
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s0nicfreak
Smack-Fu Master, in training
For the record, this wasn't tested with emulation. Proton and Wine are compatibility layers, not emulators.
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I hope this gets to a point from a compatibility perspective where it's worth dual booting.
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Fuzzypiggy
Ars Scholae Palatinae
Been using my SteamDeck as my primary console for almost 2 years now, my Xbox is gathering dust and my $2,500 gaming laptop is just for work and learning now! More and more studios are adjusting games to make sure they're compatible with SteamOS and SteamDeck. Just recently one of my favourites, Satisfactory, got official controller support, runs like a dream on SteamDeck.
I've even used the desktop mode to "dial" into work for callouts when i've not had my laptop with me, some gymnastics with the controls but it worked!
Can almost see myself not bothering with my laptop for much longer at this rate as the next SteamDeck version is likely to be "bigger, better, faster".
I've even used the desktop mode to "dial" into work for callouts when i've not had my laptop with me, some gymnastics with the controls but it worked!
Can almost see myself not bothering with my laptop for much longer at this rate as the next SteamDeck version is likely to be "bigger, better, faster".
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Your comment made me giggle and look for alternative SteamOS desktop environments.
Turns out these fine folks have already written a very nice guide to running cinnamon for desktop mode on SteamOS. I assume you could adapt to any DE you want to use. I use LMDE and love it; I might give this try.
This power to do whatever you want with it because it's really yours is what makes OpenSource anything better. This is the actual reason you get more FPS from SteamOS; the reason Proton even exists. Microsoft would NEVER let you have that kind of power in windows. Replace the desktop environment? Heaven forbid; you might want to remove their data mining, selfservice integrations, or usage tracking too! OH no! You might even end their world: you could change/break the built-in ad platform or even ignore their "next big thing" push (copilot anyone?). Microsoft can not financially afford to allow you that much power in the windows ecosystem.
Meanwhile, Valve is out here having a good time selling millions of units and making people happy.
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Just to drive the point home, this means that Windows native games are running better on portable Linux systems made by a tiny App Store company than Microsoft’s own ARM laptops.
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Also, about 90% of Microsoft's own published games are listed as 'Unplayable' or 'No information' on Windows on Arm.
But they all run on SteamOS and the Steam Deck.
Windows on Arm Compatibility:
Halo Infinite - Compatibility: Unplayable
Hi-fi Rush - Compatibility: Unplayable
Oblivion Remastered - No information
Forza Horizon 4/5 - Compatibility: Unplayable
Forza Motorsport - No information
Avowed - No information
Doom Dark Ages - No information
Doom Eternal - Compatibility: Runs
Senua's Saga: Hellblade 1/2 - No information
Age of Empires III - Compatibility: Unplayable
Age of Mythology - Compatibility: Unplayable
Minecraft - Compatibility: Perfect (finally, we have something!)
Minecraft Legends - Compatibility: Unplayable (whoops, spoke too soon)
Microsoft Flight Simulator - Compatibility: Unplayable
Sunset Overdrive - No information
Ori 1/2: Compatibility: Perfect
Gears of War 5 - Compatibility: Unplayable
Sea of Thieves - Compatibility: Perfect
TLDR: SteamOS is a better Windows than Windows (On Arm).
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Star Citizen works fine on Linux. I get great framerates and stability is about the same as Windows.Star Citizen… I won't even bother checking
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I'd be interested in an Ars article that looked at SteamOS and Proton in some detail. I think that some of the surprise at these numbers comes from a common misunderstanding that Proton is emulating versus (forgive this layman characterization) executing its own APIs). I guess I'm trying to ask, is there actually a difference in how close Proton is to bear metal when executing Direct X, Vulkan, calls etc.?
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If a game's using Vulkan or OpenGL it's just doing normal graphics calls and there's just some setup for file access to say that some Linux filesystem location is C
![:\](https://cdn.arstechnica.net/civis/data/assets/smilies/slash-1x.png "Slash :\")
PROGRA~1 or wherever. If a game's using Direct3D then those graphics calls need to be translated into Vulkan, and that has some CPU load from doing the actual translation. That CPU load generally isn't noticeable unless you're otherwise heavily CPU-bound, and can still be less than whatever advertising or AI thing Windows might be running in the background under similar circumstances.
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Yeah.
Best performance is with AMD hardware because Nvidia's drivers still suck on Linux but it works fine. I knew I wanted the option to migrate to Linux when I built this rig so I bought a 7900 XT and AMD is really smooth sailing now with Linux gaming. Nvidia is promising to fix their proprietary drivers and they've improved but still trail their Windows performance by up to 20% in certain titles. AMD's open source stack on the other hand is often faster on Linux than Windows as shown in this article.
It's a little more involved to install Star Citzen on Linux but it works. Link points to a script that does preflight checks before install and can manage some background maintenance stuff (deleting shaders after an update etc) for you.
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Huh, very interesting. I just switched from a 6800XT to a 5070ti, a nontrivial portion of the platform switch is because I was getting crashes to desktop from Star Citizen as well as some savage hard system crashes that my research indicated were linked to some AMD cards and Star Citizen. Maybe I just needed to switch my OS
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No. Read this post as it's a good explanation of what's happening here and why Linux can be faster than Windows running Windows games.
When you don't know what you're talking about it's not hard to seek answers. There's no grand conspiracy to promote Linux by "Linux manufacturers" whatever the fuck that means.
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This gives me hope that Arm based alternatives for x86 might eventually be worth considering even if you're a gamer. Qualcomm's version so far has been a joke but I suspect whatever APU Nvidia eventually releases might actually be worth considering depending on how greedy they decide to be on price. I would love to see an Arm based APU with integrated graphics equivalent in performance to a desktop 5070 and 64GB of unified memory.
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I like Linux and I've enjoyed Steam UIs (including even the earliest Big Picture) overall, but swapping to Linux for day-to-day things has just enough annoyances that I can't get there. I feel like GUI storage tools are always behind the latest storage technology trends, so you end up with things like BTRFS just finally getting good UI tools now that everyone's hopping on the ZFS train. I can't stand how there isn't a consistent framework for system-level components to expose settings to desktop-integrated settings panels -- everyone has to write their own. I actively hate NetworkManager, it makes Windows networking look easy to administer.
Does this make Linux bad? No, it's awesome at a lot of things and I use it for a lot of tasks. It's clearly a good base for SteamOS. But it feels like work to take advantage of its best software within the first 5 years as a regular consumer. For work or for some part-time hobbies? Sign me up, it's a fun project tool.
Does this make Linux bad? No, it's awesome at a lot of things and I use it for a lot of tasks. It's clearly a good base for SteamOS. But it feels like work to take advantage of its best software within the first 5 years as a regular consumer. For work or for some part-time hobbies? Sign me up, it's a fun project tool.
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This is a bit disingenuous by way of a headline. Aside from the fact that 5 games is a tiny sample size, there are a TON of games that run better on Windows.
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It's real nice. I'm a newb to Linux gaming, but for the past 2 months, I've been using Steam on Kubuntu 25.04 exclusively. They really knocked it out of the park making gaming viable on Linux. If you, or other Windows gamers are curious about Linux gaming, here is some of what I've experienced:
FWIW, I have a reason to keep Windows, but I have multiple NVMe drives. I devoted one of them to Kubuntu and the boot loader recognizes all of the drives - I can pick the Windows OS drive from the GRUB menu (grand unified boot loader).
While I don't have a SteamDeck, I'll vouch for the results as tested in this article. Just install and boot a flavor of Linux, then install Steam and log in to your account. Your games will be in the library, but show you need Windows to run them. Go in to the properties for each game in the Steam app and set the compatibility mode (in Properties or Management, I think) to work with some version of Proton - then the install option will activate and it works like it is on Windows after that. Some games work better on older versions of Proton, and some shops are even releasing Linux versions of their games now. Cloud saves means I didn't have to start anything over.
Not only have I not been disappointed, but I've been impressed at how much better the games tend to perform. Graphic intensive games like Cyberpunk has been buttery smooth by comparison, though it was rough until I discovered the compatibility package that worked best for the game.
I'm even using it to run Battlenet, you just import it as a non-Steam game, run it from your library, and do everything else from the launcher. I've had it successfully import and run very old games from my old CD/DVD collection. I had been experimenting with Lutris and Bottles, but don't feel a reason to anymore.
Another thing to get used to is that the Linux distros often research and develop drivers for things like your GPU. I have an Arc A770 that was found, discovered, and works great by the OS. Same for all of my peripherals, NVMe firmware, etc... I wasted a couple of hours figuring that out and just let the OS updates handle the drivers. I did lose some options to configure the bling on my keyboard and mouse, but really don't miss that.
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