Thanks to the Linux community, Valve, and Proton GE, it’s getting easier to play Windows games on Linux. Most of the games in your Steam library no longer need any or very little tweaking to work well. In this article how to Play Windows Games on Linux.
But what if you bought the game outside of the Steam ecosystem? Then what? There are other ways to use applications that are getting easier to use every day to take advantage of the changes Linux gamers are seeing. Below we will mentioned how to Play Windows Games on Ubuntu.
How to Play Windows Games on Linux
Proton and WINE
- Gaming on Linux is enabled by open source.
- Valve Software released their Steam client for Linux, hoping to encourage game studios to develop native Linux games.
- Some game studios wrote native Linux code, but many reverted to Windows-only games.
- Valve created the Proton project as a compatibility layer to translate Windows games to Linux.
- Proton uses WINE, an open-source reimplementation of major Windows libraries.
- The result is more open source code than intended, allowing major studio games to run on Linux.
- Early adoption of games on Linux may result in unpleasant surprises and bugs.
- Major games often require large patches to fix bugs shortly after release.
- Bugs can be worse when using Proton and WINE on Linux.
- Linux gamers often benefit from refraining from early adoption.
- Some games run perfectly on Proton but have fatal errors on the latest version of Windows.
- Games from major studios aren’t perfect, and similar problems can be expected on Linux as on Windows.
Flatpak
- Flatpak is an exciting development in recent Linux history, combining local containers and packaging.
- It enables Linux applications to be distributed universally to any Linux distribution, including gaming.
- Flatpak abstracts the complexity of fringe technologies used in games and reduces the burden on distribution maintainers.
- It establishes a common Flatpak-specific layer for application libraries.
- Distributors of flatpaks ensure that libraries not in the Flatpak SDK are included in the flatpak.
- Thanks to Flatpak, the Steam client can run on various distributions such as Fedora, RHEL, and Slackware.
Things to know about Steam Play feature
- This lets a lot of games that only work on Windows run on Linux. Some are AAA (triple A) games, while others are made by smaller companies.
- You shouldn’t think that all games will work well together. Some might crash, and some might need a little troubleshooting to work with your hardware.
- You can always use ProtonDB or the verified list on Steam Deck to find games you should try first.
- If you have games downloaded on Windows through Steam, you can save some download space by sharing Steam game files between Linux and Windows.
FAQs
How do I run .exe files on Linux? Navigate to the directory with the file, then open the file with Wine. In the terminal, navigate to the directory containing the file with the command cd . Then, run the file with the command wine .exe .
Why don’t Windows programs run natively on Linux? For the same reason Linux programs don’t run natively on Windows. They are different operating systems, based on different fundamental principles, and with a very different application programming interface (API).
Because many games are not natively supported for the Linux kernel, various software has been made to run Windows games, such as Wine, Cedega, and Proton, and managers such as Lutris and PlayOnLinux.
