Ask HN: Those who run mainly Linux and game on Windows, what's your setup like? Do you use any software that made running both easier? Do you dual boot or have separate PCs? If you have separate PCs do you share peripherals with USB/HDMI/DP switches? What about sharing audio input/output? Do you stream one desktop to the other? |
VM running using libvirt and virt-manager, using QEMU underneath, with custom hook script that makes passing through the hardware a bit more seamless.
Although with how awesome Wine/Proton and ecosystem are these days I have so far played almost all my games on Linux. I created the VM setup because I thought I'd need it, but turns out I didn't really. Think I've played through 20-30 games or something like that now with minimal issues on Linux, including big budget AAA games within a few days of their release, smaller indie games, all kinds of different ones. Most tinkering required was for older games that'd need similar tweaks on modern Windows as well.
Since you mention CS - I had ESEA working and they're notably difficult to bypass. Valorant was the only game I couldn't figure out that I had tried. Destiny was fine.
Past tense because I've chosen liberty instead - not playing anything with invasive AC, dropping Windows, and running Linux full time
I share my headphone and the monitor between the PC and the PS5, but the laptop has its own screen so I don't need to use the monitor all the time. The headphone is one of those wireless headsets that has a USB dongle, so I just need to unplug it form the console and plug it into the PC. No need to keep bluetooth pairing, and I don't suffer from latency issues as well.
As a bonus I can have my laptop open when I play the PS5 so I can see notes related to the game (e.g., combo lists).
Hardware, mostly on:
- 4 NAS (2 QNAP, 2 Synology) for multimedia, filestorage and backup
- Rasperry with Home-Assistant
- Linux Webserver on a Mac Mini
- OPNsense firewall on a passive cooled MiniPC
- Mostly wired 1gbit Ethernet
Hardware, on when used:
- Mac Notebook
- 3 Gaming Rigs / Work PC
- 4K-Beamer connected to 2 of the PC's
- Meta Quest 3, sometimes used as a screen for the second pc or for VR (VRDesktop)
Software:
- Home-Assistant to Boot devices that are locked away and sometimes shut-down.
- Rustdesk on all devices with a GUI, Steam for game streaming
- Syncthing to replicate my 3TB Data on 2 NAS and my Notebook
- xBrowserSync, Bitwarden for Browser Data Sync
Notes:
Streaming works well except for 4k Resolutions. VRDesktop is very good even with larger resolutions.
1 x GPU
2 x SSD
1 x Windows 10 host OS (SSD 1)
1 x Windows 10 guest OS (SSD 1)
1 x Arch Linux guest OS (SSD 2)
My limited gaming is on the Win host, I do my dev in the Arch guest, and I do general BS in the Win guest. The Arch guest is using SSD 2 as a physical disk whereas the Win guest has a small virtual disk on SSD 1. I was experimenting with being able to run the Arch install as a 'native' boot while still being able to use it as a VM but I never finished setting that up - would be nice, as Hyper V GPU acceleration doesn't/didn't seem to exist and it's noticeable on my 4K screen.
There's a couple of other misc VMs set up, like Debian and a development-oriented Win 10, but I use those much less.
I wanted to try the VFIO stuff but the anti-cheat problems were off putting and I ultimately lacked the gusto.
First I used to dual boot.
Then I used to have VFIO with passthrough. It worked ok, but it was a pain to setup, I would not recommend it unless you really want to mess around with it. You have to have 2 sets of hardware, multiple graphics cards, e.t.c.
Then, I gave WSL2 a try. Its actually pretty good. It runs all things linux, and you can even run graphical applications under windows since it includes an X server.
My current setup is Win 11 Pro for everything, with WSL2 for all dev. The pro version is worth it so I can disable all the annoying shit with WSL2 (Cortana, One Drive, e.t.c). It works super well. VSCode remote extension natively integrates with it, so I basically just open VSCode and its a linux system.
Barely ever turn it on, waiting for another quality Vr game like HL Alyx. Do almost all my gaming now on steam deck; except when I get a WoW craving, then I stream that from my windows desktop to my steam deck.
I've got a mini pc coming this weekend with the intent to run ChimeraOS for a livingroom/emulation computer. I have other computers around doing other things.
All that to say, a dual boot works fine, but maybe not the absolute best option.
And I just boycott the games that don't work or use those invasive components.
At one point, it makes sense to really vote with one's wallet.