this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2025
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Linux Gaming
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Oh. Well, no duh.
Did they ever explain why this wasn't on by default before? Was there a practical reason for it at all? It's one of those things you do once and never think about again, but it's weird that you even had to.
I guess maybe they thought that having some games try to launch and fail by default would look bad? They've recently added compatibility ratings to non-SteamOS games, so maybe that's the difference now? Still a weirdly annoying choice originally, though.
I struggled with Steam on Linux to undo enabling Proton on a Linux-native game. I wiped a machine to go back to just the native setting. Still didn't work. Tried hacking the metadata in Steam. Didn't work. Could not disable Proton.
I get it that everyone is thrilled about this. I'm not.
Right click the game, click settings, click "compatibility" and choose "Linux Runtime" from the drop down.
If it is not a Linux native game, it will not be an option.
I never encountered that, but Steam can get weirdly stuck on a Proton update or setting if you start manually messing with its library folders. For as much as people like their contributions to the ecosystem it's still a private, for-profit storefront and they're not particularly keen on you fiddling with it or in supporting you when/if you do.
That said, I haven't had that issue. In theory Proton shouldn't mess with your native software regardless of your options setting being on or off. Presumably even with it defaulted to on if you switch it off manually things would go back to showing all non-native software as "unavailable" again, right?
No. The slider did not turn off. I hacked the metadata to turn it off. That didn't work either. Annoying as hell.
Yeah, that sucks. I've had it get stuck trying to update Proton for a game that no longer existed on an external drive. Steam definitely isn't as "works every time out of the box" as people around here like to claim, and its reliance on reproducing itself to its last state, even if that state is broken, can be super annoying.
But hey, I still think having access to all the games it can run in your system should be the default, even if it warns you when you are doing so under Proton.
Right. I'm just being cranky because it irritated me. Steam is an outstanding tool. When I had my issues, the linux version was probably less developed.
Steam automatically uses the native version if one is available, unless you override the compatibility tool to be Proton instead of the Linux runtime on a per-game basis. Nothing changed in that regard.
It was bugged. Did not work as you say. Its been at least a year. Pissed me right the fuk off tho. I'm done w/steam on linux for now.
It was because Proton was still very new relatively speaking, the understanding being that it's potentially fussy and buggy enough that only people with an understanding they're running via a compatibility layer should use it to e.g. reduce game refunds.
I actually really liked the choice. Hopefully we can still at least turn SteamPlay off if we want to, and SteamPlay games are clearly labeled as such vs. native Linux versions.
As far as I understand it the option remain on the menu, they just changed the default.
I would have been less annoyed at the default being off if the client asked you if you want to switch it on when you click on a non-native game. They instead have the toggle hidden away in their already cluttered and annoying Settings menu, at least on the desktop version.
Likewise, I think the answer to your issue would be to just give you a warning splash screen when booting under Proton the first time. That's fairly established UX language on Steam, they do the same when you hit the controller compatibility layer for the first time and when you try to play games with small UI elements on handheld.
Its probly still buggy as fuk. I gave up on it.
Bro is on that proton 1.0 build still
Thoughts and prayers
Much appreciated.
It hasn't been "buggy as fuk" for at least half a decade. Why are you spreading misinformation?
Its my experience. Why do you discount it?