With Microsoft seemingly banking the future of Xbox on a hybrid PC device based on Windows, we've got concerns. Our issues with Windows 11 are well known, principally in terms of stability and, of course, the profound stuttering issues that impact so many games. Many are looking for an alternative, and in Linux, there might be an answer. In the latest edition of DF Direct Weekly, our supporters asked us whether the DF team considered adding tests of modern games on Linux to its PC review and testing process.

Right now, according to the Steam Hardware Survey, just over three percent of PC gamers use Linux, but there's clear upward momentum here, thanks in no small part to the popularity of Steam Deck, the portable PC system that combines a custom fork of Arch Linux with a customised Wine compatibility layer that translates Windows API calls to Linux systems. Depending on the game, this Windows-to-Linux translation process can range from competent to resoundingly performant, especially if the game in question includes the extra Valve touch of pre-compiled shaders. (Lest you forget, Elden Ring relies on this very thing to bring its Steam Deck performance up to surprisingly stable frame times.)

We've already compared Windows and Linux performance on handheld PCs like Steam Deck and ROG Ally, and that competition has already begun to heat up. In particular, we've seen Windows-tailored handhelds deliver interesting testing results when they have Bazzite installed (a customised version of SteamOS for non-Deck handhelds). Valve itself is in the process of rolling out device-specific versions of Steam OS: the Lenovo Legion Go S is available with in both Windows and SteamOS variants, with the Linux version more efficient and easier to use.

On the flipside, Microsoft is rolling out its Xbox Fullscreen Experience with an anti-stutter technology of its own. The firm recently unveiled Advanced Shader Delivery for Windows and DirectX, which is advertised similarly to the SteamOS and Elden Ring scenario mentioned earlier. Rather than compile shaders locally as the game plays, they're downloaded from the cloud. As of press time, only ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X systems are compatible with ASD, and only a handful of games support the feature. Even then, it's only supported on titles downloaded from the Xbox app. Does this fully solve the shader compilation issues that severely impact many Windows titles? We'll be conducting some tests to find out, but at least Microsoft is looking to address a core problem with Windows gaming.

More generally, the fact we're being asked these questions at all highlights two things: the dissatisfaction with Windows as a gaming platform (especially in handhelds and console-like boxes) and the technological accomplishment behind Linux and the Proton compatibility translation layer. We'd expect any form of translation layer to hit performance (and it does, sometimes, to be fair), but the fact we're seeing performance wins on Linux is astonishing, raising questions about Windows and Windows driver efficiency.

Right now, supporting Linux benchmarks in DF content would represent an enormous time investment for a smaller team with limited resources, but we do intend to continue occasional coverage, as it's clear that Linux is gaining significant momentum and provides the much-needed competition required that compels Microsoft to up its game.