Play Linux: An Opponauts Review

"dsigned001 - O.R.C. hunter" (dsigned001) 02/13/2016 at 21:35 • Filed to: None

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For hose of you who don’t follow the small intersection of people that is Linux users and gamers, or the even smaller subset that are also jalops, Play Linux might be something completely unheard of, foreign and perhaps even weird.

But they all have something in common: the desire to be the master of one’s own domain. The love of manual transmissions, the love of DIY, and the love of Linux all coalesce in a desire to resist the encroachment in to areas that have historically been open. To insist that we continue to have the freedom to maintain and modify our own vehicles, to maintain the assurance that what is going in to our software is for our benefit, and not some mutually exclusive benefit.

It’s with this in mind that I am reviewing Play Linux, which is a distribution of Linux (a.k.a. a distro) that seeks to shore up an area of Linux gaming that has historically been a weak spot: gaming.

It’s birth coincides with that of another, much more famous version of the same: SteamOS. Unlike Play Linux, which is a more traditionally developed distro created by a group of people who saw a need in the Linux ecosystem and decided to do something about it, SteamOS was born due to a concern on the part of Valve’s founder, Gaben Newell, that Microsoft would try to push Valve out of the market by focusing exclusively on Xbox One gaming, and making PC gaming a relatively unpleasant experience. If nothing else, Valve has succeeded in waking Microsoft up to the relevance of PC gaming in the coming decade.

In light of this, it might seem that Play Linux would be redundant, and that is actually where our story begins in earnest.

As it happens, SteamOS was designed primarily to function as an idiot-proof couch gaming platform. As such, it has a few unique tweaks to this end. One is the complete absence of a traditional desktop environment (which is unwieldy to use with a controller while sitting on the couch). But the more significant is the restriction of the user by default, even when a normal desktop environment is installed.

My use case is that I finally need to install Linux on my laptop for the purpose of being able to remotely SSH in to my Linux server at work. As a secondary motivation, Windows 10 is buggy as hell, and I feel incredibly guilty running Windows while simultaneously trying to preach the Linux gospel.

As such, I needed a distro with a desktop environment. I wanted to be able to game, and I dislike Unity, Gnome 3 and KDE for various reasons. What I wanted was a minimal install that I could configure with my favorite tools, without redundant tools. I didn’t want to end up with five different file managers, five different package managers, etc. , but I also didn’t want to have to manually download everything that I wanted.

Play Linux has been bouncing around on “best gaming distros” lists for a while now, and since it’s based on Ubuntu (which is one of the best full-featured distros around), I figured I would be safe installing it.

I was wrong.

Let’s start with the first issue: drivers.

To be fair, this is a Linux issue as much or more as its a Play Linux issue, but it got especially bad because of another issue I’ll mention in a minute. In this case, the problem was related to my laptops use of Nvidia’s Optimus graphics switching, which Nvidia has not yet provided native support for. In essence, the laptop tried to run both graphics chips at the same time, and simply could not start the desktop environment (the stuff you click with a mouse), stranding me in the console (the Linux equivalent of a DOS prompt).

After solving that issue, I then had to tackle the issue that created the issue in the first place: Play Linux uses a prettified version of something called OpenBox (which is a really stripped down dekstop environment) which they have then proceeded to strip of functionality (namely the right click, which is the primary user interface for OpenBox).

Now, bear in mind, that the last in depth review of Play Linux is from a while ago. A little over a year, to be precise. Which means, that all the reviews you read will tell you that Play Linux runs on Cinnamon (the default for a distro called Mint) as a desktop environment. While there may be some things borrowed from the same, this is not Cinnamon.

The user interface (that they’re calling Nebula) wouldn’t be so bad if it just worked, which is what I think they’re going for. But it doesn’t just work, and because of that getting to other things you need is a pain.

So, all in all, the experience has not been fantastic.

With all of that being said, let’s move on to what Play Linux does well.

The most obvious part here is “Ubuntu.” While there are certainly other distros that have their strengths, for sheer out of the box functionality, Ubuntu still reigns supreme.

Also, something that was historically a Linux shortfall (although it hasn’t been the kind of problem it used to be for years) if WiFi setup. Drivers installed automatically, and it saw both my home networks and connected without issue.

The splash animation during boot is actually really pretty. Gone are the days of watching console readout as the kernel boots up.

One of Play Linux’s selling points — that it is set up to “just work” as a gaming distro, is sadly a mess. Steam did not work by default, and I spent so much time on config that the “Play” portion of the distro has not been used for its intended purpose.

Conclusion:

It’s hard not to be disappointed when such a good idea suffers from a lack of execution. Documentation is difficult to find, and Play Linux’s website has traded functionality for aesthetics.

In short, Play Linux is not ready for prime time, and if you’re looking for a gaming distro, you would be better served looking elsewhere. While it is technically still in Beta, it has also been so for a while now. So here’s hoping they get around to finishing it and making a polished release.

k2b: da man trynta steal mah bloggy!!!!!!! > dsigned001 - O.R.C. hunter 02/13/2016 at 22:11

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Cool beans, dude. Thx to whomever shared to Whitenoise.

As someone who tried very hard to pull the Microsoft plug but failed miserably due to graphics incompatibility issues, I’m interested to hear if anything could work. I am getting a new computer this week and would happily partition off some space to give Linux a shot again.

BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest. > dsigned001 - O.R.C. hunter 02/13/2016 at 22:24

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Honestly, gaming is the only thing keeping me from switching to Linux. I’d like to try the gpu pass though thing, but I don’t know if it’d work well.

The Transporter > dsigned001 - O.R.C. hunter 02/13/2016 at 22:39

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Graphics drivers are the one last hangup for Linux distros. The only hardware that is natively supported is Intel HD graphics hardware and that’s like settling on a Camry simply because it works.

The Transporter > k2b: da man trynta steal mah bloggy!!!!!!! 02/13/2016 at 23:11

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It depends on the distro and the hardware. The only graphics cards I would avoid with Linux is AMD. As for the distro, unless you are talking about one of the core distros like Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, CentOS, or Linux Mint, then most distros are just complex toys and should be treated as such. Most of the core distros either have corporate backing or are based on ones that are and have much better graphics support as such. They also seem to be able to do more with less. I have a HTPC with a 10 year old motherboard and Pentium D cpu and a 3 year old Nvidia graphics card and it handles anything I can throw at it from Steam.

k2b: da man trynta steal mah bloggy!!!!!!! > The Transporter 02/13/2016 at 23:26

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Yeah, my cpu’s tend to be AMD but I tried a couple of different flavors of Nvidia graphic cards that supposedly had stable drivers in Ubuntu, and they just would not communicate past the safe screen. :(

Jim Tuck > dsigned001 - O.R.C. hunter 02/14/2016 at 02:11

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If all you need are Unix-style utilities on Windows to manage some Linux servers, install Cygwin. It’s basically a win32/64 port of Linux userland.

Xterm, ssh, grep, bash, python, even things like sed, awk and gcc are present and accounted for, for no more trouble than clicking “Cygwin Terminal”. You even get access to oldies-but-goodies like Midnight Commander and Joe’s Own Editor.

If you need even less, just a basic SSH client, look at PuTTY.

dsigned001 - O.R.C. hunter > BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest. 02/14/2016 at 16:39

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Actually you can do Linux gaming far more easily than I did. I’ve been learning a lot of bash for work, so I was up for a bit of a challenge. But Ubuntu, mint and elementary OS are all pretty much daily driveable. Install steam, play on Linux and maybe bumblebee (if you have switchable graphics) and that’s pretty much it.

The biggest issue with Linux as a whole right now is that there is no fencing around things that says “here not here if thee be not guru.” But the distros that do (chrome os) are doing quite well.

dsigned001 - O.R.C. hunter > k2b: da man trynta steal mah bloggy!!!!!!! 02/14/2016 at 16:48

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How long ago was this? Nvidia and even AMD have gotten in to the fray. Laptops are still more picky than desktops, but I've been able to get everything working, even in this distro. In Ubuntu it would likely be easier.

k2b: da man trynta steal mah bloggy!!!!!!! > dsigned001 - O.R.C. hunter 02/14/2016 at 16:56

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Been a couple of years, so I’d be happy to try again. Of course, I’mma have to settle for the onboard graphics on this one for a while anyway, so it’ll prolly be easier than it would with a dedicated card. It’s when I try to get all fancy that the trouble starts. :)

Nauraushaun > dsigned001 - O.R.C. hunter 02/14/2016 at 22:08

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I feel like this is an uphill battle. The problem of Linux supporting hardware (GPUs etc) and software (games) can be solved by either:

- Lots of development by hardware producers to make it work

- Lots of development by Linux contributors to make it work

This things are hard to achieve on a free piece of software. Microsoft gets it done because they have the money and the market share, but this is a much tougher sell.

Nobody at my work has a remote interest in cars. The Linux-Jalop crossover is slim indeed.

dsigned001 - O.R.C. hunter > Nauraushaun 02/15/2016 at 15:34

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I totally agree. Microsoft spends 10 billion on R&D yearly. I think historically the Linux diaspora has been unwilling to acknowledge how important the ability to pay people is.

But even though msft likely outspends all distro development combined by a factor of ten, the number of forks supported by major institutions is growing. Ten years ago it was really just Ubuntu and server companies. Now Google maintains two forks (plustheir private Ubuntu fork), valve has one, China has one, Russia has one, etc. Not all of these are equally good for libre software,but by and large the change in Linux spending is huge.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > dsigned001 - O.R.C. hunter 04/03/2016 at 20:35

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Linux distros are the equivalent of the XDA Developer “Original Android Development” sections. It’s a bunch of script kiddies with a copy of GIMP and Inkscape churning out half-assed resources and animations for Babby’s First Distro/ROM (tm) which is nothing more than the same Debian/Ubuntu/Fedora (god help you)/Crunchbang/whatever or ASOP/Kang/Cyanogendicks/whatever with some new resources and pre-installed programs that anyone with the ability to flash a ROM could just as easily flash from ZIP files or install from fucking Xposed framework. Oh, you installed MAME and changed the bootscreen and are calling it a distro? GOOD FUCKING JOB M8.

This has bugged me for a while, yes.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > k2b: da man trynta steal mah bloggy!!!!!!! 04/03/2016 at 20:36

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Linux on desktops is feasible, but if you have a laptop that isn’t one of the two or three models confirmed 100% supported by Linux then just don’t bother. Honestly Linux seems like it will be forever relegated to server and embedded use.

dsigned001 - O.R.C. hunter > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 04/03/2016 at 22:48

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Haha. I actually think that’s about the size of this project. The sad part is, if it worked, I think it would be pretty sweet.

Also, FWIW I think a lot of distros start out that way, but migrate into contributing something meaningful. I think the user interface is simultaneously the best and worst part of Linux. The best because, to an extent, you can have it your way as long as you’re willing to fuck with getting everything to play nice and also because some things are just better in the individual distros than Windows or OSX at a given moment. But it’s also the worst because the burger king UI is really more illusory than reality. Most of the people who have the technical skill to get everything exactly the way they want it probably aren’t the kind of people who are using GUI tools much anyway.

As someone who’s kind of in the middle, it makes me appreciate projects like elementaryOS that focus heavily on user experience for low-skill users.

So all that is to say that I kind of wish Play Linux had its shit together more than it does, because I think the potential user base is there. I think there’s a subset of users jumping on the SteamOS bandwagon, but who really want a more traditional desktop OS, and for whom configuring Wine and drivers etc. is really a chore (and one that they aren’t necessarily up to). Linux allows the configurability to give them a console-level out of the box experience while maintaining the ability to compose an email with a keyboard if they so choose.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > dsigned001 - O.R.C. hunter 04/03/2016 at 22:57

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I don’t disagree that most if not all meaningful distro spin-offs started off that way, but there’s a big difference between something like Ubuntu (let’s take Debian and make it super accessible to everyone!) and some dude on Deviantart who made a dark-as-my-soul GTK+ theme and packages it as a whole new distro. Spoiler alert: I did the latter when I was 14. I took a Pentium III computer and LCD monitor and packaged the whole thing in the shell of a G3 Bondi Blue iMac. Then I used Gimp to make an “evil” (black with red accents) version of an OSX theme for GNOME 2, bootscreen, etc. and installing a dock program and equivalents of the iWorks suite and then made an installable ISO of it. Sadly antiMac OSux is lost to time :(

TheNukeDuke > dsigned001 - O.R.C. hunter 05/19/2017 at 12:08

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I’ll say, that’s the first thing that occurred to me too when I used this: sheer disappointment. I am both an avid gamer and a game developer, and the fact that Linux doesn’t have an OS that is gaming-centric. Well, why not I thought, and made my own OS. Not really complete, heck, not even ready for hardcore testing, but it’ll make out when the time comes :)