CrossOver for Linux on the Steam Deck?

[mapeno59]

Just curious...

I'm thinking about buying a Steam Deck. I'm wondering if anyone has tried to install CrossOver for Linux on the Deck. If CrossOver should work, it could, in theory, allow us to run a good number of Windows games.

[Taktloss]

There is no point to it. Crossover is just a commercial Version of Wine. SteamDeck already uses Proton to run Windows games ;)

"Proton is a tool for use with the Steam client which allows games which are exclusive to Windows to run on the Linux operating system. It uses Wine to facilitate this."

[Reverse Module]

The Steam Deck supports like 99% of Windows games out fo the box. Check ProtonDB.

[fender178]

Originally posted by mapeno59:

Just curious...

I'm thinking about buying a Steam Deck. I'm wondering if anyone has tried to install CrossOver for Linux on the Deck. If CrossOver should work, it could, in theory, allow us to run a good number of Windows games.

No need. Proton does the work very similar to Wine.

[PopinFRESH]

Originally posted by Taktloss:

There is no point to it. Crossover is just a commercial Version of Wine. SteamDeck already uses Proton to run Windows games ;)

"Proton is a tool for use with the Steam client which allows games which are exclusive to Windows to run on the Linux operating system. It uses Wine to facilitate this."

^ this. CrossOver is a commercially supported version of Wine. Proton is a fork of Wine that Valve created specifically to improve and focus on gaming. Proton has achieved far more compatibility and much better performance for games in the 4 years its been working on it than Wine has since its inception. Not knocking Wine by any means as they laid the groundwork for what Valve is doing with Proton.

Proton will almost assuredly run games better than CrossOver.

[fender178]

Originally posted by PopinFRESH:

Originally posted by Taktloss:

There is no point to it. Crossover is just a commercial Version of Wine. SteamDeck already uses Proton to run Windows games ;)

"Proton is a tool for use with the Steam client which allows games which are exclusive to Windows to run on the Linux operating system. It uses Wine to facilitate this."

^ this. CrossOver is a commercially supported version of Wine. Proton is a fork of Wine that Valve created specifically to improve and focus on gaming. Proton has achieved far more compatibility and much better performance for games in the 4 years its been working on it than Wine has since its inception. Not knocking Wine by any means as they laid the groundwork for what Valve is doing with Proton.

Proton will almost assuredly run games better than CrossOver.

Also the company behind Crossover also helped Valve with Proton as well.

[WarnerCK]

Originally posted by fender178:

No need. Proton does the work very similar to Wine.

Not similar to Wine: it includes Wine.

CrossOver is primarily a means to give money to CodeWeavers so that they can continue to pay for the development and maintenance of Wine, with an additional small benefit that they have a builds of Wine specifically geared towards Windows office software and they support Wine on Macs. Valve also give money to CodeWeavers so that they can continue to pay for the development and maintenance of Wine.

Proton is the Wine build that's specifically geared towards games. Vanilla Wine is not specifically geared for anything - they'd like all applications to work. And CrossOver is geared for those office applications that people might be inclined to pay for.

[fender178]

Originally posted by WarnerCK:

Originally posted by fender178:

No need. Proton does the work very similar to Wine.

Not similar to Wine: it includes Wine.

CrossOver is primarily a means to give money to CodeWeavers so that they can continue to pay for the development and maintenance of Wine, with an additional small benefit that they have a builds of Wine specifically geared towards Windows office software and they support Wine on Macs. Valve also give money to CodeWeavers so that they can continue to pay for the development and maintenance of Wine.

Proton is the Wine build that's specifically geared towards games. Vanilla Wine is not specifically geared for anything - they'd like all applications to work. And CrossOver is geared for those office applications that people might be inclined to pay for.

Yeah that is true. I did purchase a copy of crossover years ago hoping to use it and never did. Really couldn't get into Linux usage back then.

[mapeno59]

Thanks for your replies! I didn’t know about Proton. That is good news.

Incidentally, I asked the same question on the CrossOver forum. The response I got was that Steam Deck is not supported by CrossOver due to dependency issues.

[WarnerCK]

Yeah, the base OS has had a lot of things taken out (only vim, no nano, for example) because they need 2 copies of the OS and to still be able to fit some games into 64 GB.

Proton has been built into Steam for four years now, and is a big part of making the Steam Deck viable for a lot of people.