Market numbers tell us the situation hasn't changed much, but the question still hangs in the air: Can we play on Linux? Is it possible to finally abandon Windows and access all our favorite titles without losing our sanity? There's still a lot of work ahead, but all arrows seem to point in the right direction, and now a new distro joins the scene: PikaOS What's its goal? To simplify the configuration process to install all the relevant environments like Steam and Lutris, video drivers, and codecs.
The Proton database reveals that 51% of the Top 100 games on Steam already have gold to silver compatibility with the Steam Deck. Why is that important? Because its operating system, SteamOS, is another flavor of Linux, and all the optimizations it receives can be used by other distros sooner or later. Proton has become one of the main allies for users to play on Linux, but we need distros to try to "shorten the ritual" of configuration, so to speak. PikaOS heads in that direction.
PikaOS: Another alternative for gaming on Linux
The installation process of PikaOS isn't much different from Ubuntu (after all, it uses it as a base), so it presents no difficulty. It also keeps some parallel lines with the Nobara Project (another distro designed for gaming and based on Fedora), but they remain separate projects. PikaOS greets us with a welcome screen, and I definitely recommend not closing it, because it contains many useful shortcuts.
The First Steps section offers options to install Nvidia proprietary drivers (series 900 and above), and a package of proprietary codecs. But the most important part appears in Recommended Additions: There we find a link to the PikaOS Game Utilities metapackage, which combines Steam, Lutris, ScummVM, Wine, Winetricks, and other dependencies needed for gaming. This package is accompanied by OBS Studio, Blender, Krita, and in the Optional Steps section we have AMD drivers (series 400 or higher), and the very Proton-GE.
As for the rest of the operating system, we can see a relatively standard GNOME installation, with an Activities button, two virtual desktops, and a dock of shortcuts. If we go down to the terminal, we discover that PikaOS comes with Nala preinstalled, a superior alternative to the classic apt and apt-get. The installed kernel is XanMod version 6.1.7, and the size of the PikaOS ISO image reaches 3.57 gigabytes, only in 64 bits. Download a copy!
Official website and download: Click here
