With the advances in gaming on Linux in recent years, it is so tempting to switch full time. I would absolutely love to, but I am a Game Pass Ultimate subscriber and it is where I play a lot of my games on PC. I know you can use the cloud version, but I cannot stomach streaming games in their current state, so it is a no go. A large portion of my Steam library is compatible, but anytime I have done an install I end up giving in and going back to Windows for games.
I started down the road from Windows to Linux for my main rig a couple of months back after trying out a few distros on a new mini PC for HTPC/media server. Currently running KDE Neon on the TV, and I’d really like to get away from my Win11/Kubuntu dual-boot tower situation, since Proton is handling everything I throw at it short of Cities: Skylines.
The real sticking point is that I need to be able to use InDesign on rare occasions. I’ve used VirtualBox in the past for old DOS games and mused that a VM would be nice for the edge cases where I need Windows but haven’t gotten any further than that since it felt like the ROI wasn’t there.
What’s involved in setting that up in modern times? Obviously, I’m coming at this from Debian rather than Arch, but pointers on where to start looking would be appreciated.
Why though? DOSBox is a far superior experience if you wanted to play DOS games. Better performance, better compatibility, better config options (like being able to adjust the CPU speed on the fly), plus controller support and custom config and launcher support so you can just one-click launch your favorite DOS game.
Sorry I was unclear. That’s just the extent of my VM experience … it’s not relevant to my current needs, as I’ve not played DOS games since Win2K.
Ah, well you’re missing out. DOS games are still pretty fun and awesome. Having a blast paying Dangerous Dave right now, and will play Prince of Persia once I clock this.
I’ve still got quite the collection of classic DOS games that I may throw on the TV computer alongside classic console stuff … played a lot of A-Train back in the day. Getting the tower sorted is just a far higher priority.