[FirmwareBurner]

> Decided it's time to switch to Linux because everyone says windows games now work on Linux thanks to Valve's efforts

> Installed Nobara (fork of Fedora made for gaming) and proceeded to install my copy of Red Alert 2 (my most played game) via Wine

> Try to run game, 'Error: xxx32.dll not found' or something

> Spent over an hour looking up forum posts on fixing that error, manually copying that dll and other modded variants of that dll to the install directory, but no cigar, still same error or other error, don't remember exactly

> Throw in the towel and went back to Windows where Red Alert 2 'Just Works TM'. Definitely no "year of the Linux" for me. I don't care how many thousands of Steam games work on Linux if they're not the games and apps I own and play. But good luck.

Edit: nice to see I'm getting downvoted for telling a personal story on this topic. Very emotionally mature of you guys.

[minimaul]

My experience of running Red Alert 2 on modern Windows is pretty horrific, and it looks like it’s shared by a lot of people: https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Command_%26_Conquer:_Red_A...

More generally, I usually have more success running older games under Wine than on Windows 10 or 11 - DXVK helps a lot with early directx9 games in particular, in my experience.

[FirmwareBurner]

I use the DODI patched variant of Red Alert 2 which works out of the box on Windows 11 as it ships with all the necessary patched DLLs to work on modern Windows.

[minimaul]

Ah, I’m installing from an image of the CD I had as a child ;) probably explains the differences!

[thombat]

Could be you'll need a differently patched up mutant breed for Linux?

[FirmwareBurner]

Maybe. But I ran out of patience after about an hour. If gaming on Linux is advertised to "just works TM" then it really must just work without hours of tinkering.

[gaganyaan]

Use Lutris if the game isn't on Steam:

https://lutris.net/games/command-conquer-red-alert-2/

[mcv]

Always check protondb first. That will tell you how well the game works, and how to get it working. (I haven't checked what it says about RA2; there are games that really don't work.)

I actually thought the launchers (Steam and Heroic) would automatically take care of that, but that doesn't always seem to be the case.

[boudin]

My experience with RA2 is that it doesn't work on Windows or Linux without some patching. I redid the game lately and just applied some patch that I found to make it work on Windows and it worked out of the box on Proton for me.

Not sure if it's why you get downvoted but RA2 definitely doesn't work out of the box on Windows.

[antifa]

> Windows where Red Alert 2 just works

RA2 didn't "just work" on windows for me, but that's OK I'm holding out for OpenRA2 anyways.

[dekken_]

So you might say, Linux is not on par with Windows, which is what I said?