What's funny is that in Linus' mind "saving Linux desktop" meant that Valve would release a single statically linked binary of a game for Linux and distro maintainers would have no choice but to support that binary, thus ending fragmentation in the ecosystem. Steam was trying exactly that when Linus made the comment, but failed to get any traction (see the first iteration of SteamOS/Steam Machines).
Today gaming on Linux is feasible because of Proton, a compatibility layer for Windows binaries. Meanwhile the app distribution and fragmentation problem on Linux is as bad or worse than it was a decade ago. If you asked Linus whether Linux was "saved" by Proton, I bet he would have a very different opinion than everyone here.
Today gaming on Linux is feasible because of Proton, a compatibility layer for Windows binaries. Meanwhile the app distribution and fragmentation problem on Linux is as bad or worse than it was a decade ago. If you asked Linus whether Linux was "saved" by Proton, I bet he would have a very different opinion than everyone here.