Windows 10 vs. SteamOS - One benchmark shows low Linux performance

Ars Technica today published a benchmark story that's of note to SteamOS developers -- using the same PC with a dual-boot setup, the site found that the same games performed worse, across the board, under Linux than they do under Windows 10. Framerates across a variety of games, including Valve-developed titles like Team Fortress 2 and Dota 2, suffered.

It's worth keeping this in mind if you plan to release your Steam game on Linux, and specifically if you're hoping to address the market generated by the recent commercial release of Linux-based SteamOS-powered PCs.

Now, it's absolutely essential to recognize that this test was carried out on a single PC with a small handful of games, and there are a lot of variables at play; it does show that Linux ports may not be as fire-and-forget as developers sometimes hope they might be.

This comes in the wake of Valve removing Linux versions of games from Steam last month -- seemingly because they didn't play well with SteamOS.

All this goes to show that the road to Linux (and SteamOS) isn't quite as easy as it might appear at first blush.

You can see the full benchmark results over at Ars Technica.