Summary
Anti-cheat (more specifically, kernel-level anti-cheat) is something we’ve come to normalize over time, despite its many security risks. Running what is essentially a rootkit with Ring 0 access is something that should not be encouraged at all, but there’s more to it than just unrestricted access. Kernel-level anti-cheat solutions tend to be designed around Windows, and these are entirely incompatible with Linux while using something like Proton. Most popular live-service games employ kernel-level drivers in some way or another, which makes it impossible to run these games on Linux. Linux gamers are being effectively gate kept here, and there doesn’t seem to be any end to this suffering. Popular live-service games just refuse to work on Linux This is something we’ve come to expect and, disappointingly, accept as the norm Cheating in video games is a major issue, especially on PCs. This has always been a perpetual problem, and developers have worked out a variety of anti-cheat software, the latest iteration of which is the kernel-level solution. This has had the unfortunate side effect of restricting access for Linux players. This is something that every Linux user has come to terms with eventually; most live-service titles simply do not work on their chosen platform. Kernel-level anti-cheat has no way to hook to Ring 0 while going through Proton, since it expects a native Windows environment. Not to mention, many devs artificially restrict access to their games on Linux. A majority of the big-name multiplayer titles have explicitly listed Linux as unsupported, or have dropped it later along the line, with Ubisoft taking the lead here recently with For Honor. This can be problematic for a lot of people. Imagine trying to fire up a game with your friends, only to find out that it isn’t supported on your operating system. It’s a frustrating experience, and one that has forced me to maintain a laptop exclusively dedicated to Windows 11 (albeit with a very de-bloated installation). It’s not like anti-cheat doesn’t work on Linux Blocking Linux users is a deliberate choice Let’s get one thing straight — anti-cheat is not incompatible with Linux. There have been ways to get a saner anti-cheat working on the Penguin, and with games like Arc Raiders, it just works out of the box. However, enabling Linux support is a decision not many publishers consider, and that likely has to do with the additional development overhead involved. Blocking Linux users is a deliberate choice and one that ultimately harms legitimate players. There have been numerous examples of anti-cheat working on Linux. Almost the entire Hoyoverse lineup (including the plethora of other anime-styled games) work just fine these days, in addition to the aforementioned Arc Raiders. However, initial support does not guarantee anything in the long term, as recently demonstrated with Ubisoft’s For Honor anti-cheat update, which decided to give Linux users the boot since it couldn’t “meaningfully” deploy protection, which sounds a bit like an excuse if you ask me. The same was true for Apex Legends as well. There are ways to hide this, but it’s a perpetual cat and mouse game It doesn’t deter hackers in any way, either There are still ways around the issue, but none of these solutions are truly permanent (or easy). The most common way would be to fire up a GPU-accelerated virtual machine, with a few select tweaks in place. This might be enough to fool most titles, but persistent barriers remain. The most notable example of this would be Valorant’s Vanguard anti-cheat, which is a very tough nut to crack. Make no mistake though, no amount of masking will hide the fact that you’re playing the game on a virtual machine. If the game needs to know about it, it probably already does. Also, I really wouldn’t recommend making a virtual machine for bypassing anti-cheat. It’s a perpetual game of cat and mouse, and you’ll have to be cautiously praying that nothing breaks after an update. The best way to play these games is to either keep a separate Windows machine, or try to dual-boot. As for the so-called protection offered, it really does not amount to much. Hackers will find a way to crack exploits wide open, and the cat and mouse game analogy applies here as well. Ideally, you’d want someone to maintain the anti-cheat tech and keep updating it, but this is often an uphill battle that never comes to fruition. Linux is not an insecure environment for games All of this goes to say that bypassing Linux users in an attempt to invoke a more “secure” environment is a bunch of hogwash. The number of legitimate users is far larger, and misrepresenting Linux in such a way only alienates these players instead. The misery of running through Windows 11 is enough to cause most folks to make the switch, and there are many who find themselves content with playing whatever single-player titles they have left in their library, or try alternatives that actually support the platform instead. Still, it is quite a shame that such stigmas remain.