At this point, and given the current state of Proton (👍) and the current state of Windows (👎), the question should be, “Does the new version of Wine run Windows apps better than Windows?”
You can download Proton for use outside of Steam, I use it in Lutris and Bottles pretty regularly. Also, you should be able to get just about anything to run just as well in Bottles or Lutris as it will in steam, but I will admit it can take some tinkering with some games or software and there is a much easier option: Add “non-steam game” in Steam library and run whatever program you need through Steam anyway.
At this point, and given the current state of Proton (👍) and the current state of Windows (👎), the question should be, “Does the new version of Wine run Windows apps better than Windows?”
With some apps/games it definitely feels like ir does. Would love to see someone dedicated do proper Wine vs windows benchmarks!
There are plenty of old applications that just do not run on windows 10/11 anymore at all. Wine and emulation is the only choice left for those.
There were some last year specifically for games on SteamOS vs Windows, like this: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2025/06/games-run-faster-on-steamos-than-windows-11-ars-testing-finds/
Yes. It can run classic gaming that windows outright refuses to run. Wild
I misread the title at first and I genuinely thought that’s what this article was about.
Proton works nicely in steam
Non steam games is an entirely different complicated issue (for some games)
You can download Proton for use outside of Steam, I use it in Lutris and Bottles pretty regularly. Also, you should be able to get just about anything to run just as well in Bottles or Lutris as it will in steam, but I will admit it can take some tinkering with some games or software and there is a much easier option: Add “non-steam game” in Steam library and run whatever program you need through Steam anyway.
Epic and GOG work on Heroic just fine and I’ve run two standalone games (Elite Dangerous and ESO) using Lutris with no problems.
Heroic works great for pirated hentai games and GOG games.
Yes. Especially if said application was developed before 2010.