It's news, but it's nothing new. The issue of lack of support or abandonment of it for Linux users is something recurrent, already known, unfortunately. Recently, EA and Respawn have been making changes so that Apex Legends be more secure, and what is the easiest? Remove support. For what? For “Linux OS”, which is “four cats” and we are all malicious hackers.
At EA website They published in the middle of last week that Linux will no longer be able to access Apex Legends. The reason is that they want to maintain the integrity of the competition, and they have identified “Linux OS” as an avenue for a variety of exploits and cheats. Therefore, they have decided to cut what they consider healthy, no matter who falls. Overall, as they also explain, it only affects a small number of Apex Legends players.
Apex Legends is no longer playable on the Steam Deck
To eliminate the cheating vector, «We have made the decision to block access to the game for Linux users. This means that Apex Legends will be immediately unplayable for those running this operating system. Playing on portable devices, such as the Steam Deck, is still possible if the user chooses to install Windows.«, They explain.
As I have already explained with no small amount of indignation, they have made the decision using a scale, on one side the few Linux users and on the other hand, there are people who do not cheat from Windows, who are many more. Because finding a solution that improves security without abandoning anyone is an effort. An effort that they would undoubtedly make if this also happened with Windows users. In the end, money is the powerful knight.
The easy fix: You're using the wrong operating system
It's very easy to blame others and not put in any effort on our part. This reminds me of a long time ago when everyone was using Internet Explorer and an acquaintance of mine, who was already using Linux, was switching to Firefox. He visited web pages that were not working, I would inform them and usually get the response that “Your browser is limited”, to which he would reply that it was a browser of some relevance and that it was his website that was limited because it did not support it. Investigating why the page did not work in Firefox when almost all of us used IE, what madness is that?
What is the “Linux OS” that Apex Legends is abandoning?
On the other hand, my eyes bleed when I read “Linux OS”, always put in quotation marks in this article. We can talk about Linux to refer to Linux-based systems; we do it and nothing happens. But we all know that Linux is not an operating system. It is a kernel, a core, and “Linux OS» does not existIf they don't know how to refer to a topic properly, how will they know how to solve it? Cheaters do exist, unfortunately, in games and in life. But they exist because there is not enough capacity to catch them.
It also seems to me to be discrimination if instead of affecting "Linux users" it affected users of a country, ethnicity or religion, to those who had been supported, they wouldn't dare to take it. That of pointing the finger at a group and making the just pay for the sinners, can you imagine what they would get?
By the way: EA, say "GNU/Linux" to refer to a "system", which would not be entirely correct either, or simply "Linux", which is what we in the media use to refer to Linux-based operating systems.
We will always have Windows…
EA and Respawn are passing the buck with nice words like “it’s for the best”, “it affects a few” or “we have to look at the majority”, who wouldn’t agree? Well, those affected, those who haven’t done anything. You spent money customising your character? You’re screwed. Switch to Windows, which still works even if you install it on your Steam Deck.
But hey, we're not going to change anything, and even less so if we don't express our anger at this type of practice. Now, we are very few and we use an operating system Linux based which only criminals use. It is better to single us out and not allow us in than to work to make things better for everyone, without discrimination.