this post was submitted on 07 Jun 2025
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My solution? Run Linux. If the game won’t run on Linux because of kernel level anticheat bullshit, DRM, or lack of proton support, refund that shit and never purchase a game from that developer again. If they do data collection, and it still runs on Linux, it is my understanding that all they can gather is what the proton compatibility layer feeds them, which is basically fiction. Proton is already tricking the software into thinking it’s running on windows, and is sandboxed from your bare metal system. Correct me if I’m wrong.
The games I already owned before my time with Linux? Whatever. I’ll take the loss. I’ll probably never play PUBG again and I’m fine with that.
By default, Wine/Proton has access to your full Linux filesystem under the virtual
Z:/drive from within the Wine environment, so any dedicated adversary could include your Linux stuff into its data collection. The odds of this already occurring are probably low-ish. You can use bubblewrap raw to start sandboxing resources (e.g. blocking network access or masking directories), or there's a project called sandwine which presumably auto-configures the important stuff through bubblewrap (though I've never gotten around to trying it). Wine itself can also be configured to drop theZ:/drive through itswinecfgtool.Without a dedicated configuration, I'm not sure Wine has any real priority or guarantee about sandboxing your original system from Windows executables, which is also why it's important to remember that Windows malware can still do damage when running on a Linux system. The malware doesn't really even have to be aware that it's running in Wine if it just tries to encrypt any files it can reach.
This is why I use flatpak Steam. You might trust Valve but do you trust every third party developer?
Thanks for this, I’ll definitely dig in further