this post was submitted on 06 Jan 2026
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How do different Proton versions work? (piefed.social)
submitted 1 week ago by marighost@piefed.social to c/linux_gaming@lemmy.world
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Hello Linux Gaming friends :)

I've been tinkering on and off with my wife's laptop (Mint 22) to get a few of her games working on Linux, namely House Flipper 2. It experiences frequent OS crashes, despite everything saying that this game should work on Linux (hell, it's even Steam Deck verified).

I'm not necessarily asking how to make this particular game run, but in my tinkering with different Proton versions I find myself asking: what is the difference between these versions of Proton? Why do some work better than others? How does one version work, say Hotfix or Experimental, but not a numbered release?

Just trying to learn to add some knowledge to my toolbelt, or whatever πŸ˜…. Thanks!

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[–] just_another_person@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

What might simplify your thinking about this is called "Semantic Versioning".

You have a big codebase of all kinds of features, but at a certain time you want to release it to be able to differentiate between a point in time and release number so you can tell when a regression happens and address it.

Proton is released by version to be able to see this exact thing. They keep all the old versions available for users because they know that not every single point release will work for all games, and there will be regressions.

This allows users to be able to identify a stable working version of Proton for a specific game, and stick to it. If you try to upgrade for a newer release for some reason and find a problem, you can always go back to the previous working version and know for certain it will work without issues.

For your specific scenario, just check ProtonDB for games and see if people have posted tweaks and config combos for a specific game. Great resource for this exact reason.