Valve Releases Proton 9.0 To Run PC Games On Linux

On May 2, 2024, Valve released a stable release of the open source project Proton 9.0 (based on Wine 9.0), created to ensure the launch of gaming applications developed for Windows and presented in the Steam catalog on Linux. The project’s source code is published on GitHub under a BSD license.

Proton 9.0 adds support for new games including The Finals, Dinogen Online and The Lord of the Rings: Gollum. Now they start up and work reliably. It also adds support for some popular Command & Conquer classics, including Red Alert 2 and Yuri’s Revenge, as well as Tiberian Sun and Firestorm.

Some older games don’t run well on multi-core processors. This issue has been fixed in Proton 9.0. The program artificially limits the number of cores used by such games, which ensures that they run more smoothly without any obvious problems. In particular, such games include Far Cry 2, Far Cry 4, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, Dawn of War II, Dawn of War II – Chaos Rising, Dawn of War II – Retribution, Outcast – Second Contact and Prototype. In general, Proton 9.0 fixes the problem in working with multi-core processors in 25 games.

If you already have the Proton 9.0 beta downloaded, it will simply appear as a regular update in your Steam downloads. If you launch a game that has been verified on Proton 9.0, it will also load automatically. Otherwise, you can find Proton 9.0 in the Steam library