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7th Grader Develops Linus-Proof Ubuntu Linux Gaming App

7th Grader Develops Linus-Proof Ubuntu Linux Gaming App
The "Tools" tab of the new Gamebuntu app.

Late last year, young developer Rudra Saraswat gifted Ubuntu gamers with a great GUI tool. The cleverly-named "Gamebuntu" utility was effectively a bash script that automatically installed a veritable kitchen sink of gaming tools and then used a convenient overlay for finding and launching things like Steam, VLC, OBS, Twitch, Lutris, Discord, and others. Now, he has announced a completely new version that takes Gamebuntu in a different, and more elegant, direction. 

“I’ve completely rewritten Gamebuntu so that people have the freedom to choose what they want to install," Rudra says. "You can choose from 4 launchers, 2 kernels, 7 tools and 1 streaming app." 

The new approach for Gamebuntu is refreshingly reminiscent of what Ubuntu Budgie is adding to its welcome app for version 22.04. Instead of a large install routine that sets up a predetermined gaming environment, Gamebuntu 1.0 lets the user choose exactdly which software to install. 

Here's what Gamebuntu 1.0 offers up via its current AppImage on GitLab, broken down by category: 

Launchers:

  • Steam
  • Heroic/Epic
  • Minigalaxy (GOG)
  • Lutris

Kernels:

  • Lowlatency kernel
  • Xanmod kernel

Social:

  • Discord

Tools:

  • Gamemode
  • GOverlay
  • MangoHud
  • NoiseTorch
  • OpenRGB
  • Piper
  • Polychromatic (Razer)
  • Protonup-Qt
  • VLC
  • Wine (with wine-binfmt to run Windows executables directly)

Streaming Apps:

  • OBS Studio

It's a solid selection of important gaming tools and clients. I suggested adding the excellent Protonup-QT, a GUI tool letting you update and manage custom Steam Proton variants like Proton-GE. Rudra included it within a few hours!

He encourages you to add your own suggestions to this Ubuntu Discourse thread.

Rudra has a very promising future. Before he even turned 12, he had already created two unique Linux distributions: Ubuntu Unity Remix and Ubuntu Education Edition.