Lutris
Hacker ApprovedRanked 2 of 8 game launchers by recommenders
Free Linux launcher for Windows and GOG games with community install scripts, though critics say some setups still need tinkering or fail.
Free Linux launcher for Windows and GOG games with community install scripts, though critics say some setups still need tinkering or fail.
45 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 33
- criticize it
- 12
- approval share
- 73%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Owned for 10 years
Median of the 4 owners who said how long they have had it.
Each square is one year.
Why it carries the badge
- 33 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Works well with GOG and other stores
“people should definitely try Lutris. It's nearly as painless as Steam now for GOG and many other stores.”
Comment from 10 Apr 2026 in “France Launches Government Linux Desktop Plan as Windows Exit Begins” “GOG bought games handled by Lutris/Heroic/Mini Galaxy trump Steam in convenience almost every time”
Comment from 30 Jan 2026 in “GOG: Linux "the next major frontier" for gaming as it works on a native client” “I'm using it with already downloaded GOG installers, and Lutris' crowd-sourced install scripts.”
Comment from 15 Jan 2026 in “GOG's new owner can't stand Windows either: 'It's such poor-quality software '” - Comment from 12 Mar 2026 in “Lutris now being built with Claude AI, developer decides to hide it”
- Comment from 28 Jan 2026 in “Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux”
Runs old Windows games well
“I get better compatibility for really old stuff through lutris than I ever did on windows”
Comment from 2 Nov 2025 in “Linux gamers on Steam cross over the 3% mark” “I use crossover and/or Lutris on Linux in order to run most of my 90s Windows games”
Comment from 18 Nov 2025 in “Windows 11 adds AI agent that runs in background with access to personal folders” “PlayOnLinux and Lutris have good support for games you install from CD”
Comment from 11 Jan 2026 in “I dumped Windows 11 for Linux, and you should too” - Comment from 28 Jan 2026 in “Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux”
- Comment from 11 Jan 2026 in “I dumped Windows 11 for Linux, and you should too”
Easy to use with little tinkering
“And with something like Lutris, it's not a lot of tinkering.”
Comment from 20 Sep 2026 in “A custom virtual machine for the Stars 4X game” “I use Lutris ( https://lutris.net/ ) for its ease of use.”
Comment from 20 Jun 2026 in “DOS Game "F-15 Strike Eagle II" reversing project needs DOS test pilots” “Lutris makes this somewhat straightforward.”
Comment from 10 Jan 2026 in “I replaced Windows with Linux and everything's going great” - Comment from 30 Dec 2025 in “GOG is getting acquired by its original co-founder: What it means for you”
Community install scripts often work
“I'm using it with already downloaded GOG installers, and Lutris' crowd-sourced install scripts.”
Comment from 15 Jan 2026 in “GOG's new owner can't stand Windows either: 'It's such poor-quality software '” “Lutris recipes often work out of the box as well.”
Comment from 10 Apr 2026 in “France Launches Government Linux Desktop Plan as Windows Exit Begins”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Setups often fail or need tinkering
“it doesnt work and fails silently, the logs are empty, and even if you do capture the logs, the core issue often isn't clear”
Comment from 23 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: I'm writing an alternative to Lutris” “the hours required to brute force the right Wine/Proton setup for every game”
Comment from 30 Dec 2025 in “GOG is getting acquired by its original co-founder: What it means for you” “I couldn't get it to work consistently under Lutris.”
Comment from 28 Jan 2026 in “Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux” - Comment from 10 Jan 2026 in “I replaced Windows with Linux and everything's going great”
- Comment from 12 Dec 2025 in “Laying out the 404 Media zine”
Battle.net and some recipes break
“The only issue I've run into is getting battle.net working through Lutris”
Comment from 5 Dec 2025 in “Framework Sponsors CachyOS” “One recipe at the time was broken, the other didn't work.”
Comment from 31 Dec 2025 in “GOG is getting acquired by its original co-founder: What it means for you”
Other game launchers people recommend
The four most recommended other game launchers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heroic Games Launcher | 50 | 9 | 85% | 12 | — | Approved |
| LutrisThis page | 33 | 12 | 73% | 8 | 10 yrs4 owners | Approved |
| GOG Galaxy | 18 | 24 | 43% | 5 | — | — |
| Battle.net | 12 | 8 | 60% | 7 | — | — |
| Steam Big Picture | 8 | 5 | 62% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 50 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Nothing even remotely aligned, buttons on the same toolbar have different sizes things like that”
“And with something like Lutris, it's not a lot of tinkering.”
“I use Lutris ( https://lutris.net/ ) for its ease of use.”
“meanwhile I've been doing this multiple times a year for about a decade with Lutris”
“Lutris does some of that but not the CD part”
“gaming via Lutris since 2009”
“people should definitely try Lutris. It's nearly as painless as Steam now for GOG and many other stores.”
“Lutris recipes often work out of the box as well.”
“it has a few extra advanced levers that you can to get things working”
“for me has made using GOG actually feasible on my Linux machine”
“GOG bought games handled by Lutris/Heroic/Mini Galaxy trump Steam in convenience almost every time”
“I use Lutris instead of Heroic.”
“I ran Starcraft 2 through Lutrus and it was a piece of cake.”
“I couldn't get it to work consistently under Lutris.”
“Lutris (from flatpak) can play GoG games fine”
“it doesnt work and fails silently, the logs are empty, and even if you do capture the logs, the core issue often isn't clear”
“maybe I should try Lutris and see what happens”
“Graphical desktop and Steam support (with a little pinch of Lutris added on top), and that's good enough.”
“I'm using it with already downloaded GOG installers, and Lutris' crowd-sourced install scripts.”
“I recently started using Lutris for gaming in Linux, and so far so good.”
“PlayOnLinux and Lutris have good support for games you install from CD”
“Lutris which runs many old games fine”
“Lutris makes this somewhat straightforward.”
“I couldn't get it to work via wine/lutris.”
“Lutris is also pretty good.”
“One recipe at the time was broken, the other didn't work.”
“With Lutris it just worked.”
“the hours required to brute force the right Wine/Proton setup for every game”
“Lutris on Linux works fairly well”
“One big annoyance is that to browse community controller configs you need to change the name of the game”
“there are plenty of options, including projects like Lutris and lgogdownloader”
“Literally sitting with Lutris in front of me downloading a game from GOG right now”
“I could never get it to work properly”
“It puts each app in its own wine prefix, its just nice to use.”
“to which I was able to get Battle.net to install and work correctly without issues”
“The only issue I've run into is getting battle.net working through Lutris”
“Installing Steam and Lutris takes about 5 minutes”
“it is phenomenal at helping you wire them up for Wine”
“I use crossover and/or Lutris on Linux in order to run most of my 90s Windows games”
“I get better compatibility for really old stuff through lutris than I ever did on windows”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.