Vortex file format
Hacker ApprovedRanked 2 of 3 columnar file formats by recommenders
People recommend Vortex as a state-of-the-art columnar file format with transparent encodings, and say the Vortex mod manager installs and runs mods fine on Linux.
People recommend Vortex as a state-of-the-art columnar file format with transparent encodings, and say the Vortex mod manager installs and runs mods fine on Linux.
16 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 13
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 81%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 13 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 4.3 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
Mods install and run fine on Linux
“you can install Vortex on Linux systems and mod games via that just fine”
Comment from 2 Jan 2026 in “Linux is good now; to feel like you actually own your PC, put Linux on it” “installed all my mods via Vortex and it all worked fine”
Comment from 30 Nov 2025 in “Bazzite: Operating System for Linux gaming” “I never ran into any problems once it was installed.”
Comment from 14 May 2026 in “Linux gaming is faster because Windows APIs are becoming Linux kernel features” Seen as a cutting-edge file format
“which Vortex implements to put it at the Pareto frontier”
Comment from 7 Oct 2026 in “Show HN: Parseable, an open observability datalake, handles 100M time-series/min” “Vortex and Lance both seem really cool”
Comment from 20 Nov 2025 in “Vortex: An extensible, state of the art columnar file format”
Other columnar file formats people recommend
The two most recommended other columnar file formats, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apache Arrow | 20 | 1 | 95% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Vortex file formatThis page | 13 | 3 | 81% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Feather file format | 10 | 1 | 91% | 7 | — | Approved |
What people said
14 of the 18 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“which Vortex implements to put it at the Pareto frontier”
“lets you attach semantic context in a logical type to what is essentially compressed Arrow”
“replacing all of Parquet's black-box encoders with fully transparent encodings”
“being an Electron app it's very unappealing to me”
“I never ran into any problems once it was installed.”
“once I did get them installed when I launched the game through them like I used to do on windows the performance was abysmal”
“AI that turns one user into an activated team by designing, testing, and optimizing invite flows automatically”
“you can install Vortex on Linux systems and mod games via that just fine”
“installed all my mods via Vortex and it all worked fine”
“the logical type system doesn't seem to include sum types or unions”
“It is wildly more complex”
“Vortex and Lance both seem really cool”
“a fast path straight from these Vortex files to GPU memory seems promising”
“Way too proud of this one :D”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.