Link: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/10/epic-games-launcher-preview-arrives-native-linux-support-fortnite-for-linux-is-coming-and-upgraded-easy-anti-cheat/

As always, more nuance is inside, but some major bullet points:

• native Linux support for the launcher
• very openly vibe coded, if that's a line in the sand for you
• Fortnite will be, but is not yet, updated with a new version of Easy Anti Cheat to be compatible with Linux. Yes, there are versions of EAC compatible with Linux today, but not up to Epic's standards of cheat prevention, and whatever is up to their standards requires coordination with distro maintainers.
• their FAQ openly mentions the necessity of compatibility layers, but I don't see any mention of native integration with them

I wonder if it can install/manage Unreal Engine yet. I don't see anything mentioning it specifically so I'd presume not.

After years and years of Tim Sweeney shitting on Linux, he actually came crawling back.

Too little too late though, you burned every bridge.

He's not just crawling back, he's actively trying to ruin Linux by introducing kernel-level spyware.

I'm definitely not an expert, but it looks like the only software that they're looking to implement above and beyond what comes with your distro is that systemd module, so I think that anti-cheat hook is what we'll have to look out for. It ought to be pretty obvious when it's about to happen, since I think that will be the only time you install a game from a game launcher and get prompted for an admin password for installation.

Idk if epic is still doing that, but this image has been sitting on my phone for like 7 years

Requiring a signed kernel+modules plus TPM and Secure Boot attestation is another problem, especially if EAC limits you to approved signing keys since self-signed keys would still allow you to modify the system how you want.

TPM alone is a non-starter. Loads of people with old PCs moved to Linux in recent years due to Windows 11 requiring a TPM 2.0 chip, and now is hardly the best time to expect people to upgrade their hardware.

That and the risk of gaming distributions including Epic's crap by default like they do for Steam, though I doubt any distro worth its salt would do so.

They still do it, but it's far less likely to be a game you've heard of and would have been willing to spend money on in the first place.

The OP acknowledges the vibe coding, but the opening from Epic's announcement is worth quoting:

Programming is hard. So, instead of doing that, we vibe coded a new Epic Games Launcher that’s way faster and more responsive than the current one, and has a new look.

It's like they're saying "Our launcher sucks and we couldn't fix it, so we used AI to make a new one". Other companies have been able to make good launchers without AI, but Epic just couldn't do it.

TPM alone is a non-starter. Loads of people with old PCs moved to Linux in recent years due to Windows 11 requiring a TPM 2.0 chip, and now is hardly the best time to expect people to upgrade their hardware.

But then they're no worse off whether on Linux or not. I expect my next PC will have TPM2 enabled by default and will play nicely with everything I use, but I have no intention of using kernel level anti-cheat regardless. If you do want that, and there are people who do, then it's the same thing on Windows except you can use an OS that isn't utter garbage to daily drive.

They swapped from one game you've probably heard of to two obscure indie games each week a while back, but yeah it's still going on. They're almost all forgettable outside of December, when they give out one game a day for the Advent calendar and a AAA game for Christmas.

They also have a rotation of three free developer assets every few weeks. Most of those are licensed for use in any engine, so it's a good resource for game developers to follow even if they don't use Unreal.

That actually all looks pretty reasonable for what they're trying to do. There's very little novel there, they're mostly leveraging existing security features

Vibe-coding a program that manages and deletes massive amounts of files, what could possibly go wrong?

I understand that LLMs are useful tools for programming, that they churn stuff out fast and whatever.

But I so hate this anti-intellectual, exuberant embrace of ignorance. It's one thing to vibecode out of necessity (those single dev slop projects), or to say you're doing agentic engineering or whatever cleanup label, but it's so frustrating for them to purely vibecode and not even try to hide it. And then to expect us to think it's cute.

I'm not sure about that. Mandating a locked-down system with signed modules will be a tough sell for the Linux crowd depending on how strict they make it. Removing the ability to customize your kernel and restricting what drivers and services you can run goes against the entire open-source ethos.

Looks promising. Now if only they could bring Rocket League back to Linux natively.

I thought you were jokingly rephrasing a quote, but no that's actually the very first paragraph jfc

Nuke it from orbit.

Doubt it, the official "package" is just the entire folder and you boot the "exe" with a command line prompt and go straight into the editor.

I wonder if its just simply too big for an appimage?

Unity managed to give you a package for its launcher at least.

That is such whiplash from the culture of engineering excellence Epic was known for.

I frequently use the phrase "coding is hard, let's go shopping" when I encounter a particularly poorly lazily written piece of software. "Coding is hard, can't someone else just do it?" Doesn't seem too far off.

Tim has been on the sauce for a while. He basically does the opposite of everything Valve does. Valve banned blockchain-based games, Epic opened the platform to scams with asset flip "games" attached. Valve regulated AI and required disclosure, Epic is now a safe haven for shovelware and Tim is screaming into the void that publishers should be allowed to hide AI usage.

Sweeney is like the Shadiversity of gaming. Massively overcompensating for his inferiority complex and forever doomed to live in the shadow of his more successful brother.

Also handles payment information. Oh boy.

This behavior is unfortunately normal for epic, this is the same company that said their competitors giving users more information about what they are buying "irresponsible"
https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/epic-boss-tim-sweeney-blasts-steam-for-putting-ai-tags-on-games-says-move-is-irresponsible-of-valve

the Shadiversity of gaming. Massively overcompensating for his inferiority complex and forever doomed to live in the shadow of his more successful brother.

I don't know, Shad wrote one of the worst books I've ever had the displeasure of reading, it's pretty hard to beat that.

Yeah that sucks for sure. Unfortunately doing all that does solve some real problems outside of videogames

I'm OOTL on what's wrong with Shadiversity. Got a link?

Tried it and I’m surprised how much faster it is and how it now automatically shows all my Steam games. Still hoping Steam gets a redesign so the friends list isn’ta separate window

nothing could possibly go wrong

GH Issue link if you don't want/have time to watch the video:
https://github.com/valvesoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/3671

RPS's article has the most accurate title: "We vibe coded a new Epic Games Launcher" because "programming is hard", announce company we're somehow supposed to see as a serious Steam competitor

Immutable distros are against the open-source ethos? That's definitely a take.

The beta launcher has a bunch of features disabled/absent compared to the main launcher, not the least being the shopping cart. Not surprising that it would load faster when it has less to do.

Even with an immutable distro you're able to obtain the source code and modify and recompile it to fit your needs. If EAC only accepts kernels signed by "trusted partners" that freedom goes away.

I've got links. Do you have two and a half hours and enough alcohol to numb the pain?

About the person: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SU8xmhI5WjA

About his disgusting atrocity of a novel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoOnElCEliA

Ew epic games

requires coordination with distro maintainers

Which I really hope they just don't get. Fuck Epic and fuck Tim Sweeney.

WTF, Shadiversity is Jazza's brother?! 🤯

Also, why is he much criticized by the HEMA community? I've watched a few of his videos, but don't know enough about HEMA to understand what's bad about them. Never mind, I'm 10 minutes in on your linked vid and I get it now.

(The rest of it I didn't know... but I'm not surprised. Oh, and thanks very much for the TL;DW!)

But you recompiling the kernel into whatever you need means it's no longer the same immutable distro, it's a fork of said distro. Whoever is actually using that immutable distro has their kernel restricted. You said restricting the kernel is not compatible with open source. If we talk about the average user an immutable distro means exactly that, it restricts the users access to the kernel. The average user doesn't know nor should know how to make their own custom kernel.

You're just fear mongering with what ifs. If you fart you may shit your pants. Does that mean you'd be afraid to fart for the rest of your life or would you think that's stupid and you're not going to worry about some baseless hypothetical? What would you tell the person who's telling you to be afraid of farts?

To all the people saying they hope this doesn't work out, do yah want more people on Linux or not? For some, Fortnite will be the killer game that they have to stay on Windows for.

I'm not 100% read up on this but I'm cautiously optimistic that this doesn't seem all that bad. It's not kernel-level but appears good enough that it will have similar performance in detecting cheats.Also seems like it should be fairly widely compatible. The bazzite team have already said they believe they should be compliant or have a clear path to being compliant.

This isn't how you do it. Compromising an OS with kernel level anti cheat isn't the compromise I'm willing to make just to get some gamers to switch off a terrible OS.

That's really fair. I forget that anticheats are kernel level I guess, as it makes no sense. Hopefully, as the other reply to my comment mentioned, it's not kernel level.

Ew. Time to switch to BSD.

Holy shit! This is great news! My wife will be so excited!

Now if we could just get CoD.

That's such a Tim Sweeney move

I don't want people that switch for this reason on Linux. Why do you think Windows sucks? Lowest. Common. Denominator.

That switch for what reason? They can do what they want with their PC, like play a game? Being able to do what I want with my PC is the main reason I switched to Linux.

Windows sucks because the company that makes it is betting you won't leave, and they keep stuffing it full of other revenue streams and ads for them even though the OS isn't even free. I'm no fan of kernel anti-cheat, but incompatibility with games that use it is a huge barrier for people switching that would otherwise choose to.

JFC. An rm -rf /* because they didn't check if a variable even had a value, let alone whether it pointed to a directory that should be removed. What a noob mistake.

Native Linux support doesn't mean support for all distros. Wine is still your best bet.

"if that's a line in the sand for you"

Given I'm hearing instances of vibe coded software completely deleting a drive as a way to efficiently uninstall it...it really should be a hard line in the sand for most people.
If programming is so hard they can't do it, how can we reasonably trust that the software will be robust? Why would I want to trust it at all?