Nvidia seemingly wants to make Linux better for gamers — and one way or another, that must worry Microsoft

• A couple of new job adverts from Nvidia have been spotted
• They are for software engineers to work on Nvidia GPU drivers in Linux
• It’s a hint that Nvidia is getting more serious about making Linux a better alternative for PC gamers — though there’s speculation it could be about something else, too

There are some exciting hints that Nvidia is working on making its graphics drivers better for Linux, as well as beefing up support for Proton, the translation layer that facilities playing Windows games on Linux (and handhelds like the Steam Deck).

VideoCardz highlighted a couple of job adverts that were flagged up by a hawk-eyed Redditor.

The first position is for a senior software engineer to work on optimizing Vulkan driver performance for Nvidia, and working on Proton games is mentioned specifically in this ad.

Another advert is for a Linux graphics senior software engineer to work on developing and testing professional and consumer Linux GPU drivers for Nvidia’s graphics cards.

While two jobs aren’t exactly what you might call the start of a big drive to make Linux better for gamers, they’re nonetheless a telling sign that this is the way Nvidia might be heading in the future. As one Redditor commented in the above thread: “Linux is going to prime time for PCs. This is just a clue.”

Analysis: driven by ulterior motives?

Should Microsoft now be quaking in its boots, then? Well, arguably that’s already happening anyway, after the broad groundswell of negative reaction that emerged last year, as 2025 rolled on and Windows 11 became increasingly about AI. But more specifically on the gaming front, this latest apparent Nvidia move could be regarded as an additional worry for Microsoft in terms of defending any challenge to the dominance of Windows for PC gamers.

Nvidia long neglected its graphics drivers with Linux in the past, and this was famously a weak spot for those with a GeForce GPU who were thinking about migrating away from Windows to a Linux distro. However, the official driver situation has improved a lot in recent times — and this is a sign that Nvidia is going to embark on even more serious work to knock its Linux graphics drivers into better shape.

That would, of course, be a big win for Linux, as would any additional work on the gaming front for the likes of Proton. Valve has already been pushing hard in that direction after the launch of the Steam Deck, and we’ve seen some big leaps with Proton game compatibility in recent times, too.

However, as some of the commenters on Reddit point out, this potential move may not necessarily be about improving Linux for PC gamers with Nvidia GPUs. Rather, it could be about Team Green working for its own benefit to switch over to Linux servers with GeForce Now game streaming. Moving away from Windows to Linux in this respect could have some big advantages for Nvidia — in terms of not paying fees to Microsoft for starters – but it also poses problems too (support for anti-cheat games on Linux is the obvious one).

At any rate, even if there is a financial ulterior motive in terms of cloud gaming behind Nvidia improving Linux, gamers running one of the various flavors of Linux will still benefit from these changes — and that’s the important part.

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Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel – ‘I Know What You Did Last Supper’ – was published by Hachette UK in 2013).