Amazon Luna runs on Windows and yet its hiring Linux gaming engineers

When Amazon’s cloud gaming service Luna launched last October, the fact it ran on Windows set it apart. Unlike Google Stadia, it wouldn’t necessarily need to convince developers to painstakingly port their games to an unproven platform. But it now appears that Amazon is considering a shift to Linux-based servers, too — the company is hiring three software engineers to bring Windows games to Linux (via Phoronix).

Like Valve’s Steam Deck — an upcoming gaming handheld that also runs on Linux — the idea isn’t to abandon Windows games. Both the Steam Deck and Amazon’s seemingly new Luna initiative will still run Windows games, but both of them will do it through Valve’s Proton compatibility layer.

“[T]his role involves working with Proton -...

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