this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2023
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Actual reason is system permissions.
Most the default installation path is Program Files. That needs elevation to write to. Fine when you’re installing something, but not something you want to need just to run the game.
Writing to %APPDATA% or really anywhere in %USERHOME% is guaranteed to have the right permissions for this user.
Granted, a lot of home PCs and gaming PCs are single-user environments. The “personal” computer. In that case there’s no reason games and applications can’t be installed in %LOCALAPPADATA%, and in fact, I think windows has an environment variable or registry setting for that.
It’s no different in Linux. You don’t want users writing to /etc. And you may expect multiple users. So all of that stuff goes to dot files in $HOME.
Hence dot files
I tried setting up my main windows gaming machine with a separate admin and user accounts, and tried to set it up to be multi-user. It didn't work well. Most games worked but some random games had all sorts of bizarre issues, from only being able to run as admin, to requiring messing with directory permissions to just plain strange behavior but working sometimes. Steam also really didn't like if I tried to run games as a different user and got very confused at times by the multiple user accounts
See, that’s dumb. Just because games aren’t enterprise software, there’s no reason basic security practice like least-privilege shouldn’t apply in development.