Grand Theft Auto (GTA) Online, developed by Rockstar Games, is one of the most popular multiplayer games, amassing millions of players worldwide. However, a significant portion of the gaming community is being overlooked: Linux users. Despite the technological advancements and growing popularity of Linux-based operating systems, Rockstar Games has not yet enabled BattleEye anti-cheat compatibility for Linux, effectively locking out Linux users from enjoying GTA Online.

This wasn't always the case, however; prior to BattleEye being added to GTA Online, Linux users were perfectly capable of connecting to Rockstar servers and playing GTA Online with Windows and console players without issue. You may think, "Well, with how Linux works, wouldn't Rockstar need to patch in BattleEye support?". The answer? No! Enabling BattleEye for Linux from Rockstar's side is as simple as Rockstar asking BattleEye to enable that functionality for their game. 

With Windows 10 support having ended on October 14th, 2025, many users like myself who were W10 holdouts will begin transitioning or already have transitioned to Linux, leaving us who refuse to participate in Microsoft's Windows 11 disaster-class stranded for no good reason. Linux is blowing up on desktops right now, especially for gaming, because of Proton and stuff like the Steam Deck (and soon the GabeCube™) that just work out of the box. Letting BattleEye run on Linux for GTA Online is the easiest decision Rockstar could make.

Rockstar: please enable Linux support for BattleEye! You are alienating a community that will only grow from here on out. More and more people are jumping ship from Windows, whether that be on their desktops or through hardware like the Steam Deck, and if there's no good reason to keep these people from playing GTA Online, then why do it? When even the CEO of Take Two Interactive (Rockstar's parent company), Strauss Zelnick,  is saying things like "Gaming is moving more towards PC", it simply doesn't make sense to not try and embrace that by allowing Linux users back into their ecosystem.