Linux is not the preferred operating system for gamers, but more and more games are coming to operating systems whose kernel is developed by Linus Torvalds. In addition, Steam has an important catalog that makes Linux users not think much about Windows when we want to play, as long as we are not thinking about playing important next-generation titles. If what interests us is only to play and also to do free games, there is an option called Athenaeum.
Athenaeum is presented as the free alternative to Steam. The differences with the Valve platform are clear: the first is the number of games available, since at Athenaeum there are only a handful of them while on Steam there are thousands. The other big difference is that everything we will find will be free. Although it will be best to explain what exactly this store is: a application designed to find games, but with some nuances.
Athenaeum helps you find games on Flathub
Although its developer insists on presenting it as an alternative to Steam, the only certainty is that it is in the way it works. Athenaeum is an application from which to install others, more specifically games. And if we have to specify more, what he presents us are games that there are available on Flathub, so in order to install them we have to have enabled support for Flatpak packages. With the application we can search and install the games, but it does not do it within the app itself, but installs them in the operating system as we would with GNOME Software or Discover.
Personally, I think that, at least right now, we are dealing with software that is not something big. I reminds a bit of the Snap Store that allows us to find apps that are only as a Snap package, but Athenaeum is for Flatpak packages that we can play with. The good thing about it is that we can refine the search by types of games, but little else. In any case, I don't think it is less useful than the Snap Store.
If you are interested in testing how Athenaeum works, you can download it by clicking on this link as long as you have enabled support for Flatpak packages. If it fails you, which is something that is happening right now in some versions of Discover, you can also install it by opening a terminal and typing the following:
https://www.flathub.org/repo/appstream/com.gitlab.librebob.Athenaeum.flatpakref
What do you think of this game store?
