How to play Minecraft Bedrock on Mac/Linux

You can now both get two Minecraft version for free! Now you don’t have to choose!(Only for Windows :P)

Video form

As you know, Minecraft Bedrock despite being a crossplay platform is not available on two platforms that Minecraft Java is on, Mac and Linux, or Steam Deck which I will refer to as Linux from now on so I don’t have to keep typing “And Steam Deck”, and in this article, we will try to fix that and here are a couple of ways you can run Minecraft Bedrock on Mac and Linux, and some suggestions for Mojang if they want to fix this.

Minecraft Bedrock Launcher

The first and easiest option is the Minecraft Bedrock Launcher. On Linux, you just download it from your store, but if you’re on Ubuntu or any distro that doesn’t ship Flathub by default just search for a tutorial online, It’s a few command lines. As for Mac, All you have to do is just download it from their Git Hub. Just click the DMG and install it, press open anyway on your security and privacy settings and you could just play. One thing to note you have to own it on the Google Play store. You could also download the AppImage on Linux here, which will work with a touch screen, but if you want that on Linux I recommend the next solution right after this. Now for the pros and cons of this. The mouse and Keyboard work properly, the controller works on Linux (Didn’t work on Mac for me but it might be a driver issue), and the skin now works (It didn’t before) for the cons: It might not be up to date all the time, but you could always press show incompatible versions. It might be buggy with that.

Running Android

Running Android, you could either use Emulators, Virtual Machine, and Containers. On Mac, my preferred choice would be bluestacks and on Linux would be Waydroid. It’s no secret that I am a big fan of Waydroid, here are some pros and cons. The first pro for all of them is that you are running Android. You get the latest update, you get marketplace, basically full functionality…. Well, that’s not entirely true. For the cons, The controls are one. If you’re using Waydroid everything should work. As for Bluestacks, the control for me are just bad. The Bluestacks version on MacOS is on version 4, which you have to manually map the control which is annoying. So yeah, Those are options

Dual-Booting

Dual Booting. I hate this solution, but it doesn’t mean that it’s not for you! Dual-booting isn’t available on M1 Macs, So keep that in mind, at least until Asahi upstream everything to the linux kernel and you can dual-boot Android on it or something. Anyways on Macs and Linux PCs, You can either dual-boot Android x86 or Bootcamp with Windows. Ray tracing on work on Windows though. The pros are basically everything works and controls, everything works as it should… which make sense because you’re on an operating system that natively supports it. The cons however, is that you have to stop everything you’re doing. Reboot your PC. The start the game on a different operating system, then boot it back after playing, not very practical in my opinion.

Conclusion

Me personally, I use both Waydroid and the Bedrock Launcher. Waydroid works fine for checking out updates, walking around and Bedrock launcher is great for playing Eggwars, Lucky Blocks, and Skywars with my cousins. As for how Mojang can fix this issue, There are three solutions in my opinion. First, Integrate it into the official Minecraft Launcher and make it actually playable here. I mean they use the same account now. The other solution is to put it on Steam like Minecraft Dungeons and Minecraft Legends, but they would have to still port it for Mac, but they have Minecraft Education Edition on Mac, I doubt it would be hard. But on Linux, you could just use Proton. Which means you would have to pay for it again, but it’s better than no apps. The third solution is to put it on their respective stores, Paying for Linux apps isn’t possible in the store yet, but Flathub developers are working on it. So it might work soon? And on Mac, there is the App Store. Just keep hoping they will add it later!