sugar_in_your_tea

@sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works

Mama told me not to come.

She said, that ain’t the way to have fun.

Profil ze zdalnego serwera może być niekompletny. Zobacz więcej na oryginalnej instancji.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Idk, I wouldn’t really call Steam OS an Arch distro. It’s not quite as extreme as the relationship between PlayStation and FreeBSD, but it’s in that realm.

The user has very little control over the base system, which is distributed by Valve. Most of the user’s interaction is on the surface, such as through Flatpaks and whatnot, not w/ the package manager. It’s like other distros like Aeon (openSUSE) and Silverblue (Fedora) where the user doesn’t really interact w/ the distro itself.

it takes minutes on the forums to convince me what a horrible idea that would be.

The reason the forum is like that is because Arch is designed to be a system where you have the tools to solve problems yourself and not need to ask for help. That’s why the install process is so manual, the intention is that if you can make it through that, you probably won’t need much help from anyone else. The install process has gotten easier, but it’s still to a point where it generally discourages “casuals”, for lack of a better term.

I used Arch for about 5 years and I think I interacted w/ the forums like twice. If interacting w/ the forums is something that’s important to you, then Arch probably isn’t for you. Something like Debian or Fedora will probably be a better fit.

I really don’t get people’s fascination w/ Arch. It’s basically a LEGO-style Linux distro, and that’s not really what most seem to want. I switch from Arch to openSUSE because openSUSE had everything I liked from Arch (rolling release, mostly-vanilla packages, etc) and most of the reliability of a release-based distro. I still don’t recommend it for new users because the community is pretty small so getting help is a bit harder, but people are generally nicer than Arch users.

sugar_in_your_tea,

I think so. It’s trying to compete with Microsoft and Sony consoles in much the same way that Steam Deck competed with the Switch. Taking on the largest segment of gaming outside mobile is pretty ambitious. It seems to be launching along with a new VR headset and a new controller, so they seem to be targeting high volume sales for the living room gaming market.

The hardware isn’t the ambitious part, the target market is.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Yes, just like the Steam Deck, it’s a pre-built that functions like a console and can do other desktop stuff too.

sugar_in_your_tea,

This isn’t going to be a high end machine, it’s probably competitive with the PS5, more or less.

You didn’t mention what you have, but you could probably get a decent upgrade competitive with this for well under $1200. The GPU seems to be about an RX 7600 ($250-260), the CPU is about a 7600 ($190), motherboard is $170, and 16GB RAM is $120. So $700-800 mandatory, plus whatever you need to replace from your current rig, and the result should be a bit faster than the Steam Machine. That’s probably a bit more than the Steam Machine, but it’s upgradeable, whereas the Steam Machine won’t be.

sugar_in_your_tea,

The Xbox was my first, and I prefer the asymmetric design. However, the controller I use on my PC is a DS4 and it’s fine, and I use it because it had better Linux support at the time.

sugar_in_your_tea,

I find asymmetrical sticks more comfortable to use. The natural position of my thumbs is in the top corners of the controller. Since the D-pad is rarely used, the left thumb stays in that sweet spot and the right jumps between the stick and the buttons.

I use a DS4 on my desktop, an Xbox 360 controller on my retropie box, and a Nintendo Pro controller on my Switch, and the DS4 is way less comfy than the other two. I only use the DS4 because it had better compatibility with Linux and other features (mostly gyro) when I shopped for one when I moved the Xbox controller to another room.

I’ve considered buying the DS5, but would much rather wait for something better, like a new Xbox controller with a gyro.

sugar_in_your_tea,

I have a Steam Controller and could never get used to it. I don’t like the track pad D-pad on the left, since it’s uncomfortable to use for camera control or as a D-pad, it’s just awkward. The right one is okay, but in a weird spot, since it’s annoying to jump all the way down to the buttons.

The new one looks a little better, but I’d still prefer the left stick to be higher (maybe seap with the D-pad?). I love the Steam Deck, so maybe in practice this is fine.

sugar_in_your_tea,

The DS4 has a gyro though, so I can do gyro aiming w/ it if I want. Steam Input makes configuring it quite easy.

I thought I was the target for the Steam Controller because configurability sounded fun, so I picked it up w/ the Steam Link in a bundle w/ Rocket League and I ended up not using either (and I bailed on Rocket League after EGS bought them). I think it was a cool idea, but I ended up not liking it as much in practice. I keep trying to give it a second chance, but each time it just feels weird.

That said, I love the Steam Deck, which is a natural evolution of the Steam Controller. It has capacitive joysticks to make the gyro better, the track pads don’t get in the way, and the triggers and shoulder buttons feel better. The main thing I miss from the Steam Controller is the button in the triggers. Everything else on the Steam Deck is a straight upgrade, and the extra back buttons are enough to make me not miss the button in the triggers.

I might end up getting the new Steam Controller, but I wish they would’ve put the left thumbstick a bit higher and the D-pad a little lower. But since I already use a DS4 and have been considering a DS5, this is a natural upgrade for me.

sugar_in_your_tea,

That fits pretty much every game where you control a main character. MCs rarely have a suitable explanation for why they’re so special beyond the rule of cool. Why can Gordon Freeman take out teams of special ops? Because he’s the MC. He’s a pretty bland character that doesn’t say anything, but he’s loved by millions.

sugar_in_your_tea,

All I want is a game that’s not a buggy mess.

sugar_in_your_tea,

That really depends on the community. When I was there, I would avoid the larger communities and seek out smaller communities. When I first joined Reddit, it was to avoid the attention-seeking posts by humans, and near the end it was to avoid attention-seeking posts by bots and humans alike. The best content IMO is on subreddits with <100k subs and <5 posts per day.

sugar_in_your_tea,

“The CEO said in a meeting that they want to use AI to replace QA”

This sounds like it would be on the edge if the company is publicly traded and there’s a chance that information wasn’t communicated to investors, especially for something like video games where launch bugs could make or break initial impression and thus sales.

“Wanna hear about this cool bug I found today?”

This is probably fine if it’s unreleased and has been fixed. It’s probably not fine if it’s in a released product and hasn’t been fixed.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Nah, I played it 2-3 years ago and it was totally fine. The only bug I recall was at the end with the helicopter sequence, and it was really frustrating. Basically, I had to set a framerate cap to 30 FPS to progress the game (60 might work too, but I needed a cap).

There’s one impactful decision soon after and then a cutscene that’s based on that decision, but otherwise that’s the end. So if you run into the bug and don’t want to fix it, just watch the ending on YouTube or something.

sugar_in_your_tea,

For sure, definitely be extra careful when organizing outside of the ways sanctioned by the company. In fact, I recommend not keeping any records about anything that goes on in the company, and keep union discussions about the union itself. If you want to recruit people, talk about how you’d like the relationship between the union and company to be, not about things the company is doing that you don’t like, because there’s a huge risk of giving the company a valid reason to fire you.

I’m more talking about what’s generally protected legally and what’s not. Again, if you’re looking to form a union, don’t get anywhere near that line.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Yup, it should be “Ubisoft claims Assassin’s Creed games are innovative.”

Linux gamers on Steam finally cross over the 3% mark (www.gamingonlinux.com) angielski

Free Windows 10 support ended for most people this past month, and the trend line of Linux usage has been quite clear leading up to this, as people prepared for the inevitable. An increase in Linux usage is also correlated to a drop in Chinese players, which did happen this month a little bit, but Linux usage is also trending up...

sugar_in_your_tea,

I’m guessing that once we get to 5% excluding console-like systems like Steam Deck, we’ll see it start to explode. That didn’t happen for macOS, probably because of the cost of the hardware, whereas Linux can be installed on whatever you have.

sugar_in_your_tea,

They don’t need to, just give them 3 screenshots and ask which they want. Show KDE, GNOME, and whatever the distro wants as the third. Maybe include some bullet points below each explaining what they are (pick one from the last two):

  • KDE - familiar, extensible
  • GNOME - modern, minimalist
  • Cinnamon/Budgie/MATE - something in the middle
  • XFCE/LXQT - super lightweight for older systems

Maybe select one by default that the OEM likes, but showing the option helps nudge them toward the idea that this is a flexible system.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Sweet. Hopefully one day your use case will be resolved so the last one can move as well.

sugar_in_your_tea,

That’s really too bad. I’ve heard great things about Bazzite, and it’s what I recommend when someone wants SteamOS.

That said, that’s a bit different from what I’m talking about. I’m suggesting OEMs ship a pre-installed Linux desktop, and users are presented an option on setup about which DE to use. So all that would change is enabling one and not the others, but they’d always be present. After install, you could switch between them if desired without messing with the package manager.

I personally use openSUSE (leap on server, tumbleweed on desktop, Aeon Desktop on laptop), and their installer is solid, but I haven’t tried it on a 4k monitor (worked fine on 1440p). Unfortunately, I don’t recommend my distro of choice because it’s not popular enough to have a good newb support network, whereas that’s basically Bazzite’s core demographic.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Yeah, that is nice. I won’t recommend EndeavorOS or any other Arch installer/derivative for other reasons (IMO, every Arch user should do the official install process once or twice to have a better shot at fixing stuff later), but I do like that UX.

I wish more distros did it. My distro (openSUSE) does something similar, but I also don’t recommend it because the community isn’t all that good for new users IMO.

sugar_in_your_tea,

I don’t recommend Arch forks as a rule, unless it has fantastic support from the maintainers (e.g. SteamOS curates updates). It’s going to by break eventually, and it’s going to require manual intervention (probably minimal), and users will get mad. Maybe it’ll be fine for 6 months or a year, but it will break eventually.

That’s much less likely with something built on Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, or OpenSUSE. Those all have solid testing and upgrade rules, unlike Arch, which is basically “works on my machine.” I used Arch for years until I got tired of the random breakage, and now I’m on Tumbleweed which has far less breakage and stays reasonably close to Arch package versions.

My first recommendation is either Linux Mint (I prefer Debian edition) or Fedora, because those have good new user experiences and aren’t super opinionated like Ubuntu.

sugar_in_your_tea,

That tracks since I left Arch about 5 years ago, maybe a little longer, and I used it for at least 5 years.

I used it through the /usr merge which broke nearly everything, and for a few years of stability afterward. But even when it was super stable, there were still random issues a couple times each year. It wasn’t anything big (I’ve been a Linux user for 15 years or so), but it did require knowing what to do to fix it (usually documented clearly on the Arch homepage). This was especially true for Nvidia updates. After switching to openSUSE Tumbleweed, most of those went away, and even the Nvidia breakage seemed less frequent, and if something broke, I could easily snapper rollback and wait for a fix, whereas on Arch I had to fix things because going back wasn’t an option (I guess you could configure rollbacks if you had that foresight).

I just took a look, and it looks like manual intervention is still a thing. For example, the June 21 Linux firmware change required manual intervention. There were others over the last year, depending on the packages you use or your configuration.

That’s totally fine for Linux vets, but new users will have issues eventually. In don’t even recommend my distro, which solves most of those issues, because new user support isn’t there. The main reason I left was because I wanted to switch to btrfs (for snapshot rollbacks), and Tumbleweed had that OOTB so I gave it a shot.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Here’s a graphic showing that from this page:

https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/9ba1e429-6f08-4980-bbfc-673bab66518a.jpeg

I wish there was a graphic that showed English users with SteamOS separated from non-SteamOS users, because I think if we get 5% of non-SteamOS users, we should start to see devs pay a lot more attention. We’re starting to see devs make SteamOS-specific versions (e.g. THPS 1&2 offline mode), so the next step is getting Linux-specific adjustments for more games.

sugar_in_your_tea,

I just banned Fortnite in my house because I don’t like the MTX nonsense. My kids either play on Linux or our Switch.

sugar_in_your_tea,

If you like Windows, that’s 100% fine, keep using it.

But I’m genuinely curious, what didn’t you like? Which distro(s) did you try? What problems did you run into?

I ask because you obviously cared enough to try it out but had a bad experience, so that’s something we could maybe look into as Linux enthusiasts.

I’m never going to berate anyone for their choice of OS, use whatever works for you. For me, that’s Linux, mostly because I found a workflow that works really well for me and it’s a pain to replicate on Windows. My SO still uses Windows because that’s what they like, and it’s totally fine, I’ll even help them fix stuff when it breaks. I honestly don’t care what people end up using, but I will mention my preference if I think others might be interested.

sugar_in_your_tea,

which you can do with a launch parameter

My point is they built functionality specifically for a Linux-based system. In THPS, that meant offline mode, but for other games it could be anti-cheat, where to store game saves, or default settings (I think Cyberpunk some?).

My point is that Linux is getting on the radar of game devs, and that’ll increase a lot at some level of adoption. I think that level is 5% on desktop Linux.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is a unicorn in a lot of ways, so that’s not exactly what I’m talking about, but it’s related. I’m not going to expect BG3-level of support from devs, THPS 1&2 would be so much more than we’re currently getting.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Three options is too many? If one is already selected, you can just click through without thinking. Windows already does that stupid “setting up your PC” crap, and this would be far faster.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Yup!

Here’s my progression:

  1. Ubuntu because I was a noob; got pissed at breakage at the release upgrade
  2. Fedora, because that’s what my university used; got pissed that release upgrades took an hour (since fixed I think?)
  3. Arch, because my coworker recommended it
  4. openSUSE Tumbleweed because of snapper and they had a server distro (had recently set up a NAS and tried Leap before switching desktop to TW)
  5. Aeon on laptop because I wanted to try an immutable distro and it was in the family

I’ll probably switch my laptop back to Tumbleweed at some point and my NAS to MicroOS, but for nos things work fine so I’m not motivated.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Sure. If you have all three options be properly configured, it shouldn’t matter too much which you pick. The point is to make it apparent that you can change stuff, if you want.

sugar_in_your_tea,

I don’t think that’s why. I think it’s more the features that work with the iPhone that are selling Apple laptops. If you want to use iMessage or iCloud between your phone and computer, you need both to be from Apple. That, plus the better performance and battery life of the M-series is more the cause of increased market share, not the single desktop offering.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Looking at market share stats, macOS market share is stagnant up until 2010-2015 or so, when it jumps from 6% to 12% or so, and that’s also about when iPhone became dominant. They’re currently around 15-17%, probably because the M1 series is so much better than x86 alternatives, so if you don’t need gaming or anything, it’s a great option! That wasn’t true before the M1.

If it’s all up to the one choice, why didn’t they take off before the 2010s? macOS has been remarkably the same since pretty much forever, unlike Windows, which changes a lot each release.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Nice!

For me, I went to the local community college in high school, and an old guy was in my Java class and gave me a FreeBSD CD. I installed it and played around with it for a year or two, but still used Windows. When I went to uni, I got an Ubuntu CD on campus and installed it on my rental, and later that year the Windows XP install had issues but Ubuntu was fine, so I switched.

Now, if only I could run Linux on my work PC.

I had that at my last job, but my current one uses macOS. At least it’s close enough to Linux on the CLI…

sugar_in_your_tea,

Yup, that’s what we do. I just installed a How to Train Your Dragon mod, and they love it. I have a server hosted on my computer, so my kids can play together.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Weezer? It’s a Three Dog Night reference. :)

sugar_in_your_tea,

Would that be similar to Windows users who don’t set the language? Or do OEMs set that for the region they sell in?

sugar_in_your_tea,

Yes, and 2021 was a perfect storm of a bunch of stuff:

  • Windows 11 would break compatibility with older processors
  • Steam Deck announced preorders in July - wouldn’t release until 2022, but there was a lot of excitement about Linux gaming
  • LTT made a video series (part 1 was Nov. 2021) where Linus used Linux exclusively for a month

So yeah, a lot of people were curious at the time, and while not all of it was directly related to Windows 11, that certainly was a factor.

sugar_in_your_tea,

there’s a lot if Git repos out there that don’t include instructions for Fedora

For new users, if it doesn’t exist in the repos, you’ve gone too far. Don’t look for RPMs or debs, look for your distros package, and failing that, look to add a repo tons of people online recommend for whatever you’re using (e.g. RPMFusion IIRC). The vast majority of what you want will be there.

If it’s something you really can’t live without, ask on the forums for your distro, and wait until you get multiple answers from different people saying the same thing. Give it a few days too.

Installing from source isn’t a bad thing, I do it all the time. But a lot of people will trust some random post on SM and then complain that it doesn’t work or broke their system or something (see LTT’s video where he uninstalled his DE by trying to install Steam). Don’t install from source or random RPMs/debs until you’re comfortable tracking down what dependencies you need and are able to read scripts to make sure nothing funky is going on. Many posts online will be outdated, and with Linux getting more attention, malware is a growing concern.

Mint tends to have an older codebase

Does Mint still not use Wayland?

Having an older codebase is generally good for new users, since the software tends to be more tested and more people will know the workarounds. Newer software will have different issues, so be careful chasing the latest and greatest if you’re not comfortable sifting through logs to figure out what happened.

sugar_in_your_tea,

I find that the Debian/Ubuntu repos (the dpkg/APT system that uses .deb files) have more stuff in them than Fedora’s repos (the DNF package manager that uses .rpm files) do.

Ah, makes sense. That’s probably because Fedora doesn’t package non-FOSS packages, so you need to use something separate like RPMFusion, and that doesn’t contain everything. There’s usually a repo for what you want, but for something really niche, yeah, Ubuntu will probably have a better chance of having it, followed by Debian.

That said, I really like the way openSUSE does it. Basically, they have OBS, which is kind of like the AUR, but it actually builds packages for you. I think that’s a much better way to handle it than building stuff from source on your local machine, since it allows you to share that package (i.e. dev machine vs other machines you have) and at least track down the dependencies needed since it starts w/ a blank slate. I don’t know if Fedora has something similar, and it’s certainly not a beginner-friendly option (if you’re pulling packages from OBS, you’re probably doing it wrong and will likely run into issues). However, that is the first step to getting something included in the official repos.

But if it’s not in the default repositories, you should definitely talk to someone more familiar w/ the distro to figure out the “right way” to do it. I’ve built .debs and AUR PKGBUILDs, but only after learning from the community the right way to do it to make sure it doesn’t break on an update. New users are unlikely to put in that legwork, hence the recommendation to never use anything outside the default repos w/o asking for help.

There’s problems at the bleeding edge, but there’s problems at the trailing edge as well.

I agree. I guess my point is that if things work w/ an older set of packages, the chance that things will break is incredibly low. Whereas if things work on a bleeding edge distro, there’s a good chance you’ll see some breakage.

For example, openSUSE Tumbleweed is generally a good distro, but there was a week or so where my HDMI port didn’t work, my default sound device changed suddenly and was no longer consistent (sometimes would pick one monitor’s speakers instead of the other, depending on which came online first), and I was stuck on an older kernel for a couple weeks due to some kind of intermittent crashing. This experience was way better than what I had on Arch, and fortunately TW has been uneventful for 2-3 years now (probably because my hardware hasn’t changed).

So for a new user, I recommend finding the oldest distro that supports all the hardware you need. For experienced users, I recommend using a rolling, bleeding-edge distro and reporting bugs upstream as they happen, because the frustration of something breaking randomly is much less than the frustration of multilple things breaking on a release upgrade, and it’s nice to have the latest improvements to performance and whatnot (i.e. I used Wayland on TW way before it landed on any release-based distro, which was awesome since it allowed me to use different refresh rates on each monitor).

For your example, I’d recommend users hop distros until they find one where everything works. If Mint is too old, try Fedora. There’s usually a sweet spot where everything works and you have a reasonably stable experience overall. Even Debian Testing (pinned to the release name, not “testing”) is probably a better fit than Arch or openSUSE Tumbleweed.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Like the Batman Arkham series.

sugar_in_your_tea,

And Arkham City.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Nah, all of the one’s I’ve played are fun. I’m sure there are duds, but here are my favorites:

  • Marvel Superheroes
  • both Harry Potter games
  • Jurassic Park
  • Lego Movie
  • The Hobbit
sugar_in_your_tea,

If you’ve played one, you want to play another. There’s not a ton of gameplay differences between them, but that’s not what I play them for, I like the silly take on the story, the puzzles can be fun and satisfying, and the collectibles are fun to find.

sugar_in_your_tea,

If you’ve played one, you want to play another. There’s not a ton of gameplay differences between them, but that’s not what I play them for, I like the silly take on the story, the puzzles can be fun and satisfying, and the collectibles are fun to find.

LEGO games are the comfort food of games IMO, you know exactly what you’re getting and it’s satisfying.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Hit and miss since those tend to not have actual standards and generally do their own thing. If it’s popular, there’s a decent chance someone has reverse engineered it and there’s at least partial support (mostly applies to simpler things like steering wheels), but there will be concessions to make until device manufacturers officially support Linux.

If you’re willing to replace equipment, there’s something that works for most of those categories, if not all.

sugar_in_your_tea,

What you need is a system where everyone is required by law to behave in a way that benefits the society.

That’s not feasible, but it’s probably feasible to require everyone to act in a way that doesn’t hurt society, and make restitution when they do hurt society.

For example, I’m okay with gambling in games being legal, but there needs to be rules:

  • no kids
  • pay into a fund to help those with addiction
  • odds of winning are clearly posted in a way that’s accessible and understandable, and the odds are verified independently
  • there should be a way to buy something instead of gambling for it
  • must have a way to set spending limits to protect drunk gamblers
sugar_in_your_tea,

I was about to rebut the “visit the US” thing, but people really should wait until immigration no longer looks at peoples’ phones or social media. I think I can still refuse as a citizen on 4th amendment grounds, but until that’s extended to visitors, I recommend holding off.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Exactly! Some examples:

  • right to repair - actually owning games is similar to actually owning laptops and phones
  • ads in cars, apps, etc that you’ve bought - do you really own it if it’s littered with ads you don’t control?

Set the precedent, then gradually expand scope.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Extra points if you bring some munchies to share.

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