Out of the box experience is valuable though. No every user wants to tinker for an afternoon to make a system suit their needs. Some want to install and go, nothing wrong with that.

Succumb to your temptations… skip dual booting and vms… nuke your Windows partition with Gentoo… you know you want to

Honestly, take away the PR blunders, bloatware, privacy nightmares, and ads, and I really just dislike how Windows works.

The file structure is the main one that really made me feel like Roddy Piper putting on the glasses. I was perfectly happy shambling around between Program Files this and LocalAppData that. As soon as I understood how logical and elegant the file structures that Linux uses is, there’s no way I could ever go back.

Also, things like Settings, Device Manager, Control panel, and 2 or 3 other separate GUIs all containing A, the same settings 6 times over, or B, all containing different settings that should be consolidated. It’s almost as if Microsoft can’t stick with a design language or feature scope to save their lives, but they also can’t get away with completely removing these old GUIs, so they just bury them and add another on top.

However, I can’t say I actually hate Windows. I cut my teeth in computing on XP, and I see XPs DNA all over modern Windows (the aforementioned Control Panel being a remnant). I think without all the added garbage, Windows is actually an incredibly powerful, albiet obtuse and frustrating, piece of software.

Case on his Ono-Sendai

Main desktop runs Arch but everything else runs Debian. It’s the perfect “install and forget” system so long as you don’t need the absolute bleeding edge packages.

Did the absynth goblins visit you yet?

This has always been my concern with relying on Flatpak. It is only as simple as your requirements are it seems.

SteamDeck plays the same version of the game as a regular PC. Any mods that work on PC will work on SteamDeck (in theory), but seeing as the deck runs Linux, you’ll need to do some more tinkering with Wine and such.

I mean, I use maybe 3-4gb at any given time, without limiting myself. I personally don’t need heaps of RAM, 6gb is enough to have some overhead for me.

I haven’t looked at too many prices recently, I’ve had the same phone for a while, but this doesn’t seem to unreasonable imo, especially considering this is the first product from a small, new company.

These specs actually seem really solid for the price point, I’m glad to see decent alternative smartphones popping up that actually have some power.

What’s bugging me is the lack of information about the software. Apparently this is Android with a layer like Hallium to run a Debian userspace on top? And yet they don’t advertise that fact. It’s just a little off putting that this product seems to be aimed at Linux/general tech enthusiasts, yet the company seemed to miss the fact that those customers tend to really like knowing what they’re running under the hood.

I’d argue that searching around a slew of webpages to find a download button (without clicking an ad that imitates a download button), then running the .exe while making sure to uncheck the 4 or 5 pieces of adware they try to slip in without you noticing, then having to remember to update it manually now and then, is much more of a sketchy pain in the ass than running a single command to install everything from your kernel, to your web browser, all of which is tightly vetted and comes from a monitored set of servers.

Also, if you really want a “click to install” most DE’s have a software store that either acts as a frontend for your package manager, or just uses flatpaks.

I’d argue this is just what people are used to, and Windows has taught people that terminal=scary/hacky.

A second remaster of the first game.

Performance issues/bloated disk usage and their forced use within Ubuntu.

The performance issues come from the fact that they run via virtualization. Similar to running a game on an emulator. This helps with compatibility, ie being able to run a Snap on an ARM computer when the native version isn’t available, but again, performance can take a hit.

Bloated disk usage is a result of each Snap including all dependancies with the base package. For example, if two Snaps rely on the same font, you get two copies of that font. If two native packages rely on the same font, you get one copy, and they share.

The forced usage literally boils down to this; on Ubuntu, typing “apt install example-package” actually runs the command “snap install example-package” (Edit: I should note this isn’t the case with all packages, but there are some pretty high profile ones on the list, ie Thunderbird). Canonical A; isn’t up front about this, therefor leading users into believing they are getting native packages when this isn’t the case, and B; make it frustratingly difficult to disable this behaviour and get only native packages

IMO if a company creates a product and then feels the need to force and trick their users into adopting it, that alone is enough to discourage me from ever choosing it over the alternatives.

Ubuntu, Manjaro, Endeavour, Arch, Arch/Debian

Any distro can do what you need. Others have suggested Pop, Mint, Debian, Endeavour, and more. I’d agree with basically all of them. Really it comes down to what you prefer most.

Personally I’d lean more toward Debian as it’s a basic distro with very little extra bloat, loads of documentation, incredibly stable, etc. I always prefer a spartan, basic system I can add pieces to as I please, rather than a bunch of preloaded defaults that may or may not be to my taste. Again though, that’s just me.

Endeavour is great, but if you aren’t used to Arch, and how to maintain it, things can get sort of messy after a while (definitely need to make a good habbit of cleaning your package managers cache, as well as read up on what’s called a “pacdiff”. In general, Arch and its derivatives require research). It’s worth trying if you’re interested in rolling distros though.

Another might be OpenSUSE Tumbleweed. From what I hear, it’s a bit more stable and curated than Arch so it may be a better option if you’re inexperience with a rolling release. I’ve never personally tried it, but have heard lots of good things from causal and power users alike.

I think it’s a little more complex today than it was in the days of Win7.

First, the performance/compatibility gap is much smaller than it used to be. Ie, back in those days, Wine was much more of a crapshoot. Now, compatibility is a lot better, and there are a number of straightforward troubleshooting tools like Winetricks. Proton is also huge, being an in-built feature in the largest gaming platform on PC.

Second, the Steamdeck has exposed numerous more casual PC gamers to Linux than probably there ever has been in the past. Granted, the PC handheld market isn’t massive, but it’s also not small. People want to play AAA pc games in the form factor of a Switch, and it just so happens that the most popular, well polished and best supported product in that market ships with Linux.

Third, todays focus on privacy and freedom is much more of a hot button issue than it was back in the day. I’m not at all trying to imply that there weren’t priviacy concious folk back then, but face it, in 2011, your car didn’t track your location and sell that data to marketing companies. Your phone didn’t capture your fingerprints, and your operating system didn’t track your online shopping habbits and show you ads in the start menu, or take constant screen-captures of your work at all times. People are more concious of their privacy now than they ever were (even people who aren’t super into tech are at the very least familiar with ad blockers and VPNs). I genuinely believe this will be one of the bigger factors if there is an uptick. People will learn about this alternative OS with no ads, no trackers, plus it’s free, and that will at least get them curious. You’re right, some will try but abandon it, some won’t care at all, but I think the number of people who just want out of what MS is locking them into is growing.

Yeah I did consider that when I made my comment. And keep in mind I do see where they’re coming from. It’s not like I’m calling them stupid for this decision. I personally just see it as a massive overcorrection for something that will, in the grand scheme, have virtually no effect on the quality of the game for literally anyone besides the person who made this decision.

I know it’s not the best comparison, but to me it would be like if RTX support required an RTX logo, and a major studio just removed RTX from their game, not for any performance or quality issues, but solely for a logo. Again, it just seems like an overcorrection for a non-issue. I’ll admit, I sometimes get annoyed by intro logos, but never enough to the point where I’d think it’s worth removing features to get rid of them.

Yeah… i don’t understand why this is a good move. Sacrificing an element that would noticably improve a core aspect of the games design for the sake of not looking at a picture for a few seconds on startup? Seems completely backwards if you ask me.

The SOCOM and Syphon Filter games are great if you want some shooters.

Ratchet and Clank Size Matters rocks too

Debian. Same base, no extra bs. Rock solid and reliable. Outdated packages are a non-issue for a casual user. Gaming needs a bit of configuration but it perfectly doable. Installation is apparently difficult but… I don’t know where that comes from. It may not be Calameres-smooth but it’s perfectly understandable even to a novice.