Laurel Raven

You misunderstand me: I’m grateful that the current Linux EAC doesn’t do kernel/root level bullshit like the Windows version because Helldivers players just got it foisted on us

Which I’m very grateful for since Helldivers just switched to it

I see where you’re coming from, but I also see where their concerns are still valid: these changes could become the defacto default for pretty much everything if allowed to flourish without opposition. For a great example of that, see systemd: yes, you can run a system without it, but you’ll be cut off from mainstream distros and even have trouble with getting a lot of regular software to work, such as Gnome, unless someone has patched those requirements out.

So, I’m in favor of pushing back on this, even if it’s not going into a game I play. It might be shoved into games I want to play later, possibly even most games I’ll want to play, even if they don’t have multiplayer, because corpos gonna corpo.

If I had faith it would remain optional, I might feel differently, but I can see this becoming part of the new DRM model that everyone has to bow to or be cut off from pretty much all mainstream (and a lot of non-mainstream) games. Maybe even pretty much all mainstream (and a lot of non-mainstream) distros.

Yep… The issue isn’t necessarily what they’re doing now, but the direction they’re going in.

Honestly, I do not trust it one bit

Weird Al didn’t write that, he wrote “It’s All About The Pentiums” which is what OP is riffing on

They based it on these two phrases:

I beta tested every operating system
Gave props to some, and others? I dissed’em

And

You say you’ve had your desktop for over a week?
Throw that junk away, man, it’s an antique!

Along with the chorus line “It’s all about the Pentiums, baby”

Also, the rhythm of the Weird Al song is fine, it’s worth watching even if a lot of it is pretty dated since it’s thirty years old now

Honestly, I think Windows 8 Beta’s theme was the best looking (if you ignore the issues with the start screen): pairing Aero with the squared windows actually looked really good.

That they not only removed Aero in the final version but also soccer their lawyers on anyone who tried to bring it back was just incredibly shitty on their part

You mean the Fisher Price theme? While it wasn’t as bad as people seemed to think at the time, it really was kinda ugly and childish looking (but still an improvement over the corpo-boring '95 era theme)

I only keep Windows at home because simulator peripherals can be more headache than I’m ready to deal with when I just want to pretend to drive a truck or a tractor for a bit

I mean, they can be set up, but without the vendor software that only runs on Windows, it can be really kludgy

That last bit is crucial: setting up a PC for gaming in the living room may not be that hard for someone who knows what they’re doing, but for someone who doesn’t, it looks impossibly complicated. The experience is also not nearly as streamlined or polished. Nobody wants to have to fuss with their system when their friends are over and they just want to play.

Just because something is easy for you or me doesn’t mean it’s easy for everyone, maybe not even most people

Next up: having a PC with offline games will be deemed piracy

Yesterday: “you wouldn’t download a car”

Tomorrow: “you wouldn’t drive your own car”

Gentoo. It is, after all, the fastest penguin.

Yeah, the sneaky crap with snaps makes me want to avoid them all by itself, I left Windows to get away from that kind of forced decision. The Amazon thing was pretty bad too.

The last straw came when I evaluated it vs Debian for a home server, first update after install and it threw a scare warning making it sound like my system would be insecure if I didn’t pay for pro, and I’m just so not into that kind of manipulative bullshit. I shut down the VM and deleted it immediately and I’ll never touch them by choice again.

Dammit, learning about this right after switching from Mint to OpenSuSE

Didn’t think I’d like it that much but so far I’ve really been happy with it

It does also update Cinnamon add-ons (spices I think?) and Flatpaks, which apt doesn’t handle

Went the other way, moved from Mint 22.3 to OpenSuSE Tumbleweed. Rolling release with solid testing before updates are pushed, any breakage during testing and they don’t push that day’s update, and if something does slip through and break things, just boot into the pre-update snapshot and wait a day to try again with the next patches.

Up to date packages with low hassle, so as long as I don’t need stable-as-in-never-changes, it’s great.

Also, nice to have KDE 6 finally and to have KDE not be a forgotten afterthought (Cinnamon is nice but I always feel like I’m limited compared to KDE)

No, see, Xwindows is the newer version of Windows… They usually put the version letter first but decided that Wwindows would confuse people so they left the leading letter off on that release.

The latest version is Ywindows, commonly known by its codename “Wayland”.

Favorite: KDE.

Least Favorite: Gnome, but I’ve not tried a ton… It’s slick but way too opinionated for my tastes. I could change most of what bothers me about it with add-ons and mods, but KDE gives me the controls I want out of the box, and lets you do damned near anything you want before you even start installing mods (I don’t understand the person who thinks it’s too limited and Gnome is more flexible, but different priorities, I guess)

First DE: KDE on XanderOS… To be fair, the name sounded cool to young me and I didn’t know much of anything about the different Linux distros yet. And I think Ubuntu either wasn’t around yet or hadn’t gotten well enough known for me to have spotted it initially

Honorable Mention: Unity… Love it or hate it, Ubuntu was trying something actually interesting and I think it’s a shame they didn’t stick with it longer

Current DE: KDE

Potential Future DE: not sure, KDE does everything I want at this time, but I might give Cosmic a try, and/or a tiling WM, though I suspect I won’t care for it (I’ll give it a real shot to convince me, I just don’t see the appeal)

Longest used DE: KDE

Current distro: Mint with KDE shoehorned in, though will be OpenSuSE Tumbleweed in a couple hours (I love Mint but I’m tired of fighting with old packages and drivers, and suspect that might be the cause of graphics stack crashes that have plagued me… Also because I’m tired of waiting for KDE 6 for years now and it’ll be probably mid next year still before it’s available on Mint, and even then still only as an afterthought)