I’m not sure as that’s about Steam the client though not on Proton thus Wine, which I bet will keep on supporting 32bit apps.

home automation server that doesn’t connect to the internet?

Well if uses wireless connectivity with either range broader than your place or is connected to a device that is itself online it can still be a risk. Sure it’s very VERY specific but scanning techniques also improve.

• their repo (checked the commit graphs and basically they did most of the work, 2nd dev agree with them, covers 90%+) their choice of governance
• their repo, their choice of tooling
• I genuinely believe they think are doing “good enough” code and they are probably right about it in their context
• they do have fair points on the economical power dynamics, namely that yes Anthropic is slightly less worst than Meta, Google, OpenAI, Microsoft, etc (… but IMHO honestly that’s a damn low bar)

but also

• obfuscation rather than discussion (closed the issue and limited to maintainers only) so clearly the signal is precisely “my repo, my choice”
• no mention of the copyright or license washing
• no mention of ecological impact

so I would personally consider instead Bottles, GOG (have different problems), Steam (obviously not open source and basically monopolistic position), etc.

Overall I think preventing discussion is unhealthy (even though sadly sometimes needed, here I lack context, maybe the issue poster did this numerous time on other platforms, title definitely was provocative) but removing provenance is NEVER a good choice. They want to use Claude on their repo? Absolutely fine (even though not to me) but hiding it makes it instantly untrustworthy to me. In fact I even argued in the past that even though I personally do not use GenAI/LLMs (for coding or otherwise) except for testing it should always be disclosed precisely so that others can make THEIR choice in consequence, including using or contributing, cf https://fabien.benetou.fr/Analysis/AgainstPoorArtificialIntelligencePractices

It is indeed a risk AND you must pin your current OS version, so no new update including no new feature (not sure which one one would need for now though) but more importantly no security updates.

That being said… if you do not actively try to mess it up, i.e. doing precisely what has been warned against NOT doing, it should be safe.

In doubt, if you can’t afford another headset, have no actual need for rooting and have never done that before, definitely safer to wait.

Good point, based on how much Meta spends on their XR department I wouldn’t be shocked if the hardware itself is also losing money and used as a kind of innovation-washing marketing strategy. That said I’d still recommend buying 2nd hand so that it’s cheaper and doesn’t register on their book as a sale. Also no purchase information shared with Meta.

Recommendations

• Valve Index but it’s not standalone. It’s “just” a headset so what you do with it is up to you, no need to register anything with Valve, nor have Steam (even though SteamVR is convenient) and works on Linux. With Proton even the latest indie VR games work. IMHO also Half-life: Alyx is in itself worth it.
• Lynx-XR1 that can already be rooted https://lynx.miraheze.org/wiki/Rooting_Process (which I did few months ago) but arguably their customization of Android isn’t as convenient as what Meta did. For tinkerers though and if you can actually get one, it’s great. Also no account required.

There are others, e.g. https://simulavr.com/ which is standalone and Linux proper (not Android), but I haven’t tried so I can’t vouch for them.

• Quest 3: v79 5115411.12900.520 (August 7, 2025) and below, to about version v71.
• Quest 3S: v79 117688.9900.610 (August 6, 2025) and below, to about version v71.

according to https://github.com/zhuowei/cheese/tree/main?tab=readme-ov-file#supported-versions

Well I would ask you to reconsider reconsidering. It’s a very neat technical fear, arguably even an important one… but you would be giving money to Meta. So unless you really have to, because you work in the domain, maybe try to recycle a 2nd hand headset for a cheaper price and tinker with it as much as you want? Maybe even contribute to the rooting process by finding ways to remove the Meta account requirement altogether?

TL:DR: nobody needs a XR headset but if you do and you want to get a Meta one, get it 2nd hand.

Rational economical actor hypothesis? Nope we’re just back 4 centuries at least https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania

Rift isn’t standalone so “just” using OpenHMD should work, cf https://lvra.gitlab.io/docs/hardware/#xr-devices for more comparability checks.

Because of physics.

Pfff, physics, pesky detail! Clearly you are not a true visionary like Musk! /s

puts on evil hat CloudFlare should DRM their protection then DMCA Perplexity and other US based “AI” companies to oblivion. Side effect, might break the Internet.