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^ what's also frustrating about that, is even when you have steam itself set to use whatever version of proton as the default (so for me it's proton-cachyos-11) - if there's a native linux build, you often won't even know it's running on that instead of proton.

Sometimes I only even know it's happening because of what you said: weird issues / glitches / crashing. Then I go into the game properties, and go to the "force the use" and select whatever version of proton and it'll work so much better.

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I'm sure with this first run, people were ready to just keep buying until it sold out.
I assume the next batch will be more normal.

Maybe they should just charge extra for the first run with full transparency that the price goes down after. People who want it NOW can pay, and scalpers are told upfront "you are going to lose a lot of money".

Probably still a bad idea for a lot of reasons. If it was an easy problem, I'm sure people would've had a fix for it by now.

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Quoting: JustinWoodI cannot help but question what the point of having a 2 controller limit was when that limit was *per transaction*. At the very least, that should be limited to 2 per account until they've got a better idea of the demand. And frankly, I find the attitude of saying "Don't bother trying to deal with the scalpers" to be rather ridiculous. The markups I was seeing on Ebay yesterday were honestly obscene, to say nothing of the fact that they're blatantly against Ebay's ToS given that there's no way any of those sellers actually have the product in hand like they're supposed to.

many things could be done, it could be per account as you said, and also they could ask for the account to be older than a certain amount of months to be eligible to purchase, ofc scalpers probably have thought this and have thousands of bot accounts, but it could mitigate the issue, also maybe they could put a cap that if you havent spent like lets say 20 dollars on purchases in the store, you are not eligible to buy the controller... just some 2 minutes ideas from the top of my head.

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Quoting: Liam Dawe

Quoting: PlayingOnLinuxphone

Quoting: Liam DaweMoving your personal Operating System is far far far easier than upping your entire social group to a different chat app, that has far less features and is more confusing. It's not realistic to expect that to happen any time soon either, especially as Matrix just overall - sucks.

Oh, and people keep bringing up this privacy stuff about age laws as if they only apply to Discord. Any serious chat app will also have to do similar things if they plan to run any services in countries where those laws apply. Thinking otherwise is daft, burying their heads in the sand level stupid.

Sorry, but that is mostly nonsense.

I run the GamingOnLinux Discord with over 8,000 people in it. I also run our Fluxer with a few hundred people in it. I also previously ran our Matrix rooms. I have a firm grasp on what I'm talking about here.

Quoting: PlayingOnLinuxphoneFirst of all Matrix has nearly every feature Discord has *snip*

It doesn't. Discord has an entire ecosystem of plugins and bots, for starters. But the biggest issue is multiple rooms per-server. Matrix attempted to do something like it with you banding together multiple standalone rooms, but it works nothing like Discord does.

Matrix is nothing like Discord. Full stop. Saying otherwise is plain and simply false.

You don't like that Spaces are not 1:1 functional wise as Discord servers are, but what is the problem? I don't see a reason why multiple rooms would be worse. A more polished GUI and you would not even notice a huge difference to Discord servers.
You say Matrix sucks, because less people using it results in less people creating bots and plugins? That's exactly the reason why Linux desktop "sucked" for 3 decades, to tell it in your words. And it still would suck if nobody would ever have used and further developed it. All Matrix requires are more people and more donations and once it passes a critical mass, the development accelerates beyond what Discord is capable.

I did not say "Matrix is like Discord", I said "Matrix is the only full-featured alternative to Discord". That is a difference. If I don't rely on all these features, there are also other alternatives. If I want something that can replace Discord in most aspects on long term and does not bind me to an enshittification-service (aka centralized platform), then there is no alternative to Matrix. Simple as that. Other services lacking features and have even less size or the same issues as Discord has.

Edit:
I am aware that managing huge communities is another story for the moment. My arguments are more for private users creating a friends or guild space. But I also expect a lot of improvements for huge communities.

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I cannot help but question what the point of having a 2 controller limit was when that limit was *per transaction*. At the very least, that should be limited to 2 per account until they've got a better idea of the demand. And frankly, I find the attitude of saying "Don't bother trying to deal with the scalpers" to be rather ridiculous. The markups I was seeing on Ebay yesterday were honestly obscene, to say nothing of the fact that they're blatantly against Ebay's ToS given that there's no way any of those sellers actually have the product in hand like they're supposed to.

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Go after the scalpers! ffs... "criminals always find a way" isnt even an argument, this is like saying that police should be abolished because criminals always find loop holes to commit crimes.

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Quoting: melkemind

Quoting: ArehandoroBloody scalpers.

There are like 4 listings on eBay. Is there any real evidence a large number of sales went to scalpers?

Just after release in the few hours after there was up to 500 listings, most selling at there buy it now price within 15-30min or so.

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Quoting: ArehandoroBloody scalpers.

There are like 4 listings on eBay. Is there any real evidence a large number of sales went to scalpers?

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Well, on the bright side, this is great for Valve and people who want the steam controller to be supported for a long time. The more they sell, the more likely they are to stay committed to their product.

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I liked the reservation system they had in place for the Steack Deck, hope they'll do it like this again at least for the Frame and Machine to mitigate the scalper issue and it was nicer to be able to "pre-order" stuff and get put into the line and get an estimate date than such sellouts where you read the news and once you get home after work and want to order stuff they're sold out with no proper way to at least "get into the line".

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Quoting: Mountain ManPeople on Reddit lamenting that there's not even the option to give Valve your money upfront, and then they ship as units become available, which would be the sensible way to do it.

Amen!

My thoughts exactly. I wouldn't care if my Steam Controller 2 didn't arrive until Christmas, just as long as I knew when to expect it. Right now the uncertainly is killing me 🤔

Not really... but I would like to know when I am going to be able to get my hands on one. Liam's review got me excited!

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Quoting: ElectricPrismI know it's frustrating, but we also should know that by selling out, Valves hardware is now even more prestegious which will drive sales more, because psychologically people always want what they CAN'T have.

I definitely fit into that category

But my mentality with the steam controller is that they will produce plenty of them in the long run since it goes hand in hand with their upcoming steam machine

It's the more "limited edition" type things that always get me psychologically wise lol

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The Linux version is a real mess, in this state they'd be better of not having a Linux version at all, the problems have already been reported during the early access phase and obviously not being worked on while the game runs just fine on Proton. Interestingly the crash issues can be worked around when running the game in gamescope, which somehow implies the Linux version is purely targeted at Steam Deck / SteamOS.

I didn't do any real benchmarks but my fans stay more quiet on the Proton version as well.

Really upset of this half-assed Linux builds, if they're not broken right on the start they often break while time passes and having such a horrible experience does only damage to this otherwise brilliant game and raises frustration among the Linux buyers getting a broken experience out-of-the box. Sometimes not having a native version might be the better choice.

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I have rented a Mumble server for years. My needs are simple. I only need voice communication. Mumble is a light weight application written in C++. No bells, whistles, privacy concerns or unnecessary feature bloat. My server was grandfathered in when a new owner acquired the company. My server has five user slots (one guest) for $14.40 a year and that is more than what I need. My brother-in-law and I chat most nights on the server, unfortunately my grandsons are of the Tik-Tok generation, so when I am playing games with them, I am forced to use Discord. The funny thing is, most of the time when they are playing games online with my son or their friends, they use their cell phones. Talk about a practice that kills the battery life on a cell phone.

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Quoting: ElectricPrismValve focusing on scalpers would be a mistake, their goal should be to ramp up supply to meet the demand, not to waste energy going after a small percentage of purchasers doing what they want with their private property.

No matter what measures could be put in place, criminals always find ways around the rules, there's no point in punishing customers who want to eventually own 4+ controllers because someone __COULD__ lawfully resell their private property after they purchase it.

Does Valve provide any warranty on the Steam Controller? In the past, a manufacturer/retailer got around the scalper issue by simply requiring that the customer provide a receipt of purchase from an authorized reseller. Warranty was not transferable to a secondary owner. Surely, that still applies these days?

Of course, whether or not the purchaser cares about the warranty, is a completely different matter...

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Quoting: armageddon51I really want to give it try in virtualbox but the live iso (kde) will not boot so I gave up on it. I prefer Manjaro anyway which is as powerful but much easier of use.

I really recommend Garuda Linux if you are looking for Arch, but easier to use! As Garuda has a lot of tools that harnesses the power of Arch, while taming the issues that naturally occur because of the bleeding edge rolling release style of Arch.

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Quoting: PlayingOnLinuxphone

Quoting: Liam DaweMoving your personal Operating System is far far far easier than upping your entire social group to a different chat app, that has far less features and is more confusing. It's not realistic to expect that to happen any time soon either, especially as Matrix just overall - sucks.

Oh, and people keep bringing up this privacy stuff about age laws as if they only apply to Discord. Any serious chat app will also have to do similar things if they plan to run any services in countries where those laws apply. Thinking otherwise is daft, burying their heads in the sand level stupid.

Sorry, but that is mostly nonsense.

I run the GamingOnLinux Discord with over 8,000 people in it. I also run our Fluxer with a few hundred people in it. I also previously ran our Matrix rooms. I have a firm grasp on what I'm talking about here.

Quoting: PlayingOnLinuxphoneFirst of all Matrix has nearly every feature Discord has *snip*

It doesn't. Discord has an entire ecosystem of plugins and bots, for starters. But the biggest issue is multiple rooms per-server. Matrix attempted to do something like it with you banding together multiple standalone rooms, but it works nothing like Discord does.

Matrix is nothing like Discord. Full stop. Saying otherwise is plain and simply false.

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I thought 13 tons was a lot, but doing the math I guess it's not, really... Still a good sign, but they won't have an issue selling anything they make, I feel.

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Quoting: Liam DaweMoving your personal Operating System is far far far easier than upping your entire social group to a different chat app, that has far less features and is more confusing. It's not realistic to expect that to happen any time soon either, especially as Matrix just overall - sucks.

Oh, and people keep bringing up this privacy stuff about age laws as if they only apply to Discord. Any serious chat app will also have to do similar things if they plan to run any services in countries where those laws apply. Thinking otherwise is daft, burying their heads in the sand level stupid.

Sorry, but that is mostly nonsense.

First of all Matrix has nearly every feature Discord has: chatting, calling, video calling, desktop streaming, threads, servers, reactions, emojis, stickers, polls (even before Discord), file sharing (up to 100MB on official server ... 10 times more than Discord without Nitro) and on top encryption, specific chats for every use case (as my SMS app that also can Matrix by default), multi-accounting and so on. You even can bridge to Discord if you cannot let it go. Yes, it also has some drawbacks as no game integrations, less users (because no advertising budget) and some weird Nitro stuff nobody really needs. But if something sucks than everything centralized that have such a lock-in effect. Matrix is the solution to not lose social contacts any longer when a service provider or app sucks. Just change the server or the app and still have contact to everyone.

I already lost my contacts 3 times: ICQ, Skype, Discord (not counting PSN after I stopped buying new consoles). It's so annoying that this happens again and again and again (and even without Matrix it would happen again). I promote Matrix to fix this forever (yes, a last time people have to lose contacts).

About privacy stuff and age laws: just join a server outside your legislation or host your own server for you, friends and family. No need to stay on the official one. Also the company behind is working for around 5 years against age laws (does Discord do this?). Discord is not following any important GDPR laws, but hey, age verification in the worst way possible is done even long time before any law is applied to countries as those in EU.

The only thing I 100% agree with: it's not easy to get all the social contacts over to a new app. But hey, I used many years both apps at the same time to open the way for people who actually want to escape the golden cage. I am fine with your decision not to leave Discord or not to support alternatives. But please don't hurt people like me trying to build a better future for everyone by misinform people (muss less features or hard to use etc). Matrix will also become better like Linux when more people are using it and donate to the project (or contribute code), unlike Discord.

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Much like the Steam Deck, it's designed to be repairable and easily opened. Just a few screws, and the casing will pop right off. Valve already confirmed spare parts will be available on iFixit, we just don't know exactly when that will be. So it's designed for the long-term and it's your device to open up and tinker with.

I'm mostly a keyboard and mouse player myself but I have to applaud Valve for continuing to support the consumer's "right to repair."

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Valve focusing on scalpers would be a mistake, their goal should be to ramp up supply to meet the demand, not to waste energy going after a small percentage of purchasers doing what they want with their private property.

No matter what measures could be put in place, criminals always find ways around the rules, there's no point in punishing customers who want to eventually own 4+ controllers because someone __COULD__ lawfully resell their private property after they purchase it.

The RF dongle can support 4 controllers, and controllers have always been designed for Living Room TVs with the idea of having 2-4+ players. Limiting purchasing to 1 makes no sense, let the market dicate how many sales they want.

I know it's frustrating, but we also should know that by selling out, Valves hardware is now even more prestegious which will drive sales more, because psychologically people always want what they CAN'T have.

Memory is fuzzy, but this feels like the Steam Deck launch all over again.

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People on Reddit lamenting that there's not even the option to give Valve your money upfront, and then they ship as units become available, which would be the sensible way to do it. Instead, it looks like Valve is going to put batches up for sale, and then it's going to be another mad scramble between customers and scalpers until they sell out again.

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I saw someone claim on X that Valve has 20,000 Steam Machines, considering they sold Millions of Steam Decks, that's going to sell out so fast, it'll be the Steam Controller all over again.

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The future of slop games looks ... pretty terrible.

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Mitigate the scalpers this time for Gabes sake!

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"update on expected timeline soon" ™
"Steam frame release early 2026" ™
"chocolate won"t make you fat" ™

Lies after lies after lies....

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Now give me Steam Frame and Steam Machine prices and release dates!

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Quoting: PlayingOnLinuxphoneI was using Discord 8 years, waiting all the time for privacy improvements (E2EE for private chats) and now it becomes even worse. So while these specific improvements are great, I don't care any longer.

People should probably not only move away from Windows to Linux, but also from Discord to Matrix (as almost full featured replacement). At least I don't want to get my unencrypted private chat analyzed via LLM to guess my age in a legislation where it is not even required. And Matrix is almost as decentralized as Linux is, which makes it much more robust against enshittification and bad laws.

Moving your personal Operating System is far far far easier than upping your entire social group to a different chat app, that has far less features and is more confusing. It's not realistic to expect that to happen any time soon either, especially as Matrix just overall - sucks.

Oh, and people keep bringing up this privacy stuff about age laws as if they only apply to Discord. Any serious chat app will also have to do similar things if they plan to run any services in countries where those laws apply. Thinking otherwise is daft, burying their heads in the sand level stupid.

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Small update to clarify the Steam Deck test was on SteamOS 3.8, and with the JSAUX 11-in-1 Docking Station.

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Quoting: rustynail

Quoting: The_Real_BittermanThere are people not using the official flatpak? Geez ...

It's actually news to me, I think last time I checked it still wasn't official, and it had a bunch of issues like shipping an old version of discord for months because the current one used a version of electron that broke something. And of course they had to use some weird hack to make an old version work with current servers.

That's one of the main issues with Flatpak IMHO, although in fairness, that situation has improved recently in that it's become far more clear in various places that they're not actually official packages because they definitely gave that appearance prior to the changes. Couldn't tell you when that change happened since I'm not a fan personally, and don't touch them more then I have to.

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