Quoting: denyasisIsn't that the point for Valve? It ties Linux to the Steam ecosystem garunteeing sales income.

You can still use Proton outside of Steam. Bottles outright support using Proton + Steam Runtime. Pretty sure Heroic does as well, and so does a few other runners. And there's also the Wine builds that clearly benefits from Proton, like Wine-GE and Wine-Tkg, which is used as base for other builds like Wine-Lutris and Bottle's Caffe.

What Steam is selling is pretty simple: the It Just Works experience on Linux, for both consumers and developers. For Linux as a platform, what it's offering is an integrated platform that can be used downstream as well (not just the Deck- we've seen their OS being used by other handheld PCs and I know at least two distributions based on SteamOS 3.0).

That's the crux of what Steam is doing. They're not just doing one thing, they're creating an integrated platform that developers can target without THAT much additional work, they created a hardware+software combo that is genuinely compelling to mainstream users even if they don't care about the ideas of Linux (which is what drive most of us to tolerate the hassles of Linux), and they even created a framework that other vendors can take to use for themselves.

The real genius is that they're all so integrated to it that it's more of a hassle to separate them all that it's much easier to just use Steam and what they put out. It's a strategy that's definitely born from the corpses of several failed projects, tuned to really appeal to everyone who hasn't already set in their mind about certain things (for example the "No Tux, No Bux" crowds as well as Tim "muh EGS" Sweeney).

It reminded me of Android and Chrome. Sure, you can separate a lot of Google stuff from it, but they appeal so much to people that at some point they become entrenched. Even Microsoft is basically doing the same with Game Pass. I think that's the only real way to grow and sustain a new platform these days.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

...god fucking dammit, I was actually one of the people who had their hopes up. You know what? Fine, if they don't want to support Linux, then open up the Cloud Save API so that Heroic, Lutris, and Mini Galaxy can easily access them. THAT is literally the one reason withholding me from buying games on GOG. I'm even willing to pay more (since they don't have regional pricing for my region) if it meant I could get the VNs I want and I could have Cloud Save to go with them!

Fuck GOG man. Until they open up Cloud Save, they're a no go for me, no matter how much I want to just buy Muramasa and Evenicle 2 (because, yes, they have that) from them.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

[quote=Guest]

Quoting: fenglengshunIs FF7R a GNU+Linux native game? No, it's a Windows game running via a compatibility layer.

It's a step by step. The last time they forced a Linux native was the Steam Machine, and that failed spectacularly. They needed to make Linux a viable target with enough marketshare, which means requiring softwares to work with it without adding work on the developer's side.

Proton is currently the best compromise that Valve has- and for any game using DirectX 12 and below, it works as a good stopgap to get enough people on-board to become a legitimate development target while other areas catch up. And I think it's working as even Epic has started to decide mention Linux compatibility.

Do you have a source on Valve requiring Windows release on their store though? As far as I can see, it's more of a developer thing, in that it really doesn't make sense to not release a Windows version if you want your game to be played by more than twelve people.

And no, Microsoft can't really buy Valve out, assuming they even want to which is important as they are a private company, without getting into an antitrust. They were already skirting the line with Activision, Valve would too risky for them and probably not that much benefit for them given that they'd rather push their Game Pass model which is rapidly gaining ground.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: GuestAs the biggest seller of Windows games, remind me how exactly are Valve "getting away" from Microsoft?
Oh that's right, they're not.

???? The Steam Deck?????

Microsoft is trying to bundle everything into the Game Pass subscription, which pretty much creates an ecosystem where you just keep subscribed to Microsoft and spend most of your time with their amazing value.

The Steam Deck, on the other hand, is a platform that heavily incentivize remaining on Linux, by making a very convenient, fairly-economic, and flexible device that's also not very convenient for Windows use.

Steam Deck, on its own, is making Linux starting to be part of the consideration, to the point that even Square Enix mention it for their FF7R on Steam announcement. Ideally, that would create a loop leading more Linux releases, enough to at least be a big enough market that Steam and Linux doesn't lose to the combination of Game Pass, PS Plus, and Epic.

Before Steam Deck, there really was a good chance that they'd get rolled over by the combination of those three, and it would have been out of their hands. But now they have good long term hope, and most of their fate are reliant on things that they can control - which is their own development of the Deck as a platform.

That changes things considerably as even if everything else went wrong and Microsoft does shit that threaten Steam's viability as a platform for Windows games (a real possibility before Microsoft Store's failure, but now brought back as due to Game Pass), with Aya and OneXPlayer interest in SteamOS, they are looking to have a platform that they could keep selling games to.

They're happy to keep selling Windows games, mind you, but the problem is if there isn't anyone to sell them to or if the platform makes it less viable because Microsoft controls Windows and theorically could fuck with Steam if they manage to find a way to do so without major backlash (see: Game Pass).

So yeah, they now have a platform that they also own and control, without the horrendous amount of commitment that Canonical had to make and then fail at. If they're already making their own platform, why the fuck would they want to let themselves be fucked by Red Hat (see: CentOS and the insanity that legacy boot removal was even proposed) and Gnome team (see: literally everything that happened since Gnome 3). Sure, they might want to make their own DE later on, but not even system76 did that out of the gate and even Canonical failed, and if they aren't doing that, then KDE is the only sensible choice over using yet another Gnome fork that stagnates.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: GuestAs for Valve, they should have developed their own gaming-centric DE as the Deck's desktop experience is dire at best.

Here's hoping they eventually re-base to Nobara, with their own DE.

Yeah, that's not happening. With the gargantuan mountain they're moving, they HAVE to work with partners or nothing will get done. Valve has a lot of resources to be sure, but they can't build everything on their own. Happened with Proton, and naturally happened with their DE as well.

Even system76 and Budgie leverages existing tech, but whereas they both get to focus on one thing at a time, Valve has to make sure that not only everything works perfectly for gaming and whatever else users might do with their device, they still need to move fast as well or the Chinese brands will eat into the market they've expanded.

Between GNOME and KDE to partner with, KDE is just a natural choice for them. GNOME devs are notoriously hard to work with, if you don't align with the same vision and goals as them. KDE on the other hand is pretty content with building on what they have without breaking user's usecase. Sometime's that's not elegantly done, but it's better than having a headache every other major GNOME releases (unless you don't personalize anything, which is dumb because you try giving Fedora to a total Windows-normie).

Also, Arch is a pretty sensible choice. They are literally building their own platform to get away from the existential threat that is Microsoft, why would they let themselves be beholden to another company? And Nobara is new, it's driven by an experienced dev, sure, but it's new, it doesn't have the same community size as Arch, and it's still mainly reliant on a single dev. Saying SteamOS should be based on Nobara is absurd.

The simple fact is that Valve is a company who has to ship actual products and they are not incumbents to the game - they have to take the pragmatic choices here. And I'd rather they do that and make results everyone can benefit from over pulling yet another Steam Machine/Controller/Link.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Ugh, that broke both the AUR and Pacstall version. I see why they put out that letter asking to not package their app outside of flatpak with that timing - to get ahead of the mess that this change brings.

Libadwaita turned out to not be that big of a deal for me though. On Pop_OS 22.04 via Flatpak with WhiteSur-dark for theme, most of it was themed correctly with only one asset missing (the final image at the on-boarding).

Between my general antipathy to libadwaita, "Don't theme my apps," headache-inducing flatpaks, their recent announcement, and GNOME in general, I must admit I had a childish moment of glee because everything was themed to what I want instead of what they want.

Well, I'll check the project out again next month - hope it gets better then. Running things normally from terminal or file manager still works best for me right now. Outside of games, the only Wine app that I run regularly are Office 365 which still works best with CrossOver and WhatsApp which even on Bottles requires being launched with terminal output for some reason so it's moot for me anyways.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: itscalledrealitysnip

Huh, is it an issue with thunderbolt/dock or something? I know that the dock life is generally pretty awful on Linux (though in general it isn't great unless you're running everything Apple I guess?) which is what Valve is trying to improve (and they're running a version of KDE themselves).

On my PC with a 1080p old Toshiba TV (connected via VGA-input with a DisplayPort adapter) and 768 even older Acer monitor (also via VGA-input but with HDMI adapter this time) things generally work fine, even when I put the PC to sleep. That said, sometimes they also wouldn't wake from sleep if I've left it to sleep for like 3 hours or something, so I do have some Sleep issues as well.

As far as I can tell, things seems to be fine? I haven't gotten the Plasma update yet, running on Garuda I'll probably get it in a week or so. The new update seems to have a connected displays profile manager so I hope that might include a fix for your issues.

Quoting: slaapliedjeI haven't played with it yet, but does the KDE Overview let you also search?

Yes, actually. At first it was limited to only searching open Windows, but it seems to be able to search other stuff as well. That said, I never liked Baloo and I recently tested and liked Pop_OS 22.04 so KDE search is of limited use to me and I just use rofi to switch Windows and open new apps, while using the much, much better FSearch for searching files.

That said, it's not a full "KNOME" experience yet. Moving windows between screens on KDE Overview is finally added in 5.25 but I don't think we have a moving between workspaces while on Overview yet. Moving windows between screens was a pretty late addition/announcement so I think we should see other surprise fixes on 5.26 and I'd expect 5.27 is when everything from Overview to Wayland to mature enough for GNOME user's standards.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

I did my part this month- I actually got my first Steam Survey prompt since going to Linux this Monday.

Not that I moved much of a needle, since I was using newer distro (Garuda Linux). Though I'm tempted to try Nobara (AUR is just so convenient tho).

View this comment - View article - View full comments

The project is very interesting - I've been opening a few requests and some gets accepted pretty fast, others a bit slower.

I think this is handy for discovery, quick setup, and maintaining updates. I didn't even know that the Zoom app I have was outdated (I'm more used to Zoom natively installed - I've had bad experiences with screen sharing before and prefer to play it safe. I'll definitely keep using this as I distro-hop - it'll save time for apps like browsers and it'll help keep some apps like Bitwarden up to date (both of which I prefer to have installed natively due to native host messaging still borked on flatpak).

I hope that more third party projects lands on pacstall and deb-get because having a script that can install and update these things makes my live so much simpler.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: itsNottingcan someone please explain the hype about these launchers?

Convenience, granularity, and management.

Heroic makes it so much simpler as you don't need to fiddle with Add Non-Steam Games, deal with Non-Steam Games' proton compatdata, load SO MUCH FASTER, have all the games quickly presented to you for quick downloading/playing, and easier to backup.

Corollary to that, the tweaking options is honestly more convenient than Steam or Lutris. Steam focuses on getting things working out of the box but the weakness is that tweaking options are much less accessible and doesn't acknowledge community ratings whereas with Heroic it's all laid out in a simple fashion and even has a link that opens the game's ProtonDB in a pop-up window.

And for Lutris, I think it's finally catching up with its early design decision it made that hadn't account for Linux newbies, 2020s gaming landscape, and the Steam Deck's decisions (like Flatpak). Still, I do like using Lutris to manage my, ahem, Privateer'd games (I live in third world countries, okay, and VN prices and DRM outside of Steam and to a lesser-degree JAST sucks ass) but Heroic is just better for the free games I claimed from EGS and it's opening up a whole new option of buying from GOG if they can get Cloud Saves working (I'm just so done with losing my save data).

So yeah, there are a couple of reasons to use Heroic, Lutris, Gamehub, etc. Especially if you use emulation. The best thing is that I recently found out about BoilR [External Link] (in addition to Steam-ROM-Manager [External Link]) so you can have the best of all worlds by installing the games on Heroic or Lutris, then connect them to Steam, so you can have the games themselves (instead of the launcher/emulator) be shown on Steam for quick launching and have Heroic and Lutris for the tweaks management/game installation.

Quoting: fearnflavioCloud sync is tricky but we were able to sync save some games already like CP2077 and others, the problem is that not all games follows the same pattern for file saving, so its complicated to cover all cases, but we are working hard on that and I am optimistic that this will be able to go into the next major release :)

You guys are actual badasses. I've always bitched/laughed about how GOG for Linux always being the top request in GOG Wishlist no matter what filter you use for ages, and here you are, doing it yourselves. Massive kudos.

The only thing that I could request then is some sort of shortcut to open straight to EGS' Free Games page or currently running free game. I always use Heroic to claim them anyways, because that way it's more isolated from the rest of my browser.

View this comment - View article - View full comments