I am personally not a fan of Snaps, so I wouldn't use this. I prefer using the Steam Flatpak.

The Steam Flatpak, in my experience, works fine about 95-98% of the time. The only explicit problems I've had with it is that modded VtMB using an older version of Proton doesn't work; and sometimes I've changed distros and found a game (Sugar Style and Dokyusei) no longer working and/or launching DESPITE using the Steam Flatpak in BOTH distros! I ended up putting both games on my Steam Deck, because that was easier than trying to solve the issue on the Steam Flatpak.

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I still play on my desktop 95% of the time, but I do love my Deck for when I'm stuck in bed. It can also play some games that my desktop has problems with (possibly due to my use of Flatpak Steam, hard to say).

I have modest gaming needs, so my Deck is fine as is. Frankly, I'm debating moving away from large desktops with large graphics cards to using one of my laptops, or a tiny PC, for computer stuff with devices like my Deck becoming my primary means of gaming. Building my desktop PC took time and money, and my dislike of most modern games makes building another one not worth it. As long as I can use emulators up to PS2 and play the dozen or so Steam games I want to play, then I'm fine.

I left consoles behind for PC gaming back in 2021, but my PS4 still has a place for games; one of the benefits of consoles is that I can boot up a game and I know it will run. I'm debating getting a PS5 sometime this year to complement my Deck, should I choose to move away from large desktops.

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I prefer Flatpak for most (not all) programs, myself. I like having a stable base with Firefox, Thunderbird, Steam and the like installed as Flatpaks. What I'm unsure about is having an immutable base + Flatpaks. I can understand the idea behind an immutable filesystem, but there have been times I needed to mess with the root filesystem.

Anyway, I'm not smart enough to start analyzing the long-term ramifications or whatever of all this. All I can say is that I like Flatpak, I like Flathub, and anything that helps both grow, and makes it easier for people to contribute, sounds good to me.

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Quoting: denyasisVery fair points for the both of you. It occurred to me just a while ago, at a lower price point, it could also make a decent "first computer" for a kid. It's kinda in the sweet spot of being pretty capable and pretty cheap, it would probably be a one time purchase for the majority of their education.

Honestly, I think tiny PCs like these are excellent all-around PCs in general. They don't take up a lot of space, they're power efficient, and easy to work with.

If I didn't need an external GPU for Steam, I'd use something like this Kubuntu Focus tiny PC as my daily driver without hesitation.

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Quoting: denyasisI'm kinda curious if the use case for systems like this? Without a dedicated GPU, gaming seems like a stretch? But its way overkill for streaming? Non/lite-gaming desktop use maybe?

Quoting: gaboverstaOnce again it's time for my favourite game: Configuring systems I won't buy.
Also great to see continued preinstall efforts.

So what would you use it for? I'm genuinely curious ( I appear to be lacking in the creativity department today)

For me, a tiny PC like this is perfect for emulation up to PS2. I think the Iris XE graphics should be able to handle Dolphin and PCSX2, upscaled to 1080p, without issue.

As for Steam gaming, well, it should be fine for older games. Depends on the game.

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While I do like tiny PCs such as this, and one pre-installed with Kubuntu at that, this is way too expensive for me to ever consider. If I'm going to drop that amount of money on a PC, I could probably spend the same or less just building my own.

Alternatively, I could go to Amazon and buy an Intel NUC for a lot less money and just install Kubuntu on that.

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I'd have no problems throwing some money Flathub's way. I am, after all, a heavy user of Flatpaks (from Flathub). Nothing wrong with supporting the people who make, or package, the software I use.

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Emphasis on not installed by default. Flatpak will still be in the repos, and you can still use Flatpaks on Ubuntu and its flavors.

I will continue using Kubuntu.

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If, like me, someone uses the Steam Flatpak, I recommend using ProtonUp-Qt to install Proton-GE.

There is a Flatpak build of Proton-GE, but it is several versions behind and updates very slowly. ProtonUp-Qt allows you to get directly from the source.

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The Flatpak permissions are pretty handy, since it means you won't need to install a separate program (Flatseal). Also, if you care about consistency, not having to use Flatseal means not having a GTK program on a Qt DE.

If Plasma 5.27 makes it into Kubuntu 23.04, I may consider upgrading to an interim release. For now, I'm staying on 22.04.

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