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Latest Comments by Highball
GodotOS is a fun showcase of Godot Engine with a fake operating system interface
15 Jan 2024 at 10:51 pm UTC Likes: 5

Quoting: Pengling
Quoting: basedReminds me of Windows parody flash games, man those times were golden
Now I wonder if someone will try to use it against scammers [External Link]? :tongue:
Would be hilarious to design the UI to look like Windows. Give remote control to the online scammer. When they move their mouse to the start button, the button runs away or just avoids the mouse pointer. Or as they scroll the mouse the background infinitely scrolls instead of the mouse pointer so it makes the brain perceive movement but the mouse pointer never gets close to the start button. Imagine the scammer just swiping their mouse off their desk trying to reach the start button.

Linux hits nearly 4% desktop user share on Statcounter
3 Jan 2024 at 9:50 pm UTC Likes: 3

Quoting: pleasereadthemanualRight, so native applications for ChromeOS can run on Linux, because native applications for ChromeOS are written for Linux, meant to be used in containers.

Well, I guess ChromeOS is a Linux distribution then.
Yes, ChromeOS is Linux. See the documentation here [External Link].

It seems like Google has done something similar to Valve(Valve followed Google I mean) with the Steam Deck Big Picture UI. The way I understand it, they have a custom Window Manager that just opens 1 Window to draw Big Picture. And Google has made a custom Window Manager as well and it originally only loaded Chrome (from what I understand).

I haven't taken a look at ChromeOS at all, but I'm sure the Window Manager is just a Wayland compositor. The difference here is that Valve also packages a Desktop Environment and sticks with a more stock distribution. Google could have done the same but their whole marketing plan is "security" which is why you are reading about everything being containerized. You could get a similar experience with distrobox on your Linux Desktop. I have distrobox loaded on my Steam Deck with an Ubuntu container, when I'm in desktop mode, I just run everything from the Ubuntu container. You can map the applications in the container so they appear as if they were installed by the host OS, gui applications and all.

You can ignore this rant part.
Spoiler, click me

<rant>
If Google started with a stock Linux distribution from the start, the devices would get repudiated for not running Windows applications. Which is the same excuse people use for not switching to Linux now. Instead they sell low cost devices and people buy a ChromeOS device with the idea in mind that they will only do ChromeOS things on it. Which is how new comers to Linux should approach Linux. Instead we get crocodile tears about Office and Adobe and "they should make a more friendly desktop for Windows users". You don't hear people crying about ChromeOS being unfriendly and different do you?</rant>

Google has also been very careful not to allow hackers to run away with their devices. Any normal dev will just wax ChromeOS and load Ubuntu onto the device without a second of hesitation. Instead they control how you get access to the linux side of things; see Crostini [External Link]. To me it looks like Google wants to sell devices at a loss so they can saturate the market and out compete on price. Mean while make their money harvesting data and delivering ads. "You're getting a device with security in mind. *wink*"

ChromeOS is Linux. Whether ChromeOS is Desktop Linux and does it have or make a compatible userland available to the user is really the question. It for sure looks like it's going that way. ChromeOS + a Steam ready container with Proton? sounds like a slam dunk for Google.

Linux use on Steam ends 2023 with a multi-year high (thanks Steam Deck)
2 Jan 2024 at 7:51 pm UTC

Quoting: PeffseHeh, just as an experiment I installed Debian on a spare drive a few days ago. I fought through the display manager not allowing me to click the password field, reinstalled Debian when I chose an incompatible desktop (KDE Plasma), reinstalled Debian when I chose a wrong desktop again (LXQT), reinstalled again (Cinnamon), reinstalled again (GNOME), finally settled on LightDM and LXDE as the only combo that worked. Ran a string of CAT6 across the room because wireless wasn't working. Immediately tried installing Steam. Package not available. Manually added Steam's repo, attempted install again. CPU not supported. :neutral:

It was all for fun, but dang what an anticlimax.
What kind of system were you testing out?

Linux use on Steam ends 2023 with a multi-year high (thanks Steam Deck)
2 Jan 2024 at 7:38 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: CatKiller
Quoting: Highball
Quoting: ArehandoroSteam OS Holo has -2.46%, is that a typo or are people removing Steam OS to to install other distros?
It just means less Steam Deck machines were apart of this recent survey.
That statement is too strong. Proportionally fewer Steam Decks were sampled, yes, but they could very well have sampled more Steam Decks than last month as well as even more non-Deck machines.
This is correct. This is what I was trying to convey. Thanks for the assist @CatKiller.

Linux use on Steam ends 2023 with a multi-year high (thanks Steam Deck)
2 Jan 2024 at 6:17 pm UTC Likes: 4

Quoting: ArehandoroSteam OS Holo has -2.46%, is that a typo or are people removing Steam OS to to install other distros?
It just means less Steam Deck machines were apart of this recent survey.

Linux share on Steam back to nearly 2% thanks to Steam Deck
2 Dec 2023 at 3:55 pm UTC

You should add individual links to each Steam Tracker graph.

Battle.net broke in Wine / Proton - here's how to fix for Steam Deck / Linux
1 Dec 2023 at 5:32 pm UTC Likes: 1

For people using some form of Wine / Proton in Lutris you can add WINE_SIMULATE_WRITECOPY with a value of 1 as an environment variable in the system options inside a Wine runner you're using.
Also works great for Bottles too.

<battle.net bottle>->Options->Settings->Compatibility->'Environment Variables'

Prior to this tip. As a work around I opened the file explorer for the bottle and deleted the battle.net.14542 version under the battle.net installation directory.

Xorg is dead, long live Wayland - Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) dropping Xorg
28 Nov 2023 at 4:11 pm UTC

I switched a few years back. I vaguely remember giving up a few things that weren't really that important to me. Wayland has been working well ever since.

Diablo IV free to play on Steam until Tuesday
23 Nov 2023 at 4:13 pm UTC

Quoting: RaySoundI hope it will be synchronized with the Blizzard account
Looks like it does Synchronize. I installed the free to play. Pretty sure I already linked my Steam account with my Battle.net account when installing Overwatch 2. I brought up D4, it logged into the full game, all my characters. Started the game with my current character. Immediately was booted. Achievements were automatically applied. I tried the game again, logged into current character again and the game played fine. If you have D4 purchased on Battle.net then it's worth installing the Free To Play and getting it all synced up. I don't have any DLC and I only bought the regular game on Battle.net so I can only speak for the base game. The Steam store now makes it look like I bought the game thus far. Guess we will see how it all pans out when the Free to Play time is up on Steam.

GNOME gets €1M funding from the Sovereign Tech Fund
10 Nov 2023 at 3:10 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: BrokattI don't see "Improve the state of VRR."
Is this helpful?
$ gsettings set org.gnome.mutter experimental-features "['variable-refresh-rate']"
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/-/merge_requests/1154 [External Link]