interesting. Not to get too into the weeds here but the thing im wondering here is how a 'real' console operates vs a PC with SteamOS. On those '4k' console games that use native resolution but checkerboarding, DSR the TV is still taking a native 4k signal so no upscaling internally meaning the video DAC is not adding too much latency. However PC games don't really work like that in that you as a user tend to have to manually switch to 4k and then fiddle around for ages trying to get things to work and a lot of games not designed with a specific hardware target in mind (like a console) won't have upscaling options, or DSR built into the game. The likelyhood imo is that people will either run games at 1080p or maybe 1440p and let the TV scale to native 4k.

Sorry for the long quote, I just didn't want to trim it down. Consoles don't do anything fundamentally different under the hood. It works the same way as any PC. As I mentioned, console games are almost always graphically pre-configured locked-down versions of their PC counterparts, sharing the majority of their codebase. Options for resolution scaling, upscaling are pretty much expected in PC versions as well. There are exceptions, but they're rare.

However PC games don't really work like that in that you as a user tend to have to manually switch to 4k

I'm not sure I understand this part (genuinely, I'm not trying to be condescending). Games are starting in native resolution unless it has been already changed by the user, if not, then it should be reported as a bug. There are cases where the game has issues detecting the display correctly, but it's not the norm.

then fiddle around for ages trying to get things to work

It's just a matter of preference. The criteria for the "Verified" badge is that the game runs well without any tweaks. The user can still mess around in the settings, but it's their choice and they (should) know they're responsible at this point and can always switch back to the default/device-specific, low, medium etc. presets. I think it's better than locking down the graphics options if the game detects it's running on a Valve hardware. E.g. Steam Deck reports itself to the games with the SteamDeck=1 flag and there are some games which hides the graphics options and only provide you Deck preset or presets. The same can happen with the Steam Machine too.

a lot of games not designed with a specific hardware target in mind (like a console)

True. But as we've already seen, devs add presets, even retroactively.

• Doom: The Dark Ages


• Cyberpunk 2077


• Witcher 3


• Helldivers 2


• Ghost of Tsushima


• Final Fantasy 7


• The Last of Us games


• Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader

All of these games have Steam Deck presets, just to name a few well-known ones. It's the same as what they do on consoles.

Also, there are games where if you keep default setting it will be the Steam Deck/device-specific preset, even if its not marked as such. E.g. Elden Ring where the devs and Valve even made specific optimisations for the Deck.

And like I mentioned, a criteria for the verified badge is that the game runs well on default settings. Many games also auto-detect your hardware and try to apply optimal settings. And ofc, they all include the usual presets (low, medium, high, etc.). Medium or a mix of medium-high settings is roughly console-quality in most AAA games.

However i don't think it is trying to compete with the PS5 or is it

Based on the specifications, I think it is, and imo, it would be a huge mistake not to. I'm just speculating ofc, but nothing else makes sense from a business standpoint. They did their market research well for the Deck, I assume they did the homework this time too.

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But isn't that game going to have state of the art graphics ? Looking at the footage graphically at least it looks pretty amazing.

GTA 6 will be available for current-gen consoles. If Steam Machine will have performance-parity (seems like it will, but I'm not a HW guy) then it will be capable to run the game with similar graphics and similar performance. Heavy console-exclusive optimisations are long gone, they're pretty much PC games without all the graphics options.

it's not a 4k machine but it will be connected to 4k TV's.

On current-gen consoles (PS5, Xbox Series X/S), true native 4K (3840*2160) rendering is not common in most AAA games. It's like 5-10% of AAA titles on Series X, even less on PS5, and non-existent on Series S. Dynamic resolution scaling, upscaling, and reconstruction techniques are the norm. 4K is just marketing and extremely rare. Most players can't tell the difference in blind tests anyway (Digital Foundry has proven this repeatedly).

i might be wrong here but i thought there was a latency penalty with TV's when running non native resolution as the image needs to be upscaled ( on top of the game upscaling of course ) ehh..

That's correct. The aforementioned "shenanigans" are explicitly designed to avoid this. Game renders low-res -> GPU reconstructs to full 4K framebuffer -> TV gets pixel-perfect 4K.

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With the Steam Machine, I think their goal is performance-parity with PS5 and Xbox Series X, just as Steam Deck was a Switch competitor, and didn't try to be the beefiest PC handheld that was possible at that time. PS5, Xbox Series X are still receiving the brand-new high-budget games with fixed graphical presets, and (correct me if I'm wrong) it seems like the Steam Machine is in the same ballpark, and that's the point in my opinion, not to be a high-end gaming PC. It will probably have aggressive pricing, just like the Deck. Also, if they drop it soon enough with competitive pricing then GTA 6 alone could attract massive sales. Many people are planning to buy a new gaming device just because of GTA 6, and the Steam Machine with almost full access (except most kernel-level anti-cheat games) to the Steam library, free online services, and massive, frequent sales, sounds like a better deal than a new console with zero games and subscriptions.

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In the past I also tried Heroic Games Launcher, but the GOG games had so many issues (for example not finding gamepad, even when the game supported it) I just gave up on using it on Steam Deck.

Have you tried adding them to Steam and then launching them from there? There’s a dedicated option for that in Heroic. This allows the games to use Steam’s controller interface. I play games from my GOG library quite often on Steam Deck and everything works perfectly once I add a game to Steam.

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Quoting: Pengling

Quoting: BoldosI don't know (and trust), what these web counters are really showing.
Not because they are rigged, but because the browsers themselves are rigged.

What does my Ubuntu pre-installed Firefox report?
!My Ubuntu Firefox reports itself as: [External Link]

Curious. On Xubuntu, it reports itself as Ubuntu, as expected. I've never meddled with it.

That said, that minutiae from my end of things doesn't invalidate your point at all. :tongue: You're absolutely right, and there are plenty of folks who do this deliberately in order to make wonky web-apps work properly, too.

Firefox's privacy.resistFingerprinting feature spoofs the user-agent to make it harder to identify a user on the web. Currently, Windows 10 is the least unique operating system, so it is used in the user-agent. As far as I know, the feature is not enabled by default, but it's possible that some distributions may enable it manually.

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Quoting: ArehandoroWithout entering the discussion about IBM, which I'd love but not here, would someone be able to tell me how independent is the fedora project from Red Hat? I know most of the engineers work for them, but being a community project, how much power do these have over future decisions?

It is primarily up to you to decide this. The highest governing body is the Fedora Council, which includes 3 positions reserved for Red Hat out of the total 7, one of which is the Fedora Project Leader. Ultimately, it is the Fedora Council that decides who can fill these positions. The Council can only make decisions based on consensus.

The other important organisational unit is the FESCo (Fedora Engineering Steering Committee). It consists of 10 members who are elected by the community. FESCo is responsible for the technical leadership of Fedora and also makes decisions based on consensus. The FESCo will ultimately vote on this proposal, taking into account the broader community's opinion.

Currently, 9 out of 10 FESCo members and 6 out of 7 Council members are Red Hat employees. There have never been conflicts between the Red Hat and non-Red Hat parts of the community, so it is difficult to determine what would happen in the event of a significant dispute or disagreement. There have been cases, such as favouring Btrfs, where there was a difference between the Fedora Project and Red Hat as a company, but there was never any major drama; the collaboration has always been quite peaceful.

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Quoting: m2mg2

Quoting: 14If it's implemented similarly to the KDE wizard after a fresh installation, I think that's fine.

IBM and the Holocaust... I can't believe someone threw that into the conversation. Pretty much everyone involved is dead. Life goes on. What are you gonna do, boycott entire countries like Germany and Japan? Leaders made decisions that countries and companies followed, and those leaders are gone.

Almost no one has a problem with them doing it like KDE, which means the user has to explicitly opt in. You cannot pre select it on and allow them to just press continue. They are proposing Windows/Ubuntu style telemetry, and went so far as to say in the proposal that they are not interested in opt-in telemetry at all. They are only interested in having it on by default and users having to pay enough attention to notice and decide to turn it off (opt-out).

They also state that if they ask the users, most will say no. But insist even though they would say no if asked, they actually don't care. So it's OK to default it on to avoid them saying no, and they argue that is ethical behavior. It's not

How can you acknowledge that you won't get agreement if you ask but argue that manipulating the interface to trick people into "accepting" (they aren't really accepting it) it is ethical? It's NOT ethical. Legal and ethical are not the same

You conveniently forget to mention that the proposal put forward by its proponents is practically unanimously rejected by the community. This is quite disrespectful on your part towards the Fedora community. Due to the rejection of the opt-out approach, there is even a consideration of simply withdrawing the proposal. Most likely, the "explicit choice" raised by Cassidy James and many others will ultimately be the compromise, meaning no default value will be provided.

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Quoting: slaapliedjeMy question is; after IBM's most recent FU to the open source community... is anyone still going to use Fedora, let alone want to give them any data?

Of course. Should I distrohop just because Red Hat sponsors Fedora among others? And then, what should I switch to? What else provides a seamless, leading edge vanilla experience like Fedora does? How many Red Hat-sponsored components can morally fit into a Linux distribution? Is Gentoo or Slackware acceptable? To answer your question, everyone will decide for themselves whether they want to switch from Fedora or whether they want telemetry. We are not the Borg with collective consciousness. If the community votes for the proposal and it becomes clear what data collection it involves, then I will make my decision. There is actually such a thing as ethical data collection, eg. Umami, Plausible or Matomo instead of Google Analytics on websites.

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Quoting: tuubiMatter of taste I guess. I don't mind the icon theme at all. Haven't even thought of switching away from Moka since it was introduced in Mint. IMHO it's a perfectly "sane default" as you put it.

English is not my native language, and I'm not even an Indo-European speaker, so sorry for any incorrect grammar. However, I can't see how overriding common application icons could be a sane default. In fact, one of the first reactions when I recommend Mint to someone, is asking if they can do something about it. Firefox is usually the one that's particularly striking, and the server-side decoration on it. Not a deal breaker, just an annoyance, because other than that, it's a great distro.

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I don't understand why they don't use a more neutral icon theme. The Firefox icon, for example, is completely alien to what Mozilla wants to promote. Moreover, I have yet to hear of anyone who considers Moka icons aesthetically pleasing.
While I really appreciate the efforts of the Mint team, I can't overlook this aspect, since it is the first impression for many people of the Linux desktop and first impressions are important. Obviously one can change the icon theme if a newcomer wants to and knows about the option, but sane defaults are always better.
Imho.

Edit:
typo

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