Imagine the billions of dollars left on the table by companies who are too dumb to just sell on PC.

Yeah no, I'm not going to buy your walled garden device and pay for a game only to be required to re-buy it every couple years.

Instead all we get is IQ50 Rage where henchmen are hired to STOP people from having fun. Stockholders should demand that ALL game makers sell on PC. It's inefficient to create all this ewaste by requiring people to buy additional devices that will end up in a landfill too. Existing devices should be repurposed once they are EOL at minimum.

Billions flushed down the drain and an entirely new set of vendors have appeared* to fill the void raking in those billions and billions more and even taking their money bags to console-land to cut into their markets too.

Idiocracy. Complete IQ50 Dumbasses that preside over a industry they neither respect nor understand at* the expense of investors and the market alike.

These projects are always proof that there is demand. But their is no supply due to ignorance.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Is it possible to learn of this power?

View this comment - View article - View full comments

2019, 06.28 -- Valve Index was released
2022, 02.25 -- Steam Deck was released
2023, 11.16 -- Steam Deck OLED was released

So we are about 2.5 years since Steam Deck's initial release.

Considering the R&D & time to market, I wouldn't really be surprised to see Steam Deck 2 in the next 12-18 months which would make the upgrade cycle interval about ~4 years.

I presume the Steam Deck hardware team (which previously achieved the Index, Steam Controller, and Steam Link) got pulled over to Deckard which would delay a Steam Deck 2 until after what I would imagine is either Valve Index 2 or Deckard Standalone VR. (Obviously the wuflu pandemic years messed up the timeline for R&D.)

I expect Steam Deck 2 to have a resolution of 16:10 1920x1200 (likely under this AMD Z2 chip), OLED, and largely be the same with better Wifi, Bluetooth, Increased Storage, Perhaps a 10-15% reduction in size or if they're feeling ballsie we'll see a flip up Nintendo DS style option (maybe from another manufacturer), but I largely expect it to look nearly exactly the same and function the same with better specs -- they may steal a page from Apple's book selling colored rectangles and make the personalization as simple as having different colored shells (Orange OLED shell is pretty sick, I'm looking at it right now) Translucent FTW.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

If there's one observation I've made about China. Their actions are typically extremely pragmatic. For Linux to make ground on Microsoft there I would think that Linux would need to become more practical than Windows.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Playtron is a Linux based operating system that extracts the gaming ecosystem from Windows and supports every game store and many 3rd party integrations. It is optimized for powerful handheld gaming PCs and will launch later this year for Steam Deck and other devices.

404 Espresso Not Found.

I had to look up what a "Playtron is" ^^ ( -- At first I thought it was some kind of new SqureEnix launcher.)

I will give them the benefit of the doubt until all the facts are in and the thing is released. I do think there is space in the market for something like this. As a consumer it would be important to me that there is a public handshake with the game stores to feel confident enough to invest in whatever system they provide. At a glance their work seems pretty cool.

I have virtually 0 interest in EGS, but GOG is another story, also GreenManGaming and Fanatical were okay last I checked and I wouldn't mind having API directly in something like this.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: Calinou

Quoting: ElectricPrismFor years I have had trouble finding gaming laptops with strong AMD graphics, I trust that has changed?

No, not really... Laptops with dedicated AMD GPUs are still pretty rare, and there are no true high-end options, only mid-range options like the 7600M (roughly equivalent to RTX 4060 Laptop). This has been a problem for 10+ years now. At least we can find high-end laptops with AMD CPUs now, which also used to be nearly impossible.

The Zen 5 IGPs are pretty strong though (currently the best ones out there), but they can only match the performance of a desktop GTX 1060 6 GB in best-case scenarios.

Thanks for bringing me up to speed. I had spent (IIRC) 3,500 on a Wacom Mobile Studio pro years ago and was very frustrated over the Nvidia graphics, so much so that I actually had it disabled and used the Intel fallback exclusively on Linux.

My hopes that the Nvidia+Linux Laptop experience had improved at that time were beyond disappointed as I found out. I eventually sold the device because I don't have tons of extra time and mental focus to try to navigate the labyrinth of Nvidia bugs as they covet the secret binary of their driver and leave Linux in the trash.

Since then I've seen several attractive AMD laptops over the years but it's more or less exactly what you've noted -- mid range performance. The price is always excellent, but when I buy a AMD I generally want it to pack a punch and I don't mind spending extra money if quality is going to parallel competitors.

The situation is so bizare you would think that Nvidia has cooked the market to ass AMD out of being able to make competitive laptops through underhanded deals in countries that don't have laws against such a thing.

Having helped a Linux convert with their Razor laptop and dealing with Nvidia this year I can say that the experience is still pretty terrible. Almost none of the greetd greeters work, plugging in an extra monitor and trying to get the scaling to work correctly on each is a nightmare. Sometimes the external screen won't even turn on without unplugging and re-plugging it -- nonsense like that.

And that's what I'm paying the extra money for at least on Desktop -- I pay AMD so I don't have to waste my time having the 2nd class citizen experience that Nvidia provides me with all this broken stuff because they can't take some pennies out of their stock bubble and bother to make me happy with open source things (at least in the past, future behavior will be judged according to what actions if any they do to rectify all their nightmare linux usage scenarios.)

I'll keep my eyes peeled. Intel GPU has been sufficient on Laptops, but by design laptops use less power and the thermals are high due to having x86_64 CPUs -- it will be interesting to see if RISC-V changes this lowering thermals making it possible for stronger GPUs.

I'll keep my eyes peeled. I like Purism's offerings fine, but my next Laptop will likely be a AMD System76 as long as it checks boxes like [ Aluminum ] and it's better than just a rebrand of some barebone. I think even mid range may be enough for me at this point in time -- Steam Deck kindof proves this case & point. Which wasn't always the case -- up until very recently Laptops have been too underwhelming to be serious options for more than internet browsing (for me at least).

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: MuttMuttMy desktop is about the only thing in my house that even has windows on it. And hopefully soon I can dump that as well.

My stepson is running ChimeraOS on his gaming machine and I travel with a Raspberry pi 4 to retro game on.

I have personally tried making the switch a few times but so many things didn't work so I ended up on windows 80% of the time anyway and then just gave up. I'm awesome with hardware and can make stuff work fine with most software but absolutely not a programmer. I would rather pull ethernet throughout the house and build my server rack than try to program something.

Hopefully as time goes but and more people are able to make the switch more tools will be available for the people who don't understand the command line.

Hang in there, I've noticed substantial software developments even just in the last 5 years. And absolute explosion of apps on places like https://flathub.org/ [External Link] for utilities I never knew existed.

Recently I came across what someone suggested was a alternative to After Effects out of the blue, folks have been making leaps with Affinity Photo 2 working in WINE, and other fascinating developments.

I personally had always had more problems in the Debian family over the years, it's hard to put my finger on exactly what or why.

We're still undergoing an absolute explosion of user apps since the launch of the Steam Deck drawing so many in. So my guess would be to not watch the kettle boil, but know that things have been nothing short of phenomenal and are on the upswing.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

It would be interesting to hear what Chinese Citizens think about Windows, Linux, and Mac.

If I had to guess I would think they would see all 3 of those as Western, maybe Linux less.

I wouldn't be surprised to see some significant platform and software innovations from Chinese Citizens in the next decade or two.

It's really hard to know if Linux is up for the radical changes in the tech world. I wouldn't be surprised to see a fully rust micro kernel parallel to Linux in the next decade and cutting all the legacy out in favor of the future.

Again I'm painting a mental image with a broad brush.

Linux is great, but it is also encumbered in the same way that Windows is encumbered with NTFS or Unix was encumbered with legacy. It's hard to cover all your bases when on the one hand you're expending energy on floppy disk drivers in 2024.

Linux has been absolutely necessary, but what the world needs is to stay united in technological partnerships. Similar to advancing science just for the sake of science. Advancing technology for the sake of technological innovation to make the best future possible.

The uptick on steam is definitely Black Myth Wukong. I don't expect Microsoft as a pentagon military contractor to have the governments blessing in China forever. It will be interesting to see what their people end up using 5 or 10 years from now.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

I'd prefer literally every FOSS app, especially when available on Windows and Mac ask for donations on a Startup Splash / Welcome Dialog (of course the request for donation would occupy a lesser portion of such a dialog that has Recently Opened, New, Release Notes, and other options.) Krita has done a fantastic job of this. GIMP has done this as well.

The project should be conditioning people to give a very small amount like $1.00 using a common service if possible. Then after a few years people will already be in the habit of giving and give more to all FOSS projects.

This is literally the psychology behind tipping and those grocery store checkout sharks that ask you to donate.

No I don't want to donate to your alleged "Non profit" that I have done 0 research on. No I don't want to tip you for a coffee in the drive-through and places that I don't sit down (sorry baristas of this site). I already gave an allocated amount to FOSS projects and things I personally understand, appreciate, and benefit from in turn directly or indirectly.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

There is a lesson in this.

Bundling with hardware is a solid strategy.

So the question is -- who and how do we pick up more hardware partners?

I talk to people in their 30s who are interested in Gaming Laptops. They are tired of Windows, especially after Crowdstrike [External Link].

I suggest System76, or Framework. For years I have had trouble finding gaming laptops with strong AMD graphics, I trust that has changed?

There is also a large demographic of people that intend to start using Linux but just haven't gotten around to it.

Their catalysts are things like Synology NAS and other homelab hardware.

View this comment - View article - View full comments