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Latest Comments by ElectricPrism
Get 112 Operator free during Fanatical's Lunar New Year Sale plus a new Fanatical Favorites Bundle
31 Jan 2025 at 6:07 am UTC Likes: 1

SMH, imagine blocking your own customers from giving you money.

It's hard to root for the underdog when they aren't doing themselves any favors.

I would seriously consider discontinuing usage of any company that blocks a VPN. Don't make it hard for me to give you money -- I will not disable my VPN or Adblocker, I will instead stop giving you money and ban your site at my /etc/hosts and DNS level.

Steam Deck sales drop hard following the Nintendo Switch 2 announcement (updated: Valve fixed it)
23 Jan 2025 at 7:50 pm UTC Likes: 2

The juice just isn't worth the squeeze.

Hopefully Valve won't get any bad PR from what Lenovo, and ASUS do.

I'll never own another Lenovo device, and I've owned so many ASUS devices over the last 2 decades and I am pretty much unimpressed with their quality & done with them too.

I found out years later that OG Steam Machine's bad PR was due to Dell / Alienware's fuckups with the red ring of death.

--

I think the drop in sales on the graph probably is just indicative that customers have limited money and are probably saving up for Nintendo Switch 2.

If I want to offload heavy gaming I'm going to do it by streaming from a desktop not by attempting to buy a slightly more powerful handheld without the tried & true formula and trusted reputation of Valve.

And as for Nintendo, after they crybullied Emulators out of existence (Ryujinx) and then admits they are legal ( eg: https://androidauthority.com/nintendo-emulators-legal-3517187/ [External Link] ) -- I avoid telling people what they should do -- but in this instance Nintendo might as well be an abusive wife beating spouse and I can't in good conscience let it through the gates of troy.

The same way that Chief Asshole Larry Ellison of ORACLE (O.ne R.ich A.sshole C.alled L.arry E.llison) wanted to copyright APIs in the ORACLE vs GOOGLE lawsuit which would make WINE illegal -- Nintendo is an enemy of ALL gamers. If they legally could they would END ALL EMULATION and GAME PRESERVATION.

The short term gains are not worth the squeeze -- the same as Micro-Transaction gaming -- these are blights, plagues, diseases on Gaming and they must be destroyed. I implore literally everyone to vote with your dollar against them.

I don't want to live in a world where Xenophobic Developers are actively hostile against gamers.

Intel and NVIDIA drivers holding back a public SteamOS release, Valve not trying to compete with Windows
15 Jan 2025 at 11:51 pm UTC Likes: 5

Idk why but the quote button is missing in LibreWorlf

@soulsource - And yet, most Windows users I have talked to recently fail to see any issues with ads showing up in their application launcher, or in their notifications. Or stuff randomly breaking. Or...

At this point I have given up on trying to convince people to switch. They obviously enjoy sitting on a cactus.
The takeaway for me personally -- It's unnecessary that Linux "compete" with Windows. We just need to be way cooler, more fun, and awesome in every measurable way.

Linux is Awesome, and by just being way cooler, and having better stuff we'll win.

Parabola is a great example -- YT download frontend -- Non Linux Alternatives are plagued with Adware, Warez, Viruses, Malware, etc...

Software sourcing -- downloading random .exes off the net and installing them is slightly weird, maybe it's changed lately and I support the User's rights to do what they want, but it's fucking weird and a security oof.

Bars & Menus -- don't like Gnome menu? KDE, don't like that, Waybar, Cinnamon, whatever gets the job done -- users have choices.

Filesystem & Snapshots -- don't ever break your computer again, roll back the funk to the last good state.

Easy Hardware Transfer -- New computer but don't want to redo the software? Most AMD Linux you can just pull the NVME and plug it into the new hardware and it just works if there's no proprietary blobs needed.

Need obscure software or beta software? Just install via the beta channel via bin or have your machine compile it yourself automatically, no biggie.

Got random Windows .exe from Y2K that you still need to run? Decent chances it'll run in WINE OOB even if it no longer runs on Windows.

Want to buy a machine and not dick around with software? No problem, buy from one of Linux laptop manufacturers and get a great community, support and access to optimal hardware right away.

Viruses and Malware? We laugh.

Games? I stopped counting after 10k on Steam, plenty to play.

Controllers? Got that.

Hardware support? Most hardware works OOB and if it doesn't it's easy to find options that do.

Tired of slow computers? Linux doesn't really slow down after 6 months from a big fat registry, or rando weird software mods to the file tree -- it stays as fast as it always was.

Don't like Distro A, no problem Distro B, C, D are options.

I could probably continue this list a bit, but the takeaway is pretty simple -- we already are the optimal choice in so many ways -- and we just need to let people know that we are happy and having a awesome time.

When people see that they are drawn, and want to have that for themselves.

Windows works for your friends? That's fantastic. Linux works for us.

Mecha Comet looks like a fun little modular Linux handheld
11 Jan 2025 at 1:34 am UTC

Quoting: jarmerI would do unspeakable things for a linux phone that could be used as a daily driver. Unfortunately this does not exist, and it doesn't look like it'll be existing anytime soon either. Sad.
Fret not, I'm here to get you into big BIG trouble.

I've thought a lot about this lately and there are some solutions.

Option 1. You root any Thin Small Android Cellphone with LineageOS, and literally don't use it -- you can optionally remove the cameras, microphone if you so desire and install literally nothing on it. You build it into the same case as a Linux Phone and tether the Internet connection and tunnel the whole thing over VPN. It'll be slightly larger, but have access to popular cellular network without exposing much data to Android.

Option 2. The return of the car-phone. You add a extra battery to your car trunk and attach it to a Linux Car Server that is attached to a StarLink Mini Roam dish ($50/mo) mounted on your car. You also broadcast Wifi from the car and connect a Linux device such as this. The car computer can have a mod screen in the middle and double as a music, video, game, and entertainment center on the go. You heard a truck carrying hard drives driving down the road has more throughput, don't let your dreams be dreams.

Option 3. You wait for StarLink Direct to Cell and either use a officially supported device, or you hope one of us makes a "Modem Wifi Brick" like in Option 1.

--

With these options in mind -- it really is daft that we are carrying around these non-Linux devices. I wouldn't be surprised if we see some people make this in the modder community in the next year. Using Stock Android is miserable. The sooner we cross this bridge the better.

Edit: Just to comment more on Option 2 -- it's much easier to give a car computer a stronger CPU and GPU too, so if you stream to the phone or screen you could probably achieve some pretty impressive results in terms of speed. Like imagine playing AAA games broadcasted from your car. It's doable. Maybe you have a old LCD Steam Deck laying around too -- might make a pretty decent car computer with a more specialized distro installed. Disconnect the left and right daughterboards, put it in a metal case or whatnot -- 15-30 watts isn't too bad.

Wireless HORIPAD for Steam gets a firmware fix for the Steam Deck OLED
7 Jan 2025 at 4:28 am UTC

There is a zero chance I will install windows to update firmware on anything, fwdupd or GTFO.

It's gonna cost about $260 shipping for 4 in black.

And currently AFAIK if you want Violet, Yellow or White you have to buy on ebay.

There are only like 2 reviews on Amazon.

I need more than that to go on before I "try" this thing -- I guess I could just buy 1 and give it a test drive, I'm just sick of jumping through hoops trying to get shit to run.

If I'm going to pay $60 asking me to only update on Windows is asinine.

There is no AMD Z2 Steam Deck model coming - Valve
7 Jan 2025 at 4:19 am UTC

And here I am just hoping someday to have a CoreBoot or SteamOS/Deck open firmware boot someday.

Stardew Valley hits over 41 million sales with millions sold during 2024
2 Jan 2025 at 9:47 pm UTC Likes: 3

Steam awards have always been a popularity contest more than anything. [...] I haven't played Black Myth, though I hear it's good, but is it good enough for three awards? Hats off to the to the hoards of chinese fans.
1. Agree, congrats to the chinese devs, credit where credit is due.

2. Same, haven't bought

3. Probably won't because the 2017 National Intelligence Law requiring "any organisation and citizen" shall "support and cooperate in national intelligence work".

4. Maybe someday in a firejail, a game container or a isolated dedicated gaming machine, there's already so many great works to play.

--

Edit:

I remember following Stardew on the devblog for many years before it launched, CocnernedApe is a special kind of dev, I wish our culture to mint more like him who persevere even when working alone for so long. He is an example of what one dedicated, motivated, and persistent person can do. We've seen this mirrored in Linux & Linux Gaming too over the last few decades.

I think the markets reaction too is an indicator that stylistically there's more room for classic SNES style sprite-based games when done well.

The most popular Linux gaming articles of 2024
1 Jan 2025 at 11:48 pm UTC

Steam games will now need to fully disclose kernel-level anti-cheat on store pages
I always ask AI if games on Steam have other DRM, Anti-cheat, Denuvo or 3rd party launchers -- I think Valve has done a great job and I would love to see this expanded even more to be more declarative.

Addition of a 3rd party launcher or significant changes in the deal should be immediate grounds for a refund from the publisher as well.

Fan-made PC port of Star Fox 64 is out now
26 Dec 2024 at 9:16 am UTC

I just want to see you guys make hilarious mods and memes so I can watch it online. I am not sure how long it will be before there is a decent amount of mods.

It would be funny to see DOGE announcer, maybe some Nyan stuff, and replacing the Crew with better characters. Texture Mods and Model Mods will be interesting.

Like the Banana Ship
https://gamebanana.com/games/21612 [External Link]