. . . If you're a normal computer user, never trust the recommendation of someone who says a piece of software is their favourite alternative to using the CLI. :tongue:

View this comment - View article - View full comments

But, isn't native Linux also an open source layer? Proton is just an open source layer on top of the open source layer, translating into the other open source layer. I don't see how that makes things more open source. If that were true we could make it the most open source of all by adding three more open source translation layers each translating to the next.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Potential destruction of the multiverse never looked so cute.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Native Linux builds tend to be lacking in basic features and far buggier in general

So is that a statistic or an anecdote? Because my anecdote is, nearly all the games I play are native, and I never have any problems. When I have problems it's nearly always with a Proton game not working, even though I play far fewer Proton games. Although lately my main annoyance is for some reason my Dosbox Steam games are just not starting at all. I haven't played MOO2 in ages now because of that.
So I'd be wary of this kind of generalization. We both have anecdotes pointing in different directions, but I doubt either of us have data.

As to the usefulness or otherwise of native Linux builds, Liam's perspective makes complete sense as long as you assume Microsoft will never again be very actively hostile to Linux. This might be the case, but it seems to me like a poor gamble. Proton is a great idea and I support it strongly, but this is not an either/or thing. It's like the American civil rights movement--there's been a lot of argument over whether King was good and Malcolm X was bad or the other way around, but it is a stupid argument because they needed both (You can tell because the authorities wanted both of them dead, and probably had both of them killed). It's not that one was bad and the other was good, it's that one was the bad cop and the other was the good cop. King could implicitly say "You can deal with me being polite and nonviolent, or you can deal with Malcolm." Native Linux and Proton are not quite the same dynamic, but they are both important and I really don't think it's wise to discount either.

Put it this way: Proton is not the end game. Even if an awful lot of games right now either run on Proton because they're legacy Windows games, or are written now for Windows with some consciousness of Proton, we also want a vigorous native Linux game-writing platform. I mean, how silly would it be if we achieve world domination market share and to write a game for the world dominant platform, you have to write for DX12 on legacy Windows so a translation layer can translate it?!

View this comment - View article - View full comments

They better watch out. That "You can target and cut off limbs" bit contravenes Mastercard's rules . . .

View this comment - View article - View full comments

This is probably not that big a deal. If I understand correctly, this is not like Fedora, it's like RHEL. Which is to say, nobody's really expecting to game on it.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

@Caldathras While it's very true that fascists are insinuating themselves into the whole Anglosphere (and far beyond), I think it's an overstatement to say they're a bigger problem in countries where they have not actually seized power. While the US system of "checks and balances" is not yet clinically dead, it is showing few signs of successfully checking or balancing, and the recent budget bill included a massive appropriation to hire so many people into the Gestapo ICE that it will have more personnel than the FBI.

As to Collective Shout . . . I've watched as activist groups demanded things for plenty of decades. The general rule is, they never get the things they demand unless (1) It was going to happen anyway, or (2) There is an upsurge in protest so massive that it is shutting down society, or occasionally (3) Nobody cares about the demand so what the heck. And that last one is rare; the default is "give them nothing, don't encourage them". Some Australian weirdly reactionary feminist group I'd never heard of is not in itself going to force a big transnational company to do anything. A couple days ago I speculated that it was all lawyer stuff happening at mid levels, but I think I was wrong--this has been too widespread for that. I think they must have decided that there is strong popular/political backing for this kind of thing, and/or there's some high-ups who are into it.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

I'm starting to feel like somewhere in the mid-layers of one of these outfits, there's some lawyer who received a complaint, looked over some terms and conditions, and decided to issue a cease and desist just to be cautious, or talk to the mid-level lawyers in one of the other organizations and get them to issue it, and none of the PR flacks at any of these places, or the upper level executives for that matter, have a clue what the hell is going on.
Sprawling organizations with too much unaccountable power.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

My personal solution: Mednafen.

Sounds like an antidepressant medication. Which would work, kind of: "The problem still exists, but I don't care any more!"

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Yeah, my first thought was "Wait a minute. So this is a new capability that lets me drive myself crazy by making it look like my games are sorted wrong!"

View this comment - View article - View full comments