Quoting: CatKillerThis is a fallacy, btw. If you're not into computers, you're only looking skin-deep. "This is the Internet, this is the app store, this is the update button" is all they need to know. Linux is the ideal grandmother OS. It's the Windows Power Users that have the hardest time; they're very familiar with the entrails of Windows and freak out about Linux' guts being different when they try to poke at them.

Mm, you have a point, and I don't disagree that Linux can be the perfect "grandmother OS", but if that grandmother has been using Windows I imagine she'd be more comfortable with a DE that looks similar, skin-wise, and doesn't require re-learning where the links to all those things are. :smile:

View this comment - View article - View full comments

I think I remember learning about this a decade ago while in college—if it's the same game I'm thinking of, it was realistic enough that if you turned on the "infinite fuel" option you could no longer get the space shuttle into orbit because the non-draining fuel tank would be too heavy. :grin:

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: furaxhornyxWhen I made the switch (back in September 2019) from Windows 7 (which gave me full satisfaction by the way, but you know, end of support BS) to Linux, I wasn't looking for something arguably better or different. I wanted to find a replacement for Windows 7 look and feel, and Cinnamon filled that job for me.

Same with me when I made the switch from Windows 7 in 2014. I picked Cinammon Cinnamon (which I can never spell correctly on the first try :grin:) because it was familiar; I was already having to retrain my brain from a decade of computer use to a new operating system, I didn't need any crazy taskbars on the top of the screen or docks on the side or what have you to make things even more confusing. And I've been doing jobs requiring Linux use and programming for almost a decade now, imagine the average non-computer-literate person!

To be clear, it's fantastic that Linux offers multiple DEs for the power users looking for something new, or better, or more efficient, but I suspect the majority of Windows users see something like that and think "intimidating," not "enticing." (And thankfully, there are the more conservative DEs we can use to lure them in. :grin:)

View this comment - View article - View full comments

I wonder how long ago it was that there were just 1,204,000 total people playing video games of any sort.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Now that I'm finishing my PhD and starting a new job this year I can finally start thinking about upgrading my gaming desktop I built back in 2014, and with these coming out next year what better time to switch from Intel & Nvidia to AMD? :smile:

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Oh, that drag and drop feature is neat! :woot: I got the update last night and thought the new Downloads page looked pretty (and saw some of the other new features), but didn't realize that was an option now. While I can appreciate drag'n'drop isn't trivial to implement, it just feels so necessary for any kind of list-sorting where there are more than a handful of entries.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: BielFPs

Quoting: AnzaIt seems to be hard to get right in FPS games even without trying to procedurally generate lore and story.

"Lore" is impossible to procedurally generate

Dwarf Fortress would like a word with you. :grin:

(Though I broadly agree, as I think that with procedural generation—as with anything else that goes into a video game—the quality of results you get out is commensurate with the amount of effort you put in. Dwarf Fortress is an extreme outlier on the quality scale due to also being an extreme outlier on the "effort invested" scale.)

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: CatKillerI just want everyone that wants one to be able to get one.

Indeed. I liked that Valve said they're handling production for different regions separately, so it's not like, say, North America can just buy of 99% of all the Decks produced.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: scaineI kind of like the sound of that, but I feel like it's somehow illegal? Like selling petrol cheaper if you drive a Ford? Some kind of favouritism that I suspect regulators would take a dim view of.

I can't think why that particular example would be illegal*, though I can immediately think of why you might not want to do it: instant bad will with all non-Ford drivers. Which might be a reason Valve hasn't done anything similar. Maybe you could get away with it if Ford drivers were 90%+ of your buyers and you didn't care about anyone else, but if they're only 10% you'd probably be in trouble.

*obviously there are a lot of criteria that should be illegal, like price discrimination on the basis of race or sex or whatever, but I can't see why it should be in the case of voluntary choice of non-essential consumer product.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: GuestGame support is a real thing that exists, that's what the little icons are, and if a developer indicates they support a certain platform, gamers expect them to fix bugs on that platform.

Game support is a real thing, but that's not what the icons indicate: they indicate which platforms a game nominally runs on. There are tons of games that are on sale on Steam which have icons which are no longer supported.

View this comment - View article - View full comments