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Latest Comments by iiari
Marvel's Midnight Suns gets an update to help Steam Deck
30 January 2023 at 6:01 pm UTC Likes: 4

So nice to keep reading about companies modding their products to work on the Steamdeck (and thus Linux). This is the kind of phenomenon we always wanted to see and I at times have to pinch myself that it's really happening. Google starting a gaming service with Linux as the backend wasn't able to accomplish this, but Valve has. Amazing....

System76 teasing new fully AMD powered Pangolin Linux laptop
16 January 2023 at 2:03 pm UTC

Quoting: Termy
Quoting: Nico7asThe Starfighter also packs a 4K+ display
Which is more of a downside in my book. Who would need 4k on a tiny 15" screen?!
The Starfighter is also available with a higher refresh (165Hz) 2560x1600 screen as well, which is what I reserved mine with, as I agree with you about 4K and would rather have the higher refresh and lower battery consumption.

System76 teasing new fully AMD powered Pangolin Linux laptop
16 January 2023 at 12:52 am UTC

Regardless of this vs the Starfighter, it's terrific to live in an age of high quality Linux hardware choices (S76, Starfighter, Tuxedo/Slimbook, HP Dev One, Dells, Framework, etc) .

That said, as someone who has purchased two S76 laptops in the past, has used 3:2 and 16:10 displays for my last few laptops, and has a Starfighter on order, I personally won't go back to 16:9 for something of significant cost. Waiting for S76 to update those displays....

The best Linux distribution for gaming in 2023
2 December 2022 at 5:21 pm UTC Likes: 2

Quoting: Guest
QuoteManjaro has too many problems both technical and management
I have a huge problem with Manjaro: other people tell me that Manjaro is bad, and the funny detail is those people don't use Manjaro anyway.
I've been deeply conflicted regarding all of the Manjaro discussion of late. For me personally, Manjaro has been hands down the best, most stable, and most-performant Linux choice I've made in over a decade on Linux at this point. Most of my and my household's (wife's, kids', elderly parents', work, etc) PC's have been running Manjaro with a variety of DE's flawlessly for years. I had lots of trauma with other distros (Ubuntu broke with every other major update and broken PPAs caused havoc; tons of gaming and wifi issues with Mint; the usual Arch drama with Antergos) and I moved over to Manjaro exclusively back at the dawn of DXVK when Manjaro was providing the rapidity of Nvidia updates needed to keep it working and I haven't regretted it. I've never had to reinstall a single system in my household, near 100% stability across machines (one CUPS issue a year or two ago pops to mind), and nearly every software install I've ever wanted to do has been easy-peasy via its package manager covering its own stable repositories, the AUR, or Flatpak. It's kernal installation and removal tool has been a lifesaver several times over. The Gnome setup tool mimicking various OS flavors has given every household member the custom interface they want. I've been very happy.

I've read all of the criticisms (from most not on the distro) and seen all the Youtube videos. The security lapses are head scratching and real and, if they really focus on it, probably easily addressed. The open/closed source ideological issues I give them a bigger pass on - As long as at the end of the day *I* have choice as to what I can install, I'll give them a lot of leeway to have flexibility to build a viable commercial enterprise which, so far, so good. And on the organization issues, well, I'm not passing judgement on that. As anyone who has spent any time in any company small, medium, or big knows, workplace drama is rife everywhere and Manjaro's issues wouldn't even raise eyebrows in my workplace. Just another day at the office.

I installed Fedora on a spare laptop, and it's fine, but I've needed to spend more time tinkering on that to get software found, downloaded, installed, and working on that laptop than on all of my home Manjaro PCs in total.

Warts and all, for now, Manjaro still remains my most recommended distro for medium-level Linux users (not beginners) <I duck getting ready for things to be thrown at me>.

The best Linux distribution for gaming in 2023
1 December 2022 at 10:41 pm UTC

Quoting: AbedsbrotherUsually run RebornOS (Arch) but am currently preparing to give Nobara a try. As time has passed, am less interested in cutting edge and more interested in stability (being a Patient Gamer helps).
Good to hear Reborn OS is still around. I was on it a few years ago but was very hesitant to put all my eggs (especially my work laptop) in the basket of a fringe, "one man" distro. When the at the time college aged (I think) founder/dev was openly pondering in the forums about whether he'd be able to keep everything going during his upcoming compsci grad school, I moved on. Is he still the primary driver or is there a larger team?

Anyway, there were always some good ideas at Reborn. Glad to hear it's still going.

Advanced flight simulator X-Plane 12 set to fully release in December
16 November 2022 at 8:56 pm UTC

[quote=Ehvis]
Quoting: peta77And from the foot I have in the flight simulation community, those that rate flying above fancy satellite photo scenery still prefer XP over msfs.
This was true at launch with its default aircraft, but currently even from a flying and simulation standpoint, MSFS has really caught up and, with some of the recent excellent 3rd party planes, really (IMHO) surpassed XP over the last 6 months. Even some of the most hard-core XP streamers have moved over to it. MSFS and flight simulation is literally the only reason I have a Windows install still left.

Even for XP devotees, while many of its early 3rd party add-ons were platform agnostic, sadly the better recent releases (weather add-ons, traffic add-ons, planes, etc) for XP have been Windows only affairs. Also, XP's engine is showing its age and has never been very good with performance. Still today, you can have bleeding edge hardware and, flying in metro areas, still rarely crack 30 FPS with the usual add-ons while MSFS in all its glory on ultimate everything settings will be at 60-120 FPS with DLSS2 or 3.

XP is still excellent and for Linux only simulation fans it's still a must....

Here's the Top 10 Most Played games on Steam Deck for September 2022
2 October 2022 at 4:19 am UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: Boldos
Quoting: iiariAnd regarding the top 10 list, still very impressed NMS is still there. What a comeback story.
NMS? Is it still the beautiful, yet stinking pile or crap, full of flawed game mechanics it used to be?
(Honest question).
This is off topic, and I haven't played it in quite some time, but apparently it has duel mindshare as one of the games that promised the most and didn't deliver in history, but one which the devs stuck with to create one of the most compelling games in history as well. They've apparently really fleshed it out and the ongoing additions to the gameworld and function have been terrific. Lots of written and TY video content about it out there if you're interested...

Here's the Top 10 Most Played games on Steam Deck for September 2022
1 October 2022 at 3:34 am UTC Likes: 2

Quoting: nullzeroOn the Deck: Master Spy, into the beach and Everspace.
I bet Everspace has to be great on the Deck...

And regarding the top 10 list, still very impressed NMS is still there. What a comeback story.

X-Plane 12 flight sim is now available in Early Access with Linux support
15 September 2022 at 4:23 pm UTC

Quoting: tfkLoading speeds have significantly improved and its stable as a rock.
That's nice to hear, as loading speeds were definitely an issue with XP11 vs MSFS. I'm personally waiting for it to reach Steam.

For anyone reading, Laminar Research tends to treat these "early access" builds more like release candidate open testing, so they're usually pretty stable and feature complete, and they're looking for last minute issues that people bring up, so you can use these with confidence.

Valve speeds up Steam Deck production some more, all existing reservations this year
30 July 2022 at 4:07 pm UTC Likes: 3

Is there any way to publically know what percentage of Steam Deck users have tried the KDE desktop mode? That is a number I would be curious to see.