Quoting: TrainDocA brief aside, when did 16:9 stop being a desirable screen ratio? ... I just feel like the moving target has moved, and I didn't see it move so I'm curious why.

@Catkiller above has some of the financial reasons for why the 16:9 move happened, but there's more to it as well. 3:2 has a lot more vertical space which gives you many more rows of text, numbers, spreadsheet rows, website vertical viewing, etc. Earlier laptops were closer to 3:2 for productivity, and 16:9 only roared onto the scene given the economic advantages plus the public prioritization of video watching as being paramount.

Personally, excepting my S76 laptops (used more for gaming and with our Wacom tablet), I've been on exclusively 3:2 laptops for work for the last several years since the '15 Pixel Chromebook in 3:2 and I'm never going back. My professional software is oriented towards the vertical space, and 3:2 is a huge advantage there. I can see in one page what coworkers are constantly scrolling to view. Every time I go to a 16:9 laptop, I feel like I'm squinting.

Lots has been written online about this as well. You didn't miss the big shift, as it hasn't been that big, and it's only been in the last, say, year that 16:10 and 3:2 have been coming back (excepting the Surface laptops and some Huaweis, which have been 3:2 for years). The latest models of a few makers (Asus, Thinkpads, HP, LG, Framework, etc) have had 16:10 and 3:2 display options. Like most passionate minorities, vertical space fans are vocal online :).

However, what I would say has changed for what's sometimes called the hypercompetitive ultraportable, or Dell XPS13 class, laptop market, is given the proliferation of more vertical screens and solid 9-10 hr battery lives (or about 15 with the Apple laptops) if you're not hitting those specs you're somewhat seen as being behind...

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Love S76 laptops, own two, but these days, I scan the specs, see a 16:9 aspect ratio, and move on to the next story....

Especially with the Framework laptop out there whispering sweet nothings to me with its perfect 3000x2000 3:2 display, near 10 hr battery life, and Linux friendly disposition, I'm trying to hold out for S76 to give me a 3:2 or 16:10 screen and 10 hr battery life. I'm happy to forgo the modularity, but I can't hold out forever!

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Quoting: kaktuspalmeIndies amaze me much more atm.

Quoting: Purple Library GuyLong term: Fear of monopolistic shenanigans

For the mainstream player and for discoverability, monopolization may be a long term concern. For now, though, there are too many big players involved to end with a Disneyization of gaming. It'll likely be more like the streaming wars, with 5-8 different players....

I'm not worried about the Indies either. First, the big guys will need some new IP to buy once they run their "independent" studios into the ground (which they seem to have a strong history of doing), so the successful indies will get their big paydays. Also, while there may be mainstream monopolization, indies will always be able to make their own launchers and sell direct over the internet, and gamers have a history of going where the great games are no matter what. So I'm not worried....

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So, I've reached a real moment of Zen in realizing that a $68.7 billion dollar gaming acquisition by MS.... Doesn't impact my personal gaming one iota! Sweet.... Ahhhhh.....

Anyway, I think this is an absolutely stonking brilliant move by MS, if they manage it well. Totally taking advantage of Activision's weakness right now to swoop in and give X-Box a huge IP boost for the indefinite future. If we're ever going to get a Netflix of gaming, MS will likely be it... I mean, the IP here has to be worth waaaay more than MS is paying. Some of these properties themselves are individually in the billions or tens of billions if sold on their own. So, so much they can do with this IP over so many different media outlets.

The modern MS is proving VERY savvy.

PS: MS can say whatever they want today about Kotick, but there's zero way he has any future here (especially given some insensitive XBox gender history) other than a very neutered one if MS gives him a very limited sandbox.

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Quoting: clatterfordslimNever been a fan of Dolphin, like Nautilus it's too locked down. So whenever trying a new OS, I install Nemo.

KDE Manjaro and Nemo fan here as well, but I haven't installed Nemo in a few years because I seem to remember installing Nemo feeling like it was also installing half of Mint to get it to work. Is that still the case?

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Waiting for S76 to move to 16:10 or, better yet, 3:2 laptop screens....

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Quoting: Johann_PopperNot surprised in the least. It was only a matter of time. Very toxic environment. Rude, amateur community management. Impossible to contribute to, give feedback, work with. Not a shred of professionalism or positivity for years.... Solus could've gone places... Just sad and unnecessary how it all ended up.

Very well said, and from a user standpoint, easily the biggest and most disappointing aspect of the entire enterprise.

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Quoting: fenglengshunOh thank god Budgie is now independent. I don't really care about Solus - it's neat, but they pale in comparison to the importance of Budgie to me.

I quite agree. In 2022, I really don't see the point of Solus the distro at this time, and I've long felt that Solus has actually held Budgie, the better idea of the two, back and prevented it from making progress.

I actually started quite early with Solus Budgie but rapidly became frustrated. The personal opinions of team members would overrule functionality desired by the community (want Expose in Budgie? Too bad! Ikey says it will never happen). Bug reports would go unaddressed (I think I still have some 5 year old ones in there). Citrix works in Ubuntu but not our Solus? Too bad! It's proprietary, we don't care... Gaming was broken, I had lots of native and wine-compatible titles that worked, at the time, in Ubuntu but not Solus. Apps lagged updating in the repositories. And through it all was the arrogance and haughtiness of the devs that just got to me over time, it was a death of a thousand cuts.

I went fleeing to Ubuntu Budgie which I really adored, and those UB devs did great work innovating little applets to make up for all of Budgie's little deficiencies only to get insulted and dismissed by Solus upstream. As much as I loved UB, I was getting frustrated at Budgie's lack of development over time while KDE and Gnome were making big, obvious strides and both were getting just as performant and snappy as Budgie. That, plus Arch/Gnome's rolling GPU driver upgrades making Proton work were what pushed me over to Manjaro KDE for the desktop and Manjaro Gnome-Wayland for the laptop over the last few years and I couldn't be happier.

I'm thrilled to hear that Budgie will be free of Solus and that, at long last, the great folks at Ubuntu Budgie, Endeavour Budgie, and hopefully maybe even Manjaro Budgie (and hopefully all the other Budgies!) will finally be first class citizens in advancing what had at one time been a promising and innovative DE. While I don't see a compelling reason to use it right now, I wish the Budgie folks only the very best as they develop an environment that hopefully will attract me back some day...

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Quoting: riusmaIf anyone is looking for a (bit) more "tactical" multiplayer (coop or PvP, and in the future PvPvE) FPS (it's true first person, the game uses the same models in first person view that it would uses in third) than Insurgency (2014 or Sandstorm) and don't mind playing an Early Access game with Proton (the dev will investigate native Linux, but it's a very small team so I would not hold my breath for that), you should have a look at GROUND BRANCH [External Link]! :smile:

Thanks for the tip on this. Looks really interesting!

The new Microprose seems to have some terrific titles coming for the hard core, old-school gamer. I've been watching their Operation Harsh Doorstop (another tactical squad shooter) and Carrier Command closely as well.

Also, by accident or design, many of their titles seem very Proton friendly so far....

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I have heard great things about this old title but never played it in the day. Is it worth trying in the modern age for those without any nostalgia?

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