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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 11th, 2023

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    1. Refurbished ones are just as good as fresh ones, and basically always “on sale” since their price is reduced.

    2. Valve seems to be moving towards a very likely Steam Deck Refresh. Very little is known about when or how this will happen. Based on previous comments and data-mining, the refresh will have the exact same amount of gaming-power. It may, however, have a better WiFi-chip, better screen, and stuff like that. Nothing is certain and if you want a Deck soon-ish, I wouldn’t recommend waiting for this.






  • Last I checked, his audience was those self-proclaimed “intellectuals”. The kind of atheists who define their identity by dunking on religious people, and the kind of mediocre people who feel superior by laughing others.

    People who look at cherry-picked and out-of-context examples of progressivism and then dismiss the entirety as anti-science wokeness. People who cherry-pick scientific beliefs (without deeper research) in the same way most religious people cherry-pick passages from their holy text. Take the (out-of-context) quotes that reaffirm what you already belief in, ignore the rest, and most importantly: Declare that your “truth” is superior to others.




  • The solution I’ve sort-of found is to go to communities of Arch-based systems instead of Arch itself. The same solution should work in most cases*, and the communities are more newbie-friendly.

    *Depends on how close to Arch the distro is in this aspect/subsystem. The Manjaro community is probably less likely to offer AUR based solutions, since the AUR can be unreliable/unsafe on Manjaro.





  • KDE Plasma (love the looks of it, though is my hardware enough?)

    With 8 GB RAM and SSD, it should be plenty. Otherwise, I’d go with something else. XFCE is quite a solid experience, as I recall. No strong recommendations there, though. I’ve mostly used Cinnamon and KDE over the years.


    Linux Mint is a classic choice. Positive: It has been recommended to newbies so much over so many years that there are tons of entry-level how-tos. Downside: Many of them are old and might be outdated by now. Be sure to always check whether the guide you are following is from 2010 or something…

    Same really for all the Ubuntu distros. Kubuntu (=KDE+Ubuntu) worked fine for me.


    I’ve read many people being very satisfied with Pop!_OS as well. Apparently, it’s a good distribution if you want everything to already be set up for gaming for you. Haven’t used it myself, though.


    EndeavourOS is the one I’m personally planning to use whenever I next install an OS. The distro and the surrounding community have a great reputation for being user-friendly and reliable.



  • If Windows works fine for you and does not annoy you, there is no need to migrate.

    Personally, I’ve been mostly happy using Linux as my sole desktop OS for ~15 years. However, I only switched because Windows kept breaking and reinstalling no longer fixed it. I couldn’t imagine going back now, but a big part is probably being used to it.


    These days most major Linux distributions should be fine for desktop use.

    Linux Mint Cinnamon use to be the go-to beginner distribution. Its design is apparently somewhat similar to Windows, giving you some initial familiarity. Linux Mint is also based on Ubuntu, which used to be so widespread that many support pages and simple how-to instruction still default to explaining it for Ubuntu.
    (This can still lead to confusion if you search for “install [Windows program] Linux” and the instructions work for Ubuntu based distribution only, not for any other distros.)


    The last few years, I’ve seen a switch to Arch-based distributions around. Valve itself switched away from Ubuntu to Arch in some ways. (On Steam, the system requirements still use Ubuntu as default.) SteamOS used to be based on Debian, which Ubuntu is related to, until the Steam Deck. Now it is based on Arch. More specifically, Valve seems to default to:

    Base: Arch
    Desktop environment: KDE Plasma (more powerful/options than Cinnamon)
    Compositor base: Wayland for gaming, old X11 for Steam Deck’s desktop. (Apparently Wayland isn’t quite ready yet for that in their opinion.)

    EDIT: Fixed thanks to feedback.


    Arch itself is seen as a more technical distribution. There are extremely many support pages for every issue or question you may have, similar to Ubuntu, but some may be more difficult to understand. Still, support systems improve as the user base grows and Arch is growing.

    For specific distributions, EndeavourOS is the one I’ve heard about being the most friendly. Manjaro is also beginner-friendly, but the folks who maintain it have some serious issues with seriously fucking things up sometimes.

    https://itsfoss.com/arch-based-linux-distros/

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVlD17OjFAc (Video compiling Manjaro fuckups.)



  • Super simple ELI5:

    • Electronics (computers/phones/laptops etc) work by running electricity through stuff (“conductors”).

    • While moving, the electricity “bumps” into stuff on the way. That’s bad, and only the reason electronics get warm. Electric energy is turned into heat instead of doing its job.

    • In a _super_conductor, electricity does not bump into stuff. Everything works smoothly, no waste heat. Batteries would last longer. Heat damage would no longer be (as much) a concern. Basically, all-around better.


    The warmest current conductor I’ve read about only worked at below -27 °C, I think, and needed huge pressure, like on the ocean floor. Others work at surface pressure but require even lower temps.


    Benefits of safe, cheaply mass-produced, room-temperature, [EDIT: and workable] surface-pressure superconductors:

    • Massively better battery life of everything.

    • Much, much more efficient use of anything that needs electricity, reducing cost of everything that needs electricity.

    • Extremely efficient energy transfer (power lines etc can lose a lot of energy on the way), making electricity itself cheaper.

    • Some inventions are suddenly much more feasible (Maglev trains and hoverboards are examples I’ve seen mentioned, but don’t ask me about the science behind that.)

    • Electronics can become smaller, yet again. It would probably make Smartwatches and “Spatial Computing” devices more feasible.


    EDIT: Based on one YT video, I’ll add that the material also needs to be able to worked into various forms and solid/stable enough not to crumble over time. Apparently, there are some technically great superconductors already, but they crumble apart or lose their superconductor status if electricity flows through them the wrong way, or something, making them useless.