I mean, yeah, if you were trying to get a game to run using bare WINE in like <2010 or something, you were gonna be troubleshooting it for a while (and might still fail just because the functionality hadn’t actually caught up yet). By 2017, though, DirectX etc. support had improved drastically (Valve’s first attempt at SteamOS was already a few years old by then), so the main issue was figuring out the right configuration (which version of Windows to mimic, installing supporting libraries, etc.) and tools like PlayOnLinux and Lutris went a long way towards crowdsourcing and automating that.

And on top of that, pretty much all the platforms, even all the way down to this one, are censored in at least one increasingly-relevant way.

In 2017? Well, that’s an interesting question. On one hand, it definitely wasn’t as easy as it is now. On the other hand, I was motivated to ditch Windows and willing to make the gaming sacrifices necessary to make that happen. The last version of Windows I used was 7, and I was determined that 10 would never touch this machine – or any computer of mine going forward, for that matter. I also was done putting up with 7, given that Microsoft was starting to backport 10’s spyware and forced-upgrade BS to it by then.

It’s been a while, so I’m fuzzy on the details of what I was playing between 2017 and 2018 (when Proton came out). I think I just limited myself to the subset of my Steam games that had native Linux versions (e.g. TF2 and other Valve first-party games, Don’t Starve, Cities Skylines, etc.), supplemented with PlayOnLinux for Star Trek Online, which, being an MMO I was already committed to, was pretty much the only exception I made. Otherwise, my attitude became “if the developer can’t be bothered to support my OS, that’s their loss, not mine, and I don’t need their shitty Windows-only game anyway.”

After Proton came out and I flipped that switch to “enable Steam Play for all other titles”, I think the majority of my Steam games “Just Worked” – yes, even back at that initial release – and the ones that didn’t became compatible pretty rapidly over the next couple of years. With one exception, I don’t think I’ve had trouble getting a game working since the start of the pandemic, if not earlier. At this point, I’ve softened my “I won’t buy a new game if it doesn’t natively support Linux stance” and instead simply expect every game I buy to work. And they have!

(That one exception was Star Trek Online, which I had continued running via PlayOnLinux because (a) why mess with a working config, and (b) the Steam version of STO wants to permanently link your STO account to your Steam account, which I didn’t want to do. One day, though, they updated the launcher or something and it quit working. I eventually gave up trying to fix it in PlayOnLinux and decided to use Proton for it instead. But I still didn’t want to link my accounts, so I had to jump through these weird hoops where I installed the Steam version, but didn’t log in or play it, and instead re-imported it as a non-Steam game pointing at the executable for the Steam version and then fiddled with the compatibility settings to find a version of Proton that worked. That’s still the configuration I’m using for it to this day.)

So basically, everybody switched from expensive UNIX™ to cheap “unix”-in-all-but-trademark-certification once it became feasible, and otherwise nothing has changed in 30 years.

Kubuntu, because when I got my Vega 56 GPU on release day (August 14, 2017), I had to download the proprietary driver straight from AMD to get it working, and Ubuntu was the only distro supported by both it and Steam at the time. (Otherwise, I would’ve picked Debian or Mint.)

I don’t love Ubuntu (especially how they push Snap), but I can’t be bothered with the hassle of reinstalling my OS.

Sounds like a great metaphor for Snaps, TBH.

I use Ubuntu and drink instant, in both cases because I can’t be bothered to expend more than minimum effort.

You count time in semi-arbitrary “stardates” instead.

GPLv3 is less proprietary than GPLv2, in the sense that it does a better job at protecting end-users from being abused by device makers that would try to close up their Linux-based system.

Imagine having such a hard-on for letting corporations exploit your work in abusive Tivoized products that you stoop to retaliation against a company that’s actually trying to protect their customers.

They know it’s better than v2.

TIL Vandenberg Air Force Base got renamed.

Also, I’m pretty sure that one in Georgia doesn’t actually exist.

*Voilà

Damn, if only ChatGPT had the same vulnerability as sci-fi AIs…

These tactics are not always a guarantee to have things go your way

See also: Atlanta city council voting for Cop City despite over two hundred people showing up at the meeting, in person, to speak against it. (Not to mention a petition for a referendum that got hundreds of thousands of signatures but was illegally withheld from the ballot anyway.)

You’re right that actually talking to your representatives works surprisingly often, but sometimes it really blatantly doesn’t.

Anticopyright diatribes are the important part!

I know this isn’t the first article on this topic posted here today, but it is the first that could be legitimately crossposted from [email protected]. Can you really blame me?

Does this mean they’re Alex Jones’s boss now?

Nice, $35 is way better than $98.

I’m still gonna try tinkering with my $10 ESP board for now, but I’ll keep that in mind if decide I’d prefer something that “just works.”

Unfortunately, those are “temporarily unavailable.” The only place I’ve been able to find it is a third-party seller link on Amazon scalping it for $98.