I like them as an option, there are some programs like Bottles or specific game launchers that work under flatpak better than the versions available via native package manager (with Bottles in particular, you can use various built-in sandbox features via flatpak which makes things a bit more secure), but it’s also a bit of a pain because it’s an additional package manager you have to update separately now, or tweak if things go wrong.

Fitgirl is a repacker, not a cracker so this really depends what kind of a release is it, so you’d have to test by yourself.

It should work when it comes to launching the game, I’ve done it before in the past. But in theory, it’s unlikely to work with achievements given how cracks tend to overwrite the steam api dll files and hooks, likely disabling achievements in the process as part of the crack.

Something you could try is to copy the steam dll files like steam_api64.dll from the original copy on steam to the cracked one and see if that does the trick.

If you’re torrenting and got some extra hard drive space, a good practice is to copy paste the game into another location and play for there. That way, you can modify or have the game update all you want without stopping seeding (as you need all original, unmodified files to seed), and you also have a backup in case something goes really wrong.

I’m on Linux, using Bottles to run pirated games. It adds a little bit of sandboxing, compatdata is usually a weird environment for malware to effectively work in (unless the malware is written specifically for it), if the game is really sketchy then I’d just disable network access for bottles flatpak too just to make sure.

All in all, I do sometimes have a little bit of paranoia and look through processes to see if there’s anything running and periodically go through some folders to see if there’s anything weird or unusual there, I’d still consider my machine to be safe.

As for the last question, PDF’s are an attack vector and should be used with caution. As for other file types, it depends on the software you use to run them - if it’s something pretty barebones that just plays it then it’s usually fine, but if its something more complex and reads some custom data embeded into those files, then it can be a vulnerability. Not a security expert though, but it’s the gist I got from looking at some historical vulnerabilities.

Usually with Linux, once you start out you’re gonna get a ton of issues and you’ll have to troubleshoot them one by one. However, afterwards it should just be a smooth sailing.

Also as a word of warning from my personal experience, official support isn’t something you should be that concerned about. When it comes to software, when some corporation makes some official version for a specific distribution (like Ubuntu), it usually is made by some B-team and doesn’t work that great. If the program is good, it should be available on most major distros rather than just “an official version for just one” if that makes sense.

Also good call - if one distro is causing a fuck ton of issues, just give another one a try. The main difference for users between distros is what kind of software setup they are going with, and some setups are just prone to issues on some hardware or wasn’t tested properly. Still, I do hope Fedora treats you better.

There are some setups that allow you to do this.

• nixOS or nix + home-manager on some other distro, but it’s a high skill-floor way to manage a computer so wouldn’t recommend

• window manager heavy setup where you just set it up then copy over the config files to the new install, a bit of a pain to first customize but viable if you’re willing to ditch mouse-heavy desktop experience in favor for keyboard and shortcut focus to control everything.

Apart from those two cases, not really.

I personally use bottles installed through flatpak for non-steam game needs. Especially if you’re pirating, you can use flatseal to disable things like internet access for bottles (and games that you run through bottles) and inter-process communication, making it just a bit safer if you have trust issues.

Setting bottles up is a bit of a pain, but once you do that you can pretty much run anything through it easily

use your phone to look up the commands on how to get internet working again

alternatively, connect computer to your router via cable

you don’t need to remember anything, except commands you use the most often but even then it becomes muscle memory after a while. If you ever need some specific command to use, just look it up online.

It’s kinda difficult to find cracked Linux-native games, though one site that I do know which has a section for it is Torrminator. Don’t really want to get in trouble with the mods so can’t post the link, but if you do end up finding the site, then I hope it has whatever games you’re looking for.

A few weeks ago there was this article posted here about why some game companies are trying so hard to kill their old video games and give 0 shits about preservation (as in delisting them from stores, not selling them anymore, etc.).

One of the answers given by the publishers in the article basically boils down to “old, preserved games would compete with the newer ones and eat into their sales”, which does say quite a lot - they don’t care about losing sales of older video games, all that matters is the sales of the newer ones, preservation be damned.

There’s torrminator for once, it has a section for linux cracks specifically. There’s also a large collection on the internet archive of native linux games that you’d have to find for yourself (to keep in line with the rules), but it shouldn’t be too difficult.

I personally use bottles via flatpak and flatseal to make the games not connect to the internet when it’s not needed just in case.

If you want native linux games, there are sites for that.